[TSEA]

Here goes my slightly longish car buying experience.

Background:

10 years ago, the first car joined our family; Daewoo Matiz. What a car! Even after 57,000 kms, it is extremely reliable and runs happily. (I cannot recollect even a single incident when the car broke down). I have bought/sold a couple of cars more, but this one is still in our family and will always be. I always wanted a car as reliable as this one.

Matiz at 57,000 Kms



In 2006, a second car joined our family. Tata Indica Turbo (DLG). My first exposure to diesel cars. It was my darling, kept it like a baby. The space was superb, the turbo-kick was addictive. Had to eventually sell it (I was send abroad on a long term assignment).

Indica at the time of Selling



While in US, like a good obedient Legal-Alien, I first bought a used Toyota Corolla, sold it and eventually moved onto a used 2001 Nissan Altima. The corolla was the first automatic that I drove and the Nissan was the most powerful car that I have owned till date. Both the cars were reliable and eventually I got a decent price while selling them [high resale-value (reliability/cheap-spares/easy to service) are one of the biggest USPs for Japanese cars].

Corolla



Altima at the time of selling



So back in India (May’2010), I started looking for a new hatchback. I was amazed/confused by the sheer amount of choices available. Lot had changed since 2008.

I test drove as many I could and read each and every review in Team-BHP over and over again. Many thanks to the moderators of Team-BHP for creating such a platform and all members of Team-BHP for populating it with so much quality content.

So here goes my take on the cars I test drove and to some extent on the respective dealers that I approached (in Bangalore). Please note that I have a very limited knowledge of cars. The reason quoted under various sections (especially under “Why I did not buy it” section) are from my own personal experience/preferences and may not hold good for others.

[TSEA]

My Take on the cars that I TD'ed (not in chronological order)

Car: MARUTI WAGON R VXI BS4 WITH ABS

What I liked:
• According to me, the best hatchback for city driving.
• Very responsive and easy to drive (Small turning radius).
• Excellent headroom and legroom.
• With Airbag and ABS option.

Dealer Experience:
• RNS Motors (Very Prompt Reply and TD) – Sales person was (Nitin) Knowledgeable- Answered all queries. - Overall experience was Good.

Why I did not buy it:
• Long Waiting Period (dealer quoted 1.5 to 2 months for VXi)
• Poor shoulder space at rear (comfortable only for 2, three will be very tight fit)
• Absolutely no discounts.

Car: RITZ ZXI BS IV

What I liked:
• Very refined

Dealer Experience:
• Kalyani Motors (Prompt Reply for TD) - Overall experience was Good.

Why I did not buy it:
• Rear shoulder Space was more or less like the WagonR (actually felt more comfortable in WagaonR, maybe due to the headroom and rear window orientation)
• The top end model was costing me around 5,73,000 on-road (after discount of 20,000), which I felt was little overpriced for the features/space offered.
• The TD car was vibrating a lot (not very comfortable over the speed breakers, which are a plenty in Bangalore btw). But this could be because it was a TD car.

Car: Ford Figo Titanium (with ABS and Airbags) - Petrol

What I liked:
• Good shoulder space
• Killer price (petrol entry level model)

Dealer Experience:
• Lathangi Ford – No response for Diesel Test Drive, even after repeated follow-ups. Finally got a test drive for a Petrol top end variant during a companywide test drive event. One interesting things was that the sales person was boasting that the Diesel Ford Figo is rated as the best diesel hatchback in Team-BHP website. So dealers are reading, and that’s good.

Why I did not buy it:
• Long waiting period for diesel variant and top end is on an expensive side.
• Slow Pickup on the petrol TD car.
• Scrapped the bottom on a speed breaker (Could be my fault, but even my friend bottomed it at another speed breaker)

Car: Chevy Beat

What I liked:
• Stylish, very stylish.
• Good features for the price you pay.

Dealer Experience:
• Did the TD in Delhi. Average experience.

Why I did not buy it:
• I don’t know why, it just did not click.

Car: Chevy Spark

What I liked:
• Real value for money.
• Attractive Zero Maintenance offers.
• Surprisingly decent interior space.

Dealer Experience:
• Kropex India Ltd – TD was given after a lot of follow ups.

Why I did not buy it:
• Would have bought it. Was on the second place on my list.

