[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

3. Better ride quality- Note too sure about this. I don't think it is better by a great deal. If you were looking at the Duster, this would be a big plus

Originally Posted by batterylow

Well I did look at the Duster, but somehow was not convinced with the interiors after paying more than 2.5L over the Ecosport ( Ecosport D Titanium vs Duster 85 RxL Option pack).

Duster ride quality is much much better than Ecosport or Figo, no doubt. Problem is the interiors don't feel anywhere as premium. Frankly speaking interior quality is very very close to the Figo's minus the heavy feel of the Ford. I felt it as a downgrade and ruled it out immediately. If I was upgrading it had to give me that feel not get similar quality interiors after spending 2X over the Figo.

4. Easier for parents to get in.- I assume the Ecosport with its higher stance will be more difficult to get in for elders?

Not at all. My folks love the Ecosport. The Figo was low but the Ecosport is simply perfect. They can just walkin. No climbing up like Innova which they cannot do without help or bending down to get into a low sedan. This is the one thing they absolutely loved in the Ecosport.

6. Higher fuel efficiency-Debatable. Probably the difference will be too little to make a major impact on cost

Mentioned earlier. Marginally better FE in the Ecosport.

[batterylow]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Duster rid...the Ecosport.

Sigh, the arguments continue

I have dropped a mail to a few tuners regarding the remap for the figo, just waiting for a reply from them.

But all monetary logic aside, I am smitten by the Ecosport

[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by kunaalsaigal

Advice on which used car is better for the long term ? - 2010 Skoda Fabia TDI or 2009 Ford Fiesta 1.6

I will be moving abroad soon.

I drive a Dec 2010 Skoda Fabia 1.2 TDI diesel which has done 67,000 Kms and is going strong.

My father drives a Nov 2009 Ford Fiesta 1.6 Petrol which has done 35,000 Kms.

We are planning to sell one of the vehicles but are not sure which one.

I would recommend selling the Fabia. Apart from the fact that it has done more kilometres and that it is a Skoda... blah blah, I would suggest holding on to the Fiesta for the simple matter that it is becoming more and more expensive to buy fun to drive cars in today's market so you may never be able to experience the awesomeness of its drive again.

[sbala]

August 2013 - I had asked for advice on whether I should see my 7 years old Ford Fiesta which had crossed 1 lakh KM that time. Since it was mechanically good and as advised my tbhpians here, I retained the car.

May 2015 - 1.5 years gone and the car has crossed 1.28 lakhs KMs. And it's close to 9 yrs old. Have changed the clutch and some pulley, tensioner related parts. I might have to change/fix the following sometime in future

1. Power steering rack leak
2. Engine bedding
3. Suspension, brakes
4. All 4 Tyres in another 2k kms
5. And any other parts that needs to be changed based on its age, wear/tear.

Other than this, car is mechanically good. Do you folks think that i have squeezed the juice out of my car (close to 1.3 Lakhs KMs in 8+ years)? What do you guys suggest?

[vasudeva]

Originally Posted by sbala

Other than this, car is mechanically good. Do you folks think that i have squeezed the juice out of my car (close to 1.3 Lakhs KMs in 8+ years)? What do you guys suggest?

As to age of car, definitely close to replacement date. However, the most important thing is for you to decide the financial outgo or monthly payments that you will make towards a new car and whether those payments will be comfortable in 1-2 years (rather than now). Also important is whether the niggles of the old car are not worthwhile anymore. Everyone has a different idea as to whether there is any `juice' left and whether the benefit of buying a new car outweighs the cost of maintaining an old one (monetary cost of new car will always be higher than cost of maintaining an old car). An 8 year old does not lose much value incrementally in year 9, and as it is, you may be more tolerant at selling it at low resale percentages.

I also have somewhat similar dilemma but with a newer car (2012). The EMI for that gets over in Apr 2016. However, I do have a real estate loan and property values in NCR are stagnant for many years. I would rather for now save and reduce loan, than spend around 20K per month on a new car and increase my debt level by another 8-10 lakh.

I think as people get older, they get more conservative, and look to change based on utility rather than just for the heck of it after 3-4 years. I am 48 years old. I bought my cars in 1995, 1999 (42 mths), 2003 (53 mths), 2007 (new car), 2012 (sold 2003). My expectation for a car has increased for 3-4 years to around 7-8 years now.

