[agd19682]

Dude, to be honest, after reading this thread and your comparisons about the micra, swift and the figo, I think that you are actually looking for a reason to buy a new car. Please don't get me wrong; nothing beats the thrill of driving a brand new car

However, given the situation and the conditions that you have mentioned, you have your path cut out for you:

1. If money is what you are looking for, keep the micra, sell the vento and pocket the 6 lakhs that you get. If you invest the money wisely, you would reap good benefits from it a few years down the line.

2. If convenience is what you are looking out for, keep both the cars. You have a car for city driving as well as a car for making highway runs. Lastly, you don't take that much of a financial hit right away.

3. Lastly, you can sell the micra and keep the money you get for maintaining the Vento in top-notch condition and to hire a driver whenever required. Parking may be difficult while YOU drive around in the city; but not when you have a driver. However, I myself do not recommend the 'hiring a driver' part too much because you know... it kind of kills the joy of driving.

[Passiautonate]

Ford Figo- Though build quality & power dynamics would be a step above Micra you wouldn't gain much in rear space. Go for Jazz, I20 or Baleno if rare space is the contention
Swift- Can be upgrade over Micra but somehow build quality is typical Japanese. Boot, rear space nothing to write about.

I would recommend stay with Vento or figure out an automatic if back to back traffic is a concern.

[hybridpetrol]

Depends on your most important need actually.
Vento is a very good highway car, while Micra can be a very good city commuter.
Since you have mentioned you only need one of these two cars, and not both, please consider the below:
a) How frequent do you travel on highways?
b) How many passengers do you usually carry?

Option 1:
If you carry 3 or more for most of your rides, then you would definitely need some car which gives some good rear comfort. Similarly, if you travel a lot between cities or do road trips frequently, keeping hatchback as your only car (which does not give you sufficient comfort) may not be the right option.
In this case, I would suggest you to keep the Vento. Vento is a very good car, and unless you are specifically having some trouble with your car, you need not sell it.

a) Vento's future after VW's troubles: You can see from recent news that every manufacturer comes out with some revelation or other about their malpractices. I think you need not worry too much about the resale value of the future and try to sell now, because panic fetches poor resale value. When VW sorts things out and when they are out of the mud things will definitely improve on their side. So future resale value should not be a parameter for selling the Vento now.

b) Car parking woes: Vento is after all, not a huge car. I know many who live with cars such as Honda City alone, without troubles.


Option 2:
If most of your rides are within city, and your most rides are 2 or less members, then most obviously you would not need the Vento. If most of your rides have 2 or 3, you can obviously live with the rear seat issue of the Micra. You can sell off Vento in this case, and keep Micra.

Highway drives:
If you are rare to drive on highways, and if you can drive a little sedately, you can obviously use a hatchback for such drives.

NVH levels:
There are other cars that offer much poorer NVH levels (A, B1 segment cars for instance). Micra's NVH levels in my opinion are not that poor. But if you are really concerned about this, you can go to an FNG or ask your Service Advisor about how you can improve them. Probably by adding some insulation, things should improve.


Considering the point you mentioned about the fact that you cannot put a lot of money into a car right now, I would suggest consider one of the above, evaluating the need. Do not take a massive depreciation hit at this point of time, by selling two cars and buying one.
After your financial situation improves, and based on the spare cash you can consider upgrading.
Honestly, car is the last thing you should consider purchasing when your financial condition is not very sound. Reason? DEPRECIATION! Instead, you should reduce costs to get out of the situation first, so we have free flow to enjoy the rides!

[kmadhok]

By most evaluations, your Vento is worth approx 6L, and your Micra approx 4L.
From my reading, a hatchback suits your needs (not wants, just needs). If I were you, I would sell the Vento and the Micra, and then look for a used HatchBack. May take some time finding, but I would think you should be able to get a decent Swift for 5L (lesser if you go in for a petrol, but diesel is your want) in the used car market. and you can invest the remaining 5L.
Loads of folks in the forum me included have found a gem in a used car.

[vikrantj]

I would put some more spice in the mix, why don't you sell both the cars and get a pre-owned low running and well-maintained premium hatchback with all the bells and whistle and probably save more money too.

Vento + Micra would fetch you about 9 lakhs and a top end used i20 or something similar would probably come to about 6 to 8 lakhs.

Of course you will have to scout around for sometime to get a good example of such a vehicle.

[RocketRaccoon]

In my humble opinion you should sell the Nissan Micra and keep the Vento. Selling both to buy a new hatch might sound like a good option but apart from losing financial liquidity (already explained by several members) you will not gain good material value from what you end up spending. This is because you already have a better car than Swift or Figo - a VW Vento. Your VW is new at 16000 on the Odo and can be used for many years to come as it's solidly built. If service costs become too much for you in the future find a good FNG in your area who can service your car for you instead of plonking money at an authorised VW service. A friend who owns a diesel swift gets regular service bills for 11500-16000 for an average 'regular' service at MASS. Same was the case for my 2010 Hyundai 1st gen i20 before I switched to FNG (find it way better than HASS).

[PearlJam]

You've put across the questions very nicely. But I beg to differ with all the others above.

My humble opinion is that, only you and you alone can decide what's good for you, because:

1. Nobody knows your financial limitations, savings, assets, and liabilities other than you.
2. Nobody knows if 4-5 lakhs is a big amount that matters (for you) or not
3. Nobody knows your other responsibilities, commitments
4. Nobody knows the degree to which owning a "solid and enthusiast friendly" Vento matters to you
5. ...Other personal reasons...

