[utsav1303]

Voted for Hyundai Santro!

Though it has been around for more than a decade, its drive-ability, resale value, build and interior quality and roominess complimented by high seating position and tall-boy image is still unmatched in this category of vehicles.

Also, it feels better built to handle highway along with city traffic at ease among the options.

[naveenroy]

EON all the way. Voted for it too. It is a looker at this price segment and reviews have all been good. I am not a car guy but....

[Kn1ght1941]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

If i have to pick one, My vote goes for Hyundai Eon.

I agree, the Eon feels a segment above in terms of quality. Considering the fact that most people spend time driving in cities, interior quality is very important.

[saion666]

I voted for the Alto. Reason: Maruti reliability.

The Eon is a far more accomplished car than the K10. It looks better, feels a lot more upmarket, the new 1L engine may drive better too. These were the very reasons why my girlfriend,now fiance, got it after consulting me(a self proclaimed car-enthusiast Team BHPian).

Its not even an year old,the brake pads had to be changed, there were some problems with the front suspension and try comparing the bills of a Hyundai and a Maruti after a small accident by a newbie driver.

Maybe since the driver was new led to these problems but even I learnt driving on my MARUTI A-star and its running spic-and-span for more than 3.5 years.(touchwood).

The older 1L suzuki and the 800cc Hyundai gives the same mileage in real world and the 1L Suzuki is now improved too.

[Nats]

For a tight budget of 3lacs any day i would choose Alto k10 for the simple reasons of reliability, looks and ASS.
Santro and Spark's future is uncertain, Eon is not bad and Nano is not much of a car IMO it is a bad investment as the car would fall apart in 4 to 5 years.

[srinath.s]

Voted for the K10 - peppy, rev happy motor, fun to drive in the city (all the more accentuated by the AMT option) and low maintenance costs, not to forget Maruti's ASS network.

Eon is an accomplished car, but looks too quirky to me. Santro is an excellent choice too, but has started showing its age. Other options on the list appeal neither to the head nor to the heart.

[Ohh!Oxygen]

K10 all the way.
I have driven it and its like an all rounder. Enough space and boot for the whole family and happy to rev when you are in mood.
Its a breeze. Look at the low ground clearance and power to weight ratio. This is the kind of cheap thrill you wont find in segments much above this.

From the cost of ownership aspect (mileage, A$$, resale value etc) you can not go wrong with a Maruti in this segment.

The closest competitor looks like Eon on paper but I have never driven it.

[i74js]

In the 3 Lac segment, one has to look at MSIL simply for the plethora of choices being offered.

I am not a Suzuki fan, yet their grip in this segment is unmatched and will remain so in the time to come.

Pick any of the Suzuki models and one will not go wrong in terms of overall experience of cost of ownership and availability of reliable ASS both within and outside of the authorized dealerships.

Safety features, which is not a strong hold of MSIL does not matter in this segment because none of the peers is offering them too; and when something is missing across the spectrum, its better to look at the best among the lot in terms of brand, pricing, the so called "kitna deti hai" and the ASS. MSIL wins hands down in this segment.

Cheers !

[a4anurag]

Comparison of features of Alto 800 v/s Alto K10 v/s Eon (0.8L) v/s Eon (1L) v/s Santro v/s Go v/s Spark v/s Nano Twist

Here is a small addition I am doing to the discussion which is pertaining to the comparison of the 3L segment. The comparison done is keeping in mind so that it is ready to understand and correlate.

Base Variant:

• Alto 800: LX
• Alto K10: LX
• Eon (0.8L): D-Lite
• Eon(1L): ----
• Santro: Non-AC
• Go: D
• Spark: Base
• Nano Twist: ---

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MID Variant:

• Alto 800: LXi
• Alto K10: LXi
• Eon (0.8L): Era+
• Eon(1L): Magna+
• Santro: GL Plus
• Go: A
• Spark: LS
• Nano Twist: ---

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Top Variant:

• Alto 800: VXi
• Alto K10: VXi
• Eon (0.8L): Magna+
• Eon(1L): Magna+ (O)
• Santro:GLS
• Go: T
• Spark: LT
• Nano Twist: XT

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Top (O) Variant:

• Alto K10: VXi (O)
• Eon (0.8L): Sportz

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PS: Please forgive me if there are any discrepancies in the data provided.

NOTE: Click any picture to open a larger higher-resolution version in a new window / tab.

SOURCE: The respective manufacturer's brochure.

Anurag.

[S2!!!]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

PS: Please forgive me if there are any discrepancies in the data provided.

Thanks for the detailed comparo sheets Anurag.

A small correction: Neither of the Maruti twins come with a Passenger Airbag (read: only driver airbag).

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by S2!!!

Thanks for the detailed comparo sheets Anurag.

A small correction: Neither of the Maruti twins come with a Passenger Airbag (read: only driver airbag).

Oops! Thanks S2!

Sorry for the mistake and thanks for the correction.

Anurag.

[CarJunki]

Alto K10 for
1. Maruti A.$.$
2. AMT - city drive coupled with good fuel economy.

[NPV]

The thought of replacing wifey's Maruti 800 had never occurred to us till a couple of months ago, and it was more due to my belief that our city traffic is now so painful and will help if it's an automatic.

Also, recent service expenses on the car had shot up including some part replacements and a clutch overhaul. We bought the car used in 2009, it is a 2007 BS III AC Maruti 800. More on the experience of buying the Maruti 800 from the used car market later, it probably needs a separate thread to describe the buying and ownership experience. How I wish I was at least a reader of TBHP during early 2009 when we bought the car

Back to the main topic, I convinced wifey (that's what I thought) that Automatic is the way to go now (the new AMT's are what I had in mind). In reality, she wasn't very convinced (at least agreed to do Test Drives of the AMT's) but I guess to my credit I confused her [Principle:if you can't convince, confuse!]

