Aug 06, 2008 10:29 AM
4306 Views
I am planning to buy a car for my personal use. My usage is low, so, I want to buy a petrol car and my budget is around 3.5 L on road.
1st we went to Maruti showroom in Malakpet(Hyderabad) and enqueried about Alto. The sales guy received us well and offered Rs.24000 discount flat on on road price of(Alto Lxi) Rs.324000. I like the shape of Alto. Interiors are good for that price. Sat in the car, space is okay! We saw interiors of M800, Alto’s interiors are 100% better. M800’s interiors are pathetic, like some autorikshaw. I asked for Alto test drive and got it immidiately. We were three in the car with full AC running, car was literally crying. Its pickup is very poor with AC. At low speeds with full AC it was even stopping. Then we realized that its power(47 BHP) is not enough to pull full load with AC. Alto is out of my list now.
We went to Hyundai show room just opposite side of Maruti showroom in Malakpet. Fist discussed price details of Santro and negotiated. Sales guy told us that, he will reduce 10000 from on road price of Rs.385000(Santro GL). Took a test drive of Santro. What a feeling…what a difference. The difference is same like when I upgraded from H.H CD100 to Pulsar 180.
Pickup is very good. It pulled all three of us effortlessly with full AC. I checked even at low speeds. It performed very well without even a single jerk. Menuverobility is excellent with that power steering. What I absorved is its power(63 PS) is morethan enough to pull full load with AC at any speed in city or on highways. Before settling with Santro, my cousin wanted to have a look at Chevi Spark.
We drove our Indica to Banzarahills road no one, to find more about Spark. Since there is an offer going on Spark basic model(with AC) was costing Rs.304000, with power steering(PS model) Rs.324000 and LS model was costing Rs.345000 with body coloured bumbers and front power windows. All these prices are offer prices and on road prices of Spark. We asked for test drive and got the opportunity to drive one immidiately. Spark performed well with three people with full AC. Its pulling power(63 PS) is same like santro. There is no engine sound like santro. Gear shifting is also smooth like santro. It performed very much similar to santro. 2 minor differences are indicator knob is on the other side unlike any other Indian car. The other difference is speedo meter is in the middle of the dash board instead of behind steering. These 2 are negligible differences, after driving the vehicle couple of hours one can get used to it very easily; it’s not at all a problem. Santro scores a bit more on engine response, though very marginal. But price difference is more, about Rs.50000(Spark PS Rs.324000 and Santro GL with similar specs with Rs.375000). I have almost decided to go for Spark. Then my cousin raised few doubts “what about maintanance? Spare parts availability? Servicing?” The sales girl/woman told us that there is one more offer, if we pay Rs.10000 then there will be no maintanance charges, service charges, parts charges, nothing for 3 years. I don’t think spark will breakdown in the middle of the road just like that. Its build quality is good. Safety features are little better than Santro.
Before going to all the showrooms I did my survey on net including Mouthshut. I can conclude that Spark is really good vehicle and real value for money with more safety feature in that category. Santro is also good vehicle(little better than Spark in terms of pickup/performance) but costs bit more. Alto, its pick up is poor with AC and it cries to perform with full load but cost of ownership is low, Rs.3L onroad. When it comes to fuel efficiency Alto(16-18) beats Spark and Santro(13-16), but they are not far behind just 2-3 kms less. All the prices are mentioned onroad Hyderabad on 1st Aug 2008.
Finally I’ve decided to go for Spark, but due to time constraints, I could not buy one with the offer price. I will buy this in my next visit(I stay/work in Dubai). But I’m afraid whether there will be some good offer that time or not.
Thanks for reading.