As you can already see, you are getting divergent opinions to your first two questions. And in the end, would you be happy to go with what the community has chosen? The head vs heart debate is not something that a community can perhaps decide.

[vamsi2390]

If it is 4L that you are getting for Micra and 6L for Vento, i would say keep the Vento.
I dont see a point in selling a <20K Km run Vento being sold over a Micra just to save 2L as part of the transaction.

Look at this, this way. Someone who wants to buy a Micra will not necessarily be able to afford a Vento because, right now the Micra could be costing in between 7 to 8 (diesel) while the Vento is in between 11 to 12.

And buying a new Vento would not be something you could be doing any time soon going by the financial situation you have just explained.

So sell the Micra, use the Vento for 2- 3 more years after which it should still be able to get you 3 to 4 lakhs which your Micra is fetching right about now.

And do not even think about buying a new car any time soon.

[sub.g84]

Hi Thoma,
I read your posts and read the other posts as well and here are my thoughts:

-Correct me if I am wrong. I believe you are going through a rough financial patch of life which a lot of us go through from time to time.
-Till the tides turn in your favor then do you feel keeping the more expensive to maintain (Vento) in future makes sense?
-You could sell off the Vento get some good cash for the troubled times. Keep it in the bank, let it swell and make yourself more secure.
-A car is always a depreciating commodity. The moment it is driven out of the showroom it's valuation takes a hit. It is not like you keep the Vento now and you get a good value on resale later on.
-In future when you have enough money you can buy a better car(something better than the Vento).
-I know, the Micra might not be very impressive to drive around family and friends in with it's poor NVH, but hey, is impressing people the need of the hour? You could still carry a family of 4. Plus the Micra would be easier to park and drive around in bumper to bumper traffic.
-Always keep money as contingency. You never know when you may need more cash for some unknown emergencies.
-Buying a new car makes no sense at this point of time. You don't really save much by selling the two cars and buying one new car

You probably need to just let your mind speak out for now than rather than your heart.
Well these are just my opinion. Hope you make the right choice after weighing out all the options.

[manson]

Originally Posted by thoma

This is mostly a heart vs mind scenario and many of you could term myself foolish. But on top of it, if you could chip in with some logical thoughts, I would be grateful and may become less foolish.

1. The Vento is an exponentially more complete product over the Micra and surely is worth retaining for the 2 lacs extra it may fetch over the Micra.

2. Our Skoda Laura 2.0 AT is exactly 5 years & 58,000 kms old. The Laura gets serviced once a year and cost involved is 15-20K depending on work carried out. I'd guess the Vento's service cost to be slightly less, 12-15K, but that does not justify the depreciation in value of new car that may purchase.

3. If parking continues to be a hindrance, buy a cheap, rather very cheap, but well kept Santro / Zen / Alto for 50-80K and that should take care of your city errands, whilst still easily saving you 3 Lacs (if not more) above from the Micra sale.

[Amit_breakfree]

Hey.

Why not keep the Vento for your personal use, and maybe lease our Micra to Ola, Uber, or some other local transport operator? I believe Micra is a diesel so there will not be any problem in leasing and you will also have an additional source of income which you can utilize for maintaining your Vento.

Just my two cents.

Thanks.

[v_safari]

I'd suggest you to sell both cars and instead of buying a new hatch, buy a pre-owned good condition hatch form Maruti/Hyundai/Tata.
This will ensure that you have ample money saved, even after buying a replacement car, and peace of mind for future service costs.
Pre-owned diesel Swifts in good condition will be around 4 -5 lakhs, and so will be i20s or grand i10, and Tata Bolt may be a little cheaper, and the best option as of now.
You can even go for a new Bolt, as TATAs are giving heavy discounts, upto 1.1L on 2015 manufactured Bolts, and 50-60K on 2016 Bolts.

[phynix123]

i would suggest to keep the micra for its convenience within the city. you don't need the vento and it's troubles ( cost of maintenance, servicing etc). Micra fills your daily requirements well. Plus it's drivability, reliability and lower cost makes it idea for you. Also, since you asked for logical suggestions, new cars are not recommended.

[babu.sundaram]

Purely from a operational angle.
1. Both cars were bought in 2013.
2. Having both cars cause inconvenience (and hence some cost).
3. Selling Vento gives 6L and Micra gives 4L.
4. Currently under financial stress and expect to become better in ~3 years.
5. Worries on the service costs (Nissan vs VW).
6. Current running 12K KM/year (Expected to go down a bit?).
Would assume that you have no specific preferences between these two.

A car loses its maximum value in the early years. Selling a 2013 car now would make you lose the most. Modern cars easily last a lakh KM. 25K (worse of two) is not high at all. Even at the current rate (12K KMs/year) any of them would last 5 more years at least.

Given having cash now would benefit, you should sell which ever fetches you more money (VW) and keep the other until time. This would also get you off the worrisome VW service.

PS: I would expect Micra service / spare costs to be low given the taxi usage, but only owners can confirm.

[aaggoswami]

My view might be different than others.

Option 1:

Sell both cars, get Figo or Swift and you may still have bit of cash on hand. This would also mean that you will have brand new car which might have lesser service/maintenance cost. I agree that modern cars are very reliable, but having a new car boosts peace of mind factor.

Vento is an excellent highway car, but your fears are quite fair. Micra is not as capable, and can serve reasonably good only in city confines.

Option 2 :

In case you dont want to make a purchase, sell Micra and keep VW. The day you hit highway, VW will be a much safer bet than Micra. I might not be entirely correct, but Micra is not a really sought after car in used car market, nor does it have snob value of VW. You will have some amount of cash on hand, so the service/maintenance cost wont hit you as hard.