Team-BHP - Japanese or European cars? Whats your pick in India?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sourav9385 (Post 3275313)

Not to mention the callous attitude most of the dealers in India have towards customers who own European stuff.
All put together, the European makes tend to be perceived as great to drive, excellent handling cars that are difficult to maintain, fault prone, expensive to run.

I intended the poll to be exclusive of dealer experiences, as in case of India once you bring the dealer/service people in, it's a real mess. You can end up praising them to no end or banging your head on the wall, based on your locality and luck!

Quote:

Originally Posted by sourav9385 (Post 3275313)

There will always be people who will swear by Japanese, some who will hold Europeans above all, and some who'll say that Koreans are making the best cars now since the provide a heady mix of both worlds.

Guess I should have said Asians, rather than Japs, just like I said Europeans rather than British/German/Italian.

Anyway, nice summary! Thanks!

Always been a fan of them Japs. We've been most loyal to Hondas - amazingly refined engines, reliability and almost a no-nonsense ownership is a common trait. We've also owned and cherished the 118NE and its Nissan heart served us well. I've only heard about German toughness and will be owners of one very soon. Here's hoping that it doesn't disappoint.

My vote goes to # 2 on that list.

Hi Admins,

My quesion was on perception of car builds, and not on pick, which the original thread is about. I mean, not 'Do you like i10 over Beat?' but 'Do you think i10 is more reliable and Beat is more fun to ride?' which puts personal preference out of the equation and talks about the car charateristics.

Don't really agree with the thread merge, but if you think this difference is too subtle for two separate threads to exist... well then I guess I have to abide by the powers that be! :)

Quite plainly Heart over Head. Euro over Jap and Korean.

And before everyone squeals I have put my money where my mouth is.

Japs and Koreans are reliable but they are not quite there, in my opinion, as far as design, appearance, aesthetics, build quality, solidity, plushness, under thigh support, general desirability etc.

In entry level hatchbacks and sedans up to 12 L price bracket, I prefer to have a European car for its built, ride and handling setup and just the overall experience. They are fairly reliable when there is not too much electronics at play and maintenance costs are not too high either compared to Japanese. They are typically more satisfying for petrol heads.

Above 20 lacs where there is typically huge amounts of electronics in the cars, I prefer to have a European car only if usage is going to be in major cities and national highways (generally places where you can at least find flatbed trucks and cabs for your rescue). Or if you can have an extra Japanese car as your workhorse to go to remote places, broken roads, etc. but I think non petrol heads need not take such a trouble, they are well off with a Japanese luxury car/SUV even though it lacks prestige/bling compared to Europeans.
Almost everyone I know who owns a merc, audi, bmw, jag, lr, etc. uses extra Japanese cars like innova, fortuner, pajero for usage in remote places/ long trips.

If I have to pick one of the two, I will pick Japanese anyday. For me, the pleasure of traveling is as important as the pleasure of driving. And, any driver friendly car with good reliability will be enjoyable for me to travel with. I don't want to be too worried about some malfunctioning to occur. I think driving pleasure can be had in a great variety of cars.

One could put up with occasional malfunctioning in order to enjoy some driving machines, if there was smooth and reasonable ways to address them. But the impression one gets is that service and repair in case of European cars keeps throwing up unpleasant challenges.

I prefer both of them. European cars have their upsides but at the same time downsides too like they are costlier to maintain, parts are costly, do not offer good fuel efficiency but the ride quality itself makes us forget all these.
I prefer japs because fuel efficiency is the main concern in India because the fuel prices keep rising everyday as if somebody keeps pressing the accelerator pedal harder and harder, they are very reliable machines and would never leave you stranded anywhere. Also maintenance is cheap and A.S.S. is very good.

Voted for European cars :)
Once you get used to the build quality, driving pleasure, interiors etc of european cars, its hard to buy anything else. My journey into this world started with a Linea, then came the vento and now ecosport. I have not had any reliability issues with any car, dont see myself sitting in any korean or japanese car for the next few decades.

Ideally, my honest opinion, below 10 Lac, Go for Japanese cars, and above 10 Lac, Europeans. Nothing beats high end sophistication of European cars. Moreover, with Great Power come Greater Responsibility. Above 10 lac, most of the cars come with great power, but only European cars can handle greater responsibilities viz keeping the Occupants safe in event of untoward incidents, complying to better emission norms to keep environment safer, Better night visibility systems by providing better illumination on road, etc.

So my vote, goes hands down to the European cars

For me, the primary purpose of any car is to get me from point A to point B consistently, whether during day or night and irrespective of the weather. Everything else is secondary. Japanese and European cars of the 90s used to do that very well.

From the middle of last decade, Europeans seem to have started including more electronics into their cars than they could digest, leading to frequent indigestion for their cars. They no longer cater to my the primary expectation from a car in a consistent fashion.

Coming to Japanese, they seem to be catching up with the Europeans slowly but steadily on the unreliability front though they're not there yet.

Koreans typically are experts in reverse engineering successful European and American products and selling it cheaper. So its just a matter of time before they start making products reverse engineered from the newer European/Japanese cars.

As for Indians, this is probably one area we've beaten the Europeans.

In a nutshell, my choices seem to be practically leaning towards well maintained used cars from last decade :)

Why don't you consider Japanese makes/models. e.g. Suzuki, Toyota, Honda and to some extent even Nissan?
They don't have the reliability problems of the Fiats, VWs, Fords & Skodas - and at the end of the day - command a better resale.

Quote:

Originally Posted by joybhowmik (Post 3427847)

Reliability - the most un-reliable term in terms of an automobile from any damn manufacturer these days.

Dont forget that the highest no of recalls are from Japanese manufacturers.

Also please add human safety in an event of accident a factor to reliability, after all life should be more reliable than breakdowns if any

Quote:

Originally Posted by amit_mechengg (Post 3427860)

Yes. Japanese do recall. they are honest about it. Many others are not so honest IMHO, and prefer to pass off manufacturing defects as usage related. Standing in front of a multi-billion dollar organization, there's often nothing the consumer can do about it but just grin and bear it.

Also, who said that Japanese do not value human safety? Do you have any evidence?