[EnthDriver]

Sure , will check out renault triber too , did not consider it initially due to its feature set and its engine .

[bijims]

The Triber is too cramped a car to be considered amongst the XL6 and Carens, the Carens would be the best of the lot, in terms of features and comfort as well, I agree it is not the most elegant looking unlike the other Kias but looks aside, it is a great people mover. Do take test drives back to back on the Carens and XL6 before finalizing, the Carens now comes with both Petrol IMT and Diesel IMT and it is extremely convenient over the manuals, and is a boon in traffic as well. The mid-spec variants of the Carens are good value for money and now Kia has come up with a few offers as well like a cash discount of Rs.15,000, a 10% discount on accessories, customer benefits of Rs.37,500 (usually insurance offers and discounts) and 5% discount on extended warranty and My Convenience.

Do take the test drives and let us know how it went!

[mgastor2022grey]

Originally Posted by bijims

The Triber is too cramped a car to be considered amongst the XL6 and Carens, the Carens would be the best of the lot, in terms of features and comfort as well, I agree it is not the most elegant looking unlike the other Kias but looks aside, it is a great people mover. Do take test drives back to back on the Carens and XL6 before finalizing, the Carens now comes with both Petrol IMT and Diesel IMT and it is extremely convenient over the manuals, and is a boon in traffic as well. The mid-spec variants of the Carens are good value for money and now Kia has come up with a few offers as well like a cash discount of Rs.15,000, a 10% discount on accessories, customer benefits of Rs.37,500 (usually insurance offers and discounts) and 5% discount on extended warranty and My Convenience.

Do take the test drives and let us know how it went!

Hi @bijims, hope you are doing good.

The Carens is obviously a bigger car than the Triber, but safety, especially inside the city matters a lot. Carens is not very safe, although it gets 6 airbags and disc-brakes all round, the shell is not very stable. It is also not very beautiful. The delivery experience will not be up to par (stated by my close friend) and there are lot of rattles. Whereas in the Triber, the cabin is pleasant and it is extremely safe. But as you stated, the IMT in the Carens is a boon in the traffic, unlike the Triber's lackluster AMT.

[EnthDriver]

Have taken a short test drive of XL6 , the following are the observations :

• The seats were comfortable than expected
• The car was spacious overall.
• The third row isn’t suited for someone over 5’ 8” , I am 5’ 6”.
• There are some areas in the interior of the car which feel cheap or less quality , like the power window switches and indicator stalk .
• The engine is somewhat underpowered and didn’t feel that smooth in my observations , felt somewhat similar to our xcent.
• Once you get inside the car , you don’t feel it’s a big car to drive around , my father was able to drive it without any fear of crashing.
• Cooling of the AC was unclear as it was raining at the time of test drive.
• 360 degree camera feature is useful when you take the car in congested areas and works as expected .
• The door felt a light and the horn pad was a little hard to press .
• The black interiors can make someone feel claustrophobic sometimes
• The dashboard didn’t feel as premium than I expected it to , it’s a letdown coming from a Hyundai.
• The 2nd row seats do not seen to tumble forward or do they ? . Suspension is better than xcent and it absorbed bumps without any body roll.



XL6 owners , please share your experiences with the car.

[.sushilkumar]

Originally Posted by EnthDriver

• The 2nd row seats do not seen to tumble forward or do they ? . Suspension is better than xcent and it absorbed bumps without any body roll.

XL6 owners , please share your experiences with the car.

I got mine XL6 Zeta AT delivered in March 23. Majority of Your Observations are spot on. Air conditioning, i typically keep ACC at 25 degree and it does cool the cabins fast enough to my liking. I try to avoid sudden temp change here in north. With Suzuki connect, you can switch AC on remotely if one needs immediate cooling.

As for 2nd Row goes, you are right. The seats get half way down only and can move quite a bit towards front row to offer more legroom to third row passengers. Both my kids love the space on offer with 3rd row down & no fights inside as both gets their separate captain seats .

As for engine power goes, I am a newbie driver so cannot comment on engine power per se but i typically maintain 80-90 on highways and engine do have enough juice for those occasional overtaking maneuvers. Max i have gone till is 105 and never heard the engine inside Cabin. The last trip of 294 km got me a overall Avg of 20.xx calculated via tankful to tankful method with good use of cruise control set at 85 & 4 people on board.

My only complaint with MSIL is absence of backlit switch gear on doors. I did evaluated Caren's as well but the price difference was too big & service network of Maruti did helped in tilting the decision in favor of XL6.

[rahulb8949]

Hello BHPians,

Background:

I currently drive a 2010 model used i20 Asta 1.2(o) MT which I bought in 2016 from a dealer. Since its nearing the 15 year mark and I don't want the hassle of dealing with a FC.
The engine is still excellent and I still do love taking it out regularly, but there are so many secondary issues which has led me to think of going for a new car.


