We did a quantitative rankings of all the small cars sold in India.
Small Car Buyer Guide - A Ready Reckoner http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...-reckoner.html
Now we get to sedans, both petrol and diesel. Why a ranking of sedans under Rs. 12 lacs, and not Rs. 10 lacs? Because the Honda City costs Rs. 11 Lacs on road
- and no sedan ranking is complete without including the benchmark Honda City.
The following 26 sedans have been considered for this ranking -
Chevrolet Aveo 1.4 Petrol
Chevrolet Optra 1.6 Petrol
Fiat Linea 1.4 Petrol
Fiat Linea 1.3 Diesel
Ford Fiesta 1.6 Petrol
Ford Fiesta 1.4 Diesel
Ford Ikon 1.3 Petrol
Ford Ikon 1.4 Diesel
Honda City 1.5 Petrol
Hyundai Accent 1.5 Petrol
Hyundai Verna 1.6 Petrol
Hyundai Verna 1.5 Diesel
Mahindra Logan 1.6 Petrol
Mahindra Logan 1.5 Diesel
Maruti Dzire 1.3 Diesel
Maruti SX4 1.6 Petrol
Mitsubishi Cedia 2.0 Petrol
Mitsubishi Lancer 2.0 Diesel
Skoda Octavia 1.8 Petrol
Tata Manza 1.3 Diesel
Tata Indigo CS 1.4 Dicor Diesel
Tata Indigo XL 1.4 Petrol
Tata Marina 1.4 Tdi Diesel
Tata Marina 1.4 Petrol
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QUALITATIVE RANKINGS EXPLAINED:
All the cars in the test will be ranked against eachother of the following parameters -
- Performance (0 - 60 kmph & 0 - 100 kmph acceleration time)
- Driveability (30 - 80 kmph in 3rd gear & 40 - 100 kmph in 4th gear in-gear acceleration time)
- Running costs (city mileage, highway mileage, petrol & diesel costs)
- Initial purchase price (on-road Mumbai prices)
- Safety (braking distance, presence of seatbelts, airbags, ABS, EBD etc)
- Features (presence of climate control, alloys, steering mounted audio controls etc)
- Practicality (boot space, turning radius, rear legroom, seat width etc).
Since there are 26 cars in our test, the car that tops the segment (say, performance) gets 26 points and the car that lies at the bottom gets 1 point. The points that each car earns for each segment is added to find the total score.
By adding the scores in each segment, we will end up with the ranking of cars that offers the best compromise between performance, driveability, running costs, price, safety, features & practicality. Basically, you will end up with the ranking of VFM sedan cars - assuming equal weightage is given to all the above quantitative parameters.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Q.
What is the source of this data? A. Most of the data is from Autocar India magazine, but some data points are picked from Top Gear & Overdrive Magazine.
Q.
The data in the magazines are not always accurate. A. Well, yeah. But can't help it. We need data from a fairly authoritative source - we can't test drives all cars with V-boxes, can we?
Q.
You have mentioned that my car gives 12 kmpl in the city. But I actually get 16 kmpl! A. Maybe. Mileage depends on driving style and driving conditions. It is not the absolute mileage figures but rankings that matter. Basicallly, if you drive a car ranked higher than yours in the ranking, you will get a higher mileage than what's printed in the magazine. The assumption we are taking here is that - the magazines have some kind of constant driving cycle to measure mileage.
Q:
Nobody buys cars looking at just these numbers. A buyer considers a whole lot of factors like after sales service, looks, image etc. A: Cannot agree more. But these are subjective aspects and the ranking of cars varies from buyer to buyer - so they cannot be incorporated into any rankings. Spare part price basket is measurable but data is not available. A car buyer could look at the quantitative aspects like engine performance, features etc and combine it with subjective aspects to take a decision on which car to buy.
Q. This is total nonsense. Who are you to say which car is the best and which car is the worst? A. Car ranked in 19th place is not "worser" than a car ranked in 8th place. It's just that - if we assign equal weightage to all the parameters in our test, the car ranked in 8th place comes out better. But remember that a car buying decision still involves looking at subjective aspects like build quality, interior quality etc. The quantitative ranking is a just a guide, not a bible.
Q.
I don't understand this point system. A. um, OK. Just take a look at the "car ranking" number then.
Q.
How can you compare an Octavia with an Indigo? A. We are not comparing an Octavia with an Indigo. We are just ranking the cars based on quantitative parameters - It's different - like Maggi Hot & Sweet Tomato Sauce. If you want to compare cars, you can do it yourself by looking at the ranking of cars in a particular price range (For eg, for Rs. 8 lacs budget, you could look at the ranking of Manza, Dzire, Verna, Fiesta etc and ignore Octavia, Cedia etc)
Q.
I have a suggestion that will make the ranking system fair/better. A. Go ahead and shoot. Many suggestions in the "small car ranking" thread have been incorporated in this ranking.
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The following cars have
NOT been considered because of non-availability of data -
Chevrolet Aveo 1.6 Petrol (has been discontinued)
HM Ambassador (I know, Upcoming politicians who visit team-bhp will be disaspppointed)
Maruti DZire 1.2 Petrol (K-series engine upgrade, data not available yet)
Mitsubishi Lancer 1.5 Petrol
Tata Manza 1.4 Petrol (has not been road-tested by any magazine!)
Tata Indigo (has been discontinued)
Chevrolet Optra 2.0 Diesel (costs slightly over Rs. 12 Lacs)
Also, the following type of cars have
NOT been included -
1) Base & middle rung models. Only the top end models have been considered for this test. But if you are looking at a middle rung model to buy, remember that performance, driveability, running costs & practicality remains the same. So you could look at these parameters only and decide.
2) Automatics
3) CNG/LPG/gobar gas powered models.