[herculesksp]

I'm all over the place with this.

Firstly, I voted for Carens. I mean it is very easy to vote for "something else", but given the primary choices, I felt the Carens is well rounded and VFM. It probably does the best job of the lot as a 7-seater.

I like the looks of the Carens the most among the lost. It's modern, simple and had good color options. The other have unnecessarily vivid colors, or very dark colors which all look the same under a shade.

That said, I have booked an Alcazar P AT myself. I liked all the bells and whistles and except for the looks (which I like) I think it is the least polarizing of the lot. I originally chose it for the 360 camera and ventilated seats, but I think now that the 360 is not necessarily useful. I'd rather look around than look at the display while turning, or in a crowded street. It is probably only useful while parking and just for that use case it limits a lot of options.

Originally Posted by Aditya

• Some misses (no petrol AT 7-seater variant, auto wipers, illuminated window buttons, full-size spare tyre on top trims etc.)
Review Link

This is very surprising since I've been hearing this a lot. I have actually booked the Petrol AT in 7-seater topmost trim (Signature?).

The 7-seater Alcazar probably makes for a very well rounded 5-seater for the daily commute with a huge boot for weekend trips. On the occasion that I have to do a large family trip within the city, I can make do with adjusting in the 3rd row.


Finally, I have owned the Ertiga in the past and I found it one of the most comfortable cars to drive. I've done 12-14 hours straight drives on it with minimal discomfort. However I hate the fact that Maruti / Suzuki is 4-5 years behind the competition in terms of engine and creature comforts. Their engines are severely under-powered (I had a torrid time in a hill station once) and designs outdated.

For heavens sake, they've not even come out with EVs. I feel they are languishing in the sales that some of their workhorse models are clocking and hence don't want to encourage them by buying any of their cars.


XUV700 is at the top end of this tier with Innova punching in a much higher segment (for me). However the 80+ week waiting period just doesn't cut it. The family found the ride uncomfortable with some body roll and wallow, whereas I found the driving position awesome. I'm sure I would enjoy driving this car with it's high set driving position and all round amazing visibility, and superb engine.

Buttt... manual dimming IRVMs? Where are those ventilated seats that even Carens, which is half the price, sports? I just don't understand this, and I feel this is a gimmick to launch a refreshed model with those features. In which case, again I don't like this strategy of M&M and will think twice about buying any new launches.

[gkrishn]

Originally Posted by herculesksp

I'm all over the place with this.

Firstly, I voted for Carens. I mean it is very easy to vote for "something else", but given the primary choices, I felt the Carens is well rounded and VFM. It probably does the best job of the lot as a 7-seater.

I like the looks of the Carens the most among the lost. It's modern, simple and had good color options. The other have unnecessarily vivid colors, or very dark colors which all look the same under a shade.

That said, I have booked an Alcazar P AT myself.

almost stuck in similar situation. it is carens vs alcazar(entry model though). lets see what i end up with. kids will vote for the panoramic.
but i am not sure if the D is good enough to pull alcazar.


btw, what is the kerb weight diff between alcazar and carens? drove a auto D carens, and at low end it was lacking.

And what is the waiting period for alcazar? thanks,

[herculesksp]

Originally Posted by gkrishn

almost stuck in similar situation. it is carens vs alcazar(entry model though). lets see what i end up with. kids will vote for the panoramic.

Same, the panoramics are getting the votes from the kids.

Originally Posted by gkrishn

but i am not sure if the D is good enough to pull alcazar.

Originally Posted by gkrishn

btw, what is the kerb weight diff between alcazar and carens? drove a auto D carens, and at low end it was lacking.

Interesting, I don't know if the weights will be that different to warrant a performance difference. Will leave it to someone more knowledgeable to answer.

However, I test drove the Alcazar D AT and it felt fine in the city. I had 4 adults and 2 kids in it. But I dunno how it would perform on the highway or on the twisties. Which Ertiga is not a fair comparison (sub 90bhp diesel), I have been bitten by the lack of power in a diesel on the ghats. Torque is good, but the TC has to kick in, and it doesn't on a slope immediately after a cold start.

Originally Posted by gkrishn

And what is the waiting period for alcazar? thanks,

Ideally it is about 3-4 months, but if you can show ability to pay (loan sanction letter, higher booking amount etc), then they'll be able to pull a car from the dealer quota and give you a car within 1.5 months.

[NivasBaskaran]

Initially, I was considering getting a good pre worshiped car for a budget of 8 lakh. For this budget, I would get a decent sedan/SUV. My usage will be mainly on highways.

After seeing Carens price, thought like, if I can stretch my budget, I will get a new spacious car. So, I went ahead and booked one. I know the fact, that the waiting period is really high and I will get enough time to think and decide. Booking is just to hold the slot just in case.

I need your suggestions here.

