Automatic car for my wife

[GKS]

Originally Posted by flyingspur

PS: Congratulations. 50th post. You're a BHP'ian now!

Thanks a lot did not realize it

[jkdas]

Originally Posted by GKS

dear JK

Honda CRV and Nissan X trail did cross my mind but dont want those to be her first car. I am looking for a car preferably a sedan in which she can get used to driving in MC road.

Thought so but since you were ok with the Scorpio which I wont suggest for a new driver and that too for MC road.

Honda parts can be pricey.

If it was my pick; i20 top end since it has 6 air bags. Safety being the criteria.

[sgiitk]

As a current owner of a Santro AT and ex-owner of Zen AT I will say go ahead by all means. My wife refuses to drive a MT. For the usage you have in mind do not go for a larger car, i10 will do beautifully. If you go bigger then look at the superb ATs from Honda. Avoid the Maruti AT at all costs.

[venkman]

The first thing is Budget, The Wagon R The i 10 or the Santro and others fall in the hatchback category which you obviously do not prefer so what have we, the Honda City is good and so also many higher end Models.In addition to your quest for an automatic the feeling I get after reading what you have said about her choice of Cars ...I think that even she will also be able to be comfortable and do well using a geared vehicle in which case the number of options increase and so also the cost reduced.

[GKS]

Originally Posted by jkdas

Thought so but since you were ok with the Scorpio which I wont suggest for a new driver and that too for MC road.

Honda parts can be pricey.

If it was my pick; i20 top end since it has 6 air bags. Safety being the criteria.

JK I said she got her mind set on Scorpio, not mine I want a car in which she and our kids will be safe and plus she can get vital experience in driving thru Indian roads.

[GKS]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

As a current owner of a Santro AT and ex-owner of Zen AT I will say go ahead by all means. My wife refuses to drive a MT. For the usage you have in mind do not go for a larger car, i10 will do beautifully. If you go bigger then look at the superb ATs from Honda. Avoid the Maruti AT at all costs.

Dear sgiitk

how about the safety features in santro please give details, I have heard real good opinions about Hyundai dealership here

[sgiitk]

The AT normally has the same specs as the 2nd top model in the lineup. My 3 year old Santro does not have ABS or Airbags.

Hyundai A$$ are normally quite good, and spares are reasonable. Also, Hyundai Santro spares are easily available in the outside market. I guess i10 will be the same,

[stefanm]

Go for the hatch, if she's a new driver an SUV will cause a lot of headaches, like the wide turning circle, difficulty parking, it's no joke sometimes and the Verna may be a little large for a newbie. The options are there but limited for an automatic car for your wife.
Now can someone suggest an automatic wife for my car?

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by stefanm

Now can someone suggest an automatic wife for my car?

If you find one, please inform me. I would know where to look for one... thank god my girlfriend does not read teamBHP!

On a more serious note, if GKS wants practicality with safety which is also VFM, he should look no further than an i10 asta A/T. The next best thing that has it all is i20 1.4 asta/asta(O) A/T. But quite often we see the heart ruling over the head, and in this case, I can see that GKS is clearly falling towards verna A/T (cons: no airbag), city A/t (cons: not VFM) or scorpio A/T (cons: difficult for first time driver, no airbags).
Also, i would suggest against a santro at this point in time, as a new face lifted model is round the corner.

[pachchu]

Originally Posted by jkdas

Thought so but since you were ok with the Scorpio which I wont suggest for a new driver and that too for MC road.

Honda parts can be pricey.

If it was my pick; i20 top end since it has 6 air bags. Safety being the criteria.

complete agree with i20 AT recommendation. I own one and my wife and I have been driving one. I do have a thread on that. No major issues whatsoever. Safe, spacious, premium car. Sitting in the drivers seat, you cannot tell whether it is a hatch or a sedan. And if you (your wife) are not planning to carry too much luggage (even though the i20 boot is quite spacious), you won't miss the sedan's boot.

santro AT has been discontinued. not many safety features in that (ABS, airbags, etc are missing).

if sedan is a must-have, then go for honda city AT.

new drivers can handle both the above cars well. anything bigger, like skoda, corolla, civic, etc you/wife will have problem parking and maneuvering.

[GKS]

dear Pachchu, blackasta and jkdas,

Thanks for your help, somehow convinced my better half to just go to the Hyundai showroom, now in Devils own country its holiday season "ONAM" so probably next Monday 7th Sep 09. I will contact Hyundai and fix a test drive session.

By the way, how come automatic is not so popular in India?. Surprised with the limited options available, is it because of fuel efficiency or something else.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by GKS

By the way, how come automatic is not so popular in India?. Surprised with the limited options available, is it because of fuel efficiency or something else.

Well, there are lots of reasons, main being the marginal FE loss. Now we Indians are very sensitive about our fuel efficiency, and do not withstand the slightest of drop in our FE. But the truth is you need good to superior driving skills to extract that much more FE from M/T cars (not for newbies to driving).

There are also reasons like 'woh sab foreign mein chalta hai, yaha nahin' (those things are designed to run on foreign soil, not here - total urban legend), 'automatic is prone to more wear and tear' (YES, the brakepads, if not beefed up ones ,do wear out earlier, but A/T brakepads are anyway larger than the M/T ones. On the contrary, an A/T car suffers far less clutch wear than a M/T car in wrong hands.
Also, maximum Indian households having a car do employ a chauffeur. Now why let that poor guy have the fun of A/T? Let him toil with the stick shift - this is an attitude I personally have seen in many!!

Main reason above all is 'car culture'. Indians, like Europeans, have taken more to M/T cars, and that shall take some time to change. The Europeans can afford driving their superior A/T cars on the wide autobahn and redline at each gear. Not us - we need to crawl through 15-20 kmph traffic on busy and narrow roads, and believe me, A/T cars were just built to purpose for these situations - and its high time we realize that.

[pachchu]

Originally Posted by GKS

dear Pachchu, blackasta and jkdas,

Thanks for your help, somehow convinced my better half to just go to the Hyundai showroom, now in Devils own country its holiday season "ONAM" so probably next Monday 7th Sep 09. I will contact Hyundai and fix a test drive session.

Consider yourself lucky if you get an i20 AT for test-drive. I bought mine without a test-drive and even now, dealers are not having i20 AT test-drive cars.

Originally Posted by GKS

By the way, how come automatic is not so popular in India?. Surprised with the limited options available, is it because of fuel efficiency or something else.

ATs are priced 50k to 1L more than manuals. India buyers are very price-sensitive.
FE of ATs are 10-20% lower than manuals.
Somebody looking to buy a car has far more cars to choose from if it's a manual - chicken and egg
Fear that if something goes wrong with AT transmission, the road-side guy won't be able to fix it.
Finally, AT's not perceived (rightly) to be as thrilling as manual rides.

[sidindica]

Get the I20 AT-best all round package at VFM price. Don't get sedan crazy just to show off your kids and spoil them, Its not practical. Besides, who said that hatches can't be cool?

I20 AT has 1.4L gamma, 100 ps, VTVT (similar to VTEC) what more do you want?

[Axe77]

this is too wide a mandate. can you also please suggest a price range in which the car should be? that'll help focus suggestions.

Originally Posted by GKS

Dear all,

Planing to purchase a car for my wife, main purpose will be to drop and pick up kids from school which is located couple of kms away and grocery run. I want the car to be safe, automatic transmission, A/C, power steering and if possible power windows.

Any suggestions and advise will be most welcome, Please exclude BMW and Mercedes.