Help decide a car for parents

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by khoj

Hi Chevelle,

Have you guys tried the Linea petrol as yet, I tried to but could not see if you had mentioned that in the thread. While it is again very comfortable, the question is would your mother be comfortable driving it? As for the status quotient, I personally believe it is an elegant, stately vehicle that is priced correctly.

They are trying to get hold of dealer from amd as well as anand to send a test drive. but still no luck. once it has been declined and second time, never heard from them.

also, my dad looks a bit uninterested in Linea. Though it looks elegant with nice smooth lines, he still has a question mark on FIAT's a.s.s

i have send them links to various ownership threads of linea here. especially those from Ahmadabad. but he hasn't got a good response from their sales department. so he is very worried about investing 8 lacs on linea. especially with a.s.s not available in baroda.

i hope fiat opens a shop here in baroda. they will get excellent sales. atleast 20 cars of linea and punto a month.

[ACM]

I guess with the launch of the Manza it must now make the most sense for you after the Linea.

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by ACM

I guess with the launch of the Manza it must now make the most sense for you after the Linea.

Manza and Linea have been disqualified from the race

reasons cited by dad-

Manza doesn't appeal to him. not the image he wants. my parents didn't like the looks. also the after sales at TATA motors is not good. His colleague owns a safari and as per him after sales experience is very bad. Dad is in no mood to make frequent visits to a.s.s to get problems solved.

In Linea, he found niggles in interior. The car that came from Ahmadabad has seat adjuster broken, the a.c vents were broken, door pads was not fitted properly . The sales guy wasn't very forthcoming and he wasn't able to explain questions raised by my parents. the questions were about features, servicing and availability of parts. My dad made a point to talk to the manager of the showroom hoping for a better reply, but it wasn't very satisfying for my dad. The manager was 'beating around the bush', so dad is having two thoughts about putting down 8.20 lac rupees for Linea. Mom wasn't very comfortable driving linea. She felt she needed to 'push' a.k.a make an effort to get the car going. Could be problem for her if driven in city.

lets see how it goes from here.

[rrahul_2778]

IMO just dont bother about adding the extra lac to your budget. The Honda City is an amazing car. Your parents would love driving it, its smooth, easy and you get the Honda reliability.

If you are considering used cars then maybe Toyota Innova or Skoda Octavia too may be looked at. And used honda city could also be an option, sometimes you may get a great deal!

[zaks]

Just two things pop up after seeing your requirements- Ikon and Accent.

[musicvj]

How about TATA MANZA?

[khoj]

Originally Posted by chevelle

Manza and Linea have been disqualified from the race

reasons cited by dad-

Manza doesn't appeal to him. not the image he wants. my parents didn't like the looks. also the after sales at TATA motors is not good. His colleague owns a safari and as per him after sales experience is very bad. Dad is in no mood to make frequent visits to a.s.s to get problems solved.

@musicvj
Manza is already off the list.

@Chevelle
Looks like the City for you my friend and as I recall that is the one your mother liked the best, me thinks there the case rests. Get it in her favourite colour, enjoy the drive & all the best.

[ampere]

Take the ANHC. If not the Ford Fiesta S. Both are driver's car and handling is very good. If you dont mind the price difference, ANHC should be the best choice. Only negative point I can see is the low GC.

[chevelle]

please find my replies below your opinions. thank you

Originally Posted by zaks

Just two things pop up after seeing your requirements- Ikon and Accent.

could you explain why did you suggest these two cars?

Originally Posted by rrahul_2778

IMO just dont bother about adding the extra lac to your budget. The Honda City is an amazing car. Your parents would love driving it, its smooth, easy and you get the Honda reliability.

If you are considering used cars then maybe Toyota Innova or Skoda Octavia too may be looked at. And used honda city could also be an option, sometimes you may get a great deal!

in used cars, we are considering a civic, corolla, city. innova doesn't make sense, as its too huge a vehicle to be driven in city most of the time.

after reading horror stories about skoda, i am bit apprehensive about their cars.

even though honda city makes perfect sense, its still a bit of problem for paying that extra lac. already have stretched from 7 to 8 lacs.

