[mxx]

I feel it will be better if people post based on their personal experience rather than hear say. How many of the people here who have given positive and negative comments actually owned or used these cars personally to know about their reliability??? Without comments based on personal experiences, this thread seems pointless.

[Saanil]

Agree with mxx. How is it possible for everyone to vote for different manufacturers without even owning the cars. Most people have included Toyota in their list because they have heard Toyota is good. I do not think this is fair. People should just vote for the reliability of the cars they have owned. Suppose there are 100 people who have owned a Hyundai they should just vote for Hyundai - They can either vote for excellent service/neutral/Pathetic. So like this we know that out of 100 how many people like Hyundai's service and how many dislike it. Voting just on the basis of hearing or reading is pointless.

[GSM]

I can't speak for other cars. But surely for Fiat, I can. I own one after all.

The service advisor used to be horrendous initially. The person who started to attend my car later was far better. Service quality is good (enough). Guys are courteous. Most of the issues are taken care of to perfection. The trouble is availability of spare parts! Small niggles are part of daily life.

Initial two years, it was stress free ownership. The past two has been eventful. Partly due to my mistake (have never taken good care o gv my car). Part due to service advisor, who often seems to be worried about increasing cost more than addressing the issue to perfection. I cannot say I am mighty happy about service. It is not that dissappointing either.

In a way, owning a bullet for over four years before my Fiat Palio taught me virtues of patience and tolerance. With Fiat, I have mastered the art.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by himavanth_m

I am not sure if mine is a one off case, but I have heard a lot of Accent CRDi's that lasted around 70 to 80k kms. I owned one long back and it started giving me lots of problems @76k kms. Now due to that I am skeptical about buying a Hyundai Diesel Vehicle.
If you consider the diesel vehicles, I would rate Maruti (Or say Fiat Engine) higher than Hyundai just because of gem of DDiS engine.

But for petrol vehicles, I am neutral between both the brands.

I would like to know more about the above 3 brands in your quote as to why you have put it there

Nissan: Also I have heard great things about Nissan's reliability. Are you putting Nissan in Neutral category just because it is a new entrant in India?

Ford: I would put Ford as Poor after-sales / unreliable nature especially due to the fact that there are some Figo problems related thread in team-bhp itself. Also a couple of my friends have sold their new Figos for the exact same reasons. So why neutral?
Also the Ford parts were really expensive. Not sure about their costs now.

Mahindra: I have not come across too many Mahindra car problems (Apart from rattles or A.S.S). For me Mahindra comes into the neutral category.

In short my list is same as GTO with Ford moving into poor category while Mahindra moving up into the neutral category.
For a diesel vehicle though, I will put Hyundai in the neutral category especially because of my problems with Accent CRDi. Petrol Hyundais are good though.
(I cannot comment on a BMW as none of my friends used it for long term).

I am a pucca petrolhead. I do not drive enough (about 7-8k pa per car) to justify a diesel. I agree that the FIAT small diesels are kings.

As for Mahindra it is indeed sad that none of the shudh desi brands are as reliable as some of the imports. Xylo sells due to the price advantage but is no match for the Innova in terms of reliability ans service.

Nissan is too new - yes they have a fantastic reputation worldwide but at the end of the day it boils down to the local dealer and his boffins. So I will wait for a couple of years before opining.

Ford have had a reputation of being expensive to maintain. Also, too many misfires in the past from them.

[rameshnanda]

Originally Posted by Durango Dude

My experience with my present car has been very satisfactory, HMP, Chennai has taken good car of my Elantra GLS. I feel I have gotten lucky with this car. I have never looked beneath the bonnet of the car except for 'Ayudha Pooja'. My OEM battery lasted for 5.5 years (haven't checked my battery, till then). My car is on OEM tyres (needs a change). I have done the Kumbakonam run twice, without breaking into a sweat due to its ground clearance of 185mm could carry silly speeds in places where roads were only rubble. On a trip to Kodai, The front end of my car beached over a cement bag (only at parking speeds luckily) had to be jacked up and bag removed and continued as if nothing had happened to Kodai and back. I service my car once a year at the most being a sparingly run petrol. I don't scrub and clean and pore over it with wax and shampoo, but looks good and hides its age very nicely because it's parked securely. It's as it was delivered some 6 years back, no seat covers, nothing. My service costs haven't crossed say 20K rupees till date in my 6 years of ownership. My only expense (besides service) has been fuel. I'm not changing this car in the near future and my next car will also be a Hyundai. Even after discontinuing production they have a separate service advisor for Elantra and treat you well, though I visit them only once a year the service advisor remembers me and my car, that gives a feeling of confidence that my ride is in safe hands when at service.
I'm not here to rate brands but for me Hyundai is the best and this from owning Hyundai's for the last almost 12 years (Accent, before the Elantra). The cost of the first three services was truly free at Rs.0, no consumables were charged for.

