[Sheel]

His list of Cars which are *not* in contention are the ones which I would recommend for a buy. Okay T-Jet is for enthusiast, but a test-drive of the Fiesta & City shall help him decide better.

Owning a Ford, I can say that it costs on par with other lesser aspirational brands as far as the upkeep goes.

[eq24]

Petrol, feels nice giving advice for a petrol doesn't it, Ok then all the three of his choices are not what I feel he should get, they are great cars and good diesels but for petrol do try the Fiesta and the city as they are both better than the GermoKorean offerings. The auto box on the fiesta is super cool.

But if he must chose from the 3 mentioned, depends on the local Skoda and VW dealers, do they have decent street cred or are they notorious crooks. If its the latter stay away, if the former go for any, its the same car anyway.
The Verna is more reliable than the other two although it has issues of its own but those are still livable with.

For 10 lakh why dont you try the Civic, its heavily discounted and is from a segment above, you may also look at the Corolla.

The good thing in the Petrol space, your options will increase many fold and really awesome bargains can be made.

One word of advise though, check the VIN's of any and all cars you shortlist because I won't be surprised if a lot of them are just sitting there in the yards. This way not only will you know what you are getting but also can leverage this information into a deal.

[KnightRider77]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Vento
Best interior quality by a wide margin.

Rapid
Decent interiors but clearly low rent compared to the Vento

Agree with you on the other stuff but I don't find the interiors of Vento better quality by a "wide margin" compared to the Rapid. In fact, except for the HU (on the high end Vento) and the colour of the interiors, the dashboard seems to be exactly the same, right down to the quality of plastics and their placements! There are probably a bit more chrome accents in the Vento but you can count them on one hand minus a finger or two. The seats and the rear-space is more or less the same. The fabric is a bit different but I couldn't spot any obvious difference in quality.

[iliketurtles]

Interesting that your friend knocked out the Honda City and new Ford Fiesta. None of the cars will fit every single thing your friend wants, so it then becomes a question of which factors are most important to him really.

I'd swap the Verna for the City and then pick a car from those three if I were him. The Verna loses out on rear space and high-speed handling. The City's not much better, but it is better. The Rapid and Vento are perhaps the best handling of the lot . Mind you, I'm not considering the Fiesta or T-Jet when I say that.

The VW and Skoda tick most of the boxes, but Skoda's after-sales is a bit hit and miss and you can't say it's probably going to be hassle-free. Personally, if I were him, I'd pick between the Vento and the City. They're the best petrol sedans this side of 10 lakhs for my money and I'd really not be sure about the Rapid being a hassle-free buy. The Vento and City will be peace-of-mind purchases and you really can't go wrong with either.

Vento = Good build quality, decent space, good handling
City = Decent build quality, decent build, great reliability and after-sales

I went for the city because it's a fill-it, shut-it, forget-it kind of car. Reliability is such an important thing in my books, maybe your friend sees it differently. The Verna should be quite reliable too, but it's not as cheap to own as a City. My 2¢.

May your friend have a not-so-tough time taking a decision

edit: hah! eq24 wondered why the City and Fiesta are knocked out, just before I did. Whatta coincidence

[Equus]

Much has been said here as well on similar threads. The only point I want to re-emphasize is--

On the ownership aspect, the costs of parts is an important factor which folks tend to miss in the initial checklist. I have heard that they share parts across the entire family (Skoda/VW/Audi) which means lot of associated costs..
Hyundai is no saint either but it offers a decent value proposition IMO.
Honda/Toyota are relatively much cheaper here.

[agambhandari]

The best Petrol mid sizer is the Honda City. I would recommend that. It is fast, fun, reliable, comfortable, safe, efficient, spacious, aspirational and most importantly, dirt cheap to maintain.

[SDP]

^^
The current generation Honda City is approaching its end-of-life in about a year's time. Going by what they have done during the last 2 generations, the next generation model would not resemble the current generation.

If you can live with a model which suddenly looks like a generation old after a year of buying, Honda City at this time makes a lot of sense.

[sandeepmohan]

When it comes to petrol sedans, there is nothing to beat the Honda City or the Fiat Linea T Jet. Your friend needs to seriously re consider these two cars. Your friend should also consider the Ford Classic 1.6l. Though really old now, it is still a very good car. The Suzuki SX4 is another very good car.

I would not look at a petrol version of the VW Vento, Skoda Rapid or Hyundai Verna. In my opinion, the petrol engines in these cars are lazy. I have driven a Verna 1.6l and the engine feels more like 80 horse power than the claimed 120 plus horse power that Hyundai advertises.

I would like to see your friend do 120kmph in a Hyundai Verna. It felt nervous approaching 100kmph itself. My ranking of cars would be

Honda City, Linea T Jet Plus
Suzuki SX4
Ford Classic
Skoda Rapid
VW Vento

[ghodlur]

I would suggest Fiesta Classic which satisfies most of the reqmts except one i.e Good rear seat comfort which most of the BHPains have found inadequate in Fiesta although personally I am Ok with it. Fiesta Classic is known to be the best handler in the sub 10 L segment. Why not test drive and see if it is reckonable or else stick to the list of Vento, Verna & Rapid.

