[arun687]

Sure, parking space is an issue for larger cars in big cities. However, in a traffic jam, I feel a larger (or taller) car will get bullied much less.

A 3 lane road becomes 6 and you're squeezed from both ends by other cars, autos and two wheelers with an inch to spare. People cut lanes and squeeze into gaps that do not exist and even honk at you for sticking to your lane and not participating in this 'maneuvering' across gaps between lanes. This adds a lot more stress and effort in navigating traffic than needed.

Probably one of the reasons why we're seeing a lot more pseudo SUVs on road these days as the taller cars with butch styling have a larger road presence and they go through less of it. A small hatchback / sedan with low seating is not necessarily ideal in this situation, IMO.

Also, people who can maintain only one car (due to lack of parking space, budget) would still prefer to upgrade than downgrade and use it as an all rounder for city / highway runs. If and when we have much improved and accessible rental car options, this would change and is probably the way to go looking at the crumbling infrastructure in our cities.

[jassi_jeeper]

I love long cars, hence i own a Ciaz. But I can live without my Ciaz. It is parked most of the times. My work place (High Court, Chandigarh) parking is super cramped and i use my K10 amt to go there everyday. The K10 amt is my choice to visit cramped markets to pick up everything from vegatables to stationary. The K10 amt is indispensable.

[adi_gt]

I shifted from Honda City ZX to Honda Jazz CVT. Considering the mess in our cities, it makes sense to go for small car and automatic.

[rajshenoy]

Voted Yes !!

Although i feel in near future we need a combination of both.

I got myself a AltoK10 AMT couple of weeks ago after deciding to keep my Ertiga for weekend drives. My initial plan was to sell Ertiga and get a new XUV500.

What made me change my mind from XUV to Alto ? well the footprint for the daily city grind(Bangalore traffic is only getting messier)

I needed an automatic and not happy with the AMT/CVT performance on highways, and the Torque converter are not very friendly on the pocket for daily city usage. AMT/CVT is just fine for mundane chocked city roads and with the money saved in going with Alto, i might as well swap Ertiga with a fully loaded Petrol manual Sedan for pure highway fun.

[MaheshY1]

Voted in favor of small car. I prefer vehicles that are cute to look at, cheaper to buy and run, and can do 80-90% of work compared to their full-size siblings.

That's why my list of fav vehicles includes: Navi (my mini off-roader,) Impulse/Xpulse, Monkey 125, R15 (a mini superbike with more go-per-dollar,) Multix (a mini pickup truck that can haul my Navi,) Jimny (a baby G-Class,) Nano, Miata (the mini sportscar.) Surprisingly, the Mini is nowhere on my radar.

But that's just me. I don't think people are ready to let go of their ego and their monstrous machines just yet. Size matters. All big possessions are a representation of how far you've reached in life. TV, car, bike, music system, phone, home ... everything.

Besides, bigger cars don't take up that much more space. In my locality, all the marked parking spaces are big enough to accommodate a Fortuner. But they aren't big enough to fit 2 Beats in one spot. The rectangle is more or less standard.

So, I'm all in, but I don't have much of a company.

[harry10]

Nice thread and a very relevant topic in today's scenario.
Like most of us I love big cars. A new car always meant for me is a Sedan/SUV. We never had a hatchback as our work purposes also required a car with a good boot size.

However, priorities change in life. In my view there are 3 most important things we require in our driving scenario.

1. Ease of driving - A hatchback is clearly easy to drive and manoeuver in daily city traffic. A bigger and more powerful car on highways.

2. Space - Especially the boot space. Hatchback does well within city area but we do need a bigger boot for outstation trips.

3. Parking- Home, Office and market area. Hatchback does well on all 3 but a bigger car may not do well at office and market areas. Especially if you live in or around a city like Delhi you may have experienced this almost daily.

So, as both cars have pros and cons the ideal situation is to have one each. Currently, we have a Honda City and Tiago. Since Tiago came I mostly drive that primarily cos its easy to drive in Delhi traffic and park near my office. My daily office commute is 70kms total. City is driven mostly by my father daily for around 20km locally. Fact is I love to drive, feel comfortable in City more but it's size is a hindrance in traffic and parking. That's why when we change it in a year or two I may look for a compact sedan or crossover type and an Automatic for sure.

In the end it all comes down to priorities. To each his own.

[civic-sense]

Originally Posted by smartcat

However, I have to admit that I down-graded/sized only because of TINA factor. Hexa/Innova/XUV500 AT were not available yet.

If size wasn't a concern, the CR-V was the right upgrade from the Civic.

[blackwasp]

Voted for No. In India, vehicles are primarily considered as status symbols, arrived in life kind of things. Common population will associate brand + size as a way to evaluate you. Neighbours will think I should have the biggest (read=costliest) car in the building. I know many who would pickup up a base model Dzire over a mid/top model Swift. Or an entry level German than a much more feature packed Jap, Korean or American for the same price.

However, on a personal front, I will always prefer a small yet powerful hatch back as my ride unless unavoidable. That reflects in the cars I own as well. SUVs were never appealing to me and nor were the sedans (W124 is the only exception).

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by civic-sense

If size wasn't a concern, the CR-V was the right upgrade from the Civic.

No 3 row seating right in older CR-Vs right? Fortuner AT was available but too large - based on the type of places I visit on road trips. The upcoming CR-V fits the bill though.

[lamborghini]

Interestingly - our E60 5 series gave way to a Corolla, and the other germans at home are taken out much more rarely as compared to earlier.
Reason being: traffic & road conditions!

Driving the 3 to work is a lot more stressful than the Etios, despite the Etios being a manual. It just about fits into every gap, can handle the bumps on the road a lot better, and is just so much more nimble and easier to park!

