[narayans80]

Originally Posted by comfortablynumb

how about the Jazz?

I wish they had the VX CVT, would have been a no brainer. Honda is charging a premium, the VX iDTec is a good 1.5L premium over the Zest XT QJD or Aspire T+ TDCi (which at present are the front runners). Its also dangerously close to S-Cross 1.3 Zeta in terms of pricing which I liked a lot more than the Jazz.

Also my nearest Honda showroom experience was pretty sad, the VW showroom of the same group was stellar. The latter followed up with a test drive, the former didn't even bother to share a price list (facepalm).

The distinctive USP is the magic seats. Pedal vibrations on the diesel is definitely a bother, especially for long distance runs. Am not sure, I can make a judgement of it in a 20 odd minute test drive. Is Honda City diesel a direct comparison? The reason I am asking is, City diesel is available on Zoomcar rental.

Originally Posted by yatin

I am leaning towards the petrol Platinum Etios

The current interiors a lot better, it was what they should have had from day 1. Practicality and safety equipment wise its way ahead of the other candidates (save for the Aspire diesel, which has 6-airbags). The NCAP rating for the 2014 version are encouraging too, the rating should be lot better for the current version with side reinforcements, 3 3-point seat belt at rear and ISOFIX mounts. If not anything, child safety would be a lot better.

The powerplant has never been a complaint. My only doubt was the ride quality comparison to Zest.

It would depend whether better half likes the looks (her job is vetting them looks )

[autorahul]

You have mention that the purchase will be in Q3/Q4. Quite a few things are changing in the industry till that time.

Originally Posted by narayans80

Doubtful cases:
Hyundai Verna - There's already one in the extended family. I want exclusivity

New Verna is round the corner, August launch, and teasers have already started coming in. Expect the car to be a cracker, especially in diesel, but considering its a Hyundai, I am sure pricing will be at least on par with City. Since your purchase is for Q3/Q4, you can definitely consider this.

S-Cross facelift shall also be coming sometime in Q4. The car has not changed much in the interior or mechanically and you might get some good deals currently. The Zeta in my opinion is one of the best priced cars under 10 lakhs.

Another car that's expected to arrive at that time is the Nexon.

Of the current crop, I would choose the S-Cross Zeta seeing your usage. You might want to look at Vento TDI DSG too, instead of the TSI considering your running.

Originally Posted by yatin

@narayans80, I'm roughly in the same boat (want more boot space, child seating, mostly trip mileage ... but limited budget to roughly ₹7-9 lakhs, not looking for automatic).

I would also recommend you to look at Aspire Titanium. Its very well kitted and has good offers going around for it, making it a very good value for money.

[IN07KL0484]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Seems the perfect thread for my quandary

My Suggestion:

1. Body Style: Compact SUV. Seems most of your trips are with the family and hence drives would be more sedate rather than spirited. A high driving position inspires much more confidence, especially on our roads.

2. Fuel: Diesel. An average of 2k miles per month does call for a diesel motor.

3. Transmission: MT. As your commute/city miles are low and trip miles are high, a manual makes much more sense even though an auto tranny does make life much easier. This would be a case of practicality vs luxury. And in case you are more inclined towards luxury then I would suggest you commit fully and go for a proper torque converter auto rather than the AMT.

4. Cars: Duster or Terrano seems to fit your bill perfectly with great ride quality and decent styling. You could also get a fair bit of discounts on these too. The negatives being an aging design and the recent issues with built quality and air bag size. Apart from that Ecosport should be a safe option too. This would be miles ahead of a sedan like Swift Dzire in terms of built quality and sheer driveability.

[yatin]

@autorahul, I need legroom & width, so I'm not looking at the Aspire.

[autorahul]

Originally Posted by yatin

@autorahul, I need legroom & width, so I'm not looking at the Aspire.

In that case, I would also look at Ciaz Sigma Petrol, and if possible to stretch Delta. On road prices of both of these would be around 9.5-10 lakhs with some decent discounts going on currently would push the prices closer to your 9 lakhs budget. The cars are quite well built and have ISOFIX mounts too for child seats. Even the base sigma variant has most of the basic features, including all the safety features, barring steering mounted audio controls.

Depending on your running, you may consider S-Cross sigma diesel which would go close to 10 lakh on road, but again should have some decent discounts running on it, particularly the last week before GST.