[Prodigyy]

As far as the Petrol is concerned, i don't think any car comes anywhere close to the Honda City. It offers the best mix of performance, space, luxury, Service & Reliability along with a very decent mileage figure as well.

Vento & Rapid don't really have the stellar engine that they boast of in the respective diesel models. Mileage may turn out to be below par for the both these vehicles. Besides, the service is always a question on Skoda & VW is not doing themselves any favors by following Skoda's footsteps as far as the Service Stations are concerned.

IMO, the best petrol sedans within 10 Lakh range are City, followed by T-Jet, Fiesta (both new & Classic).

If your friend would be okay with a vehicle that is old & may well be replaced with a newer (& probably better) looking car soon, then i'd suggest your friend goes in for the Honda City or the T-Jet (which in IMO is the best sub-10 Lakhs Petrol car )

Though if your friend is really not comfortable with either of T-Jet, Fiesta or the City, then i guess Verna would fit onto his requirements very well. Upto speeds of 120 Verna should hold pretty well, it is speeds beyond 120-125 is when its suspension & handling raise there ugly heads. The Verna should really fit into most of your friends' requirements, besides giving a decent re-sale value too.

[Samridh]

I was in the market for the exact same requirements - except:

1) I was not bent on a car that was 'Fuel Effecient';
2) In addition to your requirements I needed a car that felt 'well built'.

I decided on the Rapid MPI. My reasons were:

a) Excellent build quality (STRONG is the word);
b) Very nice handling on corners et al (unlike the verna);
c) Competitors like the Honda City felt flimsy (eg. paper thin doors);
d) Excellent accelaration (smooth and not like the turbo surge) in the 3rd, 4th and 5th gears and gear slotting in the Rapid is outstandingly precise, in fact, the gear shifting experience is miles ahead of the City, Vento/Rapid Diesel and Verna Petrol;
e) excellent car to ICE;
f) the sort of RED colour i wanted was, only available under the VW umbrella (viz. Vento and Rapid);
g) though the fabric of seats etc is one or two steps lower than the ones used in the Vento (the plastics used are the SAME - they only vary in colour), I felt that the state of tune on the Petrol version of the Rapid to be far better than the Vento (I have driven both the Vento and Rapid back to back on several occasions);
h) excellent suspension.

Down sides of the Rapid are:

i) percolation of engine noise into the cabin (but it is a grunt and not a hoarse disturbing sound) - it was a very good thing for me but may not suit everyones tastes. However, NO road noice enters the cabin.

ii) fuel effeciency - city driving 11/12 kmpl;

iii) wish the steering had a little more feedback (its not light like the City or Verna - it feels heavy and keeps you connected with whats really happening under the four wheels but wish it was even better);

iv) rear seats have a strange angle where the glutes sort of go into a burrow - its like a bodybuilder was squatting when suddenly someones fitted a seat under him to stop him mid-way (cars like the Optra and the City do a better job with the Rear Bench);

v) the transmission hub is a real spoil sport in terms of seating a 5th person on the Rear Bench.

Please feel free to ask any other specific question that you may have in this regard.

[Omtoatom]

Abhinav, my first thought mirrors the most common sentiment thus far i.e. difficult to pack in all of those criteria into one single package. So he will have to look to prioritize his requirements in their order of importance to him.

I find it rather surprising that your friend has decided to give the Honda City the boot. In a petrol, you can't go much wrong with a Honda. Plus they have a pretty water-tight service network in most parts of the country.

Likewise the Fiesta happens to tick all the boxes expect that it falls short on the rear space aspect. All in all, I'd ditch the Verna for the City, add the Fiesta (for handling alone) and then get it down to the following quartet in that order:

City
Fiesta
Rapid
Vento

Both the VW and Skoda are fine cars in their own right but boy, is their after-sales rickety or what?! I don't have to go there now, do I?

From a reliability and efficiency standpoint, the City is the hardest to beat and therefore should not just make it back to the list, but perhaps top it.

[ognale]

I am in a similar stage: moving on from a Swift to a 10 lakh +/- sedan.
First shortlist after research was Etios, Sunny, Verna and City.
After much thought, test drives nailed it. Honda City Automatic. Am awaiting delivery.
Your friend should try it. Test drive it. Just for the heck of it at least.

[Abhinav667]

Thank you everyone! After test-driving everything from a Fiat Linea to a Suzuki Kizashi, he has finally settled for a Hyundai Verna SX (O) Petrol. He loved the Kizashi, but it was out of his budget and because he was blown away by the equipment levels on the Verna, he settled for the top-end variant.

[pganapathy]

@abhinav667 - The verna is not a bad car, but please advise your friend to be careful driving at 120+ on the highway. In a straight line any car is fine, but it is on corners that a good and bad drivers car are made out. Good steering (lighter at low speed and heavier at high speed) and good suspension set up so car does not feel floaty is key here.

Overall he can be happy with his purchase though I personally would pick the city over it.