Car for grandma: Replacing her Ford Figo with Hyundai Santro

So, with the basic service done, my dad had already convinced my grandma to think of replacing it with some newer car, possibly an automatic.

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For as long as I can remember, our house has always been a 2-car garage. One that my dad used which was also assigned road trip duties and the other was the beater which was primarily driven by my grandmother. Their usage summary over the years, looks like this:

• 90’s | Dad - Omni ( 97,000 km) | Grandma - Omni (~ 43,000 km)
• 00’s | Dad - Qualis (215,000 km) | Grandma - Santro Xing (27,000 km)
• 10’s | Dad - Duster (202,000 km)| Grandma - Figo Petrol (37,800 km)
• 2015 | I bought the Duster AWD
• 2020 | My brother bought the Nexon

If one excludes these newer additions which are stationed outside my home town, the garage still retains its 2-car status, even with my grandmother turning 80 next month.

T-8 days - Shots fired

It was almost a week ago that the Figo was sent-in for a service. One which was long overdue. The major complaint was that the AC was not cooling. Ford guys were quick in picking up and delivering the car within 2 days. The bill came up to an amount which is safe to say was at least two times higher than its last insurance premium. With the car pushing 11 years of age and the dents and dings it had picked up, it seemed like a burden to get it back in pristine condition. So, with the basic service done, my dad had already convinced my grandma to think of replacing it with some newer car, possibly an automatic.

T-7 days - 5 Lakh doesn’t cut the cake anymore

He relayed the intention to me late in the evening while I was going to call it a day. I look up the prices of cars available in the Rs 5 Lakh (ex-showroom) price bracket. Find out that the Rs 5 Lakh (on-road) price bracket in which the Figo was bought back in 2010 has a lot of new and not-likeable cars in it (based on their sales figures and appeal). Eg. Kwid, Redigo, Triber, Alto, S-presso, Celerio

Realization 1 - Rs 7 lakh is the new Rs 5 lakh after a decade with the Figo

T-6 days - Is this becoming the next case of revenge buying

I scour through cars in the Rs 5 - 10 Lakh segment. Eg. Polo, Magnite, Kiger, WagonR, Grand i10 Nios, Tiago. Some appeal with their features and some feel like the sensible thing to do. With lots of confusion, and an overload of segment-first features, I realize I cannot make a decision in just one day.

Realization 2 - Grandma doesn’t care about being segment first anymore.

Realization 3 - Over the years her driving may reduce further and the cars considered should have good resale value in the 5-year time frame.

T-5 days - Lets pool-in and go electric

Discuss with my brother and plant the seed to go electric. According to the devised plan, we need to convince dad to pool in and get a car to be shared between him and grandma. They both decide the days when they get the car for their needs. I travel home and pitch the Idea to Dad (stating section 80EEb rebate and reduced running costs due to installed rooftop solar PV micro plants at both our houses etc.)

Realization 4 - A well informed dad isn’t going to dive into EVs yet, even though being really impressed with the TD of the Nexon EV last year.

T-4 days - Mass market king comes for a TD after almost 2 decades

The list is down to 3 serious contenders:

• Santro Asta AMT - doesn’t sell well (Why?)
• Tiago ZXA+ AMT - has poor resale
• WagonR ZXI AMT - can’t go wrong, can it?

The Wagon-R comes in for a TD. Grandma drives it. Finds the brakes too sensitive. Has no problems adhering to the rule of keeping the left arm and leg paralyzed. There is too much room inside. The visibility is great. TD done in 15 minutes. Discuss with dad about the gear shift quality and he admits there is some delay in shifting but it wasn’t jerky as such, just a bit slow and mainly because you have nothing to do while changing gears so you go ahead and press the throttle further anyway. I couldn’t take the TD. Discussed with grandma separately and told her the key take-aways - comfortable seating posture, better ingress and egress, smaller dimensions, better visibility etc., to most of which she seemed to agree.

Maruti guy sends us a quotation. Is uncertain of the expected price hike. States a 2-4 week waiting period of ZXI AMT. The next lower (VXI) trim comes with a smaller 1.0 Ltr 3 cylinder engine and misses out on the passenger airbag. Paltry discounts on offer. 1.40 Lac quoted for the old car in exchange.

Tata showroom closest to us did not answer the phone. Hopeless.

Hyundai was no less with their chat bot and phone numbers which one cannot connect to if dialing from a landline. The closest Hyundai showroom is owned by a 2nd contact of my dad. Was a breeze from there on.

T-3 days - What can one do on a Sunday?

Managed to get the Santro AMT Magna for a test drive. Grandma might have been a bit nostalgic but she masked it really well. Was eager to learn the controls. Managed to drive the short route easily. No hiccups or misguided search for the gear/clutch lever. In between she stopped and said I want to check the reverse too. Did a 3-point turn. Drove back home. Touched a few surfaces, asked a few questions. Looked around, in the boot, the engine bay and then walked inside leaving my dad and I to discuss other points.

