Atlast, I decided to change my old Santro to a new car. My requirements are simple. A petrol hatchback with decent power, style, fit and finish. My budget was around 4 lakhs. I considered Alto, WagonR, A-Star, Santro (again!), i10, Swift and Fabia. Fabia is sure out of my budget. Alto lacks power, fit and finish. WagonR's styling looks boring and the model is getting older. Santro's interior starts boring to me :-). Now I have 3 contenders. Nice looking i10, refreshing A-Star and superb Swift.
Petrol Swift is around for several years but still looks refreshing. Excellent performance, decent mileage and superb looks. It was the leader in the segment until diesel Swift spoiled the party. Butter smooth, torquey, fuel efficient diesel engine from Fiat changed the entire picture. Sales chart jumped and months long waiting list grew madly. Swift Petrol is left unnoticed. Diesel Swift piped petrol in 0-60, quarter mile drag and mileage in a huge margin (20+ in city!). Though the VDi costed a bomb onroad price of around 6 lakhs, people continued to throng on diesel. Me too liked diesel Swift but 6 lakhs is too much for that car!
Next is the newly launched A-Star. Same like Swift, the interiors are better than any other typical Maruti cars, it looks refreshing. The 3 cylinder single litre engine is superb in fuel efficiency and performance. But being a new car and the cramped rear passenger space made me to rethink.
And then I zeroed my choice to i10. The reliable 1.1 litre engine from Santro, entirely new body, superb interiors, excellent driving visibility, good rear leg room and cute looks impressed me a lot. Price too affordable, though I feel some 20k overpriced. I got my car last week and have run around 200kms till now. Long drives planned next month :-)
