Mar 05, 2011 04:49 PM
40468 Views
After a 6 months of comparisons, test drives, conversations with owners and deliberation with several individuals on which car is good, I finally decided to go in for a Corolla Altis in October 2010. In this forum I would like to share my candid view with the hope that this will provide a perspective to others who may be doing a similar exercise either to decide on which car or just for the info pupose.
First of all, I believe cars are like fashion, each one has their likes and dislikes or preferences apart from the affordability and practicality. That explains why you have so many models, variants and colours of cars on road. So what I state here is not intended to hurt the sentiments of owners of other brands
I owned a Hyundai Accent for about 8 years before deciding to change my car( please note upgrade was not the idea) and I was very happy with the Accent. In the new car I was very clear that I needed atleast basic safety features viz ABS and Airbags. Having owned Marutis and Hyundai's earlier, I was very particular about the service levels and reliability . The other aspect in mind was reasonable running costs and reasonable cost of spares.
For records, I drive in Bangalore and needed a car that could provide a safe and comfortable journey for a family of 4 on the indian Highways apart from the city commute, I would not complain about the status symbol factoras long as it came free with my basic requireents:-).
I checked out a wide range of cars; Ford Fiesta, Verna, Linea, Manza, Honda City and beyond C -class-Corolla, Scorpio, Civic, Cruze, Jetta and Octavia and finally booked a Silver Corolla Altis 1.8G. I have owned it and driven it both in City and Highways for 5 months now
Exterior Design: Pretty conventional, unlike the Civic, the legendary Toyota quality shows in the Panel gaps and the paint job, the ground clearence of 176 mm is a boon on Indian roads, the primary reason why Civic went out of my reckoning.
Interiors; The design is neat and functional, the dashboard and the guages are easy to comprehend, the fabric and plastics are of decent quality. The absence of the transmission tunnel makes it comfortable for a third passenger in the middle on the rear bench. However, the countors of the rear bench ensure that the middle seat is not very comfortable over long drives.There are lot of cubby holes provided for storage
Ride and Handling: The gear ratios in the Altis are well choosen to provide convenient driving in city traffic as well as highways, the 3rd gear has a huge range and can ket you roll at 25kmph and then gradually accelerate to 3 digit speeds. The ride is comfortable both from the drivers perspective as well as from the passengers perspective. The gear shift is smooth, the clutch light and the automatic climate control is a delight. The discs at the front and the rear clubbed with ABS is very confindence inspiring and the car comes to a staight line stop without making you miss a beat. The steering, adjustable for both rake and reach is another nice touch as this helps you get a better driving position for long drives. The steering however is very light and will take sometime getting used to, and for the first few days, one may be scared to drive at speeds beyond 80 kmph as you get a sense of the car weaving with every small steering input- However, you will grow over this. For a car this size, the turning radius is surprisingly modest and this is a boon in the city traffic
FE- I have managed to get 10KMPL in city and upto 13.6 kmpl on highways even with a happy right foot and this I think is pretty impresive for a car this size
Service and Spares - While both these do not come cheap, when compared to competion like Skoda or Honda this is far better in value for money and with 10K intervals or onyear as the warranty interval, this is something I suppose one can live with.
Other Nice things:
The Vanity mirrors for the passengers in the front
6 CD changer with Radio and 6 speakers that come factory fitted
Cooled glove compartment
Steering mounted controls
Central locking that autolocks when the car crosses 20kmph
The optitron dash board dials are classy
In conclusion, Corolla is the largest sold model of any car globally. There must be something that this car appeals to across geographies and I believe, like me, it is the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that you are putting your money on a product that has bullet proof reliability, is adequately safe, provides a good bang for your buck and meets the basic needs of having a good ownership experience - As they say, you may not be right in your choice, but you cannot go wrong with a Corolla!
