[deepakhon]

If this is what you call "learning stages", I am beginning to wonder how your reviews would be when you have "learned enough".

I will just be stating the obvious if I say that it is an excellent review and report. Kudos to your patience and passion.

[Mafioso]

@sid, hats off man..i was blown over reading through this review..amazing this is!! we dont need any subscription to magazines if we can have such great reviews from you..

Outstanding Review

[_raVan_]

Thanks for the extremely detailed comparisons sid. Its indeed a brilliant work

If I am not asking for more, can you add a new section for Safety features? Also, adding i10 to the list would be good.

[007]

Again one more awesome review by sid.
Great work!
How you manage all this ?

[razrman]

Wonderful Sid. I have always appreciated the depth you go into and the total unbiased nature of your reviews. Keep it up.

[lionell]

Brilliantly penned review. This gives a lot of insight into the hatchback scenario in India.

The comparisons are top notch on all parameters. This thread is a lifeline. Thank you Sid.

[Sn1p3r]

In-depth, amazing thought clarity and unbiased. I think all the news channels should pool in together and invite Team-bhp rather than just run a sales campaign for highest bidder of the week

But I still dont understand why Jazz didn't top the desirable tag (most points scored @nipunkul). We all agree that its expensive but again during resale you will get that extra back. More over the peace of mind is substantial for an owner. I have Toyota(Corolla, Innova-D, Qualis-D), Honda(City OHC, Zx vtec, ANHC, CRV-1st gen), Fiat (Palio-Style), Ford (Icon 1.6), Tata (Indica,Safari), Maruti (Baleno), Skoda (Superb-new petrol) all in our extended family and I do get a chance every week to switch cars and drive them extensively. I feel for average commute nothing beats Honda or Toyota for whole experience even if its not perfect, for rest something or the other goes wrong, e.g., the plastics show age after few years (we dont have shaded parking for all the cars); Maruti/Fiat/Ford are biggest culprits here. Tata A.S.S has not been that bad, you just need to find a good serice centre. I had to find the right service centre for my Maruti too (some were outright bad mechanics (Saya/Vipul), some very good(Apra)).

Quote: @Sid This forms the mot important criteria in the purchase decision because for most families, this will be their only car and hence, has to perform all the tasks that an average Indian car buyer demands.

I greatly admire the balance that Sid took here while comparing. This car-segment abroad is mainly for enthusiast at lower price bracket than racing cars to enjoy driving and rip/customize cars, here in India we again are looking at mass machine. So the comparison was great. I am sure VW Polo will spice up the scence soon, if they price it right.

As Sid mentions: It all boils down to the requirements of the customer.

Thanks Sid.

[Sawyer]

Originally Posted by sidindica

It’s a close call, again between the Ritz and the I20, declared as joint winners as both these cars tick most of the boxes right and very few wrong.

The ritz will appeal to city dwellers who want a practical car with high visibility, decent ride and handling, amazing performance and mileage from its new generation KB series engine and most importantly, the sheer value for money it offers in terms of equipment levels in the ZXI. Cramped rear and small boot with questionable rear styling are small things that an average car buyer can live with.The peace of mind coming with the maruti badge is another jewel in its crown.

The I20, on the other hand will appeal to those who want a safe, spacious and comfortable car with lots of features and do some highway runs. Though the engine is uninspiring, it more than makes up with decent mileage, stability and the peace of mind that comes with the hyundai badge, making it easy to live with.

The Ritz and I20 are good, competent all rounders that take the best ingrediants from all the cars and blends them into a recipe of optimality, something that we people need.

And we Indians love optimality. Don’t we?

Great summary, and part of the reason I say this is because I went through all the cars mentioned, TD and all, other than the GMI ones, just last month before opting for the i 20 1.2. For exactly the same reasons, down to the uninspiring engine comment! I would add a decent boot to the i 20 summary, but that is picking nits. My compliments on doing all this work as public service, because I realize fully the time and effort it entails.
A suggestion to make this amenable to customization to individual user needs and judgements. What is missing in your scoring is weightages for the different criteria. I am sure that all cannot be considered to have exactly the same weight. If you were to also add a table that captures the point scores for all the cars, criteria wise, with a final column that contains the weights for each criterion as assigned by you, then the weighted scores for each car will allow you to summarize more effectively. And allow us to see the numbers as well. And, if anyone disagrees with the weightages based on their personal preference, which is very possible, it would be an easy thing for that person to tweak the weightages to arrive at final scores on the basis of reassigned weights that will allow for scores that make more sense to an individual way of looking at the cars. Keeping all the raw scores intact given the work that you have obviously put in, but allowing for that final important tweak that has to be subjective.

