At this price, given your requirements, you should look at the Mahindra-Renault Logan diesel. It has good build quality and space, is fairly torquey and has good gearing for both city and highway drives. The car rides and handles well and can take a lot of abuse. It is also fuel efficient and is backed up by Mahindra-Renault that have dealerships all across the country. It is a practical, no-nonsense buy which we believe will serve you well for years to come. Bright Spark Please help me decide in selecting a small, self-driven car. My budget is Rs 3-5 lakh for city use (about 40 km a day) with the occasional out of city drive. I have shortlisted the Maruti Wagon-R, Maruti Zen Estilo, Hyundai Santro and Tata Indica V2 turbo diesel. I would like to know if the Indica is a car worth buying for me and my kind of usage? I don't mind the high initial cost, but are there any maintenance or reliability issues? If not the Indica, how about the Zen Estilo? Fiesta time My family of five, including my wife, are based in Ooty while I reside in Saudi Arabia. The daily commute is around 55 km, with the odd drive to Chennai. The car I buy will primarily be chauffeur-driven, with my wife taking to the wheel sometimes. I am considering the Ford Fiesta TDCI and the Mahindra-Renault Logan Diesel. Which one would you recommend? Expect an overall mileage figure in the 16-18 kpl range. It might be more expensive than the Logan, but given its overall refinement and build, it is the better bet for you.
Sandeep Rawal, Pune
The Indica Turbo is fairly frugal and has reasonable performance on offer. Though reliability issues have been sorted out with the newer generation Indicas, quality niggles still persist with this platform. We suggest you have a look at the Chevrolet Spark. The 995cc engine is peppy and refined, space is decent and overall build quality is a notch above. Besides, in our tests, the Spark managed an overall city-highway figure of 15 kpl. Also, GM now offer a 1,00,000 km, three year warranty, giving it that extra peace of mind factor.Paul Christadoss, Ooty
Given that your wife would do the odd drive as well, we would suggest the Ford Fiesta EXi diesel. The 1400cc block is refined and torquey and the controls are light and easy to use.Any automotive questions?Ask us at
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