I drive it with 4 adults on-board. Totally floored by the look and feel of the interior plastics. Even the monochromatic audio system display with warm amber lighting on the Magna variant looked quite nice. The top of the steering was hindering the line of sight to the speedo but pushing the seat back a bit solved that problem too. The dials looked swell. The gear position indicator was backlit. The doors felt heavy, heavier than the old Santro / i10 at least. Seats were comfortable. Visibility outside was as expected. With four on board, creep function worked well on level surfaces. The rear bobbed up and down on sharp bumps only. Manual mode felt unnecessary. Slight roll back on incline was understandable and manageable. Something one shouldn’t expect an AT car to deal with on its own (being reasonable here when migrating from a MT car without hill hold). The Steering felt magically light even when the engine wasn't running.

We come back home and discuss the price. As usual, we ask for the top-end Asta trim pricing. The sales guys suggest the Magna trim. We ask remind him that we need 2 airbags at least (... well that’s the most on offer here). He suggests going for the Sportz trim as in comparison to Asta, we would only lose on:

• Rear windshield Wash-Wipe and defogger
• Vanity mirror on passenger sun visor
• Eco-coating on the AC evaporator core (cooling coil)
• Chrome grill surround on the front bumper.

Done Deal. We ask for ready stock colours. White, Silver and Gray was available. White okayed by grandma.

Figo needed to be sold off. While we were on the test drive, the used car surveyor had worked up a low quote on the Figo which after putting our foot down was brought up to 1.60 Lac. Fair price I would say.

We visit the showroom as they arranged the Sportz trim for display from the stock-yard. We like what we see. Discuss the price, discounts and offers:

• 5K - Corp/Retd. Service person
• 10K - Exchange bonus
• 15K - July 2021 Offer by Hyundai
• 15K - Discount on insurance
• 8K - when you know the Boss offer

Considering add-ons such as Extended Warranty till 5th year/100K km, Essential Accessories, Zero-Dep insurance, Shield Of Trust package and deducting all discounts and value of old car the final On-road price for the Santro Sportz AMT was INR 5,01,000/-.

T-2 Days - Monday, here, take our money

The Hyundai used car (H-promise) guy comes home and gets the paperwork (a collection rather, nicely arranged in the form of a booklet) for the old car signed. We renew the PUC certificate, fish out the original printed-on-paper RC, insurance papers and place them in the glove box along with the original owner’s manuals. Drive the car around the block, fill up the washer tank, top up the tyre pressure. Remove personal belongings. Unpair and delete all devices from the audio system. Put in a cancellation request for the fastag. Removed the windshield ID sticker of our residential colony. Put both the keys in the same key ring and parked the car in the drive-way. It was now to be driven one last time to the showroom where it meets its replacement.

The sales guy comes home to collect the cheque for the new car. He gets on the phone with the Boss who states the final amount to be written on the cheque. Pleasantries exchanged. Paperwork gets signed for the registration work. I go to the showroom to look at the seat cover options and finalize them.

T-1 Day - Number allotted, car prepared for delivery

We wanted to get 6162 but the rules now made it a poor financial decision. However, the allotted number was a rearrangement of the same digits - 6621, by pure coincidence. A message is sent to the sales guy to ensure the following before delivery:

• Clean carpets
• Install all accessories as part of the kit except for steering cover,
• Removal of all protective plastic films from the interior trims,
• Not to use polish on dashboard,
• Not to install dealer advertisement sticker on the exterior,
• Not to stick any idol / perfume on the dashboard
• Installation of registration mark sticker on passenger side top corner of windshield

The guy promptly sent us a picture with all installations done as per instructions by the evening.

T-7 hours - Thoughts as I type this report late at night.

I have gone through multiple sources to gather information (print and video) on the Santro. I was quite puzzled to see the low sales numbers this car is doing. Was even told it was a mediocre product. I was skeptical about losing on the cabin space in comparison to the Figo we were replacing. Here are some thoughts on the theme - Taking a step down isn’t always taking a step back:

• Proof is in the pudding - I never considered the Santro thinking it was a big step back when replacing the Figo
• Decade old cars are no match to current cars from even a segment or two below in many aspects.
• For the elderly, tallboy designs offer really unparalleled practicality and comfort over short runs
• A smaller, underpowered car is okay when there is no need to carry passengers or luggage. Since my grandfather passed away, there is no requirement to have extra space for a wheelchair and a caretaker
• It is good to simplify things as you age. Drop out some features (intermittent wiper speeds, rear wash-wipe, keyless entry and go etc) in this case.
• An AMT gearbox rather than being an irritation might actually help my grandmother regain the confidence she lost by not driving too often in the past year and dealing with ever more crowded streets
• Look, Touch and Feel of the interiors, if done well, is a big differentiating factor.
• Even the cheaper cars with thin door panels come with intrusion prevention bracing in the doors
• The biggest pat on the back TATA deserves is for pricing spares and components for its new range realistically and passing on the benefit of localized sourcing to its customers even though they do not manufacture at a scale even remotely close to MSIL. Tata cars have really affordable components. I have spent many hours scanning through OEM parts catalogues on boodmo and verifying this.

Hope this car serves us well for the next 10 years.

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