Car: MARUTI SWIFT VDI

My Take:
• Very responsive for a diesel car.

Dealer Experience:
• RNS Motors (Very Prompt Reply and TD) – Sales person was (Nitin) Knowledgeable- Answered all queries. - Overall experience was Good.

Why I did not buy it:
• Longer waiting period.
• Absolutely no discounts.
• Top end was slightly on the expensive side.

Car: I10 Kappa Sport

What I liked:
• Very refined.
• Easy to drive.
• Nice Interiors.

Dealer Experience:
• Did the TD in Delhi. Average experience.

Why I did not buy it:
• Average rear shoulder space.
• The price of the top end was again on the higher side for me (as compared to the features and space).
• Not so good fuel economy (as per Team –BHP reviews).

Did not TD Punto and Polo (Though I absolutely love the red color on Polo).
Punto was ruled out as I am not comfortable with FIAT-Tata service collaboration and FIAT spare availability/pricing (this is more of a mental block). Cost was also a factor.
Polo was completely ruled out because of the atrocious waiting periods.
Skoda Fabia was also not considered because of the cost of spares.

Btw: Nearly all sales guys did not wear seat-belts during the TD (Front-passenger side and rear seat).

Coming up next: Final TD and Buying Experience

[Butters]

nice writeup tsea. Seems you have test driven almost all the best sellers available in the market as on date. hatchback market is really getting competitive by the day. You can also try Nissan Micra, ofcourse would be quite different from the one you drove back in states

[WindRide]

Having owned an Indica earlier, very surprised you didn't TD the Vista QJD, atleast to find out the improvements in it.

[TSEA]

The Final TD and outcome

Car: Vista AURA (ABS) QUADRAJET BS IV

What I liked:
• As soon as I stepped in the car, I was completely blown away by the amount of shoulder room it offered. I mean this car is Spaaaciiiiiooooouuuus.
• The engine response was smooth.
• Clutch felt lighter than my earlier DLG.
• Interiors were very refreshing (beige)
• Features offered for the price were amongst the best in this class.
• I was able to drive over all speed breakers without bottoming the car anywhere. The rear suspensions did not jolted the rear occupants. I even drove on smaller speed breakers on 3rd gear (around 20 km/hr speed) and the car was solid, no jerks and absolutely negligible jolts.

So I decided to go for the Vista AURA (ABS) QUADRAJET BS IV variant. The next big task was to decide the color. Loved the “Porcelain White” color. (Looks awesome with tinted sunfilm and black alloys). But finally settled for Cavern Grey color.

Money Matters:
• The on-road price was around 6 Lakhs.
• Negotiated hard for discounts but was only able to manage generic stuff (mud flaps, mats, perfume, idol, Sunfilm etc.)
• Won Rs 2000 by playing a TATA contest. Yet to claim that money.
• Got the car financed under company lease (this process took some more time and eventually delayed delivery). Since I was required to get the car insured from the company’s leasing partner, got some additional discount from the dealer instead of the free car insurance offer from TATA.

Dealer Experience:
• Prerana Motors: Called up repeatedly to book a TD. Prerana Motors did not have the BSIV variant for TD. Was told that BSIV is identical to BSIII, so they will arrange for a BSIII vehicle for TD.[Look wise they should be right, but BSIV should feel different (if not better) especially with the new gear box]. Very Average experience
• Concorde Motors: Called up for TD. Got prompt response and TD was arranged. Got introduced to the Sales guy (Satish, nice guy) and he took care of all things. Overall experience was above average.
• KHT Motors: Did not approach them directly.

Booking Experience:
I wanted to ensure that the vehicle I was receiving was a BSIV one. Finally got a April’10 manufactured vehicle (as evident from the Vin number). The delivery was delayed by few days, but that was something I was already prepared for.

Delivery and Inspection:
Thanks to Team-BHP, I was ready with a long checklist for the delivery inspection. Was excited and reached an hour early at the showroom.

The Sales Guy (Satish) was very patient and helped me get through all the items on my checklist. Really appreciate his efforts. Attached is the spread-sheet that was used.

Took me around 4 hours to complete the inspection and delivery formalities. Gave the sales guy a token of appreciation and left for home.

[tanwaramit]

going by the cars he eliminated it seems that he bought Estilo OR Indica or may be an i20.