[uneet]

Originally Posted by sidindica

Fuel efficiency:

On typical Delhi traffic with 90% AC on, expect these figures:

Skoda fabia- 4 /10

• City-8-9 kmpl
• Highway-11-12 kmpl

Fiat Punto-5 /10

• City-9.5-10 kmpl
• Highway-12.5-13 kmpl

Honda Jazz -7 /10

• City-12 kmpl
• Highway-15-16 kmpl

Hyundai getz- 6 /10

• City-10.5 kmpl
• Highway-14 kmpl

Hyundai I20- 7 /10

• City-11.5 kmpl
• Highway-15-16 kmpl

Tata indica Vista- 4 /10

• City-8-9 kmpl
• Highway-12.5 kmpl

Chevrolet aveo 5- 6 /10

• City-11 kmpl
• Highway-14-15 kmpl

Maruti swift-7 /10

• City-11.4 kmpl
• Highway-15-16 kmpl

Maruti Ritz- 8 /10

• City-12.5-13 kmpl
• Highway-17 kmpl

Hello Sid,

Congrats once again for an excellent all round reviews with comparison for all the cars.

I may differ with you on few points here:

Firstly I strongly feel that you have been little too biased against the three pot engine of Skoda Fabia by under-rating him to an extent that its giving an impression of a wonderful product with a useless engine.

In support of my arguments Iam giving you the detail for the milaege of all these cars as per "Auto Car India" the most credible Indian Auto magzine.

CAR MODEL MILAEGE (CITY) (HIGHWAY) 20 - 80 40-100

HONDA JAZZ 12.3 16.9 15.96 sec 22.97 sec

FIAT PUNTO 9.7 15.0 15.27 sec 21.72 sec

MARUTI RITZ 11.8 16.7 15.78 sec 27.10 sec

HYUNDAI I20 11.2 16.0 16.98 sec 22.23 sec

INDICA VISTA 10.3 15.5 15.54 sec 21.88 sec

SKODA FABIA 9.7 15.2 13.65 sec 21.17 sec

Given by you 8-9 12-13 NOT MENTIONED
(For Fabia)

Though I totally agree with you that the engine is the main let down for Fabia as you will clearly see that "Fabia emerged as a clear winner in the 20-80 third gear slot and a strong midrange actually makes Fabia quite nice to drive. Its more than acceptable in the city and once in the highway where you spend most of the time in the midrange, it runs without too much effort."

I still feel that Fabia has a strong under rated 3 cylindar engine which is still able to do the job quite decently.

[s_pphilip]

wow thats an in depth comparison dude, well written though photos could be better detailed, well we recently had to decide between the i10, ritz, swift, vista saffire, all petrols and finally booked the ritz, i10 is good but is a class smaller, Ritz is new and we actually seemed to fancy the new edgy design, maruti provides peace of mind over Vista, not that Vista is bad, but cant say.
Your case study will help many. You seem to be a full fledged tester, or are you just an enthusiast, I read a diesel comparison elsewhere. I was pretty impressed with the Vista quadrajet aura, well when we went for a testdrive of the petrol we were offered the diesel as they didnt have a petrol at hand. I also checked the Ritz DDis and Swift DDis and posted my impressions here. I think the Ritz DDis is better than others in the budget B+ segment, this segment has outgrown and become pricey too.

[fi.robin]

Originally Posted by sidindica

Fuel efficiency:

On typical Delhi traffic with 90% AC on, expect these figures:

Skoda fabia- 4 /10

• City-8-9 kmpl
• Highway-11-12 kmpl

Very nice comparison sid, as always.

There is a slight difference in my observation. I own a Fabia 1.2 Amb and I have consistently got better FE than those mentioned above. On my Bangalore - Daman - Bangalore trip I covered 2600 kms (which included 300 km of city driving in Pune and Mumbai as well) and got overall FE of more than 16. This despite constantly being in the 100-120 km/h between Hubli - Pune bothways and not to mention the pune mumbai expressway. I have managed better figures than this with a more sedate driving. In fact my overall FE till now is 13.7, with 13300 kms on odo.

Now I am not trying to make any bones here, we all know 3 pot is after all 3 pots only. The engine does not do justice to the car.

[NutsNBolts]

How much valuable sid's contribution is in this particular test, I realised today while watching a comparo between Honda Jazz and Fabia 1.2. Even to a novice like me, it clearly looked like a paid advertisement for Honda jazz.

The host was all gaga over Jazz interiors while not even showing a single shot of Fabia. The "auto expert" on the show was honest in one thing, he did not want to recommend any one of the cars due to price, but on host's cajoling, gave a thumbs up for Jazz.

After seeing the show I remembered this Navratna and the unbiased view of sidindica. Congrats again Sid, keep up the unbiased reviewing.

[TheARUN]

After reading this, I want to start a poll.

Does SID deserve to become a Distinguished BHPian

[penpavan]

Originally Posted by sidindica

Interior design and quality

• Fiat Punto: 6 /10

I did a TD yesterday and find this to be true. The quality is below standard and finish disappoints you badly. Another thing: the door open knobs for the front passengers are placed way too forward i felt.

[Sagittarian]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

Great report again sid, Did you test these FE figures or are these ones imaginary?

How does one get FE figures by imagination? Someone musta tested