Help decide a car for parents

[chevelle]

please find my replies below your posts. thank you

Originally Posted by 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

Originally Posted by finneyp

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

Yes these three cars are heavily under consideration. but verna petrol is not a favorite here. what with its sloppy handling which is not a priority for us. also the sx model cost around 8.10 lacs on road here. and with discounts upto 25k it comes out to around 7.80 lacs. so its a cool 1.20 lac rupees less than city. aveo 1.4 seems underpowered to us, gearbox on td car was not good, other than that its a great product with excellent interiors, comfort.

Originally Posted by 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

yes, i have no doubt about fiesta's capability. i have driven a 1.6 and its hoot to drive. unfortunately, its not only about handling, else fiesta would have been bought. top priority is comfort, after sales and service, good interiors, a wee bit of brand image(matters to dad, doesn't matter too much to mom,me,bro), performance, safety.

in our family, sometimes my mother too goes to service center to give car for service. we have a santro xing and she has a very pleasant experience with hyundai after sales & service. she is treated quite good with respect and all the issues are noted and taken care of. while with maruti, its been a not too pleasant experience for her. don't know about others.

Originally Posted by rajivn

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.

+1 to that. though fiesta diesel is a total no no for us. don't have that much usage. hope you enjoying the same.

Originally Posted by sgiitk

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

yes, these are high on list. my parents didn't find issues with these in city, verna and aveo. as mentioned in my previous post, my mother was uncomfortable driving linea. we have a santro, so any new car we buy would be compared to santro for its ease of ingress/egress and seating position as well as comfort.

Originally Posted by 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).

swift is a hatchback. not under consideration.
new sx4 will be considered as and when it releases. but here image is playing an impt role. like compared to verna, i and my brother root for sx4, but dad is not too happy with a maruti sedan at 8 lacs

as mentioned previously, the budget has been stretched till 8 lac rupees and trying to increase so as to fit in a new city, used corolla/civic.

[khoj]

Originally Posted by chevelle

[b]

in our family, sometimes my mother too goes to service center to give car for service. we have a santro xing and she has a very pleasant experience with hyundai after sales & service. she is treated quite good with respect and all the issues are noted and taken care of. while with maruti, its been a not too pleasant experience for her. don't know about others.

Hi Chevelle,

In this scenario you must discount Maruti cars, as at any MASS a customer whether a lady or a man will always be just a number. I have a cousin & she has had harrowing experiences at different MASS in Delhi. I myself drive nearly 20 kms to go to a specific dealer in Thane for my Swift's service ignoring 2 big names who are within a 3 kms driving radius from my place in Navi Mumbai, just because of the way they deal with customers. I think in that regards you will be better off at Hyundai, Honda, GM etc.

Regarding the Honda city, I believe the 10K discount & 10 K accessories is quite reasonable. Also if you are not hung up on the year of manufacture thing, you should be able to get better deals beginning around 10th of December when the scramble to exhaust the 2009 stock will start. Of course my experience is based on Delhi & Mumbai where there are multiple dealers compared to Vadodara and Ahmedabad which might have only a dealer each or a common single dealer.

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by khoj

Hi Chevelle,

In this scenario you must discount Maruti cars, as at any MASS a customer whether a lady or a man will always be just a number. I have a cousin & she has had harrowing experiences at different MASS in Delhi. I myself drive nearly 20 kms to go to a specific dealer in Thane for my Swift's service ignoring 2 big names who are within a 3 kms driving radius from my place in Navi Mumbai, just because of the way they deal with customers. I think in that regards you will be better off at Hyundai, Honda, GM etc.

Regarding the Honda city, I believe the 10K discount & 10 K accessories is quite reasonable. Also if you are not hung up on the year of manufacture thing, you should be able to get better deals beginning around 10th of December when the scramble to exhaust the 2009 stock will start. Of course my experience is based on Delhi & Mumbai where there are multiple dealers compared to Vadodara and Ahmedabad which might have only a dealer each or a common single dealer.

Yes, that's why we are not too keen on TATA Manza, Maruti.

Regarding 2009 stock, we don't mind at all. hopefully we will be able to get good deals during that time. but we are not too sure when the car will be bought. you know it could be booked tomorrow itself or it could take a couple of months.

luckily, now there are 2 honda dealers in vadodara. so should be able to get good deals. GM as such has good offers going on throughout the year.

[Ramsagar]

chevelle:I'm may sound little wired but take it on a light note.

I just want to remind you that as of now, there is no perfect car in Indian market which satisfy all your requirements. We need to compromise a bit on price(AHNC) or A.S.S/Comfort(Ford) or under power(Aveo) etc. "Life to Asai hai."

ANHC is the best buy, had won your family heart:Mom,Comfortable,A.S.S,Classy,more power etc.

Pls wait for new SX4 & see if there is any change in rear seat comfort & with new K-series eng.

Else the only choice is Aveo.

