The smell of a new car. The thrill of discovering and understanding the vehicle.....

The smell of a new car. The thrill of discovering and understanding the vehicle, uncovering it’s secrets. And the joy of doing her up. It’s that time again, and loving it !

Four years & 73k with the Indigo Marina, which came after an earlier 4 years & 83k with our faithful pre-V2 Indica. A change was quite natural, I guess. So as luck would have it, mom was off at my brother’s place for a few months and my dad had a daily ride to work. These, coupled with the driver having to attend to his personal stuff meant that the Marina was going to be idle for a while. Made sense to give her up. 

It’s not every day that you get time on your hands like this. Being able to give up your ride, and wait for upcoming launches – and not having to worry about not having a ride. I had the time to look around & evaluate the options. And being on carwale is something invaluable – you know what’s coming up, you get the information, you get to know of the criticisms of anything coming up .. you get to know the bouquets & brick-bats that any car receives. You know what to expect.

But it’s hard to keep things under-wraps, as I soon found out. A simple, innocuous question about any news of the Ikon TDCi was answered by Diwa. And Benny was quick to spot it. 

The requirements : no particular order.
Entry level sedan. More than cost, because of the last point listed here.
Reliability. 
Passenger comfort. Car was to be used primarily by parents, who dont drive.
Servicing. 
Budget About 7L. 
Costs – operating & maintenance.
Boot required – this is not something that can be added later, right? 

- Driven mostly by driver.



Tata & Fiat:
The search began after bidding goodbye to the Marina in early Sept. The Vista had been launched, and it was natural to check it out. Especially because of the comfort I have with the A.S.S that I have been getting. The car is a pretty big change from the Indica family that we were familiar with. Loved the engine & the space inside. The car was fresh, and may have actually picked it up but was not happy with the exchange price offered by the dealers. Importantly – it did not have a boot. And when GTO started the thread about the Vista not being sufficiently different, the discussion there changed my look-out for a car away from this baby. 
The few small complaints I have about the Vista are posted in the Vista TD thread .. 

The Indigo variants were not even considered because it would have meant continuing with the same interiors & exteriors for another 4 years alteast, after the 8 years we had already done.


Palio Stile : 
Would have been a serious contendor if it had been a hatchback. But without the boot, and the discussions we have been having about Fiat Spa, not to mention about spare availability meant that the Palio was not coming home this time either. (For those of you who missed it, the Palio D ELX was what I had almost picked up, before I changed track to go for the Sumo). I still love the Palio, though.


Linea : 
was still a little beyond the horizon. And as expected, was outside the budget.


Getz:
I love the styling of the Getz. Took the TD, and found it to be a lovely car. (This was my first drive/ride in a Getz). Again, like with the Palio, would have definitely been on the short-list if I was looking for a hatch. But the 1.1 is under-powered. Hesitant about the 1.3 because of FE in city, where the car would have been used mostly. The under-powered nature of the car was made more pronounced when I tried the i10 Kappa.

The Getz CRDi is a beauty, I hear. But there’s no way I am giving 100 horses to a driver. And the cost of the vehicle was definitely on the higher side for a hatch. Could not TD it either.