[p'arth]

Which cars do car owners in India regard as the best on the roads? And which cars do they consider the best in each price band? HT and MaRS survey answers these and several other questions.

The Hindustan Times-MaRS Car Owner’s Satisfaction Survey was carried out in April and May 2010 by MaRS, HT’s knowledge partner for the project. The MaRS team selected 1,895 car owners across 10 cities and towns (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Ahmedabad and Pune). Care was taken to ensure a good mix of cars. Our survey covers 38 models, which were divided into five categories defined by various price bands.

Excerpts from the Report:

• Honda City is at the pinnacle in Overall Satisfaction. At a price of more than Rs 8 lacs, Honda City does not come cheap, but many people in middle management positions still consider it affordable. All 3 Honda Sedans feature in Overall Top 10

• Both Toyota Sedans feature in Overall Top 10 in addition to Innova.

• Fiat Linea scores high and is ranked Overall 3 (jointly with Civic). Both Linea and Punto feature in the Overall Top 10. Infact Fiat has started advertising this also starting today. Many newspapers carry this ad.

Btw, inefficient AC has been identified as a low feature of Linea. Don't think I have come across from owners on Team BHP on A/c being an issue.

Also Punto tops the 4-6 lac segment ahead of i20.

• Except for Punto, no other hatch or small car features in the Overall Top 10. Somehow I feel this isn't the right reflection (Swift, i10, i20, Alto etc. could have featured)

• Logan is 2nd in the 4-6 lac segment after Punto surprized me again

• No Suzuki features in Overall Top 10. In the Sector of <4 lacs cars, Suzuki dominates with A-Star, WagonR and Alto

• In the 6-8 lac segment, Linea tops the table while SX4 is down in the dumps (surprise for me). But then there aren't too many choices in this segment. Check here for the thread on this.

• Cruze contradictory to sales is very low on satisfaction levels.

• Xylo and Innova top the SUV/MUV segment

• Chevrolet and Suzuki scored well in Service and Maintenance satisfaction

• People in 21-30 age group were most satisfied while >50 age were least. I always thought the elderly were more satisfied lot.

• The higher the price the higher the satisfaction level. Customers owning >8 lacs worth cars were most satisfied (or probably they didn't had any option after paying that amount )

• Lucknow owners have a amazing high satisfaction level whereas Ahmadabad ranks lowest

Some pictures from the report (Apologies for the varying sizes and layout):













The entire report can be downloaded here. Its a rather large file (7-8 MB).

[ghodlur]

Good to know that Ford Fiesta tops in two categories in the 6-8Lakh segment i.e for Envoirnment friendly and Family car but fares poorly on Re-sale value which I would say is a myth. I must say the Fiesta families are a happy lot. 3 hoots for that. Finally Fiesta is in the good looks book too.
Quite surprised to know that Fiat Linea does not figure in top 3 for good looks. I thought most of the Owners who have got Lineas were bowled over by the looks. Surpisingly Verna tops the good looks chart.

[p'arth]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Good to know that Ford Fiesta tops in two categories in the 6-8Lakh segment i.e for Envoirnment friendly and Family car but fares poorly on Re-sale value which I would say is a myth. I must say the Fiesta families are a happy lot. 3 hoots for that. Finally Fiesta is in the good looks book too.
Quite surprised to know that Fiat Linea does not figure in top 3 for good looks. I thought most of the Owners who have got Lineas were bowled over by the looks. Surpisingly Verna tops the good looks chart.

I can think of 2 reasons why Fiesta fares poorly on Re-sale value - Ford's Limited edition strategy and the fact that the new Fiesta is due in next 6-8 months.

Verna tops the good looks chart b'coz they haven't seen the 'Transform' yet, which would have transformed this chart . But I agree, Linea not in Top 3 in Looks section, I am doubting the correctness of this survey.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Xylo and Innova topping the SUV segment is something that defies logic

And our Desi brand TATA's.. Where are they ....?

[akhilesh51]

Now this is bonkers!

In good looks department of SUV/MUV, Mahindra Scorpio tops the charts and both Tavera and Xylo are ahead of SAFARI !!!

[fiat_tarun]

Even in the 4-6L bracket, the dezire is rated the best looking car after the Punto.