[jbpanda]

Brezza would tick most of the boxes and fit into the budget as well. It is a VFM car which is reliable and comes with risk free after sales of Maruti.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by autorahul

You have mention that the purchase will be in Q3/Q4. Quite a few things are changing in the industry till that time.

To be more specific, I'd like to drive it home by late October/mid November. So my purchase is with GST prices.

Nothing wrong with the Verna, but there's already one in the near family. Don't want to be another.

With Vento I wish upfront cost was much lower. Its a higher risk proposition with the DQ 200 under the hood. Am not sure its wise with an upfront intention of long term ownership.

There's hardly any visibility on the Nexon launch dates at the moment. Am not sure if Tata has Q4 2017 or Q1 2018 in mind. Having followed Hexa early this year, the first deliveries were a good 1.5 months from launch at the minimum.

This would be my primary runner and I don't patience to wait that long

Originally Posted by IN07KL0484

3. Transmission: MT. As your commute/city miles are low and trip miles are high, a manual makes much more sense even though an auto tranny does make life much easier.

Interesting you say that. Its driving in KL (Palakkad-Guruvayur) that made me think, how peaceful would it have been with an AT. On 4-lane roads I do agree, there's hardly any difference. MT also widens the choices, especially with diesel power plants.

Originally Posted by jbpanda

Brezza would tick most of the boxes and fit into the budget as well. It is a VFM car which is reliable and comes with risk free after sales of Maruti.

Two words: Waiting time! Its the same reason, why Baleno and now the Dzire are low on my priority. Besides, I like the S-Cross' mature looks better.

[yatin]

Originally Posted by autorahul

In that case, I would also look at Ciaz Sigma Petrol, and if possible to stretch Delta. On road prices of both of these would be around 9.5-10 lakhs with some decent discounts going on currently would push the prices closer to your 9 lakhs budget. The cars are quite well built and have ISOFIX mounts too for child seats. Even the base sigma variant has most of the basic features, including all the safety features, barring steering mounted audio controls.

Depending on your running, you may consider S-Cross sigma diesel which would go close to 10 lakh on road, but again should have some decent discounts running on it, particularly the last week before GST.

I don't want to buy a diesel, even though I like big diesels like the old Palio 1.9l and the Scorpio 2.6l. Anyway, smaller boot rules out Brezza.

Which leaves the Ciaz ... a favourite at home. Supposedly less comfortable rear seat & price difference against the Platinum Etios which has a better engine, makes it a less logical choice.

What came closest to my choice was the.Ertiga, which loses out on safety but has a good engine. Again, the price difference against the Platinum Etios isn't helping.

[aryayush]

Hello.

I’m an interior designer in the medium-sized but extremely congested city, Siliguri. We are a family of six, and my wife and I just had a baby recently. We have a Hyundai Santro from 2001 (yes, really) and a Verna we bought in 2012 that’s done about 50,000 kilometres so far. We’d almost finalised the automatic version in the SX (O) trim but my father prevailed over me at the last minute and we ended up buying the manual variant instead, which I have regretted ever since.

I have a full time driver and am being chauffeured around 90% of the time I am in the car, but it drives me crazy to manoeuvre the car around (with its notchy gearbox and stiff clutch with a long range of travel) in start-and-stop traffic whenever I have to take the wheel. I love driving and enjoy myself tremendously when I get to take the 1.6 litre diesel motor out on the highway on the rare weekend, but I would happily sacrifice that for the comfort of my legs in city traffic.

I currently have a running of about 20,000 kilometres annually, spread over the two cars, with the bulk of it being handled by the Verna. We’re planning to sell the Santro at some point in 2018, but plans of this nature have been made regularly for the past three years, with nothing having come of it. We’re gonna get ₹50,000 for it whenever we sell it, so we might as well keep the workhorse around until we can. There’s also an emotional attachment to the well aged automobile within the household.

We’re looking to buy a new car within this year, irrespective of whether we sell the Santro or not. The Verna has a beauty of an engine and is an absolute pleasure to drive. If you have not experienced flooring the accelerator on a 2011 Verna, you should definitely give it a shot. However, once you’re past 100 KM per hour, the driving dynamics of the car make it jittery and nervous around corners and over speed bumps, as is well known around these parts. It is also an expensive car to maintain.

