[MDED]

Originally Posted by MaheshBapurao

Have taken Sonet of my list now.. was looking for GT auto , looks like it will be 15 lacs in road.
Ecosport T+ DC Automatic looks VFM and gives all features I really need like Rain sensing wipers 👍
Attached price list for Chennai on road

What is the meaning of statutory charges ? No other dealer seems to have included this. This seems to be a problem with all car dealers in Chennai, wherein they load statutory charges/handling charges. Can anybody shed light on this?

[PPS]

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

This is one of the tricky plights Kia is caught in. They clearly don't want Sonet to eat into Seltos' sales.

As long as the customer remains in the same showroom & buys their product,Kia should be happy!

Originally Posted by harry10

Otherwise my first choice will always be Nexon. Looks are subjective so keeping that aside Nexon feels roomier and has lots of more interior space, I can always get an excellent deal on Nexon where as in Sonet I don't think I will even get a single rupee discount.

Nexon seems to be doing decent numbers. But I feel a 2 lakh OTR premium for their diesel is too steep. Hopefully there should be some discounts in the coming months seeing the bookings for the Sonet.

There is also the Amaze CVT diesel at the back of my mind.

Amaze Diesel CVT I feel is the dark horse here if one purely looks at convenience.

[mankuthimma]

Originally Posted by k_ajay

It's a very troubling conundrum, isn't it? Pay 16L-17L for the top end auto diesel and still not get everything. Either get good passenger space and robust build quality but AMT box and only 2 airbags (OR) get lesser passenger space and unknown build quality but TC box, 6 airbags and loads of gizmos..

Totally agree ! One of my friend is in the market right now, but facing the same predicament. An urban middle class family who want a smooth petrol AT and who can afford to go for top end with all the goodies, are short changed with Sonet options just like Seltos.

Hyundai did a better job with Creta 2020 offering a top end IVT. Kia could have introduced an IVT top end just to cater these urban families. Looks like they dont appear in their market research.

[RSR]

Originally Posted by harry10

Now if HTK+ does not have these modes does that means it drives with full 113bhp all the time i.e the sport mode. Am I correct in assuming this?

Yes, your assumption is correct. Since it doesn't have Eco & Normal modes to dull the throttle & gearbox responses, there is only one mode - the full 115 PS.

Originally Posted by harry10

Then they decide not to give drive modes in HTK+. For someone like me who drives 80-100 km in NCR traffic the eco or normal mode is perfect considering the better FE it will give. I don't think I would have even put it in sports mode except for highways.

One can easily mimic Eco, Normal & Sport modes on the HTK+ in two ways:

1> By varying one's A-pedal inputs. Drive with a light foot & lift off momentarily at adequate intervals to allow the TC to upshift, and one can mimic Eco & Normal modes. Drive with a lead foot, and one can mimic Sport mode.

2> By using the tip-tronic manual mode to upshift at different intervals, one can mimic Eco, Normal & Sport modes even with a single A-pedal driving style.

The different modes' responses can indeed be mimicked even on the HTK+, but of course, it's not as simple as the flick of a button.

[84.monsoon]

Originally Posted by MDED

What is the meaning of statutory charges ? No other dealer seems to have included this. This seems to be a problem with all car dealers in Chennai, wherein they load statutory charges/handling charges. Can anybody shed light on this?

My guess is, these are used to offset amounts paid to facilitate registration. Earlier, they used to bundle this into the registration/road tax bucket. Now they purely include only the road tax exactly in that column and have a separate column for various costs incurred by the company and the dealer in completing the registration process.

I heard from a dealer recently that the RTO machinery in some states can make life difficult for the dealer, especially when trying to register new cars and variants. So for each variant, they can technically demand that the company bring the car to the state's central RTO inspection offices for inspection before the variant is updated in the master list of cars that can be registered in the state. This has to technically happen before first vehicle of that particular spec can be registered anywhere in the state. This can be a huge hassle for manufacturers like Kia since they have so many variants and colors. He said that, of course, there are ways around this

[Udit]

Spotted this test drive Sonet rear ended by a Mahindra Pickup truck. Car was surrounded by showroom people along with two policemen. The car met this accident just a few hundred meters from showroom (Shubh Kia, Dehradun)







Couldn't capture better shots as a bus was behind me and slowing down my car could result in two rear ended cars at the same spot.