Our beaters so to say do at least 40-50% more kms than the premium cars at home, just for the ease they offer! On an average, compared to 2012 - our garage has definitely reduced in terms of size of vehicles, though the number of vehicles has increased as smaller vehicles are the need of the hour.

Forget status - no point being stuck in traffic for an extra 10 minutes of a 45min commute just because a bigger car can't fit into a smaller gap!
The germans are taken out only when I know parking is secure and roads are in decent conditions - otherwise we all fight over the keys to the 'beaters'.

[sub.g84]

I would say size does matter. But that doesn't mean size would always indicate small. In less populated parts of our country or hilly areas I would always go for a full size 4X4(which are usually larger) as compared to a small hatchback. But living in Bangalore I feel owing a huge SUV or a long car is always a pain, especially when it comes to parking or taking a short turn in bottle neck traffic. I have a Punto and everytime I park next to a Swift or take a U-Turn I can feel how long my Italian beauty is.

[autorahul]

I love the concept of more car per car. Cars with length 3.9 to 4m sold 101,057 units last month, capturing more than 1/3 of the market. Thats a huge share being captured by 0.1m for market ranging from 3.1m to 5m. I feel the development in this length segment has been in waves, steadily growing. I had some thoughts on how the market has evolved and have put them down below.

Even though Tata were one of the first to launch Indigo eCS they were not something which was in the radar for most families.

One of the first to launch car in this length segment was Hyundai, with the i20. The car at that time was competing with Swift. In comparison, it was not offering significantly higher space, but commanding a significantly higher price leading some to question its price.

The tag line More car per car was used by Tata, but one of the first to truly enforce it was Honda Jazz in 2009. While the market at that point was not mature enough to truly appreciate a 4m hatchback with space rivaling cars from segment above, such as Fiesta and Verna, with magic seats, and expectedly refuse to pay that money for a hatch, the market is much more mature now. The car barely made 4 digits. But what it did was make i20 look well priced. There was an uptick in i20s sales, and it quickly rose throught the ranks.

The Dzire Facelift was the car that would shake this. It went the sub 4m length, with ugly chopped of boot, but the market lapped it up. Swift with extra boot space is what they saw. The rear seat space was still a question that remained to be answered.

Manufacturers continued to improve their answers to this, everyone aiming to reach closer to Honda Jazz, while not cost as much. i20 improved its space slightly, but still not at Jazz level. 2012 Auto Expo had Ecosport launch which would become the first sub 4m SUV, along with Ecoboost engine. Booking were so much, Ford had to stop its bookings. Thailand floods caused Honda to drop price of Jazz and they received a wave of calls.

In the meanwhile compact sedan went from slap-on boot to a beautification phase. Honda Amaze was launched. Masters of managing space, provided loads of room inside, with a design which was much better proportioned than the hugely successful Dzire. This direction propelled others too. Over the next couple of years, Xcent and Aspire were launched, both quite spacious, both better proportioned than anything seen in the segment before. Xcent offered quality not seen in the segment before. While the 4m rage was going, Mahindra went ahead and launched a 7 seater MPV. Remember the Quanto? New i20 was launched, which was more spacious than its previous iterations followed by new Jazz. This was both feature rich and well priced. To cover costs, Honda moved magic seats to only the top variant.

The next big thing to happen in this segment was Vitara Brezza. As well spaced as any car in the segment, mixing the growing SUV craze with the compact length like Ecosport. The waiting for this went up to 8 months long. The new Baleno and Dzire following it was next step by Maruti in similar direction. More space, more features, less price.

Now we are seeing next level of innovations in this segment. Better engines, turbo are being provided to satisfy the power crave as people find the length ideal and dont want to move higher segments for the compactness. Diesel ATs are coming. The new Polo 2018 reviews show the innovation that has happened. Matt Watson's Youtube review was aptly titled "Do you really need a Golf" as Polo went forward in space, engine and features. Hyundai Kona is also rumored to be in similar vein.

This continuous wave of development is what is making this segment so exciting. I would not be surprised if in a couple of years, the 33% market share came close to 50% market share.

To this must credit a few manufacturers, who have brought this segment to perfection.

Tata- For practically launching the segment with Indigo CS.
Honda- For introducing space in segment
Hyundai- For introducing quality in the segment
Ford- For the compact SUV
and finally Maruti- For making it mass market!

[aniyo]

Originally Posted by sub.g84

In less populated parts of our country or hilly areas I would always go for a full size 4X4(which are usually larger) as compared to a small hatchback. .

You will be suprised to the number of small cars like WagonR and Hyundai Eon that operate in Sikkim and such hilly areas. As long as off-roading is not required full blown SUV has little usage.

[9thsphinx]

If it were for me I'd pick big and brawny. The imposing presence, the sheer space on offer and the respect it commands on the road work in its favor. Size does matter!

Convenience would probably be the only reason for buying a small car. Just as much as buying an auto over a manual. As far as I am concerned, I personally see no other reason for downsizing.

[ron_9191]

I don't really know downsizing is a trend or not, but in a city like Bangalore and driving around a 2006 Baleno Vxi isn't a great idea. I know it isn't the biggest car out there but if some imbecile rams into it, I am looking at 2 things, a broken heart and a heft service bill.

Thats when I decided what probably all of the country decided, buy a Maruti 800. What I have is a 5 speed one. It is fun to drive, costs less than a pint to run and needs the space of an auto rikshaw to park and it has space underneat the B pillar to keep a weapon of my choice, a wheel spanner just in case if someone wants a piece of me. Absolute bliss considering the pathetic traffic management on the outer ring road that I have to go through on a daily basis.

A smaller car is the thing to have in a crowded city. It is just pointless to drive a huge SUV or an MUV in the city when the number of passengers in it is ONE. A downsized car pollutes less, and doesn't cost you an arm to run it.