More importantly, the low height, sunken rear seats are taxing on my 5'-11" frame and I find myself sitting in an uncomfortable knees-up position most of the time, though the acres of legroom, well designed hand-rests and pleasant interiors offset some of the discomfort. The low seats are even more discomfiting for my parents, so this is something the new car has to do better.

Given these issues, we initially thought of selling the Verna for ₹6.5 lac, the Santro for ₹50,000 (at which prices we’d already found buyers), adding ₹15 lac on top and buying two new cars as replacements. I’d shortlisted the Renault Duster CVT and Honda Jazz CVT / Maruti Suzuki DZire AGS as potential buys. However, just when we were about to start executing this plan, we received a lot of friendly advice that we were spending a ton of money to switch to cars that were far less luxurious, both in terms of market perception and in terms of overall fit and finish.

This advice echoed our own thinking, so we put that plan on hold, turned down the buyers we’d found and here I am, looking for advice. I figured that we should keep the Verna and make it the standby vehicle. This means that I will almost never have to drive it myself in city traffic (and it’s fine if I sometimes end up having to) but its driving qualities will still be there to enjoy on a long trip away from home. Plus, since it will have to put on far fewer kilometres going forward, its maintenance and upkeep costs will become more palatable. And we get to keep the lambi gaadi which is such an important metric for people to judge each other by in India.

If I were to keep the Verna and buy a new (third) car within this year, which one should it be? Please help me out.

• Car shortlisted: Maruti Suzuki S-Cross (upcoming petrol automatic)
• Price range: ₹12 lac on-road (up to ₹15 lac if it is immensely justified)
• Maintenance & After Sales Service (A.S.S.) expectations: Reasonably low, but we won’t buy the most common cars just so they are easy to maintain. I would prefer that it be from one of the following brands though: Datsun, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Renault, Tata or Toyota. That’s because we don’t have a showroom for the others here in Siliguri and purchasing and maintaining it would probably be a nightmare. The Volkswagen showroom was recently shut down because of the dealer having issues with the company, so it should reopen elsewhere soon, but it probably won’t be within this year.
• Average distance traveled per month: About 1,250 kilometres.
• Where will the car be mostly used (city / highway / rough roads etc): City with rough roads. The approach road to our home, in particular, is horrendously cratered, and hasn’t been paved in years.
• Chauffeur driven / self driven: Daily commutes are chauffeur driven and the occasional long drive and drives outside working hours are not. I rent a Toyota Innova for the occasional visits to sites outside the city.
• Whether the vehicle will be shared by other members of family: Yes, of course; it will be a family car.
• Any specific requirements from car (ex. Better luggage space, responsive engine, rear seat comfort): As the regular workhorse car, it has to be good at pretty much everything, and especially in the rear seat department. My profession and personal tastes demand that the car be a fantastic looker and have tastefully appointed interiors and fit and finish. I pour myself into my work to try and achieve a level of perfection that I can be proud of, and my car should reflect that. It should be classy. I canceled my plans to buy the Duster because the interiors look like the inside of a trash can. Beyond that, I absolutely want an automatic, but I would prefer it to be fun to drive as well. I am also a technology enthusiast and the more bells, whistles and gadgets the car has, the higher it climbs up my list. Every time I read the word “automatic” in the brochure, my appreciation for the vehicle increases. Whichever car I buy, I would prefer it to be the topmost trim, and I would gladly pay more for cars that are safer.
• How long you intend on keeping this car (and how important resale is to you): We intend to keep it for at least a decade and resale value is not important at all. In fact, the lower resale value I can expect, the better, because that usually means that it is the better, more differentiated car.

When we bought the Verna, and before that when my father the Santro, we never even considered Maruti Suzuki cars. We are not keen on owning a car that the whole world has. However, after having considered and test driven a bunch of cars—including the City (CVT), Duster (110 PS diesel manual), DZire (AGS), EcoSport (1.5 litre DCT), Figo (1.2 litre petrol manual), Jazz (CVT) and S-Cross (1.3 litre)—I’ve so far decided on the S-Cross.

I really like the looks of the upcoming 2017 version and it is pretty much a lock that a petrol variant will be on offer in three months’ time, which my father wants. I am fine with diesel too, but he is sure that our Verna suffers from high maintenance charges because of the diesel mill, so he wants the next one to be a petrol burner.

The potential problems with the S-Cross, though, are that it entails a wait of at least three months and there is a high likelihood that Maruti Suzuki won’t offer an automatic transmission to my liking (CVTs are terrible), if it does at all. It also most likely will not put the automatic transmission on the top-spec trim, which can be a deal killer for me. Leather seats or no deal.

