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Best car under Rs 10 lakhs: Ignis AMT, Amaze CVT, Brezza or Bolero Neo

28th November 2022, 12:13 by Rahul Nagaraj

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This will be the only car in the house, hence will be used for both city & highway running.

BHPian sinhead recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Please help me decide on a new car.

Cars I’m considering – Ignis AMT, Amaze CVT, Brezza LXi (Manual), Bolero Neo.

Budget – Rs 10 Lakh.

My usage

50% city, 50% highway.
No commuting in rush hour.
The car will be used once a week, sometimes once a month.
Yearly running 5,000 km.

*I understand, in my budget I will have to compromise on something or the other.

Expectations

This will be the only car in the house.

Reliable. Trustworthy. Confidence, to just take the car to a sudden/unplanned highway trip. (reference - many videos of brand new Tata Tigor, Nexon not starting).
Comfortable front seats. 5 hr highway drive should not be tiring. I think upright seating might be better. Reasonable thigh support on front seats, Pedal height – I do pay attention to it.
Planted feel at 90 km/h.
I will prefer an Automatic. Manual only if the clutch is light and/ or the clutch travel is short.
Cabin insulation from traffic noise.

My driving style

Normal. neither fuel economy-oriented nor revving high all the time.
Highway cruising at 90 km/h.
0 to 100 not important, but a good 20 to 60, 50 to 90 km/h is enjoyable once in a while. But again I will compromise on this aspect if needed.
I don't want too many gizmos or features. I prefer base or one above base variants.
But since automatics are not available in base variants of these cars, I am forced to increase my budget, and thus confusion arises to get a better car with manual transmission -> eg Amaze automatic vs Brezza LXi manual.

Cars I like

Toyota Etios - I wouldn’t even start this thread if it was available.
S-Cross is gone.
Citroen C3, the dealer is 30 km away. Plus no automatic.

*I took a short test drive of the Amaze CVT and Ignis manual only.

Maruti Ignis

I like it.
Parents are not very keen on this.
Might be discontinued soon.

Honda Amaze CVT.

Ok overall. Appears to be a safe choice.

In a short test drive, slow speeds. It seemed good. But I can feel that a sudden demand for acceleration will be lethargic. Fuel economy in the city won't be more than 11/12.
Rear seat comfort - very good.
Front seat comfort - something is not right. I am concerned w.r.t long drives. (Aura’s front seats felt better)
I don't feel good spending 9.5L / 10.5L on this.
I can hope it grows on me and I adjust to it.

Maruti Brezza LXi (Manual)

Safe choice. not much worry till 15 yrs. Seems ready for BS6.2, E20 etc.
Cons - waiting period - 6 months. even then the car allocated to me might be sold to someone else who pays more.
Automatic is very expensive. Almost Rs 13 lakhs for VXi.

No test drive yet. The car wasn't available.

Mahindra Bolero Neo

Will be a nice change because I have owned a hatchback and a sedan.
Should be easy to drive in normal city traffic- as per my experience driving a safari once - Auto Rickshaws and bikers kept a distance.
Cons - not sure if this engine is BS6.2 / RDE compliant.
Resale in 9th year (50K driven)?

The test drive is due this week.

Here's what BHPian petrolHead_1609 had to say on the matter:

Quick takeaways
Only car - Should be a good city and highway vehicle.
A lot of idle time is being used once a week or sometimes once a month. Need a reliable one.
Average distance per ride - 100 km (5000 km annually considering once a week ride). Needs to be comfortable.
50% highway usage - an engine which doesn't feel out of breath
Driving once a week, not in traffic - manual should be good.
Not too aggressive driving style - better to stay away from turbos.
Suggestions
Honda City V (4th gen) should be a good car. Plush, reliable, sweet 1.5L NA, a good handler up to 100 km/h, VFM.
Handa City V (5th gen), for approx 1.5L more, you get a newer gen, quite a few more features and ESP being a standout. Mentioning these as you're anyways looking at Brezza for around 13L. I feel the above two are VFM and match exactly your requirements. You can even look at pre-owned City from 2020-2021.
Among your shortlist
Ignis - parents don't like it, skip it.
Amaze CVT - that rubber band effect on 1.2L NA is not a combination to make you smile often. Can consider the manual though, Honda 1.2 NA manuals are way better than hyundai and Maruti.
Brezza - I do have a hard time considering anything 'compact' north of 13L without bringing the city into the equation. Do see the feature sets and nothing beats Honda 1.5 NA.
Bolero Neo - quite happy to see this car on your shortlist but given that running can be avoided. Much more suited to be a workhorse.

Here's what BHPian swoosh had to say on the matter:

Nothing beats Honda's reliability. Amaze might have a few quality issues unlike other Honda cars but you will not have Tata or Skoda-type reliability issues.
For this budget, I would also suggest a used Honda City CVT which has more power, space, and better quality than all the cars available below 10 lakhs

Here's what BHPian Beingtraveler had to say on the matter:

I'd pick Brezza over any of these:
4-star safety
Reliable engine
Comfortable ride
Easy to drive in the city and good highway manners as well.
No non-sense car, even if you don't use it for a month, it still starts in the first self
Higher GC means no need to worry much about bad roads.
Suzuki's service network
Good resale value
Ignis - Good car too, but if you're considering Brezza, then why settle for a lower-segment car?
Amaze - Another good car, but not as comfortable as Brezza, especially if you're a tall person.
Bolero Neo - you mentioned 5k km annually and sometimes even once a month, better not go for a diesel vehicle then.

Here's what BHPian shancz had to say on the matter:

Some points worth considering:
Your low running means any car can end up with the car not starting issue due to a depleted battery. Get a charger like Bosch C7 or even the C3 if unwilling to spend more and keep the car connected to it when you're away to avoid surprises and premature battery failure. Lesser the always-on features, the better the backup but a balance has to be struck.
With such low usage, no bumper-to-bumper traffic involved and MT not being a deal breaker I would suggest getting something simple and cheaper.
Your driving style and usage are ideal for a NA petrol.
From your list I would say TD the Brezza VXi MT would be more apt from your shortlist since you have decent highway usage.
Outside of this, you can also check out the Nexon XM or the XUV300 W4 but both are turbo petrol and will be poorly kitted especially the XUV300.
Will let you take a call over a TD.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

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