21 October 2017
My best friend had been telling me that he wanted to buy a car for more than 7 months now. He called me on saturday evening and told me that his dad told him to go for a Maruti Celerio and even got him a quote for Celerio Vxi for 5.1 lakhs. He wanted to know if Celerio was a good car.
I told him to hold his horses and that I would send him a list of hatchbacks in his budget and tomorrow we'll go for test drives.
A bit more about my friend. He knows how to drive and has a licensed but has not driven a car for over a year so he apparently"forgot" but rather he is nervous to drive. Good for me I got to test drive every car and also take delivery of his new car. 22 October 2017
My friend's budget was 5 - 6.25l. His requirements were - petrol hatchback, all safety features(I have driven a lot of sense into him, he even used to refuse to wear seatbelt in my car 5 years back), decent resale value (optional).
We went and test drove the following cars, in the same order:
* Toyota Liva
* Maruti Suzuki Ignis
* Ford Figo
* Tata Tiago
* Maruti Suzuki Celerio
* Hyundai Grand i10
Happy to say that all dealerships were open and extremely accomodating on a boring Sunday. Got test drives everywhere immediately. We went to the Hyundai dealership at 6pm and were attended to. Also when we rushed back to the Tata dealership, for a second time, at 7pm they let us in even though they had closed and allowed us to check the car again. All SAs patiently explained the discounts and finance options to my friend and me.
Post test drives my friend who kept saying the Tiago looks like Indica thanked me for taking him to Tata motors. He felt the car was really premium and looked handsome.
The shortlist:
* Toyota Liva GX - He loved it. But this was the costliest option. Post discount on road price was 6.24l.
* Tata Tiago XZ - I had just changed his opinion of Tata and he also absolutely loved the car. No discounts since it was hot selling at the moment. But onroad price for XZ with alloys was 5.85lacs. A steal !
* Hyundai Grand i10 1.2 Sportz - Hyundai was offering a flat 50k discount on the Grand i10. So the 6.45 lacs became 5.95l plus dealer was willing to do another 10k + extended warranty free if we booked the car within two days. My friend rejected since it does not come with ABS( I was proud).
* Maruti Suzuki Ignis Delta MT - This was a fallback option incase his dad only wanted him to buy a Maruti. Got a 6.01 lac quote.
23 October 2017
He called his dad and told his shortlist. His dad told him to buy the car he liked. So he called me up and we decided on either the Liva or Tiago. After weighing the pros and cons we decided that he was losing out a lot more buying the Liva (plus I was pushing him for the Tiago, I don't think even any sales guy would have tried so hard).
He called me at 5:00pm and told that he booked the Tiago XZ in Espresso Brown. I was a happy! Dealer was Concorde Motors, Velachery road, Guindy. Sales guy came to his office and collected the booking amount and the next day the finance guy from Tata came to his house and collected all documents, we only went here for test drive and delivery.
02 November 2017
The D day was here everything went of really well, the sales guy was a breeze to deal with. He complied with all our requests. The car was spic and span. Odo had 63kms at handover and I drove it another 57kms. Made my friend move his new car in 1st gear ahead in the delivery bay. We went straight to Bodyguard Muneeshwaran did a small pooja. Then drove around aimlessly for sometime, filled fuel it took in 27.8liters. the MID displayed average mileage of 14.9kmpl.
The number plates were fixed after this picture
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What I loved about this car was the small details that really make it desirable compared to the competition even from a segment higher.
* The damped glovebox, felt lining on top of the windows near the rubber beading. The carry bag hook in the boot and the passenger footwell, the meaty stalks.
* The cool instrument cluster without gaudy redline marking (rather the needle turns red), the small box in the MID that gives a gear change suggestion, the premium looking and feeling dashboard.
* The brilliant music system by Harman, the smart rear wiper and the follow me home lamps, the small little slots to lock in the unused rear seatbelts, the perfectly contoured steering wheel.
* The light clutch, sure slotting gearbox, strong brakes, easy to drive engine all make this car a solid proposition.
* Tata has also been brainy and skimped out on only little features that actually don't matter to most first time buyers or for second car in the house buyer or for a person upgrading from an alto or Nano. No power folding mirrors and no ACC no problem. The AC in the petrol Tiago is a beast.
Overall this a brilliant car and I am glad my friend ended up buying the so called 'Indica' !
Why this long post? To show not just my friend, but also potential first time car buying team-BHPians and lurkers that you can get more paisa vasool for your money if you shop around a bit. Also some cars look sweeter in person.
P.S. I also made him join a driving school and he has been going for classes for the past 3 days. He is also asking me to come over and teach him to drive this Sunday so that he can start driving his new car from next week.