[vasudeva]

Of course, different manufacturers, but in 2003, I also went for the cheaper option (5 lakhs Corsa) than the 7+ lakhs newly launched City. When new with less than 20K on the odo, problems in Corsa were less, but have now increased as it clocks more on the odo. Of course, City beat Corsa on FE and more.

In March 2007, the Royale Optra was 2.5 lakh cheaper than the Corolla, but this time I hope I made the right choice with the Corolla. I have sworn off GM after the Corsa. Perhaps Mitsubishi may be a different story. But no experience there.

[RajaTaurus]

Right Vasudeva..!,
Cedia has it all, but not really any more than what you have explained...
It is a tiny bit smaller in overall size, that makes you to zip thru tight traffic a little more easier.
Also the turning radius of 4.9 m as against 5.1 m of Corolla, helps a lot at U turns...

[narayan]

i think we have had this debate of the segment underdog vs the "practical choice " many times over....!!

any car purchase decision shud be first guided by what YOU seek in the car and then once you have evaluated the options, in case there is a close call between 2 cars , THEN it makes sense to seek a forum opinion...

otherwise, this thread is just headed to a " go for cedia " vote becos you will find more cedia fans here ....

anyways my choice will go for the cedia in this segment

[thefreak]

Originally Posted by narayan

i think we have had this debate of the segment underdog vs the "practical choice " many times over....!!

any car purchase decision shud be first guided by what YOU seek in the car and then once you have evaluated the options, in case there is a close call between 2 cars , THEN it makes sense to seek a forum opinion...

otherwise, this thread is just headed to a " go for cedia " vote becos you will find more cedia fans here ....

anyways my choice will go for the cedia in this segment

And how do we know it is not a close call for him between the two cars? He is confused about a car to buy. He has two options and he is seeking an opinion. What needs to be done is that we should provide him with reasons for buying the car which we deem is correct and substantiate it with reasons. just saying that it is a no contest - Go for x doesn't serve the purpose.

It is best to educate him on the pros and cons of both the cars and then let him take a call. And justifying them. What happens sometimes is that people start favoring a car and go on and on about it and will defend everything that car has to offer and blast everything the other car has to offer. That becomes a degenerative discussion.

[narayan]

Originally Posted by thefreak

And how do we know it is not a close call for him between the two cars? He is confused about a car to buy. He has two options and he is seeking an opinion. What needs to be done is that we should provide him with reasons for buying the car which we deem is correct and substantiate it with reasons. just saying that it is a no contest - Go for x doesn't serve the purpose.

It is best to educate him on the pros and cons of both the cars and then let him take a call. And justifying them. What happens sometimes is that people start favoring a car and go on and on about it and will defend everything that car has to offer and blast everything the other car has to offer. That becomes a degenerative discussion.

my point is - there are many more threads on pros and cons of these cars....if there is something specific thats confusing between these cars , that should be mentioned in the thread opener..otherwise the thread takes a predicted route and does not serve the purpose at all...imho

[diabloo]

Hey pshyamsundar, any reasons for not considering the segment leader, The Honda Civic?
Note: The reason I ask is to find out your exact preference.

Originally Posted by pshyamsundar

Guys which one will you go for. Cedia or Corolla???

[reignofchaos]

I own a cedia... so you may consider me biased but here are the pluses and minuses of each model. I drove the corolla quite a bit before I selected my car and here were my observations

Corolla
+ 125ps engine with Variable valve timing with loads of torque available from very low rpms. This is excellent for driving in stop and go traffic.
+ More space, larger boot, better rear seat
+ Nicer interiors (IMHO)
+ Climate Control
+ Bulletproof reliability as far as engine and drivetrain is concerned
+ A few more features here and there which may or may not be relevant to you.
- Bad to drive... absolutely no fun factor. I'd rather be driving a washing machine
- Unstable at high speeds (more than 120kph)
- No EBD and braking did not inspire confidence in me
- Prone to rattling and overall build quality is not that great
- The super high stance makes it a very poor handling car. Anyone who says it handles well has never driven a car that actually has good handling.
- The peak torque of the Corolla is quite a bit less than the Cedia which basically means it has so-so mid range acceleration.

