[rock18]

GC should be a major factor while considering a new car.All manufactures should be aware of the size of the speed breakers existing in our roads.
Fiesta and figo were specifically designed for India but they have low GC.
May be because all the testings were done alone and not with 5 people on board?
I guess Palio 1.2 will not scrap speed breakers as much as the 1.6 because of their higher side profile.
Even Ritz will scrap if fully loaded.
Cars that can comfortably clear all the speed breakers(current market) with full load here:
1.SX4
2.Jazz
4.Please feel free to add it here...Not sure about any sedans?
skoda octavia,corolla?

Cars that can clear most of the big speed breakers but cannot escape some huge mountains
1.Indica
2.Ritz
3.Swift
4.I10

[sumathindra]

[quote=bluevolt;2288215]I think following cars do not have ground clearance issues (I may be wrong)

5. Ford Figo - you load this car with 4 people and a decent sized road hump will scrape the belly! I have experienced this many a times and trust me i go dead slow on them. I also read somewhere that tyre pressures also play an important part in addressing this issue.
quote]

[battada]

I am surprised to see that the Honda City (all variants) are not included in the low GC lists so far. I had the NHC until a month ago, was scraping almost all the Bangalore humps unless I approach them at an angle. Not sure if this has been improved in the ANHC. I have heard horror stories and saw most Hondas slowing down to <5kph to negotiate a hump.
Owners can comment.

[rock18]

Originally Posted by battada

I am surprised to see that the Honda City (all variants) are not included in the low GC lists so far. I had the NHC until a month ago, was scraping almost all the Bangalore humps unless I approach them at an angle. Not sure if this has been improved in the ANHC. I have heard horror stories and saw most Hondas slowing down to <5kph to negotiate a hump.
Owners can comment.

Low GC clearance of OHC,NHC,Baleno,civic are all discussed in various threads.
But low GC of Palio was quite surprising to me.so there might be lot of hidden gems with similar problem.
GC problem of Figo was surprising.I thought it had enough GC to clear all the speed breakers but..

[honeybee]

Are we talking of the GC with only the driver or a fully loaded vehicle? With only a driver, the Santro has a great GC, but once it's loaded up, you need to handle it with absolute care.

Ikon too has a good ground clearance.

[avisidhu]

Originally Posted by battada

I am surprised to see that the Honda City (all variants) are not included in the low GC lists so far. I had the NHC until a month ago, was scraping almost all the Bangalore humps unless I approach them at an angle. Not sure if this has been improved in the ANHC. I have heard horror stories and saw most Hondas slowing down to <5kph to negotiate a hump.
Owners can comment.

Ohh no not at all, the problem still persists with ANHC. Although humps can be avoided by negotiating the correct way, but then you get all these beautiful lunar craters (thanks to the monsoons) that add to the misery.

Add 4 more people and some luggage, there isn't much on the road that the ANHC doesn't 'kiss'

[nimbleguru]

[quote=sumathindra;2289215]

Originally Posted by bluevolt

I think following cars do not have ground clearance issues (I may be wrong)

5. Ford Figo - you load this car with 4 people and a decent sized road hump will scrape the belly! I have experienced this many a times and trust me i go dead slow on them. I also read somewhere that tyre pressures also play an important part in addressing this issue.
quote]

+1 sumathindra - I managed to scrape the car even with 2 people and no luggage (even after all the angleing and stuff) !!
I had given little or no thought about GC. Thanks to FIGO, now I know the importance. Next time, before power/space/milage/looks...first thing in my priority list would be GC !

[rock18]

[quote=nimbleguru;2506985]

Originally Posted by sumathindra

+1 sumathindra - I managed to scrape the car even with 2 people and no luggage (even after all the angleing and stuff) !!
I had given little or no thought about GC. Thanks to FIGO, now I know the importance. Next time, before power/space/milage/looks...first thing in my priority list would be GC !

Same here. As long as i was riding Indica xeta,GC never came into picture.
I even travelled with 7 people on board and at the worst, there was a slight scrap when we passed over a very big speed breaker.

All this changed after i bough S10, I took my family for a ride to my relative's house and to my horror on every big speed breaker,there will be a loud scrapping sound,It was really a bad experience.My father advised me not to buy such cars in the future .

But seriously it was a terrible experience.

So i am still holding on to Xeta's for most of the city drives and Palio for highway drives.

So definitely GC should be very high on my priority list as i travel with 5 people very frequently.

When i go alone,none of the speed breakers scrap the underbelly of S10.

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by rock18

Cars that can comfortably clear all the speed breakers(current market) with full load here:
1.SX4
2.Jazz
4.Please feel free to add it here...Not sure about any sedans?
skoda octavia,corolla?v

Jazz driven around in Bangalore sure does not fit the category of having good GC!

Cheers!

[honeybee]

[quote=rock18;2507478]

Originally Posted by nimbleguru

All this changed after i bough S10 ...

Err, what is S10? I believe I have been away far too long to notice this car appear in the Indian market.

.

[akshay4587]

[quote=honeybee;2508297]

Originally Posted by rock18

Err, what is S10? I believe I have been away far too long to notice this car appear in the Indian market.

.

S10 nahi jaanta
Special edition(Sachin tendulkar) Palio 1.6,in Bright yellow.

[Durango Dude]

My Elantra GLS has a 185mm GC and she is softly sprung too, no wonder she rolls .

[patil]

[quote=Sunrise;2288150]I think these are also cars that do not have issues with GC
i-10
Swift
Figo

Figo never. My friend has a figo and sometimes I also drive it and drive the way I drive my i20. However the figo scrapes on the speed brakers and potholes on which my i20 simply glides without any scrape. So in my honest opinion and as per my practical experience figo does not have sufficient ground clearence.

[patil]

Really a very useful and necessary thread. We all travel no matter which car we own and we do encounter bad roads and very bad roads on our trips. So it is very much essential that our cars have good ground clearence.

I am surprised that no one has mentioned about the i20. My i20 presently runs on 15' wheels fitted with 205/60/R15 tyres and one wont believe that the ground clearence of the car has improved greatly. Initially my i20 was running on standard 14' wheels with 185/65/R14 tyres and even then I never encountered ground clearence issues. However after upgrading to above said tyre and wheel size I am really happy and speed brakers and not so large potholes are never a concern.

In fact SX4 is one of the best sedans considering the ground clearence and the Ritz is one of the best hatchbacks. We actually need high ground clearence cars in India and I mean cars and not SUVs or softroaders. So the car manufacturers should focus on this aspect and offer cars with high ground clearence. In my honest opinion most of the SUV buyers never go for serious off roading but buy SUVs to manage the bad roads and big potholes. However SUVs offer less mileage, are difficult to drive and are expensive to buy.

Has anyone upgraded the tyre size on the all new Hyundai Verna for the sake of improving the ground clearence. Please give your opinion and experience. Actually I am very much intrested in buying the automatic but worried about the ground clearence as where ever I go on a long drive I happen to encounter bad roads. So ground clearence of a car is of utmost priority to me.

[Chewbacca]

Originally Posted by nimbleguru

As long as i was riding Indica xeta, GC never came into picture.

A Tata mechanic once told me that the Zeta will never have GC issues since it has independant suspension design. Both front and rear suspension of Indica / Xeta are independent. Front is wish-bone type and rear is semi trailing arm.

Palio and many others don't have independant rear suspension.

BTW, my 10 years old Lancer SLX has 185 mm GC and has never scraped from below even with 6 people onboard. To get this "peace of mind" I have to maintain the stock tyre profile of 175/80/R13 and maintain the correct trye pressure.