Rs 12 lakh budget | New sedan to replace my Maruti Dzire

While the requirements are simple, the options are a bit disappointing due to the SUV-crazed market.

BHPian ramgkulkarni recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Dear Bhpians,

So on a Friday night 2 weeks back, My friend, my brother and I welcomed the weekend with our usual schedule.

One discussion on that weekend's topic was cars which is a usual topic on most weekends. My friend owns a Skoda Octavia, previous gen and recently bought Ritz IMT as a beater after selling his 2014 Ciaz for a mouthwatering price. My brother sold his perfectly fine i20 diesel(2nd gen) to buy the Skoda Rapid TSI. I have(had now) a Swift Dzire 2013 which had completed 82800 km at the time of selling. It was a city beater car and did the job with little to no fuzz. I had the tires upgraded and added a Bluetooth adapter to make it a little more livable.

The discussion started as to how aggressively Ola Auto, OLX auto, Cars24 and Spinny are buying second cars. If the car has single owner history, is maintained well and had no accidental damages, they were willing to pay top dollar. I mean even private buyers don't want to invest that kind of money, just ridiculous. Their business model is a whole another topic that needs to be discussed later.

My brother sold the car to Spinny in late December last year. My friend sold Ciaz to OLA cars which offered a flat 25k extra on Cars24 quotation. So, I was heavily inspired by their stories and the drinks did the remaining bit of pushing me on the edge. I got appointments for OLX, Cars24 and Spinny. OLA somehow was not taking any orders at that point in time.

The very next day the car was inspected, rated in very good condition and an attractive price quoted by Olx. I knew that this was now or never. I was quite bored by the car and the lack of safety features and poor safety record for the car, it was time to say goodbye. This was the first car I purchased and the waterworks soon proceeded, quite literally. The moment the car was about to be picked up, it rained heavily.

21st Sept 2021:

“Today we say goodbye to our humble Airavata! It has served the family well. Has attended numerous weddings, ferried us to many destinations. Bought our new ones at home. So long friend”

Now:

The hunt is now on with no car to my name.

My criteria for the car is pretty simple:

• 4 cylinders and nothing less.
• Also if possible only naturally-aspirated
• Petrol engine
• Sedan, no 4-metre cars and a false sense of SUV styling (sorry don’t mean to offend anyone, I am not a fan of small/compact SUVs)
• 4 stars or above safety ratings
• Budget ~12 lacs with not really looking to extend

Must have features:

• Apple CarPlay
• Climate control

Nothing else really. I can live with lesser creature comforts

Good to have features:

• Keyless entry
• Automatic wipers, are a boon in Bangalore weather
• Climate control with analogue controls

So based on the above budget and features, I am now determined to buy a car in the SUV-crazed market. So far, It is disappointing. However, these are my choices and preferences. Experts – pls prove me wrong, help me make the right decision.

4th-Gen facelift Honda City V MT

Points to consider:

• Ticks all the boxes except the climate control comes with weird touch buttons
• The steering mounted controls are also funky, not to my taste but I can live with them
• That’s an amazing petrol engine.
• Price of Rs 11.9 lakh on-road is bang on the budget

Points to pick out:

• It’s a generation old or 2 if you consider the facelift.
• 5 speed instead of 6 speed
• How is the build quality? Is it the same as the 2013 model or better with the facelift?

Skoda Rapid TSI

Points to consider:

• Only 3 pot engines worth considering
• My brother already owns one and it provides ample performance on the tap.
• Well built

Points to pick out:

• It's a low displacement turbo petrol, city driving is unsatisfactory
• We already had the car sitting in the Tafe service centre for over 20 days for an ECU issue, don’t want the heartache of VAG cars

Hyundai Verna

Points to consider:

• Decent power on tap, 6 speed is an absolute gem
• Good build quality
• Checks all the boxes

Points to pick out:

• Not a fan of the styling.
• Slightly less space when compared to City
• Hyundai service costs are relatively higher than Rapid!

Maruti Ciaz

No to Suzuki cars, the build is just not comparable to any of the cars above.

Honestly, I am pretty biased towards the previous-gen City. Am I really thinking straight?

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

I am sorry but have to address the elephant in the room.

It is not a car in your list, and you have to stretch a wee bit more on the finances (actually nothing if you are looking at five-plus years of ownership)

The new Honda City!! Even the base version V has all you need and actually addresses the problems of the 4th gen City, namely the A/C controls and the 5speed gearbox.

The criteria literally scream for a new City. Hope, except for the price there isn't any other reason why you have not included the new City.

Here is an excellent ownership report of @TrackDay's.

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

I vote for the Hyundai Verna here. While City is neck and neck with Verna, I don't have the confidence to recommend a Honda car to anyone now. They have posted more than 1000 crores loss in the last couple of years and I don't see intent or a defined plan to believe they will be here 5 years down the line. I think the way forward for them is a partnership with Toyota-Suzuki or exit. For this single reason, I have stopped recommending a Honda in any segment.

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

By the way, I am the brother addressed in OPs first post.

Even when he bought the Dzire Vxi, I asked him to buy Swift Zxi with the airbags & abs and he was adamant about the Dzire just for the boot space.

Even now I asked him to consider the new-gen as pointed out by most members here. With his track record - Alto 5 years & Dzire 8 years. It makes sense to invest in the new-gen City and stay put for another 5-6 years at least.

I am glad the forum has swayed him.

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

I recently test drove the 5th gen City top variant (ZX, I think). Other than the soft-touch bits on the dashboard, it really didn't feel premium. For an Rs. 17 Lakh car, there's no ventilated seats, no 360 cams, no front parking sensors and most importantly (for me) - no wireless Carplay. Spending so much and then fiddling with the wire every time to even have basic navigation (which is absent from the ICE system) is not a great experience. Seltos exceeds in this case with lots of conveniences and the "feel" of a premium car. And the V version of the city doesn't have curtain airbags. I was looking for a car with the safety of Nexon, space of an XUV, reliability and smoothness of Honda CVT and features of Creta/Seltos. Guess it doesn't exist unless I go upwards of 30 lakhs on-road.

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