Phew! This has become way too lengthy. I guess what I’m ultimately asking is: have we made the right decision by deciding to wait for a petrol automatic S-Cross, or are there any cars we are overlooking that we can go out and buy today? Or should be change our entire plan and go for some other combination somehow that will make more sense for us? I’d love to here from you. Thanks.

[autorahul]

I would recommend Vento TDI DSG after selling Verna. Yes, you have mentioned having a petrol preference but petrol automatic running 1250 km per month would burn quite a hole in your pocket in 10 months. Vento is fascinating to drive and the combination of auto gearbox and diesel engine is wonderful. Its interiors are very classy too. It gives you driving quality of Verna, along with the convenience.

Another option would be to sell Verna and replace it with the to be launched Verna. Yes, it would be a lateral move, but expect it to still be a significant upgrade. The C segment sedans have moved a notch up in quality and are closer to D segment sedans.

I wouldn't wait for S-Cross automatic considering the Ciaz AT is 11 lakhs ex-showroom. S-Cross automatic would cost around 12.5 lakhs ex-showroom, and its launch is not guaranteed either.

If you want to keep the Verna, then an ideal car would be Nexon automatic. Expect great value pricing launching in August. Again this will be a diesel automatic should provide ideal match between convenience and cost-effectiveness.

[amansanc]

Originally Posted by aryayush

Hello.

• Price range: ₹12 lac on-road (up to ₹15 lac if it is immensely justified)
• Maintenance & After Sales Service (A.S.S.) expectations: Reasonably low, but we won’t buy the most common cars just so they are easy to maintain. I would prefer that it be from one of the following brands though: Datsun, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Renault, Tata or Toyota. That’s because we don’t have a showroom for the others here in Siliguri and purchasing and maintaining it would probably be a nightmare. The Volkswagen showroom was recently shut down because of the dealer having issues with the company, so it should reopen elsewhere soon, but it probably won’t be within this year.
• Average distance traveled per month: About 1,250 kilometres.
• Where will the car be mostly used (city / highway / rough roads etc): City with rough roads. The approach road to our home, in particular, is horrendously cratered, and hasn’t been paved in years.
• Chauffeur driven / self driven: Daily commutes are chauffeur driven and the occasional long drive and drives outside working hours are not. I rent a Toyota Innova for the occasional visits to sites outside the city.
• Whether the vehicle will be shared by other members of family: Yes, of course; it will be a family car.
• Any specific requirements from car (ex. Better luggage space, responsive engine, rear seat comfort): As the regular workhorse car, it has to be good at pretty much everything, and especially in the rear seat department. My profession and personal tastes demand that the car be a fantastic looker and have tastefully appointed interiors and fit and finish. I pour myself into my work to try and achieve a level of perfection that I can be proud of, and my car should reflect that. It should be classy. I canceled my plans to buy the Duster because the interiors look like the inside of a trash can. Beyond that, I absolutely want an automatic, but I would prefer it to be fun to drive as well. I am also a technology enthusiast and the more bells, whistles and gadgets the car has, the higher it climbs up my list. Every time I read the word “automatic” in the brochure, my appreciation for the vehicle increases. Whichever car I buy, I would prefer it to be the topmost trim, and I would gladly pay more for cars that are safer.
• How long you intend on keeping this car (and how important resale is to you): We intend to keep it for at least a decade and resale value is not important at all. In fact, the lower resale value I can expect, the better, because that usually means that it is the better, more differentiated car.

When we bought the Verna, and before that when my father the Santro, we never even considered Maruti Suzuki cars. We are not keen on owning a car that the whole world has. However, after having considered and test driven a bunch of cars—including the City (CVT), Duster (110 PS diesel manual), DZire (AGS), EcoSport (1.5 litre DCT), Figo (1.2 litre petrol manual), Jazz (CVT) and S-Cross (1.3 litre)—I’ve so far decided on the S-Cross.

Phew! This has become way too lengthy. I guess what I’m ultimately asking is: have we made the right decision by deciding to wait for a petrol automatic S-Cross, or are there any cars we are overlooking that we can go out and buy today? Or should be change our entire plan and go for some other combination somehow that will make more sense for us? I’d love to here from you. Thanks.

