[ABeeBytes]

While You've clearly stated your budget constraints, I would enthusiastically nudge you to consider the Nexon EV.
It checks all the requirements boxes, Safety, GC, Reliability ETC. Plus the price premium of 4-5 L would be easily made within 2 years with a 30-35K annual run. The Petrol savings would more than easily make up for any extra EMI.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Sanidhya mukund

I will soon be travelling 100 Kms every day.

Diesel or CNG would be nice to have. Significantly lower running costs.

The car will mostly be chauffeur driven, so the rear seats have to be supportive. It will also be driven by me when the chauffeur is not available.

Back seat must be good, although you can ride shotgun too. Comfortable ride quality also a must.

1. Ford Aspire Titanium+ Petrol/Diesel
2. Honda Amaze S CVT Petrol/Diesel
3. Maruti Ertiga VXI CNG

I would pick the Ertiga. You anyways have a Benz for fun & luxury, so this car can also double up as the super practical choice for other family members, airport runs, highway trips etc. It's perfect for being chauffeur-driven and abuse friendly (all chauffeurs abuse cars). Please do check out the XL6's captain seats as well.

[lamborghini]

The Ertiga would be my pick as well for a chauffeur driven beater car.

Next up would be the WRV over the Amaze : Global platform, better build quality, etc.

The Aspire / Figo are great cars, would have made sense if it were more self driven (cracker of a diesel engine, but an average rear seat experience).

[viXit]

Originally Posted by Sanidhya mukund

2.Honda-
i. City [4] and City [5] are too big, and probably not as efficient as I would have liked.

Hey man,


Forget the City 5,

But the city gen 4 Diesel is a super efficient car! Please pick this diesel. You say this will be chauffeur driven, so the MT only diesel shouldn't bother you much. It's a very relaxed drive, and has great fuel efficiency. The back seat according to me, is the most comfortable amongst all the options you have mentioned in this post, how tall are you, just to guage back seat comfort.

The car is quite feature rich too, and being an older model, it's got some good discounts running.
Many will advice you against a honda because of their Uncertain future in India, but in 5 years of my and many others ownerships, maintenance has been stupid simple, only oil changes and brake checks.

You will hate the build of the car, the way it's engine drives, sounds, but the car is tremendously practical. I suggest you to look hard at this option once more. And for 100 kms everyday, Im guessing you have some highway driving involved, I've extracted close to 30 Kilometres from every litre of Diesel I put into the tank.The sixth gear in the Diesel MT helps matters tremendously .It's a heavenly feeling, considering the abysmally low Fuel Efficiency my safari gives.

[Sanidhya mukund]

Originally Posted by karan0009

Amaze Diesel CVT fits your requirements

Thank you for the reply!

Originally Posted by arindambasu13

If for some reason you are able to stretch to the Ecosport Titanium diesel, pick it up eyes closed. The extra money would go a long way to wards superb build quality, good looks, sturdy build, equally god engine and superb highway mannerisms.

Thank you for the reply! After reading your post, I checked out the pricing and equipment of Ecosport Titanium. Man, This car offers terrific value for money! at about 11.5 lakhs, you get almost all the equipment one could ever need or want. In addition, you also get solid build, 550 mm water wading ability and great driving dynamics! thanks a tonne for this suggestion. Adding the Ecosport to my shortlist.

Originally Posted by Turbokick

My choices from the cars mentioned would be :

2. WRV Diesel
* Even better space management than Amaze. Fixed headrests are problem though
* Feels more well built. NVH is better (important if someone travels a lot)
* 18+ kmpl is possible for 80% of the time from this engine.
* Boot space is good

Originally Posted by lamborghini

Next up would be the WRV over the Amaze : Global platform, better build quality, etc.

Thank you for your replies guys! I never knew one could get a WRV with a Diesel engine. SV model seems to have every major feature and is priced reasonably at 11.25 Lakhs. Added to the shortlist.

Originally Posted by ABeeBytes

While You've clearly stated your budget constraints, I would enthusiastically nudge you to consider the Nexon EV.
It checks all the requirements boxes, Safety, GC, Reliability ETC. Plus the price premium of 4-5 L would be easily made within 2 years with a 30-35K annual run. The Petrol savings would more than easily make up for any extra EMI.

Thank you for the suggestion, mate! Even I had thought about the Nexon EV. The savings WRT fuel costs seemed very tempting. However, the only deterrent for me is the fact that EV tech still hasn't reached the levels of reliability that I would have liked. Also, if I am correct, high running and frequent charging would mean that by the time the car is 4-5 years old, the battery will probably get significantly worn out.