Our requirements:
1. Small car for use in the city - mostly for trips to school, other classes/training, shopping, errands/visits within the city. Total max. usage about 700Km a month.
2. Fuel - Petrol for it's lower maintenance costs and the low usage does warrant a Diesel.
3. Safety - Must have at least driver side airbag, ABS not a must-have given the anticipated city usage.
4. Easy to drive in dense city traffic conditions.
5. AC - Bangalore was a 'naturally air-conditioned city' years ago, but not anymore!
6. Budget - 5 lakh Rupees.
7. Transmission - Hope to get an AMT within our budget (at least this was the thought initially).

We agreed that we will not buy the car with a deadline in mind or hasten the process, wanted to take our time in deciding on the right car.
So the search for a small car/hatchback to replace our Maruti 800 began. Natural choice to begin reading up about contenders was the TBHP thread - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/hatchb...tic-hatch.html

[NPV]

Our initial contenders (all AMT) were:

• Alto 800
• Alto K10
• Celerio (though the Celerio would end up costing about lakh more than our 5 lakh budget, we needed something similar to compare the K10 with and since they share the same engine we would be comparing apples with apples).

Exlcusions:

• Tata Nano GenX AMT - both of us disliked the Nano from previous experiences in friend's cars, so it did not make it to our list.
• Hyundai Eon - no AMT option
• Honda Brio - not in budget, no AMT option
• Nissan Micra - not in budget, no AMT option
• Hyundai i10 - not in budget, no AMT option
• Hyundai Grand i10 - not in budget, no AMT option

The Celerio AMT test drive was our first time driving an AMT. We followed this with the test drive of the Alto K10 AMT. Both wifey and I test drove these cars and we had different opinions

While I have driven automatics quite a bit in the US, it was the first such experience for wifey. I felt that the gear shifts were a tad slow and at times the cars felt sluggish. But the moment I switched to Manual (Tiptronic) mode, the cars seemed to suddenly come alive!
In dense traffic, these cars were really nice to drive without the need for clutch and gear operations.
For wifey, it was more of a case of having to unlearn driving habits of manual transmissions. She has been driving for several years and is a very good driver. She does not like to drive on the highway, but then that's just her. She did not feel comfortable driving the AMT's and rejected them outright!

Details of the Celery and Alto K10 AMT test drive experience here

The focus of these 2 test drives was just to see how comfortable (or not!) the AMT's were. After the test drives, I tried to convince wifey about the AMT but did not succeed and gave up since the whole deal was to get her a new car and she must feel comfortable and confident driving it. [Principle:Always focus on what the customer's requirements are!]

So, we made our first major decision on this journey to drop the AMT's and look for regular Manual Transmission variants.
While the Celerio's interiors and seating position were much better than the K10's, we decided to drop it since wifey did not like it.
We did a quick review of the Exclusion list and decided to add the Eon as well to the list of contenders - Eon 0.8L iRDE for comparison with Alto 800, 1.0L Kappa to be compared with Alto K10.
We let the others in the Exclusion list remain there mainly as they were not within our budget.

While all other requirements remained, one was updated:
7. Transmission - Manual Transmission

Our revised contenders (all Manual Transmission) were:

• Alto 800
• Alto K10
• Eon (0.8L iRDE and 1.0L Kappa)

[NPV]

We started off the test drives (this time on manual transmission variants) with the Alto 800. I felt that this was really an improved version of the old Maruti 800, the quality of interiors was definitely much better than the old one. My concern was regarding the puny tyres, as mentioned in the TBHP review.
Wifey also liked the car, but wanted to decide after completing the Test Drives of other contenders.

Next up was the Eon 0.8L iRDE - When the sales executive turned up with the car, I first asked him (wanting to confirm) if the Magna+ model had driver-side airbag and he said "No". He did not know which model had the driver-side airbag and had to refer to the brochure!
We found out from the brochure brochure that only the Sportz variant of the 0.8L iRDE was equipped with driver-side airbag, none of the 1.0L Kappa models had it Anyways, we decided not to be judgmental before completing the test drive.
I liked the driving position, comfort and much better interiors of the Eon as compared to the Alto 800. But wifey wasn't happy with the high dashboard, reminded her of the Celerio, so "No" it was.
We even decided to drop the 1.0L Kappa due to lack of airbag option. I think Maruti scored some cool brownie points here by equipping both the Alto 800 and K10 with the Vxi(O) option for driver-side airbag - yes they could have a passenger airbag as well but they at least did so much!

We tried the Alto K10 next and this was really good in terms of peppy engine, driving comfort, older styling (yes we liked that more than the newer ones) and better interiors. The tyres were better too and I thought, rather than buy the Alto 800 and upgrade tyres and lose a bunch of money on that we would be better off buying the higher spec'd Alto K10. Wifey liked the K10 as well so we're kind of tending towards a decision in it's favour.

I had to bring in some twist to this whole journey so I did just that by telling wifey we'll wait for the Renault Kwid and then take a call
She has agreed graciously and so we're waiting for the dealer to get a demo/test drive car (maybe soon as per the dealer)...let's see how that goes and where this journey leads us to.

Beginning with the idea of replacing our Maruti 800 with an AMT, then deciding against it and instead planning to get a Manual transmission car to now waiting for a car that's not yet on the roads nor available even for a test drive, let's see how this pans out.

I hope this thread will be a 'living' one and update it as we progress in this journey. Please share your thoughts, suggestions and recommendations as well.