I've decided its time to go for a family car. We recently had twins and along with parents, its going to get crowded, Hence, I am looking to buy a brand new MUV 7 Seater. I prefer a new car rather than a used one because I haven't had the experience of owning a new car. My travel will be 80% in city and 20% in highways. I am a safe driver, but do enjoy overtaking cars and probably always at the top of speed limit. I never drive recklessly though. After doing some research on Team BHP and looking at car reviews on Youtube, I've shortlisted 2 cars - Kia Carens and Hyundai Alcazar.

I immediately booked a test drive for the Carens and got to check it out within a few hours yesterday. I loved the whole experience. Granted, I'm highly smitten at Carens because of all the features and sleek interiors more than anything. But the ride was definitely smooth, but not enough to judge how it would run in city for a long period of time.
I did the Alcazar test drive today morning morning. And the driving experience was really smooth. After having a Hyundai for last 7 years, I've always been satisified with its performance. What I did not like was the leg space in both 2nd and 3rd rows, so I'm kind of less inclined at Alcazar than the Carens. Not to mention it costs almost 3L more than the Carens.

My budget was initially 20L, but I'm willing to spend 3L more for the Carens. Not sure if an extra 3L for the Alcazar is worth it though. Hence, require suggestion on this.


Certain things that are priority for me:

1. Top-end variant of whichever car I'm picking.
2. Comfort in the city, since majority of my driving is going to be within city.
3. Car needs to be reliable, since my plan is to own it for a long term (8-10 years).


Questions:

Sorry if some of these are noob questions. But I'd rather be a noob, then pick something that does not work out for me in the long run.

1. I've always been a manual transmission user. I've never used an automatic transmission until now. Is AT a good option to pick over MT considering I've been driving a MT all my life?

2. Should I got for a Petrol or Diesel variant? The SR in the showroom mentioned that if I don't use the car too often, its better to go for the petrol variant. My utilization will be 2-3 days of travel from office to work, which would be around 150-180kms a week, accounting for other short drives within the vicinity of my house into consideration.

3. I prefer decent mileage at the least. If I go for the AT petrol variant, as per the SR, Carens would be around 11-12 in the city and Alcazar would fetch me around 12-13. Are these numbers accurate?

4. Since I want a dashcam, Kia said that they have their own Dashcam and they can install it for us. Does anyone have any reviews on the Kia dashcam? Is it their own brand and how is the quality?

5. Is Carens/Alcazar too large for city driving? Having always driven a i20, I've never found any issues traversing the city or with parking.

I'm definitely open for suggestions and even okay to choose other cars if any of these criterias don't match. Thanks in advance for your responses.

[Knightrider]

Originally Posted by rahulb8949

Questions:

1. I've always been a manual transmission user. I've never used an automatic transmission until now. Is AT a good option to pick over MT considering I've been driving a MT all my life?

2. Should I got for a Petrol or Diesel variant? The SR in the showroom mentioned that if I don't use the car too often, its better to go for the petrol variant. My utilization will be 2-3 days of travel from office to work, which would be around 150-180kms a week, accounting for other short drives within the vicinity of my house into consideration.

3. I prefer decent mileage at the least. If I go for the AT petrol variant, as per the SR, Carens would be around 11-12 in the city and Alcazar would fetch me around 12-13. Are these numbers accurate?

4. Since I want a dashcam, Kia said that they have their own Dashcam and they can install it for us. Does anyone have any reviews on the Kia dashcam? Is it their own brand and how is the quality?

5. Is Carens/Alcazar too large for city driving? Having always driven a i20, I've never found any issues traversing the city or with parking.

I'm definitely open for suggestions and even okay to choose other cars if any of these criterias don't match. Thanks in advance for your responses.

1. I switched to AT with Carens. Had been driving MT cars for almost 18 years before that. Go for AT. Your left knee will thank you. You can even check out the iMT option in Carens.

2. For your kind of use, petrol will serve you well. Plus there are doubts of Diesel ban just like in Delhi.

3. Carens DCT gives an average of 9-10 kmpl in city and 14-15 on highways in 'Normal' mode.

4. No idea about Kia's dashcam. I went for after-market one (DDPAI).

5. There could be some issues while parking. But otherwise, you will get used to the size in a week or two.

[bijims]

Originally Posted by rahulb8949

Hello BHPians,
Questions:

Sorry if some of these are noob questions. But I'd rather be a noob, then pick something that does not work out for me in the long run.

1. I've always been a manual transmission user. I've never used an automatic transmission until now. Is AT a good option to pick over MT considering I've been driving a MT all my life?

2. Should I got for a Petrol or Diesel variant? The SR in the showroom mentioned that if I don't use the car too often, its better to go for the petrol variant. My utilization will be 2-3 days of travel from office to work, which would be around 150-180kms a week, accounting for other short drives within the vicinity of my house into consideration.

3. I prefer decent mileage at the least. If I go for the AT petrol variant, as per the SR, Carens would be around 11-12 in the city and Alcazar would fetch me around 12-13. Are these numbers accurate?

