[jigbarai]

Originally Posted by gkoneti

@ musicmaker, @jigbarai: I have confirmed with VW workshops and they said the first service is at 15000km or one year which itself is saving a lot of money. Moreover general service costs about 4 to 5000 including items like oil, fuel, air filters etc. so maintenance cost of 5000 per year is very good indeed.

Same goes for the Fabia as well.
Have had it for more than a year and the first service is all that i've had to spend so far.
Oil used is full synthetic - costs 4000 for 4 L - this is pretty much standard and not something made exclusively for the Polo or the Fabia. And use of synthetic oil is what is the driving factor behind the 1 year / 15000 km service interval.

The filters (oil/fuel/air/AC) do cost higher than the Marutis and Hyundais, but are of seemingly better quality. Again, once a year replacements only. Budget around 2k for this.

@jigbarai: Fabia indeed looks and drives premium. But it costs so heavily in service. Skoda is not just looting but cheating Indian customers. I do not think it shares 90% of spares. Engine is ofcourse tweaked by VW.

Open up the engine bay of both the cars side by side and have a look. Everything looks identical, including the fluid colours

The only difference is the 'tuning' bit for BS4 norms on the Polo and may be around the cat-con.

The interiors however are much better on the Fabia than the Polo.

VW is rumoured to be loosing close to one lakh rupees on every Polo it is selling in India. VW is committed to make a mark in hatch segment. this is also evident from their purchase of stake in Suzuki. So VW can not repeat another Skoda Fabia story. Moreover 50% of parts are still imported from Germany. So before all parts are made through Indian manufacturers, it is wise to buy a half german car at very decent price. Am i right? But for me the deal breaker is alloy wheels for Trendline variant. If I do not get them, I have to move to i20 Era. Alloy wheels are a must for my car. Let me see.

They wont be making losses for sure. But the VW group is taking on India damn seriously. Am pretty sure the cost of spares of both Polo/Fabia will go down gradually - hopefully maintaining the same quality as the original.

Dont let Alloy wheel be a deal breaker, whatever variant you choose. You can always get much better alloys from the outside market at like half the cost of the OE ones. Max 20k for a full set.

Responses to your points inline.

[gkoneti]

Thank you all for sharing your views.

on VW losing money on Polo: March 2010 Autocar mag has a news clip which says that on every Polo that VW is selling in India, it is losing about Rs. 83,000. My feeling is that It might be loosing that money only on Trendline version which is priced very competitively. But Comfortline and Highline must be making money. If you observe the price difference amongst the three variants, it is unusually high. For petrol, Trendline costs 5.32 lakhs onroad in Hyderabad. Comfortline is at 5.94 and Highline at 6.94. There could be cross subsidization happening amongst these variants. And to beat the market, VW might have priced the Trendline quite attractively and the money lost in this variant would be adjusted from higher variants.

@gemithomas: No Sir. You have not hurt me. It is a process and everyone has to go through it. Yes, I am still a boy when it comes to cars and you have correctly described my position. While coming back to the choice of cars, butter smooth engine is definitely a criteria for me but first it has to appeal to my senses from "inside to outside". I would be spending whole of my life touching those interiors and looking at them, using them. Unless they satisfy me, what is the use of outside looks, butter smooth engine etc., My point is elegant interiors would make the driver of the car feel "filled in the stomach". This is precisely the reason why I chose Polo in the first place. It is THE best compromise in India. Second best compromise is i20 Era. I agree that Swift interiors are nothing great. As it is very mod friendly, I have chosen the same. I can get a White Swift LXi and with in 20K budget i can make it look very attractive with white alloys, body color mirrors, handles, 185 tyres etc. And K-series engines anyway qualify for butter smoothness.

I am sorry but I can not agree with your point of VFM for Palio 1.6. Being a Petrolhead is different altogether. A good engine can not be a good car. Even i buy a Palio 1.6, can FIAT assure me of good night sleep? I doubt. As I said in my first post, Car manufacturing is lot more than just fixing nuts and bolts. Look at YAMAHA in motorcycles. How they have comeback into business. Salute to those guys. You know what, they are re-manufacturing genuine spare parts of the legendary Yamaha RX-100. This is called service.