[sbala]

Originally Posted by vasudeva

As to age of car, definitely close to replacement date. However, the most important thing is for you to decide the financial outgo or monthly payments that you will make towards a new car and whether those payments will be comfortable in 1-2 years (rather than now). Also important is whether the niggles of the old car are not worthwhile anymore. Everyone has a different idea as to whether there is any `juice' left and whether the benefit of buying a new car outweighs the cost of maintaining an old one (monetary cost of new car will always be higher than cost of maintaining an old car). An 8 year old does not lose much value incrementally in year 9, and as it is, you may be more tolerant at selling it at low resale percentages.

I also have somewhat similar dilemma but with a newer car (2012). The EMI for that gets over in Apr 2016. However, I do have a real estate loan and property values in NCR are stagnant for many years. I would rather for now save and reduce loan, than spend around 20K per month on a new car and increase my debt level by another 8-10 lakh.

I think as people get older, they get more conservative, and look to change based on utility rather than just for the heck of it after 3-4 years. I am 48 years old. I bought my cars in 1995, 1999 (42 mths), 2003 (53 mths), 2007 (new car), 2012 (sold 2003). My expectation for a car has increased for 3-4 years to around 7-8 years now.

Thanks for your detailed comments. As you rightly said, i working on the financials to see if it is going to impact any short term family commitments i have right now.

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by sbala

May 2015 - 1.5 years gone and the car has crossed 1.28 lakhs KMs. And it's close to 9 yrs old. Have changed the clutch and some pulley, tensioner related parts. I might have to change/fix the following sometime in future

1. Power steering rack leak
2. Engine bedding
3. Suspension, brakes
4. All 4 Tyres in another 2k kms
5. And any other parts that needs to be changed based on its age, wear/tear.

Other than this, car is mechanically good. Do you folks think that i have squeezed the juice out of my car (close to 1.3 Lakhs KMs in 8+ years)? What do you guys suggest?

You can still use your car for 2 more years or 20K more kms. But obviously as you have mentioned above, the maintenance costs would be exponentially high. I think a better option for you would be to look for lateral upgrade, a 3-5 year old car with 50K or lessethiss on the odo. You won't have to invest more than 2 lacs in thus car (factoring the resale value of your current car) and you would still be able to use it for another 4-5 years or at least a lakh kms. In this scenario the financial outlay would be minimum giving you the maximum bang for your buck.

[dashoin]

My pre-owned Esteem is now 10 years and has covered 80,000 kms. I had the timing belt replaced on its 10th birthday as I had a road trip coming up. The car is my daily drive and covers about 500 kms a month.The only issues are a sound at approx 1800 rpm (developed after the timing belt change) and an HR26 runing in MH12 apart from the normal aging of a car.
With my Goa drive ticked off from the list, I am now ready to let it go.
The dealers are ready to exchange it for a new car, but somehow I am not able to convinced to put aporox 10 lakhs down on a new car which would see limited running.
I had bought a new K10 last year which is used by my wife. The running is limited to about 200 kms a month.
What would be the right time to let the Esteem go before it starts falling apart?

[fiestarry]

Originally Posted by sbala

August 2013 - I had asked for advice on whether I should see my 7 years old Ford Fiesta which had crossed 1 lakh KM that time. Since it was mechanically good and as advised my tbhpians here, I retained the car.

May 2015 - 1.5 years gone and the car has crossed 1.28 lakhs KMs. And it's close to 9 yrs old. Do you folks think that i have squeezed the juice out of my car (close to 1.3 Lakhs KMs in 8+ years)? What do you guys suggest?

Hi,
there are other Fiesta owners on Team-bhp who have done 1.63 lakh km and still going strong.
The Fiesta is a well built car and your Fizz can easily last another five years.
The money that goes into a new car will be a large amount and easily avoidable.
GTO has shed enough light in this thread on how cars can be well maintained to run for 2-3 lakh km.
Fiesta parts are cheaper than Honda, VW /Skoda etc.
Go ahead and give your Fizz some Tender Love and Care and you will get terrific VFM.

This advice holds good for the Esteem owner too. There is a lot of juice left in the car. Use the saved cash on a nice wardrobe of clothes, foreign travel and charity.

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by dashoin

My pre-owned Esteem is now 10 years and has covered 80,000 kms. I had the timing belt replaced on its 10th birthday as I had a road trip coming up. The car is my daily drive and covers about 500 kms a month.What would be the right time to let the Esteem go before it starts falling apart?

If your Esteem continues to give you troublefree service and the maintenance expenses don't skyrocket, then it would be prudent to continue with it. Your monthly running is also pretty low @ 500 kms per month. You can spruce up your Esteem e.g. new seat covers, floor mats, denting painting, polishing etc. and give it a mid life makeover. That way you can cover up couple of more years without getting bored with your car.