Originally Posted by GTO

Diesel or CNG would be nice to have. Significantly lower running costs.
I would pick the Ertiga. You anyways have a Benz for fun & luxury, so this car can also double up as the super practical choice for other family members, airport runs, highway trips etc. It's perfect for being chauffeur-driven and abuse friendly (all chauffeurs abuse cars). Please do check out the XL6's captain seats as well.

Thank you for the reply, GTO! I would have loved to consider the XL6/Ciaz/S-cross, but I am a little apprehensive about their running costs. I don't think any of them would give more than 10-12 in the city and with petrol prices hovering around the 100 rupee mark, they are probably not going to be cheap to run.

Originally Posted by viXit

Hey man,

But the city gen 4 Diesel is a super efficient car! Please pick this diesel. You say this will be chauffeur driven, so the MT only diesel shouldn't bother you much. It's a very relaxed drive, and has great fuel efficiency. The back seat according to me, is the most comfortable amongst all the options you have mentioned in this post, how tall are you, just to guage back seat comfort.

Hello Vixit! Thank you for the reply! I would have loved to consider the 4th gen City, if it weren't for the fact that it is now available as a petrol only model. Still, reading your experience with this engine is very reassuring! gives me an idea about what to expect from this engine in the Amaze/WRV. thanks!

[Bhupesh_2628]

Originally Posted by GTO

Diesel or CNG would be nice to have. Significantly lower running costs.

Originally Posted by Sanidhya mukund

Thank you for the reply, GTO! I would have loved to consider the XL6/Ciaz/S-cross, but I am a little apprehensive about their running costs. I don't think any of them would give more than 10-12 in the city and with petrol prices hovering around the 100 rupee mark, they are probably not going to be cheap to run.

Hello Sanidhya,

I think you may have missed GTO's suggestion to consider fuel type as CNG too which is the only alternative to diesel considering the high running cost of petrol.

[viXit]

Originally Posted by Sanidhya mukund

Hello Vixit! Thank you for the reply! I would have loved to consider the 4th gen City, if it weren't for the fact that it is now available as a petrol only model. Still, reading your experience with this engine is very reassuring! gives me an idea about what to expect from this engine in the Amaze/WRV. thanks!

I apologize for the outdated info, really sorry.
But if you're choosing the amaze diesel, the CVT is unbeatable in comfort. The engine is very torquey low down the rev range. But not high revving at all. all the power is down low. so pottering around town will be super effortless and relaxing. But I have an axe to grind with the seating of our amaze. I cannot rest my legs on either side onto the centre console or the door. they are too far from the pedals. Suggest you to take a long test drive keeping this point in mind. Very few cars are as ergonomically sorted as the merc you drive.

Sorry, and hope you find the right car

[arindambasu13]

Originally Posted by Sanidhya mukund

Thank you for the reply!

Thank you for the reply! After reading your post, I checked out the pricing and equipment of Ecosport Titanium. Man, This car offers terrific value for money! Adding the Ecosport to my shortlist.

Very good call. Yes the Ecosport is an old warhorse, however, the Titanium and variants above that offer superb value with good safety kit, performance and reliability packed into it. Happy to hear that it is back on your shortlist

[porsche_guy]

If you are open to the used market, there's a whole lot more you can actually explore. A 2017-18 Ciaz SHVS could be an option worth exploring. It does give upto 20kmpl in real world conditions and the backseat is very spacious as well. Being in NCR you might even find those for a bargain. This should ideally be better than every other new option on your list because it's frugal, comfortable and a full size sedan instead of the Jugaads.

[PaddleShifter]

A few queries Sanidhya.

1. Is 100km per day meant only for city roads or does that involve highway driving as well where you can do 70-75kmph for reasonable duration?

2. For how many years do you forsee being an owner of this car? I mean do you intend to keep it till its end of life or does high running of 3000km per month or roughly 40,000km per year mean that you will end up driving it for 2-3 lac Km in say 5-8 years and thus years do not matter?

You need to factor the following:
1. Petrol car life of 15 years vs 10 years for diesel.
2. Petrol car can be modded reliably to CNG/LPG etc but diesel car will remain a diesel car.
3. CNG cars are the cheapest to run. Ertiga scores very high as pointed out by GTO himself.
4. Maruti Smart Hybrid (mild hybrid system) cars are exempted from odd even rule. A similar thread is running on Team-BHP. If this is valid today, SHVS Maruti cars present the strongest point for consideration.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...even-rule.html (Maruti Ertiga & Ciaz diesels with SHVS exempt from Delhi's odd-even rule)


I would say that if diesel car fits your requirement, stick to the Hondas. Else, restrict yourself to the Maruti showroom because of the CNG (Ertiga) or SHVS offering (XL6/S-Cross).