I observed that most of you have really smitten by Punto. True. White Punto will definitely stop your heart for a moment. But inside the car, when I look at the panel gaps surrounding the key insertion hole, my heart really stopped more than a moment. How can anybody explain this? If it is so good really, why is it selling just about 1000 cars? Someboday said, Ambassador is selling more than that. I genuinely feel there is more than interiors, engines or service that is damaging the Punto reputation. Can anybody say something on this.

Dear All, many of you have really spoken from your heart. thanks for that. Am I a petrolhead, Not yet. may be in future. Till that time, I need a car which is elegant, efficient, economical and enduring Executive hatch. Please note that elegance is not being feature rich but simple, functional but high degree of quality and finish.

I have tried to put a more objective way of arriving at the decision. But I can mislead myself with disproportionate score based on what my heart says. So please use the criteria and help me !

[kadri007]

Found one more car hunters review, hope this may add value to this thread.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post1838204

[Gilead]

Gopinath, there are only two hatchbacks available at the moment that feel executive-ish, elegant and exclusive. i20, Swift and Figo just don't make the cut.

1. Punto
2. Polo

Out of these two, I would recommend the Punto 1.2 Emotion.

[Anandg]

Hi Gopinath,
I would like to share my dilemma that you too are facing but your query has rather a straight forward answer. As the looks/quality of the car is more important for you and you have a budget of 5L then why don't you think for a used NHC. This fills all your criteria and has low cost of maintainance and has that rich image that I think you are looking for.

[arishi1]

Gopinath,

I would also suggest you to look for Jazz. It's definitely heavy on budget, but looks to be fulfilling all your requirements. I know there are some Honda dealers in Mumbai who are even offering used Jazz, so that may be something you can look towards in Hyd.

Coming to Punto, I totally agree to your point of plastics, but look at the 2010 model of Punto, there is a huge difference. I own a Punto MJD emotion pack and every time I take her out for a spin, I get a sense of pleasure on what a benchmark car can be in terms of drivability and shear pleasure of driving.

[rohan_iitr]

If you a buying a car for the image factor, an entry level sedan would be a better choice IMHO.

Also consider Accent, Manza and Dzire.

From your list, i20 seems to be the best for executive image and interior quality.

Swift, Ritz etc are sporty models, don't go with the executive image.

My vote goes to Figo diesel. This is the most practical option as mentioned by someone above.

Rohan

[mkh]

I do not wish to start a debate with the Fiat lovers here, of which there are aplenty, but there are clear reasons for the decline of the Punto and why it did not take off as much as it should have. Punto is overshadowed by the sad state of affairs of the people who are selling and supporting it. Its a great product, will look really classy but as you said, its not only about putting the nuts and bolts together. You can be assured of having to digest some amount of dont care attitude and its a risk to take, worth it or not, depends on how much you like the product.
I20 clearly gives a feel of a car above its segment when you look and sit inside. I am surprised at not many recommendations on it, esp since you want an executive feel and that is a priority. The quality looks far above the rest for sure and so is the feel inside, not sure if for that you need to spend 50K more or so. A Big selling point of the i20 its its feel factor, that it gives a feel of sitting in a car a segment above!!
Swift is an old model, not sure if you will get the wow feel even if you mod it.
VW polo is a new car, has the "badge" and the class feel for sure. This fits your requirements from all aspects, provided you r willing to wait. This is clearly the best bet since you commented on Fabia being your choice. Again dealer support and network, a risk , maybe worth it
Overall this is the classic dilemma of the consumer STILL, so much to choose from but still something that is an outright YES, not there!
Wish we can have a product that is a Punto from the out, i20 from the in, K-series like engine, VW reliability and in the hands of a Maruti/Hyundai, sure shot winner

[govigov]

This may also sound silly to you, but have you considered a 02 C class for around 9 lakhs or whereabouts? or are you strictly against pre owned cars?

