Need reliable & automatic luxury SUV for my doctor sister under 50 lakh

After test driving multiple cars over the last month or so, it has come down to the Jeep Compass diesel, Mercedes GLA 220D & BMM X1 diesel.

BHPian Jangra recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

This post is on behalf of my sister who wants to buy a luxury SUV in a budget of Rs 50 lakh. It’s been a month of test drives, which is kind of exciting. It came down to a choice between Jeep Compass Diesel, Mercedes GLA 220D and BMW X1 Diesel.

Her requirements are pretty basic and simple

• Her monthly running year is about 1500 km. Mostly on the highways of Kerala, predominantly Kochi.
• She has been driving Honda City iVTEC Manual fourth-generation for six years now, and wanted to upgrade to an automatic.
• Reliability over anything else, but nothing from Toyota stable excited her.
• Car should suit her profession. She’s a doctor. Whatever that means.
• Car will be solo driven most of the time so not wanting to cross 4.5m in length.
• She is a very sedate driver, so handling and BHP are low on priority for her. BUT, I will also be occasionally driving it, so it is somewhat of a priority to me.
• Only SUV.

We were definitely cross-shopping between segments and since I recently bought a Skoda Kodiaq, we could land on the shortlisted cars pretty quickly. We did not want to look at Volkswagen Tiguan since we already have almost the same car in the family.

So now the decision is between the three

• Jeep Compass diesel model S - my sister loves the design and road presence, and excellent interiors. She is not bothered by rattles, so that’s not an issue.
• BMW X1 20d X-line - love the badge value. And I love the engine and gearbox. I feel the new generation of this spec may cross 60 lac, so not wanting to wait.
• Mercedes GLA 220D - love the badge value and interior ambience.

NOT looking at

• Q3 - since it’s the same engine and gearbox in my Kodiaq
• XC40 - sister is not keen on the Volvo brand

Can you please assist?

Here's what GTO had to say about the matter:

Women generally value style, design, interiors, features & the badge on the hood. From the conventional choices, the Hyundai Tucson (less badge, but the latest & most competent) or a Jeep Compass in red colour would be perfect.

From unconventional choices, take her for a test drive of the Mini Cooper & the more practical Countryman with 4 doors. She will love the Countryman. BMW mechanicals means good reliability.

Here's what BHPian androdev had to say about the matter:

MB offers an excellent warranty scheme for GLA - plus it’s a great compact car perfect in so many ways for a lady driver. Should be a top consideration. Given you already have a 2.0L TSI DSG, you can dial down the fun-to-drive requirement for the new car and focus on feel-good vibes which MB delivers better.

Here's what BHPian lonetraveller89 had to say about the matter:

50 lakh? H247 GLA prices (Kochi) for April 2022, FYI

Plus, I heard the waiting time for delivery is around 5 months.

Here's what BHPian docsinghal had to say about the matter:

I was in the same dilemma till a few months back, and guess what, I am a doctor too.

In my case, both I and my wife are from the hill states, me from Himachal and she from Nagaland and we do drive to each place at least once a year. We are not into off-roading but we did have AWD / 4X4 as one of the requirements.

SUVs considered were

• Jeep Compass (Model S/ Trailhawk) - it ticked all the boxes but somehow just couldn’t find it to be tugging at our heartstrings.
• VW Tiguan - VW really messed up a great car by launching it with some weird feature set (Heated steering wheel, come on!!)
• Skoda Kodiaq - I own an Octavia 1.8TSI L&K and Kodiak would have been a wonderful upgrade but its wait times were crazy and also we felt that the cabin looked very familiar. Plus we didn’t want a 7-seater (this was longer than our Octavia)

Then entered the GLA 220D 4 Matic, it was love at first sight but the long wait time (5-6 months) put me off, also it was missing some features like keyless entry which was just one of those things that bother you when are paying through your nose. We were still undecided when on one of our visits to the Sundaram Motors in Bangalore, we just met the AMG sales team and realised that at around 10 lakh rupees more, the AMG GLA 35 offers much more and the wait time was almost negligible.

And it was an AMG (ok, technically not a true blue AMG). We booked it right away.

It arrives next week, maybe I will write a separate post about it. Buying it in Chandigarh. It will cost me 64-65 lakhs on road (give or take a few).

My advice to you

If she likes the Jeep Compass, it should save you money, time and she will get a very competitive product. However, if it’s a matter of heart over mind, GLA’s interior is the one to beat.

Do ask for the doctor’s discount, MB is offering a 1.5 lakh discount for doctors.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.