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by Ramsagar

chevelle:I'm may sound little wired but take it on a light note.

I just want to remind you that as of now, there is no perfect car in Indian market which satisfy all your requirements. We need to compromise a bit on price(AHNC) or A.S.S/Comfort(Ford) or under power(Aveo) etc. "Life to Asai hai."

ANHC is the best buy, had won your family heart:Mom,Comfortable,A.S.S,Classy,more power etc.

Pls wait for new SX4 & see if there is any change in rear seat comfort & with new K-series eng.

Else the only choice is Aveo.

Ramsagar, i agree with your views completely.

the wait is on for sx4. that's why we haven't yet decided which one to buy. anhc is a good buy, no doubt about that. but 1 lakh rupee is playing an impt role. we would be going for car loan. so as such we will end up paying rs 1.75 lac extra. that's why this trouble.

between aveo and verna which one would you suggest? anhc is ahead of these two, but if dad decides not to splurge the premium, need to decide from other options

[Ramsagar]

Originally Posted by chevelle

Ramsagar, i agree with your views completely.

the wait is on for sx4. that's why we haven't yet decided which one to buy. anhc is a good buy, no doubt about that. but 1 lakh rupee is playing an impt role. we would be going for car loan. so as such we will end up paying rs 1.75 lac extra. that's why this trouble.

between aveo and verna which one would you suggest? anhc is ahead of these two, but if dad decides not to splurge the premium, need to decide from other options

Both have their pros & cons, as you are already aware of them.
If resale is not a concern and planning to have a vehicle for long time then Aveo, else Verna, though not very famous for its petrol version, but provides good A.S.S. & reliable in its own way.

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by Ramsagar

Both have their pros & cons, as you are already aware of them.
If resale is not a concern and planning to have a vehicle for long time then Aveo, else Verna, though not very famous for its petrol version, but provides good A.S.S. & reliable in its own way.

any car we buy, would be used for minimum of 6-7 years. so i don't think resale would be a priority.

yes i am aware of verna being not too popular for petrol version. and both are among the fav of my parents. i think verna may get final vote as being a hyundai owner we already have experienced their exceptional service and reliability.

the initial photos of sx4 have been shown in sx4 thread here. as soon as it arrives at showrooms in baroda, my parents will check it out and decide. hopefully there is very minor change in price or none at all

[ACM]

Thouh you mentioned that your dad was not too interested with the Linea will still suggest that a test drive of the Linea followed by the Verna and New SC4 will lead to choosing the Linea.

SX4 entry and exit will be best.

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by ACM

Thouh you mentioned that your dad was not too interested with the Linea will still suggest that a test drive of the Linea followed by the Verna and New SC4 will lead to choosing the Linea.

SX4 entry and exit will be best.

even though i didn't understand your sentence exactly, I will try and clear it up for you.

i think i mentioned in previous posts(edit: post #33) that Linea is out of list because of not too good experience with the car that was send as a TD. The car had issues as mentioned before and sales person was not too good in answering questions raised by my parents and not able to explain properly. now, what the manager at the showroom(amd) said initially that when they have 5 or more TD from Baroda, they will send car for TD. so why would they send such a car as well as sales person if it was suppose to be shown to so many customers. so my dad became apprehensive and canceled linea from list.

new sx4 have been launched, and soon my parents will be checking it out. will leave it to them to decide.

so as of now the tussle is between aveo, verna, city and new sx4.
as of now if they decide not to pay around 1.25 lakh rupees more for city, aveo/verna are top priority. if not its gonna be Honda city all the way.

[EssYouWe]

Everyone has their own considerations and are justified in holding onto them. Tatas, Fiats and to an extent Marutis won't make the cut.

The SX4, when it is launched, will have a rather long waiting period. I do not know what time-frame you have provided yourself for the purchase, but do keep in account the delays in delivery.

On a personal front, I don't like the Verna petrol. Another round of test drives should help clear things out for you.

With the amount of effort you are putting into the purchase, I think it is justified to direct energies to the second hand possibility too. A Civic or Corolla would be good on all factors considered.

Perhaps, an active interest in the resale market would help you.

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by EssYouWe

The SX4, when it is launched, will have a rather long waiting period. I do not know what time-frame you have provided yourself for the purchase, but do keep in account the delays in delivery.

On a personal front, I don't like the Verna petrol. Another round of test drives should help clear things out for you.

With the amount of effort you are putting into the purchase, I think it is justified to direct energies to the second hand possibility too. A Civic or Corolla would be good on all factors considered.

Perhaps, an active interest in the resale market would help you.

the time frame is not fixed. also never heard about waiting for sx4. so will inquire about it. verna petrol is liked by my parents. they are not too aware of verna's dynamic but they like interiors, comfort, features, reliability, a.s.s(santro).

yes civic and corolla are under consideration. but not many cars on sale as of now.

currently, am in states, so that's a major limitation. otherwise, corolla or civic would have been high on priority from used market.