Originally Posted by khoj

@Chevelle
Looks like the City for you my friend and as I recall that is the one your mother liked the best, me thinks there the case rests. Get it in her favourite colour, enjoy the drive & all the best.

yes, but city is still not in our garage because of above mention problem. that is of paying 1 lac more. that is why other cars are under consideration.

Originally Posted by ampere

Take the ANHC. If not the Ford Fiesta S. Both are driver's car and handling is very good. If you dont mind the price difference, ANHC should be the best choice. Only negative point I can see is the low GC.

if the car was to be bought for me or driven by me with nobody to seat in rear, it would have been fiesta, eyes shut, no question asked. but that's not the case. that's why the confusion. if price difference wouldn't have been a big factor, we would have bought the city.

nevertheless, the hunt is still on. they saw a couple of civic's in used car market, but weren't too happy about the way they drove. now they are looking for corolla.

meanwhile, my dad is trying to pull some strings in Honda showroom to see if the price can be brought down with discount. i think if they can manage to get 10k cash discount and 10k worth of accessories, than it will be 8.9 lacs on road, which is quite good considering top end of linea/verna/fiesta/sx4 cost around 8.2 lacs. in that case 70k-80k premium over those cars shouldn't be a problem.

keeping fingers crossed.

[newcoolgadgets]

Here are my $0.02

Option 1: ANHC
Best in class handling.
Very refined engine
Rear seating position not very comfortable, especially for tall people due to the raised floor (correct me if I am wrong).
No CD player
Premium price


Option 2: Hyundai Verna SX
Best huge rear seats, and most comfortable ride, (inspite of what people have said above) that's why your parents loved it, I guess.
Extremely low NVH (especially in the Petrol)
Double DIN CD/MP3 player
High Speed Handling not as good as ANHC. (but still better than old Verna's without ABS and 175 tyres)
Almost 2 lakhs cheaper than ANHC

[finneyp]

You can also consider Chevrolet Aveo, a nice allrounder car!

[snoopy41]

the ford fiesta 1.6 was included in a ride and handling test with some insane competititors like Merc and BMW,,and it put up an okay show according to Narain Karthikeyan,,the verna was not invited to the test

[rajivn]

Originally Posted by chevelle

Manza and Linea have been disqualified from the race

reasons cited by dad-

In Linea, he found niggles in interior. The car that came from Ahmadabad has seat adjuster broken, the a.c vents were broken, door pads was not fitted properly . The sales guy wasn't very forthcoming and he wasn't able to explain questions raised by my parents. the questions were about features, servicing and availability of parts. My dad made a point to talk to the manager of the showroom hoping for a better reply, but it wasn't very satisfying for my dad. The manager was 'beating around the bush', so dad is having two thoughts about putting down 8.20 lac rupees for Linea. Mom wasn't very comfortable driving linea. She felt she needed to 'push' a.k.a make an effort to get the car going. Could be problem for her if driven in city.

lets see how it goes from here.

The very same reasons we had to drop Linea and instead went with Fiesta TDCI recently. Linea TD vehicles were pathetic and that gave the impression of how the interiors wud shape up in a year when not maintained properly or when used heavily. We liked the Linea, but dint have the confidence or boldness to buy one. We played it safe. We needed workhorse that will do close to 2400 - 3000kms every month (90% in city) and with little maintenance. We already had a Ford , we were OK with the service and Fiesta diesel had juicy offers going on then, and we got good reports about it everywhere, hence went ahead with it.

[sgiitk]

I would say that easy ingress and egress, and a high seating/driving position should be high on your priority list.

[Sathyagith]

I agree with sgiitk the first and foremost point to be noted is the seating position.
My dad (he is now 72 now) and loved the esteem past 2 years he was complaining of backache.(He used to avoid driving a lot and now its a diffrent story)
Now with the new dezire no more complaining (about his back probs) he drive mom around.
seating ergonomics is the most important.
I personally suggest suggest them a tall boy design like a swift, SX4, corolla or even the innova (depending on how strechable the budget is).