Looking at your requirements, I am quite surprised that the Hyundai Creta Petrol Automatic hasn't made it to your shortlist. It is a car which fulfils all your needs. To top it off, it is a Hyundai so it may well be possible to get loyalty discount on it. Also, assuming that both your current cars have been going to the Hyundai service centre, you must be having a good idea about the way they work. After the GST price correction, it should be within the 15 lakhs budget you mentioned. The other good thing is that it gets a proper 6-speed AT transmission unlike the CVT and AMT transmission in most cars from your shortlist.

Since you are looking at keeping the car for a decade, it wouldn't make sense to buy a DSG or a DCT equipped cars since they are known to be much less reliable than standard torque converter units. CVT is a decent option for city driving but you would hate it out on the open roads. Hence, it is the Creta which makes the most sense out of the current cars. The S-Cross is a good option too provided you can wait until the fag end of this year. By then, you can decide which one suits you better, the S-Cross or the Creta.

For your running, a petrol car seems to be ideal. A nice car which is launching pretty soon is the Nexon but I just don't have the courage to recommend buying a brand new Tata car to anyone and become their guinea pig (no offence to owners, but noticed this over the years).

Hope this helps. Cheers!

[aryayush]

Originally Posted by autorahul

I would recommend Vento TDI DSG after selling Verna. Yes, you have mentioned having a petrol preference but petrol automatic running 1250 km per month would burn quite a hole in your pocket in 10 months. Vento is fascinating to drive and the combination of auto gearbox and diesel engine is wonderful. Its interiors are very classy too. It gives you driving quality of Verna, along with the convenience.

There seem to be several problems with this approach: (1) There is presently no Volkswagen showroom in Siliguri, so where would we even purchase it from? (2) Almost every review of Volkswagen cars here makes it a point to mention that the after sales experience is expensive and terrible. (3) Which other car would be buy in the remaining budget of approximately ₹8 lac that will give us high ground clearance and reasonable off-roading capability?

Originally Posted by autorahul

Another option would be to sell Verna and replace it with the to be launched Verna. Yes, it would be a lateral move, but expect it to still be a significant upgrade. The C segment sedans have moved a notch up in quality and are closer to D segment sedans.

I am not keen on this at all. It sounds way more sensible to stick with the current car and have a larger outlay for the second car.

Originally Posted by autorahul

I wouldn't wait for S-Cross automatic considering the Ciaz AT is 11 lakhs ex-showroom. S-Cross automatic would cost around 12.5 lakhs ex-showroom, and its launch is not guaranteed either.

The launch not being guaranteed is definitely an issue, but I don’t mind waiting till October to find out.

As for the price relative to the Ciaz, the current on-road price of the Ciaz Zeta in Siliguri is ₹12.2 lac and for the Alpha variant ₹13 lac. The 1.3 litre S-Cross is priced at ₹10.5 lac for the Zeta trim and ₹12 lac for the Alpha. Even the far superior 1.6 litre version is only priced ₹30,000 over the Ciaz Alpha. Given that the Ciaz Petrol Alpha AT is priced at ₹11.9 lac, I don’t see why the S-Cross (which is generally ₹ 1 – 1.7 lac cheaper than the Ciaz), even in an updated version, should cross the ₹12 lac mark.

Am I missing something?

Originally Posted by autorahul

If you want to keep the Verna, then an ideal car would be Nexon automatic. Expect great value pricing launching in August. Again this will be a diesel automatic should provide ideal match between convenience and cost-effectiveness.

I am not sure I buy your argument in favour of diesel. I like the diesel engine of the Verna for its performance, but it is the heavier pollutant of the two fuels and the money you save per year on fuel costs would amount to a break even after five years of ownership, at which time I may even be considering selling the car. And that is not taking into account the higher ownership costs and lower resale value of diesel cars, and the fact that diesel and petrol prices will continue to approach parity over time.

The Tata Nexon is something I have not considered because it seems to be trying too hard. I want a suave looking vehicle, not something trying to look like an SUV aimed for a younger audience. However, I’ll give it a serious thought.

Originally Posted by amansanc

Looking at your requirements, I am quite surprised that the Hyundai Creta Petrol Automatic hasn't made it to your shortlist. It is a car which fulfils all your needs. To top it off, it is a Hyundai so it may well be possible to get loyalty discount on it. Also, assuming that both your current cars have been going to the Hyundai service centre, you must be having a good idea about the way they work. After the GST price correction, it should be within the 15 lakhs budget you mentioned. The other good thing is that it gets a proper 6-speed AT transmission unlike the CVT and AMT transmission in most cars from your shortlist.