Requirement:

• 80% highways rides.
• 95% less than 3 adults and 1 kid occupancy
• Safe, Spacious and Comfortable car

My concerns, with Carens 1.5 NA Prestige [considering it as a 5 seater with really big boot space]:

1. Will this engine be adequate for this big car or will it be underpowered?
2. Will Carens be overkill for my usage? [Overkill in the sense, unnecessarily compromising the milage even I don't have that level of usage]
3. How safe is Carens? [Not in safety feature wise. Structurally]

I need your suggestions on this matter. For my usage, should I opt for Carens, as it will have all good features or should I get some good premium hatch/sedan/compact SUV for slightly lesser budget or stick with pre worshiped cars under 8 lakh budget.

Other new cars in consideration:
Tata Altroz, Tata Nexon, S-Cross, Honda City 4th Gen

Used cars in consideration:
Creta, S-Cross, Honda City/Civic, Skoda Rapid, Toyota Corolla Altis, etc.,

Please key in your valuable suggestions. What will be your purchase?

[Samba]

My pick will be the Nexon.

Reasons-

95% of the time it's less than 3 adults for you. So you do not need those extra seats. Nexon's space should suffice your needs.

Nexon's ride quality on bad road is acceptable, I have no idea how the Caren's ride quality is. You can compare it from a back to back test drive.

Sub 4 meter. Much easier and handy to drive and park in congested areas.

5* safety ratings. 80% of your drive will be on the highways, so more peace of mind.

The Nexon's turbo charged petrol motor will be more fun to drive than the Carens, considering you booked the 1.5L NA engine. The 1.4L turbo petrol in Carens will be more fun though.

[tsi_niks1989]

Since you are looking for 1.5 NA from Carens, I would suggest to get a new S-Cross Zeta 1.5 NA. This should serve you really well both on highways and city driving, the European styling helps it with good driving dynamics on highways. Plus the Zeta MT is an extremely VFM option clubbed with good offers available. We are in similar situation looking for an upgrade in our family from Honda Brio and have booked Kia Carens 1.5 NA Prestige, S-Cross Zeta is what we are seriously looking into.

Happy hunting!

[Sk8r]

My 2 cents :

- For your usage, Carens is an overkill in terms of space and lacks severely in terms of performance. 1.5 NA will be blunt for your highway runs

- I would suggest to stick with your initial budget and have a look at pre owned S cross

- Or you could play around with getting a 4th gen Honda city - this is excellent VFM now

[pandabear]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

My 2 cents :

- For your usage, Carens is an overkill in terms of space and lacks severely in terms of performance. 1.5 NA will be blunt for your highway runs

Unless a spirited driver, i think you should be happy in the petrol 1.5NA. It's just pure value for money if your budget is tight. With kids and family in the car it's usually relaxed speeds with no sudden acceleration and deceleration.

Just takes a few more seconds to achieve speed, not an issue if you are sedate. Added advantage is lower maintenance costs due to higher reliability for non turbo engines. The disadvantages with Carens being no airbag coverage for the third row rendering it useless for long highway rides but yes the space can be put to good use for the luggage.

Space can never be overkill, trust me you will get spoilt used to the bigger space. You will never move to a smaller car because with kids, space is never enough.

[padmrajravi]

Originally Posted by NivasBaskaran

I need your suggestions on this matter. For my usage, should I opt for Carens, as it will have all good features or should I get some good premium hatch/sedan/compact SUV for slightly lesser budget or stick with pre worshiped cars under 8 lakh budget.

Other new cars in consideration:
Tata Altroz, Tata Nexon, S-Cross, Honda City 4th Gen

Used cars in consideration:
Creta, S-Cross, Honda City/Civic, Skoda Rapid, Toyota Corolla Altis, etc.,

Please key in your valuable suggestions. What will be your purchase?

Go with the Carens for future-proofing your purchase. Lack of space is one of the biggest triggers that prompt people to upgrade cars. And trust me, you will find ways to use that space. Even if you keep the third row always folded down, you still have access to a bigger more usable boot than other options. If budget is not a concern, it should be Carens.

[akannath]

Originally Posted by NivasBaskaran

Requirement:

• 80% highways rides.
• 95% less than 3 adults and 1 kid occupancy
• Safe, Spacious and Comfortable car

I am in an very similar situation although the car is meant for my elderly parents most of the time with occasional 7 people occupancy. Have gone ahead and booked the Carens 1.5NA which I think should do the job given that XL6 has a slightly weaker engine. Awaiting a test drive in April.

When I raised a similar post seeking help from the members, the other close competitor was the SCROSS Zeta, which I intend to test drive as well. Nexon was not considered purely because of the way it rear looks, but otherwise it ticks all your boxes.
Since you dont have ingress/egress issues, I would also add Altroz to the list. Altroz and Nexon will be much easier to handle in city traffic and space should be sufficient to meet your needs.

