[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by Fiero

Who better to tell you about the current state of affairs that people who actually own the cars in question ???

Exactly. Just like suman who has had pretty minimal maintenance expenses on his Ford, there are so many others on this forum itself who have mentioned high maintenance costs for their Fords. And these are actual owner comments - search and you will find them. I can easily give 5-7 such owner comments. To a person who has not owned a Ford, these comments will naturally create a perception of higher maintenance costs and which he/she will put forward during a discussion on the same. If we were to comment only on the cars that we have owned, there will not be much activity (read postings) happening on this forum.

As an example, assume that a friend is planning to buy his first car (a hatch) and asks my opinion. I list out the options available in his budget. Assume he is a fan of all things Italian and wants to buy the Palio and wants my take on the car.

To give a full picture, I would give him the pros (nice looks, build quality, power (1.6 version), fun-to-drive etc). Have to point out the cons also which are bad A$$, delay/difficulty in getting spares, comparitively lower FE etc. Now, it is upto him to take a decision.

If he thinks that A$$ and FE be damned as long as the driving experience is fun, then the Palio it should be. But, if he is someone who worries about FE or having to wait for weeks for a spare, then he would desist from going in for this car.

I have given him the pros and cons without having owned a Fiat ever. However, I know that the info is true based on what I have read on this forum and from info I gathered from other sources. Does it really require me to own a Palio to give such basic info ? If I owned one, I could have given him more specific information. But to give a general idea, ownership is not required.

Instead, if my comments went something like, "Fiat, eh ? Palio, eh? Forget it, man. The cars suck.", then the attitude is wrong and is what should be avoided.

We have perceptions about every manufacturer here, and most of which is true to a certain extent.

Maruti - tinny vehicles. Still persists inspite of the Swift and Baleno, due to the M800.
GM - costly spares. Quite true, given their trying so hard to erase Opel memories.
Fiat - A$$. Very true with the almost negligible presence in most states.
Skoda - slowly gaining reputation for costly spares/repairs.
Tata - quality (or lack of it actually).

Consumer perceptions do not just form overnight. They are based on mostly valid consumer feedback.

[suman]

SB.....this discussion is becoming senseless now; its like my challenging your Baleno costs without ever owning one. I can give my opinion about a Baleno because I've driven one......but I cannot challenge your numbers or "sneer" at them and talk about optimism & one in a million.

Does that make any sense to you?

And by the way, for every 5 or 7 Ford owners that you talk about who speak of high maintenance, I can point out 5 or 7 CURRENT owners who are talking of low maintenance - but will that make any difference to you? I would think not. And again, lets stick to the CAR in question I'd say.....you are again talking about earlier crop of Fords, its like my saying people have had bad experiences with the Omni so the Baleno is all C**P. Or, the Grand Vitara is a gas guzzler so its the same with the Esteem. I mean, come one, lets not loose objectivity.

What Fiero is pointing out is that if an OWNER is putting forward his experiences/opinion, we should accept it rather than challenge based on perception or hearsay. Why is that so difficult for you?

So, I would drop the topic as its not getting anywhere

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by suman

SB.....this discussion is becoming senseless now; its like my challenging your Baleno costs without ever owning one.

You seem to have got one thing wrong. No one challenged your numbers - neither me or mobike008. We accepted those numbers as true - atleast I do. What we said is that there are others out here who have mentioned higher costs. Pointing out both sides to the coin. Don't know why you have to take it so much to heart.

[suman]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

You seem to have got one thing wrong. No one challenged your numbers - neither me or mobike008. We accepted those numbers as true - atleast I do. What we said is that there are others out here who have mentioned higher costs. Pointing out both sides to the coin. Don't know why you have to take it so much to heart.

Speak for yourself SB....why the collective response (unless you have taken it on yourself to defend Mobike )........I have a simple question for you -

Victor asks for a comparison of service costs for Fiesta, Verna & Aveo. What is the approach you'd take? I would mention what I know for any of the vehicles (IF I knew any) and leave it to other owners to talk about service costs. Why do we need to talk perceptions here? Mobike shared service costs for his Accent & to that point it was fine (even though not a Verna)....you chipped in with your usual "Baleno's the cheapest" which though not relevant, didn't really make a difference. Then, why pass a comment when I mention my ACTUAL costs about being optimistic etc etc......look around you man, there are other Fiesta owners on the forum, why not ask what their experiences are (in fact they're saying but not too many are listening)?