Cedia
+ Spot on driving dynamics. You will not find a car that can be thrown around the corners as much as this car can unless you spend some serious money.
+ Perfectly sorted out chassis. You can keep pushing it till top speed and you'd long for more. Never ever will you feel out of control for even a fraction of a second.
+ Brakes are in a different league when compared to a corolla. It just felt spot on the moment I used it for the first time. The car comes with ABS+EBD. Corolla lacks electronic brakeforce distribution.
+ Engine has tonnes of torque which means fewer gear changes in city traffic. The midrange torque is insanely good.
+ Far less NVH than the corolla, infact the NVH rivals the Camry.
+ The car feels like a small car when driving around inspite of having large dimensions. Infact I'd go on to say its way easier to drive than most small cars.
+ Genuine Leather Interiors
+ The build quality and materials used both in the body and interiors is a few notches above the corolla. The doors close with a reassuring thump.
+ Way better looking IMHO, especially the kitted sports model.
- Less power than corolla even with a bigger engine, no MIVEC option as available elsewhere
- Very sluggish off the block compared to corolla. The absolute low end has very little torque.
- The interiors even though of good quality look pretty poor compared to competition.
- Horrible rear seat
- After sales service is a question mark at many places.
- Gearshift is not as slick as corolla on the test car. My car had a slightly notchy gearshift initially. Now its smoothened out considerably.
- Lesser gizmos than the corolla
- Poor Resale value
- Less snob value

So wrapping up if you are looking for a comfortable family car that is going to be chauffeur driven at times, get the corolla. If its a self drive car and you love driving, its Cedia all the way.

[Sparkie]

Originally Posted by pshyamsundar

I am in the confusion between choosing cedia or corolla. I am impressed with the looks of cedia and also going through the threads of cedia has a good rating. Its also 3 lakhs cheaper than corolla H2.

But corolla wins on features and also now they have a good happy scheme.

So which one to go with is the confusion now.

Guys which one will you go for. Cedia or Corolla???

Have you driven both the cars? Do so soon if you have not as yet to get a better idea.

We have the exact same confusion in our house, Cedia/corolla/magnum which has boiled down to Cedia/corolla. Even though the average tbhpian will favour the Cedia(I do too), my Dad who is a tad older than 60 and not an aggresive driver or your average auto enthusiast prefers the Cedia over the Corolla or the magnum.

By the way what features does the H2 have over the Cedia of note besides climate control? I honestly didn't find the Corolla great. The driving experience is better in the Cedia, be it the the position, the gearbox or simply the plush drive. The suspension on the Corolla is not too comfortable though the roll is slightly lesser than the Cedias. The only thing holding us back was the resale value but my Dad is willing to compromise on that for what he feels is a better quality or rather more desirable car. Now the stumbling block is as follows:

Question to the Cedia owners(please give answers with the number of kms you have done on your car):
I spoke with an auto expert recently of one of the best workshops in Chennai. He was telling me that the biggest problem with the Cedia will be service, because almost 90% of the parts are imported and the car is not selling well. He was saying even when the first lancer was launched in the beginning in India, more parts were imported due which they were very expensive. Are any of you having any problems with your cars? How is the service experience?

[reignofchaos]

^^Not sure about Chennai but lathangi service has been excellent in bangalore. For chennai you might wanna ask VMG or others. Also its not 90% but nearly 100% of the parts are imported. The only indian made things afaik are the seat covers, leather trims and tyres.

[vnabhi]

The Corolla may be the world's largest selling car, but I find the looks dated and boring. My vote goes for Cedia, though I never drove either car.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by vittalnrv

Gun in for the bullet-proof Corolla. My dad drives a Corolla H2 2004 , its clocked 1,25,000 on the ODO and still running strong.I have driven 60% of the ODO reading and my driving style is hit the redline.Performance is still as good as a new car and no worries about mielage. Get 11kmpl constant with 100% A/C.