So my suggestions: Carens, SCROSS, Nexon and Altroz. But do a TD and see which appeals the most.

[nvn]

My option would be to keep the booking for Carens and keep an eye out for the new Ertiga/XL6 before making a call. For the base variant I doubt Maruti will beat Carens on the safety features but since the wait time is anyways high you have the option to also evaluate the new Ertiga/XL6

[AutoConsultant]

Originally Posted by NivasBaskaran

Initially, I was considering getting a good pre worshiped car for a budget of 8 lakh. For this budget, I would get a decent sedan/SUV. My usage will be mainly on highways.

For an 80% highway usage, I would prioritize cars with proven safety records. This make Nexon and XUV300 the prime contenders but this means you will be sacrificing on luggage space.

Honda City 4th gen is also a pretty solid option with 4 star GNCAP rating and a huge boot. If you are driving <120 kmph on highways the City will serve you well. Another alternative could be a used Rapid which also fulfils your purpose in a similar manner.

However, both of these are old models and take away any possibility of a third row. If you want to truly future proof your purchase go with the Carens but I would suggest you wait out the initial niggles and it might also get NCAP tested in the meantime.

[SeshSrini]

Carens would definitely be an overkill unless you have other plans of adding on to your family. I own a 5th gen City and very much happy about both the highway and city drives too. Sedan gives you comfort and space while it's a challenge on parking. Would recommend a test drive of City, Slavia.and a Nexon too from safety considerations. Again ia strongly Pitch for anew one rather than an used one considering the hassle free ownership

[shresan23]

Off the bat, i know this title and the comparison itself looks bizzare. The reason is my needs are such.

Little bit of history before the main part,

My dad and I drive an Scross 320 ddis (aka the 1.6 turbo diesel. The one and only)

The car has been here for around 6 years now and has clocked more than 60000 kilometres(due to the pandemic. Without which, the odo would have touched a lakh or even more).

So while the engine never gets boring, with the 320 Nm torque and supreme acceleration that even eats up many 30-50 lakh cars on the highway, the mileage giving a healthy 19 kmpl on highways and 12 or 13 on city roads, there is a desperate need for an upgrade, mostly due to the fact that, there is a standing custom of not having a car in our family for more than 4 years(which was overlooked due to, well the pandemic again).

Well, we have decidedly decided to sell it and invest the proceeds in the next car.

Our requirements are as below
1. More than 375l of boot space (Top Tier Mandate)
2. Good seats and ride comfort
3. Under 15 lakhs on road
4. Turbo petrol with 4 cylinders


I know that the requirements point to different segments. The issue being, the Scross that we own, is a pure crossover. It has 350l+ bootspace, despite being a hatchback of sorts. The reason we need a big boot is because we constantly travel to Kerala. Atleast once a month and the trip is usually akin to that of a long distance packers and movers'.

Ride comfort, same reason. These long trips often take place on one weekend. 500 up to kerala on Friday, 500 down to Chennai on Sunday. So fatigue should be minimum to facilitate going to work from Monday.

Turbo petrol with 4 cylinders is a bit relaxable rule. My dad absolutely wants turbo petrol after driving this workhorse and racer engine and often shuns at those naturally aspirated petrols or those "fancy named regular petrols" as he calls them albeit fondly.

1.2 turbo petrols with 3 cylinders (Nexon) is a no no due to the sound and strain it puts on the engine due to the missing cylinder, he says.

1.0 turbo petrols are almost non existent in his books.

And oh! only manuals. He says Automatics are not "real cars" but those fancy ones we drive at the mall
( automatic lovers, if you are enraged, please comment down and i will post my dad's number)

So the options as you may have figured by now, were limited.

i convinced my dad against the 4 cylinder rule somehow and widened our gaze which fell on

1. XUV300 ( good car, superior back seat spacing. Rejected due to the comedy for a boot)
2. Tata Nexon (competitively priced, good kit, practical boot, Rejected due to the engine not being punchy enough)
3. Venue ( Punchy engine, superior ride handling, Rejected due to cramped rear)
4. Sonet ( Punchy engine, Kia, Better space in the rear. Rejected due to that clutchless iMt which my dad feels is a joke)
5. Polo ( at this point you would have understood why it was rejected)


Of all the turbo petrols i offered him, he was never satisfied. The reason being, the 1.3 litre Turbo petrol 156 bhp Renault Duster.

He loved the engine and desperately wanted to own it and relish it. I loved the engine too, the only problem being it was over budget. I know that there are variants that are under budget. I had needs too. Specifically a touchscreen infotainment system and some LEDs here and there and if possible a sunroof, auto a/c and so.

Sadly, the Duster went out of production.

With that sad breakup, the search was paused.

