Please help: MUV/SUV or Sedan

[litesaber]

Hello All,

I currently have a Santro for the last five years and its time for an upgrade.
The Santro was perfect for me and my wife in Bangalore.

My son is 6 months now and I insist that he stays put in his car seat. With his birth my/wife's parents are more frequent visitors and soon might be permanently parked here. The car seat takes up nearly 30% of the back seat leaving just space for one adult in the back. That makes my hatch a 3 adult + 1 child car hence the need to upgrade.

Usage: Total : 10-12k per year.

In city: 4500-5000 km
My office commute is very short (5km) and adding weekend runs gives me 5000.

Highway: 5000-6000 km
We make atleast 4 air trips to Mumbai and would like to do atleast 1-2 a year in a car. I loved my Bangalore-Mumbai drive last December and I am keen on doing it often. The car also comes very handy in Mumbai too. I have also been making regular trips to nearby places like Coorg, Ooty and Bandipur.

Requirements:

Seating: Should seat 4 adults + 1 child very comfortably on the highway runs. For 3-4 weeks in a year we have friends/relatives so a 7-8 seater would come handy.

Budget: I would like to buy a used Car to escape the depcreciation hit. I have a budget of 7 lac. I would be keeping the car for atleast 5 years, maybe more.

Safety features: ABS/Airbags are a good to have. I find ABS very useful on Indian highways as anything or anyone can jump on the road. ABS takes away the need to pump the brakes to avoid skidding etc.

Maintainence: Low maintaince as possible.



Please help me choose a car.

Choices:

Innova V 2.5lt Diesel: Ample space. Wife loves it . 7/8 seater would carry everybody and more. Problem is that most of there are priced out of my range. All dealers quote 8.5 to 9.5 lac for a 3 year old car.

Innova V 2.0lt Petrol: All the benefits of the Diesel. I think I can get a 3 year old Petrol between 5 and 6lac. Friends are warning me that the resale value will suck, but I plan to hold on to this for a long time. Of course the fuel bills will go up on the highway. Since all tourist Innovas are diesel the chances of a misused petrol are low. However there seem to be very few out there.

Honda CRV Manual: Would love this one if I can find one in my budget.

Toyota corolla: Will be a plain old sedan, but will do the job.

Safari/Scorpio: These dont look very stable at high speeds on the highway. This is from my personal view - sitting in a hatch and watching Scropio's overtake.


Any other choices?

I am not interested in the new sedans currently under 7 lac as I want all the space possible and get to drive a higher end used car.

[nishant kar]

keeping in mind your Budget and requirements i would suggest go for the new Xylo its a good MUV stable at 110kmph braking is adequate. body roll is within limits and wont scare u. its pretty comfortable. go testdrive it. u would get a e2 or e4 model in it. at ur budget ABS will be out of range so better go for a package which is practical.

[litesaber]

Thanks Nishant. I dont like the way the Xylo styling and high stance.

ABS is a must. Thats why I going for a used car to fit in the budget.

[dockap]

if you are looking at a second hand vehicle with space to seat 8 people or 5 people and luggage space then nothing beats a scorpio
light steering and easy to drive in city also will eat up potholes and rough roads with ease
economy of diesel
you should be able to get a second hand 2.6 easily for under 7 lakhs

[phamilyman]

May I suggest in this recession, hold on to your money (your baby is your first recipient!) and instead hire a cab whenever you travel.

Postpone that decision for sometime.

Otherwise, if you absolutely must - Xylo will do the job. Even a used Petrol Innova will be awesome. Consider it no better than buying a new Petrol car - just slightly lower mileage and acres of space.

It'd be less used and would be bulletproof and safe.

[nishant kar]

if ABS is a must i would like to suggest some vehicles. but at 7lk you'll get more used cars than a used suv/muv still there are options.

1. Safari dicor 3.0 vx ABS+Airbag
2. Optra magnum TDCI
3. Skoda octavia
4. Ford Fiesta top end
5. hyundai sonata
6. Verna ABS

u might be lucky if u can find a Scorpio Mhawk vls but the chances are negligible

if u plan to increase your budget by 1.5 go for the Scorpio Mhawk 09 SLE with ABS. it will be perfect for u.

[gowda79]

Your best bet is for the Innova Diesel 8 Seater, do not think twice go with it.

Or do it as Phamilyman says take a rented vehicle if you are going out sation and for now put up with the Santro.

Safari/Scorpio: These dont look very stable at high speeds on the highway.

As far as this quote is concerned and with my experience i have done very good speeds(150 - 160kmph) on The Safari and never felt unstable with the vehicle, this totally depends on the control of the driver.

[abhayshanu]

All the above are good except the octavia, it has high maintainance, quite high, it might just be too high for a family man, but perfect for a single.

[nvldvr]

petrol innova looks like a decent option for you considering your budget and running of 10000 km per year. Since you are going to do the mumbai run only once in a while, the higher petrol cost shouldnt really bother you. Anyway that is going to be offset by the lower cost you pay upfront.

[abhayshanu]

My personal choice would be that you should buy a diesel innova, dont restrict yourself to banglore, check other places too.
It is spacious and very reliable too, looks quite good also. It is a all rounder, if you wont mind a old car then you can also look at qualis, i have it for the past 4 1/2 years and have spent about 30k total on regular maintainance, there are more good condition qualis than innovas, as most qualis owners (private) drive it like a normal car, but the innova has greater power, so many owners do let the car rip once a while.
We have covered about 1.2 lac from which atleast 80k is highway driving, it gives 9-10 kmpl in city with a/c and about 10.5 with out, it can give 11-12 kmpl highways with a/c and about 12 without, but we have recorded 13kmpl with a mix of a/c and without a/c on highways.

[MileCruncher]

Don't know about the sed Innova pricing but you can surely get a 2 yr old Safari 3.0 VX which comes with ABS and airbags for less than 7 Lacs. Its just that you need to look a bit. Scorpio Might also be a good bet. Another car I think that might your requirement is the Baleno Altura (estate version) Loads of room to put your luggage and baby I I think there is a provision to fix your baby sit on the load bay, but you need to check).

[akshay1234]

if you like highway driving and need to seat 5 or more look no further than the innova or the safari. though the safari has better ride over bad roads it has more bodyroll at highway speeds which can get irritating for some.

if more than 5 are going to be using the car then it has to be the innova. since your usage isnt that much pick up a used petrol innova. it is a good car with a bulletproof toyota engine. the mileage will be about 7-8 in the city and about 11-12 on the highway (being realistic here). its a really fast car and will make any other muv (besides a peted diesel innova) and even some sedans eat dust.

[litesaber]

Thanks everybody for the advice. It really helped clear up things in my head.

I try to find a used Innova around Bangalore. Will go for petrol if getting a deep discount.

[shankar.balan]

used 2.6 crde - 2006-2007 models - about 6- 6.5 lacs
2008 model - about 7 ish

older ones - 2004-2005 model non crde 2.6 are avble at about 4-4.5-5-5.5 lac range.

suggest evaluate brand new Xylo - great product, great price, worth it

Originally Posted by dockap

if you are looking at a second hand vehicle with space to seat 8 people or 5 people and luggage space then nothing beats a scorpio
light steering and easy to drive in city also will eat up potholes and rough roads with ease
economy of diesel
you should be able to get a second hand 2.6 easily for under 7 lakhs

[rkbharat]

very interesting reason to buy a new car

So basically you need more seating for in laws, and am sure they will not love to sit on the last row side seats of Safari or scorpio.

So the options left are Innova and Xylo and as you do not like Xylo, the obvious option is Innova, Diesel or Petrol whatever.