[channelv]

Xylo looking better than Safari!!!!! Utter Rubbish!

[channelv]

Dzire better looking than Punto? Somebody got the facts wrong or needs to urgently see a good ophthalmologist, honestly!

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by fiat_tarun

Even in the 4-6L bracket, the dezire is rated the best looking car after the Punto.

I think they took the name too seriously and put the car ahead of Punto.

[MCR]

Originally Posted by fiat_tarun

Even in the 4-6L bracket, the dezire is rated the best looking car after the Punto.

Originally Posted by channelv

Dzire better looking than Punto? Somebody got the facts wrong or needs to urgently see a good ophthalmologist, honestly!

Originally Posted by ghodlur

I think they took the name too seriously and put the car ahead of Punto.

This is what common man in India thinks. He absolutely adores the looks of Dzire. This can be seen in the sales figures and waiting time the car demands.

So Finally FIAT have something to show for their effort. They need to get this ranking in JD Power Asia Pacific survey to attain more notice.

[p'arth]

And FIAT has already started using the survey results. Here's a adv in the the ToI today with the punchline: "Two cars. Two winners. Thousands of satisfied consumers."

[fiat_tarun]

Originally Posted by channelv

Dzire better looking than Punto? Somebody got the facts wrong or needs to urgently see a good ophthalmologist, honestly!

Second place actually. Punto first and dezire second..! For the Linea though, its a different story. Rated 4th in looks..!

[aargee]

Looks like the survey was not extended to cars such as M800, Alto, Estilo, WagonR, Spark, Santro. Was Figo been involved in the survey? Anyway, to me, all these survey only play a little role during my purchasing decision; be it hairpin or aeroplane, I do my own study according to my requirement before purchasing.

[Dr.AD]

This survey looks a bit dubious. Firstly, the number of car owners surveyed (1895) is too small. My very rough estimate is that if you consider all the cars mentioned/included in the survey, there are close to a million owners in India (aggregate). Given this, the number 1895 is less than 0.2%, and therefore I wonder if we can trust these results too much.

Secondly, we don't know what was the "sensitivity" or "resolution" of the statistical method used. If you look at the 6-8 Lakhs plot (given in the Fiat Linea advertise posted above), highest score is 847 whereas lowest score is 798. Now is this difference really big enough to care about? What was the scale? If the resolution of the method was +/- 25 points (for example), then this difference is meaningless, and I can effectively say that on average each car got satisfaction points of about 775 (+/- 25). Similarly, if the scale was 500 to 1000 (for example), then this difference is somewhat meaningful but if the scale was 0 to 1000, then this difference is not much. My apologies if they have mentioned the scale but somehow I missed it. If you look at the 4-6L results (again, as given in the Fiat advertise above), then the highest score is 829 and the lowest score is 802. This difference is even smaller, and hence I wonder if this difference is meaningful at all.

Thirdly, have they mentioned how many owners they surveyed for each car, and was this number the same for all car? For example, if they surveyed 50 owners of Linea and 20 owners of Honda city (as an example, again), then the comparison is not quite accurate. Similarly, if they surveyed 50 Linea owners and 100 Swift owners, then the results are again inaccurate because so many more swifts are sold than Linea that the ratio of Linea owners to Swift owners needs to be something like 1 as to 10 to make the comparison meaningful.

Has anybody gone to "Page 26 of the report" which apparently explains the method used? If so, it will be great if you could please explain the above details.

Originally Posted by aargee

be it hairpin or aeroplane, I do my own study according to my requirement before purchasing.

Since I have purchased neither a hairpin nor an aeroplane in my life, I can't say the same here. Just kidding

Thanks,
-AD

[SafeDrive]

Originally Posted by channelv

Xylo looking better than Safari!!!!! Utter Rubbish!

Originally Posted by channelv

Dzire better looking than Punto? Somebody got the facts wrong or needs to urgently see a good ophthalmologist, honestly!

Totally agree

Originally Posted by MCR

This is what common man in India thinks.

I always thought that I was part of the "Aam Admi" group. If you consider the common man as the middle calss who buy these cars, then I strongly believe that the survey is wrong