Originally Posted by Sanidhya mukund

I would have loved to consider the XL6/Ciaz/S-cross, but I am a little apprehensive about their running costs. I don't think any of them would give more than 10-12 in the city and with petrol prices hovering around the 100 rupee mark, they are probably not going to be cheap to run.

As I own S-Cross and Leoshashi routinely updates his XL6 ownership thread, I can say with confidence that 1.5 petrol engine of Suzuki is quite fuel efficient with respect to other petrol engines.

Diesel engines truly shine on the highways in context of fuel efficiency. In city, my diesel punto used to give 13-14kmpl max. And comparing the current fuel prices, 10-12kmpl on a petrol car isn’t bad compared to a diesel car such as the Punto.

So, for one liter fuel, while my diesel punto ran (on an average) 2km more in city conditions, the gap increased to 5-7km on the highways in similar conditions.

[Sanidhya mukund]

Originally Posted by Bhupesh_2628

Hello Sanidhya,

I think you may have missed GTO's suggestion to consider fuel type as CNG too which is the only alternative to diesel considering the high running cost of petrol.

Hello Bhupesh! Yes, I had seen the message, my reply was only with respect to GTO's suggestion of XL6. Ertiga CNG is already one of the contenders in my shortlist.

Originally Posted by viXit

But I have an axe to grind with the seating of our amaze. I cannot rest my legs on either side onto the centre console or the door. they are too far from the pedals. Suggest you to take a long test drive keeping this point in mind. Very few cars are as ergonomically sorted as the merc you drive.

Sorry, and hope you find the right car

Thanks for the info. Will definitely keep this in mind when I try out the Amaze. I hope it isn't much of an issue for me as I am not very tall. However, this could be a problem for my driver who is 6' 4''. Thanks!

Originally Posted by porsche_guy

If you are open to the used market, there's a whole lot more you can actually explore. A 2017-18 Ciaz SHVS could be an option worth exploring. It does give upto 20kmpl in real world conditions and the backseat is very spacious as well. Being in NCR you might even find those for a bargain. This should ideally be better than every other new option on your list because it's frugal, comfortable and a full size sedan instead of the Jugaads.

Hello Porsche_guy! thank you for the suggestion! unfortunately, I am not very comfortable with used cars, especially because my running is quite high.

Originally Posted by PaddleShifter

A few queries Sanidhya.

1. Is 100km per day meant only for city roads or does that involve highway driving as well where you can do 70-75kmph for reasonable duration?

Hello PaddleShifter! Yes, the running will be a mix of highway+city. 50 Km one way. However, the route is known to have heavy traffic during peak hours, so I am considering the city KMPL figures for the shortlisted cars.

Originally Posted by PaddleShifter

2. For how many years do you forsee being an owner of this car? I mean do you intend to keep it till its end of life or does high running of 3000km per month or roughly 40,000km per year mean that you will end up driving it for 2-3 lac Km in say 5-8 years and thus years do not matter?

My daily run is high, but it would probably be limited to 5-6 days a week. Also, I expect this to be the situation for the next 4-6 years, after which, my running may reduce again. Thus, the car will probably do 1.5 lakh Km during the first 4-5 years, but will subsequently not do any more than 10k every year. I keep my cars for a long time, so I expect to keep it until the end of its legal life in NCR.

Originally Posted by PaddleShifter

You need to factor the following:
1. Petrol car life of 15 years vs 10 years for diesel.

Thank you so much for pointing this out! I had simply failed to factor this in! After reading your post, I did a quick calculation of diesel vs Petrol, and of all the cars that I have shortlisted, I found out that I will save anywhere between 60k and 2.4 lakhs in 4 years if I buy diesel, but after that, The diesel car will be worth nothing! I also loose out on 5 years of extra life that a petrol car offers. Do you think the savings on diesel are worth losing 5 more years of NCR validity?

Originally Posted by PaddleShifter

2. Petrol car can be modded reliably to CNG/LPG etc but diesel car will remain a diesel car.
3. CNG cars are the cheapest to run. Ertiga scores very high as pointed out by GTO himself.

Very true, but if I go for CNG, I am strictly restricting myself to factory fitted options. Have heard way too many stories about aftermarket ones going wonky or even exploding!

Originally Posted by PaddleShifter

4. Maruti Smart Hybrid (mild hybrid system) cars are exempted from odd even rule. A similar thread is running on Team-BHP. If this is valid today, SHVS Maruti cars present the strongest point for consideration.
I would say that if diesel car fits your requirement, stick to the Hondas. Else, restrict yourself to the Maruti showroom because of the CNG (Ertiga) or SHVS offering (XL6/S-Cross).