Good that you have got satisfactory service from HMP. I have owned Getz for 4 years and have serviced with HMP, Chennai only. I never had satisfactory service and the amount of bill has always been exorbitantly high. Here's one of my bad experience with HMP.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ml#post1807379

[sidwadia]

The most hassle-free to own (which I have personally owned) :

Toyota : Simply the BEST !!! Excellent reliability & the A$$ puts a smile to your face.
Maruti
Honda


Neutral

Chevrolet

Poor after-sales and / or unreliable nature

Tata
** Honda (while Honda is super reliable, the A$$ really sucks.... you need to experience it to believe it)

[ajay_satpute]

Originally Posted by motorworks

1) Maruti
2) Honda
3) Hyundai
4) Toyota
5) GM
6) Ford
7) Fiat
8) Tata.

Originally Posted by Anarchy83

This is a useful thread indeed. I think I'll list out the cars which I've ranked as top three hassle free and top let down. I'm only going to go with the brands I've known:

Top Let Down

1. Tata (Safari owner's horror story convinced me not to go for this car - A.S.S. is like they're trying to punish you for something)

Originally Posted by souravc

My Rankings would be thus :-
Unreliable or Not Hassle Free or too premature to opine on

1. Fiat -standalone or tata supported both had huge issues
2. Ford - Having seen 2 friends suffer at the hands of Ford A.S.S and selling off their cars prematurely , can't really have positive vibes about the brand. Overpriced spares and rip off service costs are the most commonly heard problems which coupled with niggling problems like the ones being faced by Figos make for scary readings
3. Nissan - Unproven brand in India , would wait for it to launch a major success and the A.S.S to be stress tested like what has happened to Toyota's before dubbing them as reliable.
4. Skoda - A.S.S is bad and notorious for it, cars are not known to be unreliable though (DSG apart)
5. Tata - Reliability of cars , build quality are a big question mark at every price point . A.S.S is passable at the best .
6. Volkswagen - New entrant , too early to pass a judgement on reliability though service centre guys are still too raw to be even compared with those that you get at a Maruti or Hyundai. Being a VW owner I have had no reason to complain about build quality which I am presuming would translate into hassle free ownership

Originally Posted by needforspeed88

I think only three brands are clearly the benchmarks .

1] Maruti

2]Hyundai

3]Toyota

Originally Posted by puchoo

The top 3 for me would be

Maruti
Toyota
Hyundai

Maruti has been the staple diet of the family while i was growing up , my first car was and is a Wagon R which is yet to give me any problems beyond punctures.

I have a question to all you guys. What do you know about owning a Tata vehicle and A.S.S. experience to say that Tata is a big letdown, Tata is unreliable and all sorts of things? Don't make a statement by reading others experiences or stories. No car company is perfect, yes not even a Merc or a Beemer. In India, everything runs on a sentiment, be it stock market, automobile sector or most of the sectors. If your neighbour says, Maruti is reliable and Tata is bad, you will think twice before going to Tata. But, how many of us check the authenticity of the information?

For instance, everyone here rates Hyundai higher than Tata or Fiat on reliability terms. But, I know atleast a dozen of Hyundai owners who are fed up of Hyundai's arrogant and disrespectful approach towards resolving issues in their cars. I dont want to repeat how many i20 owners are frustrated. There are many thread on TeamBHP itself of troubled i20 owners.

Also, should we define reliability more explicitely?

Take your pick from the following options:

• Does reliability mean that the car has no issues whatsoever?
• Does reliability mean that even though the car has issues, the A.S.S. resolves them in a professional and timely manner?
• Does reliability mean spare parts are cheap and are readily available?
• Does reliability mean having service centers on every corner of the road?
• All of the above?

According to me, my last 2.5 years experience with Tata includes all of the above points. So i would call it a reliable company. I will NOT comment on other companies since I dont have any experience.

We all know that Tata dominates the Taxi segment by a huge margin. Did any of you think even once, why do they dominate? Because their cars are not reliable, they are not fuel efficient, they are not spacious, they are not cheap run? Infact, they are everything. Why dont we see a Swift, which is everyone's favorite 'driver's car', not used as a taxi? It scores very low on utility factor. My friend's 2 month old Swift's defogger went kaput and Maruti A.S.S. cant resolve it. So much for Maruti reliability! So like I said before, no car or car company is perfect.

Besides the top 3 brands(Maruti, Hyundai, Tata) in terms of volumes, people are also frustrated with brands like Ford, VW to some extent. Search through TeamBHP and you will see owners irritated with Figos, Polos,etc.