Well, for one thing, it is one of the most common cars on the road today, but I am willing to overlook that. The problems don’t end there though. Almost every review mentions how the petrol automatic is good for the city but sluggish to drive on the highway. That simply will not do for me. I want a vehicle with good driving characteristics. What’s more, Hyundai dealers in Siliguri are not interested in selling automatic vehicles and don’t have any available for test drives, which automatically rules it out for me. There’s a guy here (on Team-BHP) who’s sold off his Creta petrol automatic in less than two years and the reasons he gave jibe with my own dissatisfaction with the Verna. Plus, the automatic variant is absurdly priced and not even available on the top-spec trim. I am not very keen on buying another Hyundai at this point.

Originally Posted by amansanc

Since you are looking at keeping the car for a decade, it wouldn't make sense to buy a DSG or a DCT equipped cars since they are known to be much less reliable than standard torque converter units. CVT is a decent option for city driving but you would hate it out on the open roads.

I agree.

Originally Posted by amansanc

The S-Cross is a good option too provided you can wait until the fag end of this year. By then, you can decide which one suits you better, the S-Cross or the Creta.

Yeah, that is the plan so far.

Originally Posted by amansanc

For your running, a petrol car seems to be ideal. A nice car which is launching pretty soon is the Nexon but I just don't have the courage to recommend buying a brand new Tata car to anyone and become their guinea pig (no offence to owners, but noticed this over the years).

Hope this helps. Cheers!

It does. Thanks.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here’s a list of cars I’ve considered, and their problems:

• City: It may have made sense as replacement for the Verna but we definitely don’t want two sedans in the house. The price is also beyond my reach. I only had a chance to test drive the CVT variant within the city and it was quite pleasurable, but I suspect it will underperform on the highway.
• Creta: For the reasons described above.
• Duster: The excellent reviews here had at one point convinced me to buy it without even going for a test drive, but one look at the interiors and I was reminded again why I’ve never liked this car. It is downright ugly on the inside. Plus, the dealer cannot offer a test drive of the CVT variant. I do like the way it looks on the outside, common though it is.
• EcoSport: I know the DCT gearbox in this car is highly regarded among enthusiasts here but I failed to see the appeal. Gearshifts were simply too pronounced when you pressed hard on the accelerator and the speed drop just before a shift far too noticeable. I thought the AMT transmission in the DZire was superior. Do I have anyone in agreement here?
• Jazz: The CVT gearbox is terrible and takes all the joy out of driving. It’s a noisy car and its one greatest USP that may have prompted me to ignore all the flaws and buy it anyway—the Magic Seats—is not available on the auto variant. The sales persons were very friendly and not at all pushy and the test drive was very informative. I did really want to buy a Honda and am still open to considering it if I can find a car I really like in their portfolio.

I have not definitely ruled out any of these cars, but I thought the S-Cross Alpha 1.3 diesel I drove was significantly superior to all of the above in most of the following criteria: driving dynamics and performance, effectiveness of air conditioning (a weak point of my Verna), feature loaded, interior quality and space and the relatively low market penetration. The sore points are the lack of a petrol automatic variant and the looks of the front end, though I do think it looks handsome from the back and, particularly, the side.

[lamborghini]

It's a tough predicament.

As much as we would like to believe so, the options available in this segment are few and with compromises. If you want AT - the Creta is actually the best all rounder for your requirements - especially in diesel trim. The ride and handling is much improved over the Verna, and the car is quite comfortable too!

The S Cross is an excellent option, but no comments till the petrol AT is actually launched here.

Would you consider a low mileage, within warranty pre-owned option such as a Toyota Corolla?
Sell the Verna and pick this up, and later when you sell the Santro - get a new cross over that has an AT option?

[aryayush]

That sounds like a plan. What would I gain in switching from the Verna to a Corolla, if I were to do it? And where would I find such a car?

I can definitely wait till Diwali. I just wanted to post this thread now and gain some insights so I am not waiting in vain.

[Sheel]

Ayush, do remember that roads up in hills and the NH-31/34 deteriorate rapidly in the monsoon, pick a slightly raised car. I don't exactly have anything in mind as yet, but XUV in AT trim would be a good bet as well.