Epeat Offender

Your advice helped me choose my first car, a Hyundai Santro (which I drive currently). I would like to go in for a new car now and my requirements are as follows. i) Price-under Rs 10 lakh ii) Better ground clearance than the usual three-box offerings, as Bangalore roads are bad. I would occasionally like to go off-road a bit, maybe once in two months iii) I will not cover more than 10,000 km in a year (7,000 km is more like it) iv) Our family size is 3 (wife, daughter and I). Parents and relatives visit us sometimes.

I love the Honda CR-V, but it is beyond my budget. So I began looking at the Honda City, Chevrolet Optra and the Ford Fiesta... and then replaced them in my shortlist with the Mahindra Scorpio, Toyota Innova and Tata Safari. So which car would you recommend? If it's the Innova, then which version? Is it worth paying Rs 70,000 extra for the G3 over the G2 for the 3-row AC vents, a not-so-great music system and the single key entry? Diesel or petrol? The Innova petrol is being sold at a discount of Rs 50,000, which makes it over a lakh of rupees cheaper than the diesel.

Ranjan Malik, Bangalore

We think your next car should be a Honda City ZX i-DSI. The Innova will be too big a car for city use. Not that you won't be able to handle it (it is easy to drive), but you don't need the bulk.

The new City should return 14 kpl if driven carefully and it is all the car you need. As for the Innova, you don't have to pay premium money for the subsequent rows of aircon vents alone "" and yes, you can get a better music system in the aftermarket.

City slicker?

Between the Ford Fiesta and the Honda City, could you please tell me which of the two cars is better? Both are more or less priced equally; the Ford seems to be the cheaper of the two.

Rahul Kumar, via email

We have not subjected the Fiesta SXI nor the City VTEC through proper road tests and reserve our comments till we do that. That said, we have driven both the cars and think the City VTEC is worth the little premium it commands. Apart from the VTEC engine, the ZX version of the City has better ride and handling virtues too. And do not forget that Fords in India generally depreciate quicker than Hondas.

Dura talk

I drive around 74 km every day to office and back. I own an Opel Corsa 1.4, which has served me well for the last three years. It's a single-owner driven car and has clocked about 65,700 km so far. I am looking to replace it with a diesel car, and I have seen the ads for the Ford Fiesta. What resale price can I get for the Corsa? And would you recommend the Fiesta? What mileage can I expect from it with the AC running?

K R Menon, via email

Your Corsa should fetch you around Rs 1.75 to 2 lakh. As for the Fiesta TDCi, we have not road tested one yet, so we cannot really recommend it. However, going by the spec sheet and an initial driving impression (see above), we expect the Fiesta turbodiesel to return about 14-17 kpl depending on driving conditions.

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