[abhibh]

Well everyone love their cars and like to support it but incase of cars first impression is not he last impression. If ford was so bad Fiesta wont have sold this much. If Fiesta maintenance was burning pockets a lot of Fiesta owners would have sold their cars. It depends upon your dealer. Lemme give you an example:

We used to get our Maruti cars serviced from PASCO and servcie cost for M800 / Alto used to like around 2K or less. But when PASCO got closed we started getting them serviced from JOSHI AutoZone. The service cost went upto by rs 200 - 500. The service adviser always wanted to take us for a ride and used say sir this is important to get changed in this service etc. So before you all get conclusion that servicing cost is higher do check what needs to be changed in that particular service. I think its given in the booklet.

Joshi Autozone owner is a very close and is childhood friend of my dad and still ths type of stuff happens there.

Another Example SKODA Maintenance:
MY uncle (ChaCha Ji) owns a SKODA 1.9 TDi and the servicing cost for his car has not crossed more than 3K except for 1st 2 services... He just gett he oil, filter etc changed and any other necessary part which needs to be changed like break pads etc stuff. Goes by servicing schedule etc... The owner of Krishna Automobiles (SKODA Dealer) is a close friend of his and maybe this has something to do with low servicing cost but not sure.

Parts i agree are costly of FORD, GM, SKODA but their quality i also good compared to Maruti. Correct me if i am wrong.

Now back to topic out of the mentioned cars i would go for Fiesta 1.4. Out of the three it has sold well in numbers. Aveo is good too if fiesta doesn't suits then go on with Aveo. And Verna i havent seen a single Petrol one yet, though i dont even see diesel that much too...

[benbsb29]

What has Victor finally decided?
Fiesta is the answer according to me, now that we have decided(??) its a good buy.

Waiting for his answer.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by suman

Speak for yourself SB....why the collective response

If you read my post, I had clearly mentioned about my trusting the figures you put forward. I don't know why you feel that others are not trusting your figures, inspite of them clearly telling so.

Originally Posted by suman

Victor asks for a comparison of service costs for Fiesta, Verna & Aveo. What is the approach you'd take? I would mention what I know for any of the vehicles (IF I knew any) and leave it to other owners to talk about service costs. Why do we need to talk perceptions here?

Victor did not ask specifically for owners to comment. Also he wasn't even asking about Hyundai since he has prior experience. His query was

Originally Posted by victor0012

But am a little apprehensive about cost of spares and maintanence when it comes to GM and Ford. Pls help me decide.

And BTW, he did not ask about Fiesta in particular. He was enquiring about Ford in general and so there is nothing wrong in talking about Ikon or any other Ford product sold here.

[suman]

Originally Posted by victor0012

Guys, Thank you all for your inputs. From the looks of it, it seems the general feel is that I should consider the Fiesta 1.4, the aveo 1.4 and then the Verna I - in that order.
Would I be right in assuming that of these three, over a 5 to 6 year period, the verna would be the cheapest to maintain and Ford the costliest. Also, to put things in perspective, would it be possible for any of you to put a number down as to what would be the average amount spent on maintanence for a Fiesta Vs Aveo Vs Verna over a 5 - 6 year period.

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

If you read my post, I had clearly mentioned about my trusting the figures you put forward. I don't know why you feel that others are not trusting your figures, inspite of them clearly telling so.

Victor did not ask specifically for owners to comment. Also he wasn't even asking about Hyundai since he has prior experience. His query was

And BTW, he did not ask about Fiesta in particular. He was enquiring about Ford in general and so there is nothing wrong in talking about Ikon or any other Ford product sold here.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Assume 2K to 2.5K( Verna) every 6 months when you service your vehicle and keep adding 20% to that every next 6 months and calculate for 5 years. This is provided your vehicle is maintained and driven with careful hands.

Assume 3K to 3.5K( Fiesta) every 6 months and follow the same steps as above.

Dunno about Aveo.

I follow the simple methodology to arrive at a 5 year cost and then compare with real ones. This helps you in being mentally prepared and also plan for the unexpected ones.

I had a feeling that you hadn't gone through the posts which lead to the argument and I was correct. Please read posts above that started the debate (you can then follow the sequence).

And you weren't anywhere in the controversy SB till you jumped in just to prove the usual point about Ford being the "most" expensive - I was contesting a post made by Mobike in case you still haven't got it

[mobike008]

This is getting nasty and instead of helping victor decide the car between the 3 cars he shortlisted, we are just scaring him away by our squibble. I just hope we dont project a "perception" which seems to be a favorite word of suman to victor that tbhpians are a bunch of morons and drive him away elsewhere for some constructive advice.