Rest all hatchbacks are ruled out.

Edit: So its the Indica.

[neoonwheels]

Originally Posted by TSEA

Did not TD Punto and Polo (Though I absolutely love the red color on Polo).
Punto was ruled out as I am not comfortable with FIAT-Tata service collaboration and FIAT spare availability/pricing (this is more of a mental block). Cost was also a factor.
Polo was completely ruled out because of the atrocious waiting periods.
Skoda Fabia was also not considered because of the cost of spares.

Surprise to see you bought Vista even after saying you are not confident about FIAT-TATA service. Or is it, you are not comfortable with TATA servicing FIAT cars? BTW, FIAT service pricing is at par with the competition.

[AM_DRIVE]

Very informative. Like the check list and keep it for future reference.

[WindRide]

Originally Posted by WindRide

Having owned an Indica earlier, very surprised you didn't TD the Vista QJD, atleast to find out the improvements in it.

Ah, so you did go for a Vista QJD after all
Congrats!

[carfanatic007]

Congrats on the new car, post some pics of the interiors too

[nkrishnap]

Congrats on the Vista. The white with blackened room, alloys similar to the anniversary edition and dark tints makes the car look very very good.

Enjoy many more miles with the car.

[TSEA]

Originally Posted by Butters

nice writeup tsea. Seems you have test driven almost all the best sellers available in the market as on date. hatchback market is really getting competitive by the day. You can also try Nissan Micra, ofcourse would be quite different from the one you drove back in states

Thanks @Butters. Hatchback market is truly very crowded. And that is very good for us.

Originally Posted by WindRide

Having owned an Indica earlier, very surprised you didn't TD the Vista QJD, atleast to find out the improvements in it.

@WindRide: You guessed it right. I think once one get's used to the space indica has, it's very difficult to adjust to other hatchbacks.

Originally Posted by neoonwheels

Surprise to see you bought Vista even after saying you are not confident about FIAT-TATA service. Or is it, you are not comfortable with TATA servicing FIAT cars? BTW, FIAT service pricing is at par with the competition.

@neoonwheels: Having owned an Indica before, I have standard expectation from Tata Service. What I am not comfortable with is the spare availablity and pricing of FIAT cars, and as I said that might be more of a mental block. (I really wanted to buy Punto, spcially the white one)

Originally Posted by WindRide

Ah, so you did go for a Vista QJD after all
Congrats!

@Thanks Windride

Originally Posted by carfanatic007

Congrats on the new car, post some pics of the interiors too

@carfanatic: Sure, I will be doing that.

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

Congrats on the Vista. The white with blackened room, alloys similar to the anniversary edition and dark tints makes the car look very very good.

Enjoy many more miles with the car.

@nkrishnap: Thanks.

[Lightening-Fast]

Congrats on buy and your car looks great. However, i am not sure if its right to ignore a vehicle because there was no proper response from the dealer for test drives. I am sure this was not the case from your end as well. When i bought my chevy spark, i had very less response from Sundaram motors. However Kropex did follow up very well and i sticked to Spark.
Nice writeup and i was guessing it was either Beat or Polo!!

[HammerHead]

Originally Posted by TSEA

The Final TD and outcome
Car: Vista AURA (ABS) QUADRAJET BS IV

Congrats . Vista QJD is the most under rated true VFM car I have seen till now. A world class engine, class leading interior space, comfortable ride, FE, low ownership cost and now with safety options!! What else do we want?

[TSEA]

Originally Posted by Lightening-Fast

.. However, i am not sure if its right to ignore a vehicle because there was no proper response from the dealer for test drives. I am sure this was not the case from your end as well..!

You are right, one should never ignore a car based on the initial gliches with the dealers. And Spark is a very good choice.

Originally Posted by HammerHead

Congrats . Vista QJD is the most under rated true VFM car I have seen till now. A world class engine, class leading interior space, comfortable ride, FE, low ownership cost and now with safety options!! What else do we want?

@HammerHead: Even I was not 100% sure about my decision, but my previous experiences with TATA vehicles, made me go for it.

For all folks who are planning to buy a Hatchback, Please do test drive the new Vista. Don't rub it off simply because of hearsay. You may or may not like it, but atleast you would have your own experience to base your decision on.

Coming up next: Some more pictures and Seat Covers.