[BHPjunkie]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Experts,

I chanced upon this thread as I have been tasked to help my BIL get this first 7 seater car.

Requirements:
1. 7 seater - will accommodate 4 senior citizens (not always but on outside city trips for sure) & 1 ever growing teenager. Senior citizens should find the ingress/egress easy in the last row.
2. Fuel - Petrol, Hybrid. No diesel since the running is not much.
3. Preference on Automatic, if not manual can also be acceptable
4. Budget: Max On road 20L. Cannot exceed this
3. Low on maintenance.
4. Good on safety features.
5. No preowned, will be new vehicle.

The shortlisted:
1. Kia Carens Prestige Plus 1.5 Turbo petrol DCT
2. Alcazar Prestige 7 STR 1.5 Turbo
3. Scorpio N Z4 petrol AT 7 STR

Others in the thinking fray:
1. Maruti XL6 - although this is a 6 seater.
2. Safari XE - although this is a diesel and base model.
3. Ertiga if this is the last car on earth.

Kindly suggest if any other options available. BIL has TDed the Carens & Alcazar but yet to TD Scorpio. Amongst the 2 he is impressed with Carens but will decide post my TD along with him in the last week of May. How fast can one get any of the shortlisted cars mentioned above? The buying will be financed partly by car loan.

Well I had the same requirements and based on the options in the market, we felt the Carens Prestige Plus the most VFM. We went in for the Carens 1.5 Turbo DCT. Finally decided on the petrol based on the below points;

1. Petrol gave a fully automatic variant compared to the Carens diesel iMT
2. Diesel future unknown and resale will definitely take a hit if its banned in metros
3. The 1.5 Turbo has 160 horses on tap

Other cars listed by you were also considered and rejected for the following reasons:

Alcazar: Space-wise the Carens is much better packaged than the Alcazar

Scorpio: Only considered diesel, but the base variants skimp quite a few features and feels barebones compared to the Carens. We were anyways skeptical of the fuel economy of petrol and the Scorpio with the heavy kerb weight would only add injury

XL6: Felt sluggish on highways and fit and finish of interiors of the Carens felt leagues ahead of the XL6

Safari: Did not consider at all as it was far out of budget

[bijims]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

The shortlisted:
1. Kia Carens Prestige Plus 1.5 Turbo petrol DCT
2. Alcazar Prestige 7 STR 1.5 Turbo
3. Scorpio N Z4 petrol AT 7 STR

Others in the thinking fray:
1. Maruti XL6 - although this is a 6 seater.
2. Safari XE - although this is a diesel and base model.
3. Ertiga if this is the last car on earth.

Kindly suggest if any other options available. BIL has TDed the Carens & Alcazar but yet to TD Scorpio. Amongst the 2 he is impressed with Carens but will decide post my TD along with him in the last week of May. How fast can one get any of the shortlisted cars mentioned above? The buying will be financed partly by car loan.

From your shortlist, the Kia Carens seems to be the most well-packaged, and the best option considering your needs under 20 lakhs, It has a good 1.5 Litre Turbo Petrol engine with a DCT and offers all requisite features including 5 airbags, Moreover, mileage will be much higher as compared to the cars like the Scorpio-N and Safari. Kia's maintenance costs can be compared to Hyundai's and aren't expensive.

Moreover, I would recommend you take the My Convenience Plus Service package along with your car purchase as it is an excellent VFM package in my opinion, available only with the Carens, also go for the Highest extended warranty (5 years, 120,000 km would be fine, unlimited km is not necessary unless you have extremely high running).

If you are flexible as regards the colour for your car, do inform the same to your SA and they will let you know when a car is available, moreover, if there are other Kia dealerships in adjoining cities do take a booking with them, insisting on early delivery, you will surely get your car much quicker if you have multiple bookings with multiple dealerships.

Otherwise quoted waiting periods are around 3 months, if that's fine with you, then booking with a single dealership would be sufficient.

[ghodlur]

I took a TD of the Kia Carens Luxury plus variant in petrol with iMT to help my BIL firm up his decision on buying the Carens. The car felt longish on the road but spacious on the inside. I rode the car in drivers seat and as a passenger in the last row and the car clicked all the check boxes on driveability, safety feature wise, 3rd row comforts etc easily. The best part wass the 3rd row space. For an almost 6 footer, there was sufficient leg room and head room but only for 2 people of my size. Smaller framed people can easily sit 3.

The car comes to 19L OTR for a BH registration in Pune excluding the Insurance. To tempt customers Kia seems to have bundled the EW, RSA and Maintenance in a 44k package. There is zilch discount offered by Kia - no corporate nor loyalty bonus offered. This was by Crystal Kia (Tilak Road, Pune)

BIL has given the booking amount and chosen the car in Red colour which I personally felt wasnt that great. I found the Mos Brown colour quite appealing followed by Blue. Its a wait n watch as the SA mentioned the waiting time of 2 months atleast. If anyone has any contacts to speed up the delivery process, do kindly let know.