[inwester]

Originally Posted by Doonite

1. Kia Carens

We have absolutely no evidence on how a Carens will perform over a long term ownership period. An year into ownership or a couple of months don't matter.

Since it's basically the same thing as a Hyundai Creta / Kia Seltos which both have been the best sellers for over 5 plus years I would say it's fairly reliable.

Originally Posted by Manudon

I actually prefer bench seat to captain seats given that it will be more versatile.
[list=1][*]Reviews about rattles and noises developing in a few months old cars, plastic fading.

100% agree on the bench seats. We have an Innova ZX with captains seats and for my use case (with little kids) I hate taking that car out, because it essentially becomes a 4 seater with luggage. Hence the reason I got Kia Carens in the 7-seater configuration.

Unfortunately this is the reality of Indian market. ALL cars, say under 30-40 lakhs are built poorly due to cost cutting and heavy taxes and this has been a major bane for our market. Everything rattles after a while, some sooner rather than later. You can read about poor headliner in every car, doors not closing in every car, joints and welds exposed in every car, no underbody or wheel well protection etc.etc. The list is long. For what's worth, in my experience of owning a Honda City 5th gen vs Carens, City rattles a lot more than Carens.

[MageshSai]

Originally Posted by RSMM

In 2022 I looked at replacing my diesel Ertiga with 2022 model Ertiga having 6AT gearbox.

How is the AMT experience? Can you compare if you had also experienced TC or DCT?

[RSMM]

Originally Posted by MageshSai

How is the AMT experience? Can you compare if you had also experienced TC or DCT?

There is no AMT in Ertiga. All automatics in Ertiga are 6 speed TC. I am very happy with its performance so far.

[Doonite]

Originally Posted by inwester

Since it's basically the same thing as a Hyundai Creta / Kia Seltos which both have been the best sellers for over 5 plus years I would say it's fairly reliable.

A car being on the same platform does not mean that it will be "fairly reliable".

Creta and Seltos have been selling across the world for years, so there is data to back up their reliability. There is none for Carens as it's a new launch.

Creta and Seltos, both had issues at launch with their transmissions (DCT iirc) and Hyundai's particularly don't have a reputation for aging well with their paint peeling issues and premature (and expensive) part failures.

The OP has specifically mentioned that he wants to keep the ASC visits to a minimum and wants to keep his car for more than a decade. I will absolutely not recommend an Hyundai or Kia.

P.S my family has owned an i20 and Santro Xing, both for more than a decade. Despite being serviced at Hyundai ASS on time, driven by a single driver who babies his cars, they have not been reliable post 5 year period of ownership. Both cars have less than 65k on ODO (Santro was sold in 2014 , i20 still continues to serve but only in the city).

[Manudon]

Originally Posted by CzechItaliaMoto

I don't seem to understand why the Scorpio-N isn't in your short list..

The main reason for dropping the ScorpioN was BoF chassis which makes rides much more jerkier on highways and low city speeds, as per my understanding. Have never gotten a chance to test it out at highway speeds.

On that note, just had an opportunity to go for a long 500km drive for the first time since I decided contemplating a change, and realised that I would want something which is powerful enough and handles well on the highway to generally keep ahead of the traffic. All the plans of rationally deciding the most cost effective option are out of the window

[Joscyriac]

I would suggest you the Marazzo as I have been a Marazzo owner since December 2019 and I'm very satisfied with it. I have driven nearly 26k km with most of it in highways of Kerala. I had booked an Ertiga initially although i didnt really like the idea of buying a Maruti. But as the waiting period was really long, i took TD of a Marazzo. I have been a fan of Mahindra since long and i really liked the way the Marazzo handled. So i booked it and got it in a month. The car can really seat 8 adults comfortably. I get a fuel efficiency of 16.5kmpl on average. I never had to visit the service centre for anything apart from annual services. The annual services cost about 6k. The AC is super powerful and has a separate unit for the rear seats. The 1.5L diesel engine gives 123hp power and have never felt underpowered. I felt it was easy to handle in the cities as well. I would strongly suggest Marazzo. Used low km ones shouldn't cost much as resale value is less.

[trumpcard]

Originally Posted by Joscyriac

I would suggest you the Marazzo as I have been a Marazzo owner since December 2019 and I'm very satisfied with it. I have driven nearly 26k km with most of it in highways of Kerala. I had booked an Ertiga initially although i didnt really like the idea of buying a Maruti. But as the waiting period was really long, i took TD of a Marazzo. I have been a fan of Mahindra since long and i really liked the way the Marazzo handled. So i booked it and got it in a month. The car can really seat 8 adults comfortably. I get a fuel efficiency of 16.5kmpl on average. I never had to visit the service centre for anything apart from annual services. The annual services cost about 6k. The AC is super powerful and has a separate unit for the rear seats. The 1.5L diesel engine gives 123hp power and have never felt underpowered. I felt it was easy to handle in the cities as well. I would strongly suggest Marazzo. Used low km ones shouldn't cost much as resale value is less.

Didn't know that the Marazzo is still available for sale!

[Joscyriac]

Originally Posted by trumpcard

Didn't know that the Marazzo is still available for sale!

Still listed on the Mahindra website. Plus as i said used ones should be available on the market for cheap. As the OP said he intends to use it for 10 years, it'll work out to be cheap to get a used one and then scrap it later.

[KetanRindani]

Originally Posted by sanchari

Depending on usage, Renault Triber is a compact 7-seater, though boot space will be absymal with all seats up, and power is just sufficient. Not an enthusiast's car by any means though

I have test driven the Triber. Horribly noisy. No pickup even on a mild climb. Narrow front seats. It's a compromise vehicle. Not sure why they made it at all.

Originally Posted by Raghu M

I will not buy the Ertiga just because of the safety. 6 airbags or 8, it's an MSIL. Just a wild thought, why don't you look at a used Marazzo.

Respecting your value for safety, I would still say this:

All safety ratings for front-on collisions are given only for speeds of about 65 kmph. At high speeds, even a Scorpio-N or Tata Safari will not be safe. Safety is much more than build quality. The vehicle should have proper lighting, yellow light headlamps and fog lamps, grip handles, night vision IRVMs, hill hold, all 3-point seat belts, high set screens, etc. The emphasis should be on getting the driver to look out of the windshield and windows than towards the touchscreen.

Ideally, the government should ban white lights, set speed limits of 120 across the country, etc.