It started again, when one day my dad chanced upon the Nissan Kicks with the same engine. This one was under budget at a competitive price with all the bells and whistles that i wanted.

We test drove it and absolutely loved it.

Then came Kia Carens. The large ship like vehicle which swooped my mom. She loves filling up the car and the scross has taken many trips with the rear seat 60 down and filled with tables, chairs, bags, coconuts, mangoes, clothes, bicycles and various other stuffs.

My dad too was okay with the engine, considering the size of the car and he loved this one too.

The situation now is like the recently released tamil movie Kathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal

All three of us love both the cars and just cant decide which one to choose at this point. I have listed out some of the pros and cons which i found for both. So please help me shortlist one.


Kia Carens
Pros:
1. Majestic and huge space
2. Comfortable interiors
3. Punchy engine

Cons:
1. 3 months and more waiting period for the competitively priced mid variant
2. Reliability of the engine
3. Kia after sales????


Nissan Kicks
Pros:
1. The Engine
2. Mid variant gets a lot more features than the Kia
3. Reliable engine and smooth riding. ( back seat of the kia is a bit bumpy)


Cons
1. Rear seat is cramped by even Scross standards
2. The city handling is outright bad, with heavy clutch, longer grip period, heavy steering etc.)
3. No storage inside the car ( this might seem silly, but it is a prerequisite for any car, with me carrying tons of headphones)


At this point, im perplexed.

Please help me choose the best one out of these two cars. Feel free to suggest any other car that may fall under those requisites.

Cheers!

[Poitive]

Mate, your issue is going to be the 320Nm of torque you've gotten used to. I am facing similar issues (and more) moving from a 2000cc Optra Magnum which too had 320Nm on a stiff chassis and a multilink suspension.

IMO, Kicks is a brilliantly done car and one of the rare ones which still has a good HPS - something an enthuaist who looks beyond how hard a steering feels - can enjoy a lot. Quoting a snapshot of my TD. Click the link for the full report: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/suvs-...ml#post5258951
The thread has many other reports as well.

Originally Posted by Poitive

Nissan Kicks 1.3 Turbo Petrol – Summary
(please bear in mind the compromised nature of the test drive as elaborated in the full report)

• Well worked out practical cabin setup. Decent ergonomics. Impressive headroom on the rear bench.
• Practical size for the city. More spacious than Compass etc. Lowish top of windscreen height. High enough top of window, especially at the rear.
• Enjoyable Hydraulic steering. Good feel. Enthusiasts could appreciate this dying tribe; typical buyer might find it ‘heavy’, especially if used to a light EPS.
• Excellent suspension-chassis setup. Appears good enough to take a way more powerful engine.
• Suspension-chassis-steering setup should feel very good for city, highway drives and even hills. Good comfort and control.
• Engine, a big let-down for me. Doesn’t do justice to the overall enthusiast setup. Didn’t feel practical either (for sheer practicality the 1.5NA just might be better).
• The immensely peaky spread of torque (power) and it coming at a high rpm was bothersome for regular use. Suitable power came late for a turbo (around 3-3.5k RPM), and it was noisy then. The engine and it’s tuning didn’t agree with me.
• The high rpm engine noise and traffic noise was bothersome, however it didn’t feel harsh.
• If you find the engine to your taste, it just might be the car you missed out considering, especially if you enjoyed the Jeep Compass Petrol for it’s driving manners and didn’t want to spend for it. (Note: I make the Jeep Compass remarks based on paper specs of the petrol model and having tried out the Compass Diesel on long test drives, so please consider opinions accordingly.)

Please share your thoughts.

PS: In case you've directly landed on this post, reports and summaries of other SUVs in the segment are here.
.

For someone who enjoyed the 320Nm on a large hatch/small crossover, enjoying the Karens would be a challenge from the engine perspective. I also thought the 1.3 Turbo in the Kicks was it's weak point.

If engine power and handling is important, and one can wait, I'd look at the XUV700 lower variants. Lesser features, I know, but the base MX petrol has the same engine, tuning (power and torque) as the top end. You could also look at diesel models (MX is relatively detuned in diesel). Can't think of another in the price bracket competing on torque to weight ratio. While it doesn't give the joys and feel of an HPS, it has much to offer - including the space you wish for. And yes, it has an independent suspension. Do Test Drive it. You might happily compromise on other stuff you'd find missing. IIRC Petrol MX doesn't have the insane waiting period of some other models.

More in the thread I linked above.

The question for you might be of 'car' vs features.

PS: If you like one of the upper models of XUV700, you could justify it by keeping the car for longer than the 4 years you usually do; and chances are that you wouldn't want to part with it in 4 anyway. By the time you get hold of one, more niggles of the initial lots should be sorted out. It also has a 5 star crash rating, something you might appreciate for your regular highway trips.