[Gilead]

Great comparo smartcat. I would appreciate it if you could post the ACI track timings of all these cars. Timings are best compared when driven by the same person on the same stretch of road or track. If you had read that issue, the Fiesta was the fastest on the track. It has held the record for 2 years now though it is the least powerful on paper. I was just searching for that issue, but my wife seems to have gotten rid of all the old magazines.

[JackTheCrack]

"Basically, you will end up with the ranking of VFM sedan cars - assuming equal weightage is given to all the above quantitative parameters"

As this analysis is for VFM sedan cars, it may be good to consider ongoing discounts on cars under consideration. I am making this point because for some cars discounts upto 60000 are being offered. Discount like these may change the equation regarding VFM

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by Anandg

Gobar gas!!! And you never forget to add you funny dotes in any of your posts that makes your articles real fun to read.Good. keep it up.

For some reason, I do not like the idea of cars being powered by gas - seems a bit unnatural. Like carrying a ticking bomb in the boot. When we drive cars, we already have to manage the risk of cars catching fire - why add one more reason to it?

Originally Posted by JackTheCrack

As this analysis is for VFM sedan cars, it may be good to consider ongoing discounts on cars under consideration. I am making this point because for some cars discounts upto 60000 are being offered. Discount like these may change the equation regarding VFM

Data on discounts are not easily available for all the cars. Plus, these discounts keep changing every month - so its impossible to incorporate it into our rankings.

Originally Posted by Gilead

Great comparo smartcat. I would appreciate it if you could post the ACI track timings of all these cars. Timings are best compared when driven by the same person on the same stretch of road or track.

As a matter of fact, I do have Quarter Mile run times in secs of some of the cars. As far as I remember, the terminal speed of car at the quarter mile will be around 130 kmph (plus or minus 10 percent, depending on the car). This data is from Overdrive magazine.





However, I'm NOT including zero to quarter mile parameter in the overall PERFORMANCE ranking because data is available only for 20 cars.

[Guna]

Great comparison. I never knew that Octavia petrol retails for less then 12 lakhs on road.

[aparth]

^ It's been discontinued now, right?

[aaravb]

Which sedans are in your radar right now?

I have been considering either the Honda City or the Verna Diesel. Have been thinking about the City, giving credence to reliability on the other hand have been using Accent CRDI for the past 4 years, and touch wood it's been a trouble free journey.

So if I consider driving economy and balance out the rest of the factors I guess Verna Diesel would be a good car for me, but to be frank I am still confused. Looking for more data.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by Guna

Great comparison. I never knew that Octavia petrol retails for less then 12 lakhs on road.

Originally Posted by aparth

^ It's been discontinued now, right?

This is the not the old 1.8 litre petrol they were selling 5 or 6 years ago. This is a turbocharged petrol, similar to the one on the Laura. Skoda calls the petrol on Octavia as TPi and the one on the Laura as TSi.

Originally Posted by aaravb

I have been considering either the Honda City or the Verna Diesel. Have been thinking about the City, giving credence to reliability on the other hand have been using Accent CRDI for the past 4 years, and touch wood it's been a trouble free journey.

So if I consider driving economy and balance out the rest of the factors I guess Verna Diesel would be a good car for me, but to be frank I am still confused. Looking for more data.

Verna is a wee bit low on equipment, safety (no airbags) and to some extent practicality (smallest boot). But the engine is a cracker! More data coming up today evening - the DRIVEABILITY round.

[ACM]

Smartcat - Thanks for starting this one as well. Yep will look for the SUV eddition (that interests me the most) next.

Missing out on the TATA Manza Petrol Data is a major loss. It should have been upthere with the best in the ranking. Sure you have looked in the lastest issues? I too subscribe to all 3 magazines, let me check, it seems odd that the petrol Manza details are not given.

[SmartCat]

Actually, I don't recall the magazines putting up a road test report of Tata Manza petrol at all. Linea, yes -there was a comparo with Fiesta a few months back, but no Manza. The performance of Manza petrol will NOT be very different from that of Linea petrol, in my opinion.

Anyway, Dzire petrol data too is not available, but it should be updated in the next issue.