So if we consider the reduced life of diesel cars and if we also factor in the fact that the only real savings will be for the first 4-6 years, do you think it makes sense to get a diesel car over a petrol one? The 10 year lifespan of a diesel car is a real bummer for me.

[PaddleShifter]

Originally Posted by Sanidhya mukund

So if we consider the reduced life of diesel cars and if we also factor in the fact that the only real savings will be for the first 4-6 years, do you think it makes sense to get a diesel car over a petrol one? The 10 year lifespan of a diesel car is a real bummer for me.

I had deliberately refrained from pointing out a specific car in my previous post but had instead opted to share my honest viewpoints regarding your usage scenario. It is a bit difficult to arrive at a conclusion so easily.

Two factors that you have mentioned in the quoted post in response to my previous post are:
1. Diesel car vs petrol car life: Based on what you mentioned (regarding keeping the car till its end of legal life), diesel car does not make sense provided your high running does not extend beyond a particular timeline. Once your running reduces after 1.5 lac Km and 4-6 years, I exepect the car to serve you will for the next 8-10 years with reduced running.
A car with 1.5 lac Km on the odo does not have a good resale anyway (in general) so it is always better to use such car as long as possible.

2. Savings for 4-6 years: When I bought a diesel car in 2010, my monthly running was merely 300km which eventually increased so much that I did 1.2 lac Km in 6 years. In those days, I would believe that it is better to get bitten once (pay extra for diesel car) that get pinched every day (fuel cost). The difference between Petrol (Rs50/L) and diesel (Rs32/L) was substantial. Today it is around just Rs8-10/L and feels even less when calculated in terms of percentage difference compared to 2010. Diesel cars are also said to undergo greater wear and tear than their petrol counterparts. I am leaving the mathematical and comfort (to pay fuel charges) related calculations upto you here.
Personally, my 2010 diesel punto had same usage scenario as yours. It ran 1.2 lacs in the first 6 years. My running reduced after that and it has done a total of 1.35 lacs as of today after 11 years). Its resale is peanuts (mainly because it is a FIAT) and its annual service cost has shot up to Rs25000 mainly because of wear and tear parts replacement one by one during each service (clutch, brakes, suspension, timing chain of diesel engine etc).

Apart from these two factors, if I were in your place, I’d give much more emphasis to the Delhi’s odd even rule. I want to have a car at my disposal on all days with such running. Are CNG cars exempted from odd even too, like EVs and hybrids?

Finally, factory CNG car definitely seems better deal than diesel. It will have a lower running cost than both petrol and diesel cars. CNG cars are even exempted from green tax.

https://www.businessinsider.in/busin...w/80473971.cms

[Sanidhya mukund]

Originally Posted by PaddleShifter

Apart from these two factors, if I were in your place, I’d give much more emphasis to the Delhi’s odd even rule. I want to have a car at my disposal on all days with such running. Are CNG cars exempted from odd even too, like EVs and hybrids?


https://www.businessinsider.in/busin...w/80473971.cms

Thank you so much for your insights!

Based on our conversation, I did a few cost-benefit calculations and found out that petrol may not be a bad choice after all, especially if I get a fuel efficient model. Will definitely look at the K-series range of cars.

The odd-even scheme may not be an issue since I already have an odd numbered car, so I will try to get an even number for my next one.


Regards
Sanidhya

[ABeeBytes]

We have this wonderful thread from BHPian LeoShashi that I was hooked to. Interestingly, XL6 petrol Hybrid returns close to 17-18 KMPL (19.9 for the BHPian in 1 trip). That would be pretty sweet.

EV could work out if the intended run is doing city runs for upto 100-150 Kms daily; Even a regular socket would bump you back to 100% overnight.

The battery gets a 8yr/1.6L km warranty to cover the concern of battery wear over 4-5 years. Electrics don't incur many other service costs, so that would sure offset some of the cost of a replacement battery if it comes to that.

[sierrabravo98]

Originally Posted by ABeeBytes

We have this wonderful thread from BHPian LeoShashi that I was hooked to. Interestingly, XL6 petrol Hybrid returns close to 17-18 KMPL (19.9 for the BHPian in 1 trip). That would be pretty sweet.

The XL6 does indeed deliver excellent FE in relatively free flowing traffic (which 95% of NCR traffic is). My father's daily office commute (Central Delhi - Gurgaon) is about 60kms and the car generally delivers over 17kmpl (sometimes close to 22). And this is the Automatic variant I am talking about. The manual should be even more fuel efficient. In my experience, the TC gearbox is most inefficient in bumper to bumper traffic. Hence, a manual buyer should be fine in that scenario.

Attaching an image of the trip FE figures. These are pretty accurate (verified multiple times using tankful to tankful method). Again, this is for the automatic variant. The manual will deliver better FE.