[Kosfactor]

Currently mass market cars have all controls mechanically connected to the business end - except for accelerator. I think that is an okay compromise.

I do like the urgency of a mechanical diesel engine but they also came fitted to vehicles with a lot less modern conveniences, like brakes that would work, steering that requires the upper body strength of an average gorilla, gearbox which is a Gym in itself etc.

Good fun I must admit especially on hill roads, vehicles like those have taught me that its never too late to be careful about life and have some fun

Cars are more than the sum of their parts, so do not worry about NA \ Turbo, HPS \ EPS etc if the vehicle on the whole feels like how it should be according to your taste, take it home and enjoy it.

[Higgs_Boson_i]

Good set of requirements!

I would suggest:
1. The Honda Elevate (seconding other bhpians) who have recommended this car
2. The Thar automatic petrol should fit your budget and also is suitable mechanical in feel!
3. If you can stretch a bit the base innova crysta. It is a solid no nonsense car and will simply last.

Good luck on your purchase!

cheers!

[vaibhav_a_a]

Originally Posted by HereticHermit

My Bad @Jaggu, @Dickey I should have been more cohesive.
I am ok with under 16-17 Lakh budget. Prefer the SUV style simply because of ease of ingress and egress (54 yr old now). I have driver assistance and car when in office so this is purely a personal car. Mostly but twice a year long highway runs, say 6-8 thousand KM per year including hilly terrains, it wont run more than 300-400 Km in city even if I have to use it often, living in a two horse town, there is simply no space to let horses loose here. I am light traveler so not much fussed about space and ok with 5 seater+any boot. Despite being in a small town I do have Audi, Merc showrooms but at best the experience is very unprofessional and they don't do anything other than 'change parts' at your cost and private market/mechanics have not matured beyond being grease monkeys experimenting at your time and cost. The same culture drift down to Maruti level too. So it is important that irrespective of brand, engine is reliable and simple. Frankly I don't care about features over ease of mind but after all these years spent on field vehicles I cant see myself driving a Bolero.
I wont be looking at e-vehicles, only manual/stick shifts on IC. I am not sure if there are lot of choice in turbo engines up to 1500 CC in 4 cylinders. Hill Hold is nice to have but if I am cornered into having more tech, I wont have much option and submit to tech gods, which I am just trying to avoid.
I have not seen or test drove Jimny yet but from what I am reading, its frustratingly under powered engine is the biggest party popper for me.
C3 Aircoss is holding me back on being a 3 pot engine hence this thread for information about other brands/models.

I have similar preferences to yours. Wrote a brief post on my TD experiences here - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/suvs-...ml#post5658290 (Honda Elevate vs Kia Seltos vs Hyundai Creta vs Volkswagen Taigun vs Others) might help. Interestingly despite the age (45+ now), I found Slavia to be likeable but the ingress, egress issue remains. I'll be interested to hear about your progress as well.

[Toni]

Originally Posted by HereticHermit

Going by my almost utilitarian ‘demands’ I am perfectly ok with a Citroën C3 turbo but I really want to hear what TBHPians have to say about other brands. All I am looking for is a ICE vehicle that is not sedan but something of an SUV/pseudo SUV having 4 cylinders, 1200 cc to 1600CC on turbo (not very convinced with 3 pot engines) a sorted suspension (don’t mind a harder setup, the Gypsy never bothered me as such), good if it has creature comforts but their absence is not deal breaker for me.

Go for Citroen C3 as your heart desires so. It has one of the best sorted suspension in this segment. Have a test drive of Honda Elevate as it has been recommended by most BHPians in this thread and then go with your heart.

[FAIAAA]

You need 1) 4 cylinders 2) performance on tap 3) robust mechanicals 4) (relatively) minimal electronics 5) manual gearbox 6) avoid brands like Vw/ Skoda
Out go the insipid Maruti 1.5 NA, exciting but 3 cylinder turbo petrol options ( Xuv 300 Turbosport) and some awesome 1.5 litre 4 cylinder turbo petrol options like Taigun GT.
I will recommend the following, in order of price ( lowest to highest) upto 17 lacs
1. Ignis ( tall boy if not an SUV, only a 1.2 NA engine but power to weight ratio makes it zippy in the city)
2. Elevate ( thrill of the best 1.5 NA engine there is)
3. Seltos Turbo petrol, lower variants of IMT ( clutch less manual and stiff ride though)
4. Thar ( performance, road presence and go any where appeal)

[HereticHermit]

Thank you all for your responses. Having taken note of all the recommendations, I will visit back in due time.
I had not deserted the thread, but death of a parent had me away from tbhp. It also meant that I have to re-evaluate the future requirement and possible shift of workplace that will dictate the type of car I might buy in the end. Incidentally, when I was summoned by my sister to come asap to Delhi, the flights were iffy and no train ticket available. I had to bank upon my trusty old Santro Xing for a 1400 KM one way trip. I normally keep my cars in perpetual primed shape and how did she live up to with all those backend peacetime exercises! As 11-year young she went in hibernation for 6-7 years with 19 K odo reading. 2 year ago I got her back to my work city, even though there was no actual need. She hardly worked hard enough in those 11 years and then went to sleep only to wake up and realise she was basically a panting mule. I slowly brought her around in about 1 and ½ year time and was done with final mechanical sorting few months back.
On her emergency scramble day, at a windless winter afternoon, I had a quite smoke on empty Poorvanchal Expressway and decided to give her Italian tune-up. 2 years back she would sputter and die at 110, to revive back and start running again when needle came down to 85-90. More than being surprised at speed I was amazed at how free running her engine sounded at redline.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

What is a simple mechanical car? I have a 1982 Mercedes w123. It came factory equipped with an electronic ignition!
Any car these days is likely to have fuel injection and that means it will have an ECU and a bunch of sensors.
Again, even on my 1982 W123 the carburettor has some electrical systems!
My 1986 Alfa Romeo sports two computers, one for the ignition, one for the fuel injection.
And the lists goes on. There have been no real 100% mechanical cars made for a very long time, with the odd exception. You might end up with something like an ambassador, or similar.
It might be helpful if we had a better understanding what you would call a mechanical car. What electronic bits are allowed?
Jeroen

Jeroen, I get that you took the title very literally, but I only meant to ask for car models that are not overly dependent upon sensors or driver assist programming or complicated electronic support environment. Of course, no car would work today without basic computing in ECU or electrical plumbing. But sadly, the term ‘basic’ nowadays has just gone silly and give headache to users.
For example, I am ok if the car has ‘brake pad wear out’ warning on dashboard which is based on some sensor input. But problem is the more sensors you have, more chances of some malfunctioning and giving wrong error. I don’t want such sensor when I can depend upon more reliable brain and logbook to know, “OK brake pads were last changed 40,000 KM ago, time to take care of that in next service.” But car makers insist on giving us smart cars are turning people into dumb drivers who are at mercy of company dealer workshops that charge equally dumb amount of money to ‘repair’ the malfunctioning sensor.
I agree, 100% mechanical cars have not been made for a very long time now. But I have no intention to go back in time and drive Saab 96 or Ambassador for sake of avoiding a modern car 😊