Two of ma friends are owning Cedia Sport and have got very bad feedback from them. I dont know about other states but in Bangalore toyota is offering upto 50,000Rs. + Cash discounts on all the corolla models.

Why is it that always friends have bad feedback about the cedia and not the owners . I met atleast 7-8 Cedia owners at the lathangi service camp and none of them had one negative thing to say about the car.

Resale, dont even worry about it, Toyota never lets you down. We have had dealers asking our car for 7Lakhs+ .

Also, the comfort levels in this car is just mind-blowing. Seating is spot-on and you will never regret for this wise choice.

Let me bring you down to planet earth. My uncle sold a 2004 Corolla H4 with 55k on the odo for 5.75lac before returning back to the US. He had offered it to me for 5.5lac but I refused as I wanted to buy a new car. The dealer had offered him 5.3lac.

[RajaTaurus]

Originally Posted by Sparkie

:

Question to the Cedia owners(please give answers with the number of kms you have done on your car):
I spoke with an auto expert recently of one of the best workshops in Chennai. He was telling me that the biggest problem with the Cedia will be service, because almost 90% of the parts are imported and the car is not selling well. He was saying even when the first lancer was launched in the beginning in India, more parts were imported due which they were very expensive. Are any of you having any problems with your cars? How is the service experience?

Well when you have almost 100% parts imported, you would need spares seldom compared to Indian made parts.. I don't know how many would agree, but thats my opinion. This part generally the workshop guys omit. All said and done, as long as the parts in the car are genuine and of international quality and what else you could ask for...? Of course, if something is smoked up due to accident or bad driving, thats another story altogether...

With regard to service in Chennai, well, I own my Cedia for the past 2 months and I must say that I am treated like a Prince in ACT India, Adayar... And my car get best attention for sure...

[pshyamsundar]

Ok the car will be self driven 100% and I will be the only person driving it.

I have a swift ZXI and it has climate control. I some how feel that cars over 10 Lakhs should have it.

Diabloo, I surely like the looks of the civic. Its really cool but people are saying it has low ground clearance and very low sitting position. Honestly I have not test driven civic yet to find it out myself. I also have to test drive cedia as well.

Now to add to my confusion I found an interesting ad today from honda. The emi is lesser than that of corolla.

Corolla emi 21910/985000 Honda civic 19494/9Lakhs.

Reasons I am considering to buy cedia at this point of time

3 Lakhs lesser price than civic or corolla. Secondly people say its a better car to drive if its self driven

Reasons I am considering to by corolla

Reliability, good scheme going on now and also resale value.

Now sorry to trouble you all. I have to also add civic into the picture. Yes 1.8S manual.

But having said all of the above I still feel that 3 Lakhs is a good amount of money saved. Assuming that this 3 lakhs extra was borrowed from bank say at 12% per annum I think it would be another 1 Lakh more. Now the question is if i sell the corolla or civic after three years will I get 4 lakhs more than the cedia.

My balance at this point of time is tilting towards cedia even though i have not test driven these cars.

I once again thank you all for the replies. Can you all keep the ball rolling please.Not only myslef I am sure that many more people will be benefited by this debate

[ashams_s]

Originally Posted by vasudeva

Of course, different manufacturers, but in 2003, I also went for the cheaper option (5 lakhs Corsa) than the 7+ lakhs newly launched City. When new with less than 20K on the odo, problems in Corsa were less, but have now increased as it clocks more on the odo. Of course, City beat Corsa on FE and more.

In March 2007, the Royale Optra was 2.5 lakh cheaper than the Corolla, but this time I hope I made the right choice with the Corolla. I have sworn off GM after the Corsa. Perhaps Mitsubishi may be a different story. But no experience there.

Yeah I too was looking at Royale..but reliability and decent performance were the key buying aspects for me..and toyota had loads of these..Having been a toyota owner before this definitely helped in my decision making. My suggestion is to identify the key factors that one would want from a car, look for inputs from other owners and then make a call..If I were to buy another, I wud chose a corolla a third time!

[gunbir]

Driven both, stipped both (put them back together too)... the Cedia. Anyday!!!