[dashoin]

My intention is to try and retain it. The exchange value is not that great- being an out of state number.

The car had its major scars removed last year. Polishing? - that's DIY - me and the kids

All said and done, mechanical things have a life. The car is just back from the service station after replacement of brake proportioning valve. The car spent 3 days at the dealer waiting for the part. I am not sure getting parts for an Esteem are easy in Pune. I had to replace the passenger seat belt once and it took about 3 weeks for one of the biggest dealers in Pune to locate a spare. While 80 k may not seem much, around 60 K has been covered in the NCR which includes a lot of idling (thanks to the traffic). The engine is still good, the recent Pune - Goa - Pune showed me that. I have had a couple of NCR taxi drivers boasting that their esteems have covered more than 2.5 lakh kms on CNG in 2 years.

Esteem parts are not exactly available off the shelf with the dealerships. I am finicky about maintaining the car with OEM (or companies that supply to OEM) parts for systems that affect the reliability and safety of the car. So while the car is still young (km wise), it has still seen 10 years since manufacture. I am concerned about things failing on an age basis.

Maybe it is time for a new thread for 10 year old cars

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by dashoin

Esteem parts are not exactly available off the shelf with the dealerships. I am finicky about maintaining the car with OEM (or companies that supply to OEM) parts for systems that affect the reliability and safety of the car. So while the car is still young (km wise), it has still seen 10 years since manufacture. I am concerned about things failing on an age basis.

Maybe it is time for a new thread for 10 year old cars

If parts availability for Esteem is going to be a challenge even at authorized service centres, then you would be better off selling your car because in a 10 year old car parts can start failing without any warning signs. The car is likely to be stranded in the service centre more often than running on road. This is not to deter you but just make you aware that keeping the car would give you some financial benefits but at the cost of peace of mind.

[JayD]

I'm in the classic 'to change or not to change' situation now.

Current daily drive is a 2010 figo TDCI. It's run 67k, has relatively new tires, a brilliant remap, morimito projectors, brilliant ice, with a double din touchscreen HU, morel comps, v kool tints etc . All services are done regularly and no work is pending. Still looks very fresh, and has never given me trouble . I'm supremely happy with the car except for, the usual heart over mind story.

I was in two minds to change it or not, since my loan has just finished, and I wanted an automatic car, with abs and airbags(I foolishly took the exi instead of the titanium), with a lot of highway and city running coming in.


A small twist has happened with me ending up with a bad lower back and the doc has told me to stay off manual cars for a bit. Not permanently, but till things get better.

Currently, I'm travelling out of state a majority of the time and with long drives on hold for now, the car would mostly be used for office commute, within city, mostly single occupant.


So coming back to my original dilemma. I was open to spending about 10-14lakh on a new automatic car. The figo would fetch maybe around 3, and put a few Lakhs, and the rest loan. Honestly, there is no diesel auto bar the verna auto in my budget (hated the vento/rapid dsg), and it somehow did not appeal to me. The next option was the ix25, but that too, at 14l approx, does it really make sense? This is when I thought up a new option.

Buy a Nano Amt for now, retain the figo, for the odd highway trip, whenever, and some time down the line, a good deal comes, pick up a nice accord/ superb / crv auto. The down payment I pay for a new car should get me a decent example and some money for basic refurbishing. These cars would also have all the features I'm looking for like, cruise control, abs, multiple airbags, all wheel discs, etc.

Since the nano will be used for my daily commute, I do not need my 'proper' car to be a diesel, due to occasional usage. , nor do I have to be restricted by size, which I would have to be, if I keeping one car for city and highway. And whatever be the extra amount I spend on fuel, for long drives over a diesel ix25, will be offset by the lack of emi, and significantly lesser insurance premium.

I do have a fully done up s10 and some other cars in the garage if I need to indulge in some driving fun, so that is not a criteria.

So what say, go the nano way or spend on an ix25/ others?

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by JayD

So what say, go the nano way or spend on an ix25/ others?

Hi JayD, go the Nano AMT way.

Since this will be a city car and single driven why spend on it rather take a small car and spend the rest on may be buying a pre-worshipped car IF you get any good deal.

Do look at Alto K10 AMT also. I have just got one and already done 250 kms in 2 days.

[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by JayD

So what say, go the nano way or spend on an ix25/ others?

You seem to have done a lot to make the car really complete and if it doesn't even have any mechanical issues, I'd suggest keeping it I would however suggest something like a used Teana or something of that sort for you to comfortable cruise in while you recuperate or ever feel like a break from sporty hatchbacks