Before somebody retorts, i request either victor to let us know what lesson he learned from this post including his final selection

OR

request the mods to please close this thread and let Victor do some expansive search on his own on this forum to decide the car he finally wishes to buy.

[ashu2025]

@victor
amongt the arguments going on here for no purpose, i wud suggest you to test drive all three cars and judge them on your own requirements and priorities. all 3 cars are best in one aspect or another.

this forum is bit overshadowed by the performance oriented car-owners like fiesta, swift skoda... but for a normal household and city driving requirements one shud consider many other aspects. i mean for a person like me who drives hardly 25kms a day, for commuting to office and some city hang outs, my AVEO 1.4LS is serving me VERY WELL. I hardly goto highways and rarely speed over 90 km/h. I am not performane crazy. I am sure there wud be many people who fall into my sort of category. then why to be overshadowed by the overhyped opinions for particular manufacturer or brand or car model.

i agree not many AVEOs are seen or roads. big reason being a no diesel engine. almost all fiestas i happen to see are Diesels. Ford never releases the seperate sales figures of petrol and diesel cars. I am sure fiesta petrol is also selling as low as AVEO.

AVEO is quite a good car, I heard that the notchy gearshift issue is a thing of past now...new aveos have new gearshaft...6.6lacs OnRoad, 13-14km/l, best looks and interiors, little sluggish engine(on lower rpms only).. not a bad package huh...

cheers...

[namit]

Originally Posted by victor0012

My concern after reading all the messages is that the Ford Fiesta would turn out to be a white elephent on the maintanence front and the cheapest would be the verna. However not seeing much info on the aveo. Would you say its better or worse off (in terms of expense for maintanence) when compared to fiesta?

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

Hey Victor !!

Fiesta is a great driver's car and virtually no other +ves to it

Verna is over priced for what it offers and as it is it does not have anything significant like Fiesta to offer

Aveo is a great VFM car and just to let you know that GM is marketing its Chevrolet brand as a VFM and low maintenance cars.
Moreover in this month GM is offering free service maintenance for 3 years on the car + free 4 years warranty.

Whatever has been said about Aveo's gearbox is true but only for first 5000 kms after which as i have experienced and so have others the gearbox is absolutely makhan. Obviously the gearbox characteristics are the same but it just smoothens after initial 5k kms drive.

Aveo can also be said to be a family man's car whereas Fiesta is all about enthusiasm and passion.

Take your pick only after driving all the cars.

Cheers !!

[JUELZ 41]

id put my money on the chevy aveo

[benbsb29]

Now the guy must be totally confused....
With supporters from all the 3 families, he must be having a really tough time to decide.

LOL ..!!

[theexister]

My Fiesta 1.4 has now done 1500+kms & so far it has been under the free maintenance. The first oil change is due only at the 6 months stage & not there yet.
So far the car has been upto my liking & the reasons I bought it after test driving Verna & Aveo 1.4 are,

- Driving pleasure (1.6 was what I was looking at but was surprised at the 1.4 & decided to go for the cheaper option)
- More stable on cornerning & high speed especially when compared with the Verna
- The steering felt the most responsive with good feedback amongst all the 3 cars.
- Front & rear room was more than sufficient.

As far as A.S.S, it has been great here with Mody Ford. They are very courteous & attend as soon as possible on being at the service centre. I was really apprehensive after hearing so much about Ford A.S.S being very poor.
Recently my right window regulator had failed due to some screw up at the accessory guy. But Ford replaced it for free though I told them this might have happened at accessory end.

So far so good.

I would recommend you go for the Fiesta 1.4 from my experience.

[supremeBaleno]

@victor0012, you have atleast 3 options to identify the most FE and low-maintenance car among the three you shortlisted.

1. The tbhp archives - search and you will get the data you need. Though it will be kind of limited due to the cars being relatively new in the market and there not being many Aveo, Verna(P) and Fiesta1.4 owners on the forum.

2. Some auto-mags publish comparison charts for spares costs which should give you a fair idea about one aspect of running costs. Though I am not sure whether any mag has already come out with data on these cars.

3. Talk to actual users/owners about the other 2 aspects of running costs namely FE and service charges. Take some time off on a weekend and visit the service centres of Ford, GM and Hyundai and talk to owners who are there to get their cars serviced. This should give you a fair idea of the FE and maintenance expenses.

Once you reach a conclusion, do let us know and also post the data collected by you on this thread. It will be helpful to someone else in the same predicament as yours.

Options 1 and 3 were pretty helpful to me in my car search. Was not aware of option 2 when I was looking out for a car.