I am not a huge fan of Tata nor I hate Maruti to the core. I just want to say that you should make a statement based on your own experience, not because your neighbour or some chaiwala or some local garagewala says it.

End note: For me Tata is reliable. My Vista had few minor issues initially which were accepted by Tata A.S.S. and were resolved on time. Besides that, i have had a complete satisfactory experience with my car and Tata A.S.S.

Would I recommend a Tata product to anyone? Ofcourse yes.

Originally Posted by wildon

That is a thing of the past. The i generation vehicles rattles from the start.

Hyundai produces good looking vehicle with very good features- that's all.

They don't know the basic stuff of how to solve the problems/defects in the car they produce. They don't even acknowledge the problems in their car like FIAT, HONDA and others do.

+1. Most of the recent Hyundai owners echo your sentiments. Hyundai doesn't accept their mistakes. Tata does, Fiat does and Maruti also does.

Originally Posted by mxx

I feel it will be better if people post based on their personal experience rather than hear say. How many of the people here who have given positive and negative comments actually owned or used these cars personally to know about their reliability??? Without comments based on personal experiences, this thread seems pointless.

+100. Perfect!

[puchoo]

Just to clarify , i was not intending to imply that TATA is not reliable , its simply not in the top 3 for me.

And honestly it probably wont be in the top 5-8 for me either , i agree on the point that they dominate the taxi vertical but unfortunately my very own office cab company ( which has about 10 tata vehicles) told me when i mentioned in passing the intent to pick up a new car , to never ever pick up a Tata.

The cab company owner picked the cars up basis price points and is not happy with the amount he is now spending on the fleet to keep them running properly , agreed that in this case it would be above average running than the local consumer , but then thats where reliability comes in

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

I have a question to all you guys. What do you know about owning a Tata vehicle and A.S.S. experience to say that Tata is a big letdown, Tata is unreliable and all sorts of things?

[HammerHead]

Well its simple to categorize.

• The most hassle-free to own: Japanese and Korean

• Neutral: American

• Poor after-sales and / or unreliable nature: European & Indian

Sure, there are some exceptions but broadly that's what it is!

IMO, Its not easy or practical to own something from each brand to know its pro's and con's, that's when we tend to rely on 'owner's experience' and average of it!

[A350XWB]

Originally Posted by mxx

I feel it will be better if people post based on their personal experience rather than hear say. How many of the people here who have given positive and negative comments actually owned or used these cars personally to know about their reliability??? Without comments based on personal experiences, this thread seems pointless.

I totally agree with your comment. Word of mouth brand bashing or brand praising doesn't have any meaning in this context. I have (long term) experience with only three manufacturers; Maruti, Hyundai and Ford. From my personal experience, I rate them as
Hyundai
Ford
Maruti
Maruti has this strange attitude that if a problem is not a show stopper, they tell you to live with it. The next day after my friend took delivery of his Swift, he took it to the A.S.S because the window glass rattled when they were rolled down and driven. The answer from the A.S.S, "This car is not designed to be driven with the windows rolled down. Live with it Sir". No wonder he sold off the car in three years and got an i20 and for a change, he's happier now!
Ford, I have owned a Ford for only 6+ months and the dealership visit was only once for the first free service. No rattles or niggles till now as expected from an economy Ford.
Hyundai, again this is my personal experience of owning a Santro for 5+ years now. This car has been driven extensively, on long drives of upto 675KM one way and never did the car gave up. The only niggle that I ever faced were two punctures and that too, one at the office parking space and one at my residence. From my experience, and the trips which I have made in the car, which includes wading water and taking it through non existent roads, how can I rate the reliability of this car anything short of stellar?
OT: One thing which I have found out during my ownership is that in most modern cars, reliability depends on one single factor - preventive maintenance. If you maintain your car well and service it at regular intervals, these modern machines will go on for a long time.

(My above ratings are mostly based on niggles as reliability was not much of a problem for my cars. Only the Maruti stopped once in the middle of a trip)

[Swanand Inamdar]

So, are we discussing the reliability from a personal point of view, or is it the market sentiment that we are taking into consideration?

Because, if we talk about personal experiance, then for me, Skoda has been very reliable. I've owned three of their cars with absolute great ownership till now. Skoda isnt exactly known for this, I know. Maybe I was plain lucky. But hey, my personal experiance has been great. So, is it reliable? For me it sure is.

Having said that, I know that their A.S.S has tons of issues. But then, doesnt it depend on the dealer you go to? Even the mighty MSIL and Honda's have had issues where dealers are concerned.

P.S: This has been a great thread and the above is my POV. You obviously have the right to opine.

[mayankk]

Based purely on experience:
1. Maruti - owned : 800, and zen-lx.
Reliability : For the above two, no issues at all!
Never.
but ours has been a household that has always addressed any monor issue itself immediately, never let it grow into a big one.

