[ssateesh]

Hello All,
This ask is for someone in the family. Looking for a car recommendation for a family of two adults and 2 kids in the budget of 4-6 lakhs. The lady of the family is physically handicapped in the leg and so she walks with some struggle. The husband will be the driver.

Reqirements:
1. Easy ingress/egress comfort is preferred due to above condition.
2. Budget can be stretched to 6 lakhs if we can get a sedan. The car will be registered in Tamil Nādu.
3. Automatics is preferred
4. sufficient boot space
5. Decent highway manners as occasionally would be used for short highway trips
6. Ease of maintenance is preferred as they would not have the time/expertise to deal with service centre issues.

Regards,
Sateesh

[GTO]

WagonR or Ignis are most suited, brand new or used (through one of the organised players).

Ingress and egress will be easy in the WagonR as the door sill isn't wide, and the seat is placed higher up. The car has great space, a good boot and the current gen has a more compliant ride.

6-lakhs doesn't buy you too much of a new car today. A brand new WagonR AMT will require increasing the budget. But if there is a very strict cap on the spend, then go the pre-owned route with Maruti True Value, Cars24, Spinny etc.

[Shreyans_Jain]

If you are looking for a new car, go for Ignis. Builds on the strengths of WagonR with a better put together package. You will have to extend your budget by a lakh or so though.

As correctly mentioned above, you don’t get much in a 4-6L budget nowadays. Ideally, if you can consider spending 7-8L, then more options like Exter and C3 open up.

In case you are open to buying used, you’ll have plenty of choices. But make sure whatever you get is fairly new, so that it is E20 petrol compliant. E20 compliance is critical for a peaceful long term ownership.

[ssateesh]

Hi Folks,
The budget can be extended upto 10L due to some changes in loan eligibility. Can you please recommend with this budget?

[blackwasp]

I recently picked up an Ignis Zeta AMT for 8L on road in Maharashtra. You can consider that or the WagonR AMT.

IIRC, there’s a provision for exemption on road tax for vehicles owned / for use by physically challenged persons. I’m not aware of TN rules, but here in Maharashtra, it’s very common. Infact most Maruti Suzuki dealerships are aware of this and do all the work for you. You’ll end up saving a good amount of onroad price.

[Knightrider]

I would recommend WagonR or SPresso AMT. Both have easy ingress/egress, good leg space and decent boot space. The seating is upright and higher, giving good visibility all around.

[raptor_diwan]

Originally Posted by ssateesh

Reqirements:
1. Easy ingress/egress comfort is preferred due to above condition.

The Wagon R AGS would definitely be suitable here; its wide-opening doors would certainly be very helpful for them.

Budget can be stretched to 6 lakhs if we can get a sedan. The car will be registered in Tamil Nādu.

Not sure why you prefer a sedan; it might not be easy for them to ingress/egress from a sedan model. However, since you mentioned you can stretch the budget up to 10 Lakhs and AT is a must, consider options like the Honda Amaze CVT, Dzire AGS, and Tata Tigor (though note that boot space might be less in the Tigor).

4. sufficient boot space

Wagon R & Amaze CVT

[The21st]

One of my relative had to buy a new car. She was handicapped and was eligible for waiver of road tax if the car was under 7 lakhs ex showroom.

Since she want a safe choice and can't bother with niggles, we opted for Maruti.
I suggested to test drive both IGNIS and WAGONR.
After the test drive, she opted the WagonR for the ease of entry and exit. Also her son, who is supposed to drive it, was comfortable in the driving seat of WagonR.
We opted for Manual 1.2 ZXI+.
Manual was opted because the driver was fine with it and budget was limited, so they will have to skimp on features and engine.
1.2 K12 was chosen because it was a mere 20k difference in price. Note that the 1.0 engine had more discount making it even cheaper but we went ahead with 1.2

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by ssateesh

Hi Folks,
The budget can be extended upto 10L due to some changes in loan eligibility. Can you please recommend with this budget?

This opens up a lot more options. You can now consider the likes of Exter AMT or Fronx AMT. Amaze CVT can be considered, lots of deals and discounts to be had. But the model will soon be due for replacement. The best option in my book is the iMT equipped base model of Kia Sonet. The 1.0 turbo petrol is much more powerful than the basic NA petrols, and the car has way better street cred.

If you look at it from a 100% practical and rational way, the Ciaz AT base model comes at around 11L net, after discounts. That is the most car you can get for your money. The car is old, but is still competent, the most reliable of all, and is extremely VFM.

