After parting ways with my Maruti Suzuki A-Star I was left in a bind since the car I had my eye on was not available anymore. The car in question was a pre-facelift BMW 520d which was available at a very very good price but it was not to be. The BMW dealer refused delivery on bases of non-availability after sitting on my money for 2 weeks. Thank god I was bugging them every day otherwise these 2 weeks would have been months.
I in the mean time was without a car it was truly hell on earth. Driving loaner cars from friends really took my peace away especially that Honda Civic.
After a few more trips to the BMW dealer got my refund and got the loan cancelled for which I had to pay an additional fee to the bank
. The sales team pressured me a lot for the BMW 320d Luxury Plus pointing out similarities in interior space and promises of a better platform over the 5 series since its a newer car.
Can't say I was not at all influenced by their words. After reaching home I did search about the differences in platform and build between the 320d and the 520d but alas I could not find any direct bases of differentiation and I gave up.
Since the treatment BMW gave me was beyond acceptable I started to look at other cars. The list was small at first with only the top three Germans:
1. Audi A4:
Not a good car at all there is no feel in the steering its light and does not gain weight properly on highways. The CVT was another problem its very different from my old DSG box in Superb. The car had its appeal but not for the asking price so dropped it at once. Dare I say it but my old Superb was better in most aspects.
2. Mercedes C Class 250:
Its a very nice car build like a tank with the refinement level that rivals the greats. The interiors seem better than Audi "A4 has soft touch material behind the door handles not above or below it." The only thing wrong is the engine its no match for what is under a BMW.
3. BMW 320d:
Loved the test drive the car and the engine. There is something about the BMW engines that is different. It was great but it was not a 520d there were differences in the interior, the engine, etc. The only way to explain this was either I fell in love with the 520d or there really was a difference among the two.
With time rolling on and me still confused on a car friends forced me to try out the Volvo S60 which I did love but because of lack of brand value and it not being as involving to drive dropped the idea.
It was after a comment of a friend on the Fiat Linea T-Jet I started to look into D2 and D1 space.
D2 had five main cars of which I drove three:
1. Toyota Camry:
Big car with no soul to speak of don't think many will think this way. It was not much compared to the likes of 320d or C class.
2. Hyundai Sonata:
Good car for the price had almost everything but thin sheet metal made me think twice and not to mention lack of spares for my friends tucson made me question the car in the long run. Steering feels better than Camry but the Passat feels more planted.
3. VW Passat:
I was not expecting a lot after reading online that it essentially had an derivative version of PQ35 platform but was a wrong. It was great to drive and be driven around. With all sorts of features at my disposal it was my most loved car in the D2 segment. Compared to the 320d and the C class it was 70% of each but at a lower price. The only problem was with it being upgraded next year.
D1 was next and after my impressions of the Passat I was ready to try out some VW honey. So I made it a point to test the Jetta before any other cars:
1. VW Jetta:
As expected it drove very well gave good feed back and I swear it had a lot of A4 in it both drive and look wise "Rear boot" just like the Passat. The problem was the interior doors felt cheap like something out of the Polo, the plastics at other places while better than others is not as good as the Octavia as I found out later. According to the dealer there are no plans like BSI or extended warranty this fact really bummed me out.
2. Skoda Octavia:
It was a surprising car for me not only did it have better materials than the Jetta it also had a newer platform. The dealer promised a BSI type maintenance pack to be launched later next year. The Octavia had it all but the drive is less stellar than the Jetta and the manual variant only comes with dual airbags which is a huge oversite by Skoda. My Superb had a DSG issue and now don't trust VAG DSG's at all.
Still confused even after all my test drives I started a thread on TeamBHP on the technical aspects of a platform mainly to formulate some sort of a difference between the Jetta and the Octavia.
Thread
With a lot of double sided talk I was confused. If I were to take a chance on an Octavia DSG with 6 airbags it should be for a very good reason but it was ascertained that platforms don't matter much.
3. Chevrolet Cruze:
Chevrolet has somehow managed to spoil what the old cruze had. It no longer pulls like it used to, no longer are you pinned like you would in a BMW, no longer does it play on your heart strings. I had driven the old cruze and it was great fun but now not so much given that it has hard plastics everywhere and less space on offer compared to Octavia and Jetta it stood no where.
4. Hyundai Elantra:
The design is very in your face and will get old very soon. The steering is not good and while its better than Verna it still goes like it has water legs on highway speeds. Loved the ventilated seats its something very useful and effective but the holes can get blocked with dust. Overall even with the new facelift the elantra just does not have the X factor.
5. Renault Fluence:
I was fortunate enough to test drive the car in Mumbai when i went there on the 11th. Had no plans for the Fluence at all but after test drive and a proper look which lasted an hour I am a changed man. Very nice looking car its headlights reminded me of BMW. The interior rivals the Octavia its much better than Jetta. It drove wonderfully the steering adds weight around 60-80kph and is instantly better than Octavia in feedback. The cabin has soft touch everywhere and I was surprised by the attention to detail. The storage pockets and bins are lined. Negative's are the engine power and a facelift that is about to hit.
Confused but quite sure that I don't want to drive loaner cars anymore I formulated a plan to buy a D1/D2 now and buy a Luxury car later when the bank allows. For my plan to succeeded I needed someone who would buy the D1/D2 car off my hands when the bank comes up with a similar loan offer as I got for the BMW. Asked my friends most said no so asked my family members and my uncle said yes. He would buy my D1/D2 when I get authorization from the bank for the loan in a moments notice given there is at least a years warranty left.
With that out of the way I looked into the cars for the D2 only Passat but new facelift rendered it useless. In D1 Jetta was great but the fact that I may have to wait for 1-2 years meant that without any extended warranty my uncle would not get the years warranty he wanted. The Octavia was the next choice but its extended warranty is yet to be launched never the less this was one of my finalists. Finally the Fluence it has 4 years warranty without any additional amount so it ticked all the box's.
So it was Octavia vs Fluence but it was kind of a no match really. Fluence was cheaper in spares, cheaper to run, cheaper to maintain and better to drive. Octavia on the other hand was a car with lighter doors than Jetta and manual did not have 6 airbags not to mention the horrific A.S.S stories. Since this would serve me for a year or two it does not need to be a German I can wait for a proper German beauty
So since airbags are important to me I would have to spend around 18.3/19.6lakh ex-showroom for the top end Octavia petrol/diesel or around 15.3lakh ex-showroom for the top end Fluence petrol/diesel.
After that the decision was easy.