[Vitalstatistiks]

Originally Posted by Udit

Spotted this test drive Sonet rear ended by a Mahindra Pickup truck.

Guess the "road presence" factor, driving so much of SUV sales, doesn't work for these micro UVs

[vsrivatsa]

Originally Posted by sharan_si

Good pricing by Kia, 10.39 for Diesel AT is killer, no competition at this point, few models at 9.99, Govt should wake up and support the auto industry around 40% Tax is an overkill.

The Nexon Diesel XMA is priced at 9.80 L ex-showroom and the XUV 300 Diesel 1.5 W6 AMT is priced at 10.19 L ex-showroom.

These would qualify as a competition - but of course those are AMTs and this is a proper TC and hence a better offering.

[MaheshBapurao]

Originally Posted by MDED

Can anybody shed light on this?

I got quote for Ecosport, there was no Statutory Charges or Handling Charges, not sure why M&M (quote had 7k as incidental charges )
Maruti, Kia and Hyundai are charging Statutory Charges or Handling Charges.

But in the EcoSport quote, the registration cost is 3,500 more than 15% from ex-showroom. Might visit them soon and check.

[Sebring]

Kia has bagged 25,000 bookings in 14 days for Sonet (As per their tweet). Why would the Govt reduce taxes for the 'booming sector'?

Originally Posted by sharan_si

Govt should wake up and support the auto industry around 40% Tax is an overkill.

[sharan_si]

Originally Posted by Sebring

Kia has bagged 25,000 bookings in 14 days for Sonet (As per their tweet). Why would the Govt reduce taxes for the 'booming sector'?

I told in the context that look at the enthusiasm of the car makers, they are pricing the cars with good features below 10(like 9.99 for few models). If govt reduces the tax, car makers will give more features in the same price, anyway, we are paying toll for the roads, and you know how efficient Indian govt is in utilizing the tax money for development.

[sharan_si]

Originally Posted by vsrivatsa

The Nexon Diesel XMA is priced at 9.80 L ex-showroom and the XUV 300 Diesel 1.5 W6 AMT is priced at 10.19 L ex-showroom.

These would qualify as a competition - but of course those are AMTs and this is a proper TC and hence a better offering.

Exactly, AMT and TC are completely different, few days ago I was looking for TC in that price range. AMT and IMT have their own disadvantages.
Also when I first test drove XUV 300 W6 AMT it was priced at 9.99, after few days they changed the price to 10.19 and almost a 50-60k price difference just because it crossed the 10l mark.

[mmxylorider]

I think Kia is keeping a buffer in the pricing of the top end models and is probably gauging audience reaction before publishing the price.
And as to cannibalizing Seltos sales, better themselves and it works both ways in terms of upgrading to the next model type.

[midazolam]

Hello guys, had a query, hopefully members can help me out.

Since now Kia has launched the 1.0 turbo petrol and 1.5 Diesel manual at more or less same price point, going for which engine makes sense for someone who has more or less limited running like 10k per annum?

What would be the difference in long term maintenance and service costs of these two engines? Since Diesel engine gives better mileage than the 1.0 turbo along with slightly lesser fuel cost, long term maintenance, service and spares are the only thing we need to consider now to make a decision.

[avm2407]

Originally Posted by 84.monsoon

Prices Announced just now are almost good enough to make this a blockbuster launch. However, the biggest disappointment ins the pricing of the Diesel HTK+ AT. It scrapes over the 10 lakh mark by just 40K, effectively adding an additional 55K in Road tax in Tamil Nadu as well as TCS collection of around 10K kicks in. This takes on-road price well above 12.5 lakhs - where I was hoping for a 9.99 price point, that would have helped to land the car t 11.5 lakhs or so on road.

Alas, no choice now but to cancel my booking and wait for the Thar, since I do not believe in throwing away 70K in tax just like that.

For those comfortable with Petrol, and ready to experiment with the IMT, the HTX iMT offers a good package at 9.99 lakhs. But then so does the Hyundai Venue SX IMT, which is similarly kitted.

I think another major disappointment is the absence of a manual transmission option with the 1.0 L Turbo GDI engine. The only options available are DCT (which is not as responsive as it's German contemporaries) and IMT (which is actually the worst possible transmission system).
Interestingly, it's cousin i.e. the Venue offers a manual transmission with the exact same engine and is actually quite fun to drive with the slick gearbox.