Aug 28, 2006 12:23 PM
16547 Views
Wanted to buy a used car for performance & reliability. Short listed cars are Baleno1.6, Ikon1.6, Accent1.6, Old Honda City(OHC 1.5/VTEC)
& Petra1.6 with less than 25000kms on its Odo. Finding these used cars in Chennai is not a problem. Checked out some of the used car dealers/brokers/owners. Individual owners are always better than other two. Worst case go with dealers. I'm not comfortable with brokers. Test driven all of them.
Here are my parameters
Looks
Fuel Economy
Performance
Engine & gear shift
A/C
Safety
Maintenance
Baleno
Baleno's performance/FE/Engine/AC are good but has oddball looking. I do not like the low slung bonnet. I do not feel safe enough & Interiors are not great either. The A/C is remarkable. Heard it gives around 14km/lr. That is Reasonable. But its expensive to maintain
Ikon1.6
What a terrific performance. Looks small when compared with Baleno. A/C is effective. Poor gear shift. Safety & Interiors very average. Heard it gives around 12km/lr. That is also Reasonable. But its expensive to maintain
Accent1.6
I do not like its performance & its rubbery gear shift. Looks bigger than Ikon from outside. A/C is effective. Poor gear shift. Safety & Interiors very average. Heard it gives around 12km/lr. That is also Reasonable. But not expensive to maintain
OHC/VTEC
It has killer performance & very good gear shift. Looks small compared to others. A/C is effective. Interiors very average. Felt insecure. Heard it gives around 15km/lr. That is very good. But its very expensive to maintain
Petra(Siena1.6)
Love at first sight. The car looks big. The Audi like headlights are pure seductive. It has excellent performance & gear shift. Looks rock solid and built like a tank. A/C is superb. My family felt totally safe inside the bulletproof tank. Heard it gives around 14km/lr. That is very good. Its not expensive to maintain and after TATA's taking over, all the service related issues are sorted out. Remedy for those have back pain. Finally my feeling was it is a proper blend of all the goodies from Baleno, Ikon, Accent & OHC VTEC.
Before deciding checked out as many places possible. I’ve not seen any major negative comments on Petra other than few service related niggling. As I mentioned earlier, Since TATA dealers are servicing, have not seen/heard any service problems.
I remember reading some where in one of the leading Indian auto magazine mentioning that the Siena 1.6 ELX performance figures are comparable with Old Honda City. In my experience, Yes its TRUE.
It has been more than a month now. I'm absolutely happy about the car/tank. Overtaking with full A/C is a child's play. Driving in Chennai traffic with 25km/hr in 3rd gear is absolute delight. I've seen many people in other cars looking and praising the Italian beauty, As if they had missed the opportunity.
Overall I would recommend Petra as an all-rounder.
Again the above is purely my personal review. So no offence please …