[Vik0728]

Man here we go again with the Smartest Cat of em' all..THE SMARTCAT!!

I simply admire in awe the amount of effort and patience you put in bro for such posts.

Had one Question though Smartcat. The last time I checked with Skoda, like less than a month back, I was informed that Octavia was discontinued and now Laura was their Base level Sedan with the 1.8ltr TSI at a shade over 14lks OTR in Bangalore !
If this is a Fact, should we really consider the Octy in this Test ??

[StarVegabond]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Aha, but I know why you are here - You want see where your Honda City 1.5 stands! Taking a quick look at the stats, my guesstimate is that it will top the petrol car rankings.

Ofcourse, i would like to know where Honda City stands, but that is not the reason i am all ears to your story. Inherently I am a marketeer, i am interested in Product Benchmarking, Generally we have to pay to get the benchmarking done. If someone is saying that he will do it on his own and also educate us, please that would be the time well spent reading/listening to it.

BTW do you offer this free servcie in other product cateogies as well ?
e.g. Consumer Durables, Entertainment electronics, Mobile Devices, Industrial electronics, etc etc.



Meanwhile do not gustimate which car would win the ranking race. if you do it you might be charged with a bias towards a particular brand/product.
Analysts must be as independent, factual and objective based as possible.

Originally Posted by smartcat

But I think I have the ARAI FE numbers for all the cars - and yes, since we are looking at relative running costs, I will use the ARAI numbers to make the rankings fair to all the contenders.

Originally Posted by smartcat

However, I'm NOT including zero to quarter mile parameter in the overall PERFORMANCE ranking because data is available only for 20 cars.

These are good examples of you willing to learn/adapt or improve on your way while doing this study. Keep it up.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Had one Question though Smartcat. The last time I checked with Skoda, like less than a month back, I was informed that Octavia was discontinued and now Laura was their Base level Sedan with the 1.8ltr TSI at a shade over 14lks OTR in Bangalore !
If this is a Fact, should we really consider the Octy in this Test ??

Did the dealer say that even the Octavia diesel has been discontinued? Something to do with BSIV norms perhaps? However, the Skoda India website still lists Octavia in their model line-up, both petrol and diesel.

If the news of Octavia being discontinued is confirmed, I will remove it and replace it with DZire petrol next month.

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

BTW do you offer this free servcie in other product cateogies as well ? e.g. Consumer Durables, Entertainment electronics, Mobile Devices, Industrial electronics, etc etc.

I'm only interested in cars & money - so I can make a quantitative ranking of equities (stocks) if you like

Meanwhile do not gustimate which car would win the ranking race. if you do it you might be charged with a bias towards a particular brand/product. Analysts must be as independent, factual and objective based as possible.

Yessir. Gustaakhi Maaf!

[Vik0728]

See this is the whole problem with Indian Dealers Smartcat. They just are pathetic when it comes to staying up to date.

At this point in time it just makes me all the more furious coz I fell for a similar thing and followed up with Fiat recently for a month regarding the purchase of the 1.6 Sport. Couple of dealers told me that Sport was built on order and could be sourced in while the others promptly said it was no longer built. They were not even sure what there own websites advertised.

The Dealers of various renowned stables like Skoda, VW & Fiat just outright contradict and deny info that customers come with after browsing their websites.

Skoda with the Octy, VW with Polo Diesle and Fiat with Palio Sport. All these are either discontinued or not yet launched though it promptly is advertised on the website. None of us seem to know what the truth of the matter really is.
Man I feel like

[trrk]

Hi,

Thanks for this wonderful comparison.

Originally Posted by smartcat

The performance of Manza petrol will NOT be very different from that of Linea petrol, in my opinion.

I don't have any experience with a Linea petrol, but I did have a 2 km drive in a Manza petrol right from the yard.

Even with just the vapours of petrol in the tank, I was surprised at the driveabilty of it.

[pgsagar]

Under 12 lakhs? If you increase it to 13 lakhs then Optra Magnum D comes into the picture and you can put it on top of the charts for 0-60, 0-100, quarter mile.