The Better Cars: 90's Cars Vs Post 2000 Cars!

[Akash1886]

Friends,

I would like to have your views on the above topic. Reason why I have started this thread is that in the span of 25 years Indian automotive sector has seen a sea of changes with respect to cars. In early 90's we had vehicles like the good old Ambassador, Fiat, Contessa, Jeeps and Maruti Suzuki (a sort of exclusive brand) which did not have state of art engineering as compared to today's vehicles but still were very strong and mechanically reliable without being heavy on pocket.

Today, Cars are efficient, looks have become more sharp and technically advanced but compared to the cars of the earlier generation they have become much more complex. The evolving science has made our cars a lot more gadget savvy but aren't they lacking in certain criteria like reliability, ease of maintenance, technical competency?

I would like to have a comparative discussion on the cars we had in the 90's with those that came post year 2000 on following parameters:

1) Reliability

2) Ease of Maintenance

3) Technical competency

4) Structural Strength

5) Safety

6) Knowledge of Car mechanics.

Regards

Akash

 

[CarCar]

Cars have actually become more reliable. Service interval for most cars is 10000 km. My Zen 99 clocked 1 Lakh km+ and Vista 2011 clocked 50k km, no issues touch-wood. Zen had typical Maruti rattle, Vista is rattle free.

 

[Mr.Boss]

Voted for the current gen cars. Be it reliability, efficiency or safety, current gen cars are always ahead of cars that were produced a couple of decades ago. There are people offending on thin sheet metals and NCAP results. 5mm thick sheet metal car isn't safe (those who understand will accept) and regarding the low NCAP ratings of current cars, we couldn't speak about it unless we have the ratings of good old amby and fiat. May be on a frontal crash amby, fiat, sumo, etc may survive due to their loooong hood.

 

[vijay_968]

Voted for 2010-till now. These cars tick All SIX of your parameters. Specially w.r.to the sixth; with ALL relevant documents available to the Auto Mechanics, it is no more a guarded secret to be learned under a particular Guru. Technically also, compare Ford's 1.6L / 86PS Petrol Engine in their Escort with the EcoBoost 1.0L / 125PS Engine (for whatever it is worth); that too in an affordable passenger car. It will be the latest Gen Cars, always.

 

[Akash1886]

Buddies,

I feel that the quality of spares that were used in 90's cars were really good and lasting. But, today the quality of spares that are fixed in cars are not up to the mark which impacts the reliability of the car.

Also, in those times of the 90's the cars did not need much of specialized attention from service centre as compared to today's cars don't you all think so?

Another thing that I feel is, unlike today, car companies did not face tough competition back in 90's. Hence, that time cars were given proper attention by OEMs right from manufacturing stages. Earlier there were vehicles that performed better with after-market spares too unlike today, where the reliability of the OEM spare itself is a question.

Regards

Akash