Take care of the car, the car never lets you down(for all we've owned)

Service/repairs : Ubiquitous.Most MS vehicles have the advantage that OE spares are available everywhere, almost every mechanic you meet has some knowledge of the innards, and MS Auth. service can be found just about anywhere!
For the cars i owned, parts were dirt cheap, as was labor/service.

2. Hyundai- santro zipP.
Reliability: extremely so.never broke down, never left us stranded.

Service/repair :Almost as present everywhere as MS, and slightly lesser availability of parts, but scores just slightly below MS for me in ease getting fixed or serviced.

3. Ford -Fiesta petrol.
Ah, ford.

Reliability: Since it was bought used, some faults had been hidden carefully, and started popping up in the initial 5k ownership.
I did get stranded, but Once i got these fixed, never an issue.
Cussed the earlier owner for being an idiot for not taking care.

Ever since i have been maintaining it, easy runnings!
Have been on a couple of 700km roundtrips in the last few months, and drive it daily for 75 kms, no issues.
Service: no availability of parts outside of Ford.
no mechanics know about ford insides, how to fix, or how to extract a part.All trial and error if outside of ford.
The vehicle doesnt go wrong oft enough to warrant approaching outside mechanics.
but, its a pain that you have to take the car to A.S.S, even if it aint motorable(get it towed).
Upside of this is that your ford will be fixed by ford, and not by some hack who just ends up causing a bigger bill at your eventual stop, the A.S.S.(by experience...)
Parts and labor are cheap, for the segment.
Horror stories related on this aspect are false now.



This is what ive owned.
However, there are a few brands who have, by pure tales read , i will never consider :
1. skoda
2. fiat(by way of tata)
3. Hindustan

not by experience, but a BIG unshatterable mindblock built on what i have heard.

[puchoo]

I don't think it is possible honestly in a real world scenario to not consider the opinions of others or the market sentiment when arriving at a conclusion. If i just base my opinion and perception on the cars i have owned i can only comment on the 3 i mentioned , but someone else , for example , in the family owing a car and giving me feedback on it which they forms 1 element for me to arrive to a conclusion on some other brand is perfectly fine as well....... atleast this is what i feel but could ofcourse be exclusive to me.

[souravc]

Originally Posted by mxx

I feel it will be better if people post based on their personal experience rather than hear say. How many of the people here who have given positive and negative comments actually owned or used these cars personally to know about their reliability??? Without comments based on personal experiences, this thread seems pointless.

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

I have a question to all you guys. What do you know about owning a Tata vehicle and A.S.S. experience to say that Tata is a big letdown, Tata is unreliable and all sorts of things? Don't make a statement by reading others experiences or stories.

Doesn't the heading contain the word "perception" ? How many of us has or even will experience owning / driving a decent number of the various brands listed out in the opening remarks of the thread in our entire lifetime?? Does that mean that we should not be having a perception of a brand ? As long as it is mentioned that one has heard it from others rather than something that one has experienced that should be fine.
Half of the discussions / comparisons that happen on this forum would die a pre-mature death if we put a caveat that one has to necessarily experience a product to post one's opinion!

[Anarchy83]

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

I have a question to all you guys. What do you know about owning a Tata vehicle and A.S.S. experience to say that Tata is a big letdown, Tata is unreliable and all sorts of things? Don't make a statement by reading others experiences or stories. No car company is perfect, yes not even a Merc or a Beemer. In India, everything runs on a sentiment, be it stock market, automobile sector or most of the sectors. If your neighbour says, Maruti is reliable and Tata is bad, you will think twice before going to Tata. But, how many of us check the authenticity of the information?

Hi Ajay,

No disrespect meant to you and other Tata vehicle owners - but my post is based on personal experience - the Tata Safari owner I was talking about is family and lives with us. If that isn't authentic feedback, I don't know what is.

My rankings are based on personal experience and not based on market feedback - and that's why the list is so short. From your own post and your own perspective - isn't it possible that just like your own perception about Tata based on your experience, another Tata owner might have a negative perception. In my post, I think I mention that the rankings are based on my own experiences.

I guess the purpose of this thread is for each member to quote their personal feedback, based on ownership - if ppl aren't doing that, then I agree, we shouldn't base it on hearsay. Another thing I based my list on is "number of incidents" or "time to resolution".

My cousin drives a Skoda RS. He's stopped going to the Skoda shop and prefers to give it to Carnation nowadays. However he doesn't enter the "Top Letdown" list as he has only had 2 incidents. The Safari brother had 6 visits in the space of approx. 14 months over the same four issues - why don't I let you come to a conclusion about the A.S.S. yourself? In fact, I would request you to tell me how you would treat Tata if this happened to you...would you not list it under "Top Letdown"?