[mohandas]

if I were you, I would keep the following 3 in my choice list:
1. Polo
2. Polo
3. Polo
Man, with the VW badge, you can have the best executive feeling.

[gkoneti]

@govigov: Sorry, C class whether it is 02 or 1992 would still be overkill for me. Moreover if there is any service issue, I have to sell my house. I am not in that mood.

@mkh: Good wish indeed. I do not see any manufacturer meeting that demand in near future. Since good build, engines, drivability are already there in Punto, If big heads at FIAT and TATA can pull their socks, we may have such wishes come true. Just a wild idea. Why can’t TEAM-BHP make a representation to FIAT India???

@Moderators, please look into the practicality of this. Since most of the T-BHP users are ardent fans of FIAT cars, Can we make it a reality. We could save a good company and a good car.

@rohan: No Sedans please. Hyderabad traffic does not permit enjoying a sedan to its fullest.

@arishi1, @Anandg: ANHC was there in my mind till they launched it. I felt Honda is emotionally blackmailing Indian customers. They gave us genuinely priced cars for the past 10 years and made us addicted to their quality of cars. Good job done. But when it launched ANHC, business heads might have thought that “why not rip the Indian customers now, As the poor guys will anyway buy our cars” And then they priced it 1.5 to 2 lakhs more than what they should have. This left a bad taste in my mouth. There is no harm in charging premium for a car. You should. But look at the quality of ANHC. I think it is a demotion from NHC. And No alloy wheels (initially) at that price? Shocking. Honda started to make commercial calls in India than doing a good business. Moreover Honda heads had the guts to speak during the launch of Jazz that they are loosing money heavily on every Jazz that they are selling in India. (Autocar show during that time covered an Interview with Honda). With the current sales of Jazz, their wishes also have come true.

OK friends. Based on your recommendations, I am going to take PUNTO out this weekend for a test DRIVE and FEEL and let you know. Personally I am also planning to look at BS-4 Fabia petrol Active version to check its present status in terms of service costs.

[Amartya]

Originally Posted by gkoneti

OK friends. Based on your recommendations, I am going to take PUNTO out this weekend for a test DRIVE and FEEL and let you know. Personally I am also planning to look at BS-4 Fabia petrol Active version to check its present status in terms of service costs.

Glad to hear it, just keep in mind that the test-drive car might be a 2009 model, so after the test drive, check out the plastics in the cars on display. The 2010 model has better plastics.

[GTO]

For 5 lakh rupees, and considering that you do value the "feel good" factor highly, go for the Polo 1.2. That engine may not have the most refined idle, but its a heck of a drive (by 1.2 standards). It's got surprising pep, good driveability and is fun to work. Plus, the gearbox is the nicest amongst hatchbacks, its got a solid build and high quality interiors.

On the other hand, since your budget is 10 lakhs and you still want a hatch (Hyderabad traffic), the best car you could possibly buy is the Hyundai i20 1.4 AT. Fully loaded, AT is a blessing in disguise for traffic conditions, premium feeling inside out and excellent after-sales.

Dependent on whether you want to spend 5.xx lakhs or 7.xx, choose between the two. You can't go wrong with either.

[Gilead]

Originally Posted by GTO

On the other hand, since your budget is 10 lakhs and you still want a hatch (Hyderabad traffic), the best car you could possibly buy is the Hyundai i20 1.4 AT. Fully loaded, AT is a blessing in disguise for traffic conditions, premium feeling inside out and excellent after-sales.

This is a good suggestion but I would advise the OP to check if the AC is good enough for him in Hyd's summer. The i20 probably has the weakest AC among the hatches in this segment.

[download2live]

Dear Gopinath,

I will recommend you take Punto. Well I might be biased(since I am owner of one) but the way the car is built and they way it connects with you. Cant put it in words really.

All I will say is that "There is something about Punto".

P.S: If you decide on Punto then go for diesel.