[SmartCat]

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.

[sachinj12]

Well, first the small car, now the sedan. What next? Suv Comparo?

Great work. I won't be surprised if you become a distinguished BHPian in the near future.

[Klub Class]

You never fail to impress us with your works. I'm waiting eagerly for the detailed data and the comparison.

Btw, it seems to me that you've got a hell of free time to do things of these sort. ;-) Just Kidding.

All the best SmartCat.

[SkyWalker]

Sounds great! Thanks for your efforts - waiting for results - thats when the fireworks begin

[aaravb]

Hey Smartcat,
I have actually gone through the small car guide and think it is indeed a nice place to check all the parameters before making a decision to buy one of the small cars.

I am sure you will now work wonders Sedans under 12 lac guide also, looking forward to the data, which of course will help a lot of people like me looking to buy a car in this bracket.

Cheers! Keep up the excellent work.

[StarVegabond]

Hey Samrtcat,

you are sounding like a typical market research guy who presents his story. He generally begins with lots of disclaimers and explains what is in and what is not, methodology etc. I have heard it several times in my life till now, this would be interesting as the presenter would be invisible and "a cat"

Are you preparing for any MBA/DBM project ?

go on, even though i am not in the car buying market for another 6 years, i am all ears to your story.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by sachinj12

What next? Suv Comparo?

Man, don't give me ideas!

Originally Posted by Klub Class

Btw, it seems to me that you've got a hell of free time to do things of these sort. ;-) Just Kidding.

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

Are you preparing for any MBA/DBM project ?

I'm a businessdude - a moment does not pass without me thinking about money. I wonder if J.D.Power will be interested in something like this.

Originally Posted by SkyWalker

Sounds great! Thanks for your efforts - waiting for results - thats when the fireworks begin

Thanks Anakin!

Originally Posted by aaravb

I am sure you will now work wonders Sedans under 12 lac guide also, looking forward to the data, which of course will help a lot of people like me looking to buy a car in this bracket.

Which sedans are in your radar right now?

Originally Posted by StarVegabond

you are sounding like a typical market research guy who presents his story. He generally begins with lots of disclaimers and explains what is in and what is not, methodology etc.

Just learning from experience - after starting the small car ranking thread.

go on, even though i am not in the car buying market for another 6 years, i am all ears to your story.

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.

[tsk1979]

One question, why not use ARAI FE numbers. They are on higher side, but since you are interested in relative FE, they will work.

[SmartCat]

From my experience (we have a Santro, Alto & an Optra in our family), the Autocar India city & highway mileage numbers are fairly accurate (give or take 10%). Overdrive's highway mileage numbers are a bit on the higher side - apparently they drive on the Mumbai Pune expressway at a constant 80 kmph with AC on.

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.

[SmartCat]

Round No. 1 - PERFORMANCE

Let's first check the 0 - 60 kmph acceleration times of all the cars. A car with a quick 0 - 60 kmph time will "feel" sprightly off the mark, and is quite useful in the city. Also, if a diesel suffers from excessive turbolag, it might show up in the 0 - 60 kmph rankings.

0 - 60 KMPH RANKING:

Quick 0 - 100 kmph time is an aggressive gear changer's delight - quite useful on highways.

0 - 100 KMPH RANKING:

Assigning equal weightage to 0 - 60 kmph & 0 - 100 kmph performance of each car, the performance ranking of sedans under Rs. 12 lacs would look something like this.

And oh, there are 25 cars in our test, not 26 as mentioned in the first post. The car that tops the performance list gets 25 points, while the car bringing up the rear of the table gets 1 point - with all the other cars getting points in between 25 & 1 in descending order.

CAR PERFORMANCE RANKING

Comments:

- As expected, outright acceleration is petrol cars' forte - and the top half of the table is full of petrols.

- Hyundai has the quickest diesel among small cars (i20) and also among sedans under Rs. 12 Lacs (Verna).

- DZire multijet diesel has only 75 BHP as compared to VGT multijet diesels Manza & Linea. However, Dzire out-accelerates both Manza & Linea.

- Tata made petrols are surprisingly quick, while Tata made diesels are unsurprisingly slow!

- The performance difference between direct competitors Fiesta diesel & Verna diesel is simply massive.

[Zero Cool]

Another surprise is that somehow the so called boring and sedate SX4 is faster than the so called fast drivers car that is Ford Fiesta!!! I guess fiesta is just overhyped then. Maybe people find it fast when comparing it to aveo and accent.

[clevermax]

I can see Honda City emerging as the winner - overall. Or is it going to be DZire?
Driveablity is just too quantitative. Why it can't be overall handling? Anyway yours is quantitative ranking.

[.anshuman]

While the numbers make for interesting reading but when i compare cars i hate to do AutoBild India style comparisons. For example: Looks 2marks, acceleration 4marks, braking 3marks= Total 9 marks, hey X cars wins with 1 point, I will buy this car.

@Smartcat- Great job with the numbers here, please use ARAI figures for mileage.

[Anandg]

Hi Smartcat,
Great job done as usual. Atlest we now have some data on performance before moving next step forward on buying a sedan.

3) CNG/LPG/gobar gas powered models.

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.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by Zero Cool

Another surprise is that somehow the so called boring and sedate SX4 is faster than the so called fast drivers car that is Ford Fiesta!!!

Not so fast. SX4 has very poor in-gear acceleration (data coming up in the next round). So, in a quarter mile drag race, SX4 might be faster in the hands of only an "expert gear changer". Average drivers might find the Fiesta faster.

Originally Posted by clevermax

I can see Honda City emerging as the winner - overall. Or is it going to be DZire?

Honda City might emerge the winner among petrols, but not overall - because of running costs (diesel is cheaper remember?). Dzire diesel is a hot contender, but need to check on the equipment levels & compare it with the competition.

Driveablity is just too quantitative. Why it can't be overall handling? Anyway yours is quantitative ranking.

By driveability, I mean acceleration in 3rd gear (useful in city) and 4th gear (useful in state highways). Ride & handling of cars is subjective & can be ranked only by experts - not by me.

Originally Posted by .anshuman

While the numbers make for interesting reading but when i compare cars i hate to do AutoBild India style comparisons.

What's Autobild India?

@Smartcat- Great job with the numbers here, please use ARAI figures for mileage.

Will do.