Hi Guys,
> Your Budget: around 7L on road
> New or Used: New
> Your Location: Lucknow
> Top Five Priorities: Safety, VFM, Fun to drive, Features, Good long term ownership
> Monthly Running: can vary between 1200KM to 2000KM
> Type of Fuel: Diesel (only in case of Ford figo/freestyle) else petrol
> For What Purpose: Regular use and long trips twice a year
> Seating Capacity: 4
> Type of Segment: Any will do
Some essential information:
Things that cannot be compromised:
1. Reliability (i believe all cars below mentioned are equally reliable)
2. Long term ownership and spare parts availability
3. Safety (airbags + ABS is a must) along with good structure to keep occupants safe
Things that will be appreciated
1. Reverse parking sensor/camera
2. Keyless entry
3. Bluetooth connectivity and steering mounted audio
4. Fun to drive engine
Cars considered so far:
Suzuki Baleno petrol (her choice)
For:
1. Trust in maruti brand
2. High sales volume so service and spares will be available for next 10 years or so.
3. Feature loaded middle variants
Against:
1. I am skeptical about its safety, it has good crash test rating but internet stories say otherwise.
Ford figo Ambiante: (diesel only)
For:
1. Excellent fun to drive diesel engine (only thing that pushed it in this list)
Against:
1. From where should i start, No ABS in base/Ambiante variants, (Optional in Ambiante)
2. lacks features, No tachometer, No rear power windows
3. Ford's low sales volume
Hyundai Elite i20 magna/sportz (petrol)
For:
1. Premium build and image
Against:
1. Expensive
2. Petrol engine is boring
Honda amaze S (petrol)
For:
1. Nothing, No idea why this is even considered, maybe because its a sedan
Against:
1. Nothing
Ford freestyle diesel (base or trend if budget can be streched)
For:
1. Excellent Diesel engine
2. Looks
3. Feature loaded Trend variant
Against:
1. Low sales volume of ford
2. Why not buy a figo and save a few thousand/Kilos in weight
Haven't considered offerings from mahindra and tata for their brand image, toyota liva for its bland looks and boring engine, i10 for its outdated looks (although it packs a lot of featuers) and swift for lack of trust in suzuki and it feels overpriced.
Please suggest what'd be the best choice.