4. Since I want a dashcam, Kia said that they have their own Dashcam and they can install it for us. Does anyone have any reviews on the Kia dashcam? Is it their own brand and how is the quality?

5. Is Carens/Alcazar too large for city driving? Having always driven a i20, I've never found any issues traversing the city or with parking.

I'm definitely open for suggestions and even okay to choose other cars if any of these criterias don't match. Thanks in advance for your responses.

1. Yes, AT is definitely the better option in today's times, with the increasing traffic, and the move towards hybrids and EVs, ATs are definitely the way forward.

2. Now as regards fuel type, your running corresponds to around 8000-9000 km at the maximum, which doesn't necessitate a diesel, moreover with the shortened life of diesel cars in NCR, the chances of the same being carried over to the metro cities along with a complete ban on the sale of new diesel cars being proposed in the near future, the resale value of diesel won't be as high as petrol over the next decade.

However, despite all this, I went for the diesel owing to two factors, one higher mileage and two hardly 60k on-road price difference in price between petrol and diesel in the Kia range of cars (this still holds true for the Carens). However, with Hyundai, this goes up to 1 lakh.

3. Yes mileage figures are more or less accurate.

4. Yes, the dashcam is OEM provided from Kia's side and is included in their official accessories, I have included the safety accessories brochure for your reference, the quality is OK, but you can get better quality dashcams too.

5. It's large but not too large in my opinion, at over 4.5 meters in length, both are long but not too long to be a hassle in my opinion.

In my opinion, the Kia is more VFM, and has better space utilization but has the typical MPV look but the Alcazar has the SUV looks which is definitely a factor worth considering, moreover, it's based on the Creta and is definitely more premium than the Creta too, so whichever one you choose you won't go wrong with either.

[EnthDriver]

Update : Well , we have booked XL6 zeta MT in celestial blue or nexa blue colour on 28th july , paid 11,000 for booking , the reason we booked zeta was as the delivery time was less , the car is going to be delivered in 2 weeks . We planned to get the rear camera installed as it doesn't came standard . The price quoted by the dealer is around ₹14,68,866 which includes extended warranty , insurance , basic kit , fastag , registration charges , TCS . We are just waiting for our xcent to get a good exchange price.

[robincsamuel]

My cousin is planning to get a 7-seater in a couple of months and the primary requirements are,

• Petrol-engine; they'll have very low running.
• Automatic
• 7-Seater preferred, can manage with 6-seats though
• Best possible fuel economy and minimal maintenance costs.
  

We have considered the following vehicles:

Maruti XL6: XL6 is the preferred choice at this point. The only issue is the seating configuration; they prefer a bench seat in the middle row/7-seater.

Maruti Ertiga: They're okay with the Ertiga but liked the XL6 better and wouldn't have considered it if the XL6 had a 7-seat configuration.

Toyota Rumion: The only reason to consider the Rumion is Ertiga's taxi image.

Kia Carens: Expensive, and they don't want the Turbo-DCT/complex machines.

Mahindra Bolero: Dropped since it doesn't have an automatic transmission.

And, is the XL7 coming to India?

Thanks in advance for your insights; your input is much appreciated!

[shancz]

Originally Posted by robincsamuel

And, is the XL7 coming to India?

I don't have any info but I don't think so. It wouldn't make sense to have another rival to the Ertiga and then sell lower numbers which eventually will have to be phased out.
For you needs, the Ertiga suits the best and if you want the same dish in a slightly different presentation get the Rumion.

[bijims]

Originally Posted by robincsamuel

My cousin is planning to get a 7-seater in a couple of months and the primary requirements are,

• Petrol-engine; they'll have very low running.
• Automatic
• 7-Seater preferred, can manage with 6-seats though
• Best possible fuel economy and minimal maintenance costs.
  

Thanks in advance for your insights; your input is much appreciated!

Of these, I would recommend the Kia Carens in IMT form, be it petrol or diesel, the Carens Premium Petrol as well as Diesel iMT cost around 15 lakhs, and are good options in this segment to comfortably seat 6 or 7 provided you are alright with the iMT, else if a proper automatic is must, the Maruti Ertiga/ XL6 is the best choice. It is evident that the Rumion is just a rebadged Ertiga and that you are paying the extra 60k on ex-showroom price over the Ertiga only for the Toyota badge, and essentially getting an Ertiga nonetheless.

Ideally, the XL6 is the best choice after the Carens, but because you need a bench row in the middle, it becomes quite a conundrum, either it is an XL6 and sacrifice the 7th seat, or get the Carens or Ertiga and get the 7th seat, however in the Carens you sacrifice the AT for an iMT.

Anyway, you won't go wrong with any of the three as each one of them has its strengths, but as a more complete package, I feel the Carens is the best choice, but a bit on the expensive side.

Now, if you are considering the Carens, you get benefits to the tune of 34k, comprising of an insurance discount, exchange bonus, free accessories of around 10k, and an additional corporate discount of 10k as well.