Chaar peti ki gaadi (i.e. A car for four lakh) My mom currently drives a Maruti 800, I want to shift to a higher car, the purchase will be on loan, the objective is to give her a car that is comfortable (a/c, power steering etc, that were absent on the earlier car) car.Cars short listed: Well, just about everything at this price point viz. Estilo, Spark, Palio Stile, Indica Xeta, Santro! Price range: Around 4 Lac INR is what I started with, since it is on loan, a 'delta' of around 30-40k is okay.Maintenance & After Sales Service (A.S.S.) expectations: Ideally we'd like what Hyundai is doing i.e. a guy comes home to pick up the car, gets it serviced and drops it back home. Preferably we'd also like some kind of an emergency helpline car kind of thing in case of any middle of the road troubles. My mom stays in Hyderabad.Average distance traveled per month: She visits the Ashram outside the city once a week - thats around 200 km per month. Add to that visits to relatives etc. another 100 km per month. In all, its going to be lightly used.Where car will be mostly used (city / highway / rough roads etc): Mostly used in the city only. Hyderabad has decent roads for an Indian city but that isn't saying much, so ride quality should be good as well.Chauffer driven / self driven: The car will be self driven for at least a couple of years more, can't afford a driver right away . But back seat will have people frequently, including my Mom herself at times, so back seat comfort also would be welcome.Whether the vehicle will be shared by other members of family: A 'temporary chauffeur' may be employed at times (when my Mom doesn't know the route to a place) but mostly it will be singly driven.Any specific requirements from car (ex. Better luggage space, responsive engine, rear seat comfort) : One big grouse with the M800 has been the bad gearshift - it once sprained my Mom's wrist! So gear shifting HAS to be of the highest order, also good low end torque is desired so as to minimize gearshifts - yeah, we considered automatics but only Santro automatic is available at this price, and I didn't like the fact that there are TWO options in 'drive' mode - D1 and D2, in addition to L as well! So with three choices, it is headache enough, or so I decided.
The ideal car would be built like it were from a single piece of rock, be spacious, have good gear shift and ride quality, have good servicing, good low end torque so gear shifting is minimal, and of course power steering, a/c etc.
Please give your suggestions. Thanks in advance. - How long you intend on keeping this car (and how important resale is to you)
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Last edited by tsk1979 : 23rd July 2007 at 22:46.
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