I will steer clear of the Tata cars in your case as their AMT is the absolute worst. But if you are open to it, the EVs can be a left field option.

[SixPistons]

I would stick to the Marutis based on above criteria.

If upto 10, consider Fronx AGS, Baleno AGS or Ignis AMT.

I would steer clear of WagonR/Espresso, they are too small and don’t have enough boot for the highway and cabin legroom for rear passengers is limited. Also, the WagonR is a tallboy and will not be good on highway manners. Both WagonR/Espresso come with 13/14 inchers so ride won’t be very comfortable for the elderly.

The DZire is a good contender but on its way out and second row leg space could’ve been better.

Baleno and Ignis come with 15 inchers as standard, and Baleno gets 16 inchers in the top 2 trims. Fronx gets 16 inchers in all trims. So my vote goes with Baleno/Fronx here. Ignis might also fall short on highway manners, due to its tallboy design.

My experience

We have a Baleno in the house and my grandfather recently got tied to a wheelchair for last few months due to a leg fracture. Transfer from wheelchair into front passenger seat is super comfortable, as we did on multiple occasions. The door opens quite wide and ingress/egress is convenient for any senior citizen. I expect similar for the Ignis, but the Fronx might be slightly higher.

In fact, ingress/egress into my i20 was not as convenient, as the front passenger door opened a bit less.

Baleno AGS is far above the 6L range, but a value buy in my opinion. Good fuel efficiency, refined cabin, decent highway manners for the occasional trips, good features and convenience on offer. The newer one looks better than the older one, has a huge boot. Baleno AGS is good on highways as I have driven it myself a few months back and I did not feel fatigued/under confident on the road as such. The suspensions and handling felt significantly better than our 2016 Baleno.

You can get a Baleno within 9-10L range (Delta/Zeta) with good amount of features on offer and it looks like a VFM choice.

I don’t know enough to comment on the Fronx, but it might be a good option too. I expect driving manners similar to Baleno, more or less. Delta AGS is available around 10 lacs here in Delhi.

Best would be to book a test drive for all three, to see which one feels most convenient.

Stat away from Tata and definitely steer away from C3, I suspect it will give you maintenance headaches down the road, given uncertain future of Citroen here.

[cefiljoseph]

Can't get anything new better than the best Ignis you can afford in the budget.

Being a Suzuki more than a Maruti, the quality is distinct and it also shows in pivotal places like safety too!

It might be a smaller and relatively lesser practical car than WagonR otherwise superior in every sense.

[careind]

Originally Posted by ssateesh

Hello All,
This ask is for someone in the family. Looking for a car recommendation for a family of two adults and 2 kids in the budget of 4-6 lakhs. The lady of the family is physically handicapped in the leg and so she walks with some struggle. The husband will be the driver.

I am a PwD, but I do drive automatics. The ergonomics depend based on where you sit and how you sit and what is the ailment.
There are multiple factors to consider like ease of Ingress-egress, cushioning , lumbar support, floor dips, posture based on the disability type.

Given that the PwD is not going to drive, I would suggest TD’ing all available vehicles in that band. One could easily filter out based on budget / body type/ transmission/fuel/brand in portals like carwale/ cardekho/ v3 etc.

You should probably limit the brands to hyundai/ Maruti for peace of mind in that budget. You could add triber/kwid/magnite to the list. Most offer doorstep TD and should be TD’ed thoroughly for comfort.

One should also factor in the top two priorities.
For example, a car with good mechanicals and great ergonomics might have bad NVH. You can get used to NVH, but never to bad ergonomics.
Luckily most of the cars of the above brands in this segment don’t have complex mechanicals and so should be mechanically sound.

So filter and TD is a must and choose based on the top 1 or 2 priority.

[Maverick Avi]

Nothing beats the Wagon R in terms of ease of ingress and all round visibility. The AMT is pretty reliable now. Only gripe is it's highway manners and build quality. If you can live with it then think no further.

[SuperGirl_Dad]

Originally Posted by ssateesh

The lady of the family is physically handicapped in the leg and so she walks with some struggle. The husband will be the driver.

Reqirements:
1. Easy ingress/egress comfort is preferred due to above condition.
3. Automatics is preferred
5. Decent highway manners as occasionally would be used for short highway trips
6. Ease of maintenance is preferred as they would not have the time/expertise to deal with service centre issues.

For the above requirements why not try the Maruti Ertiga automatic.

Here is an example:

Will be most comfortable for the passengers. Torque converter gearbox much better than the AMTs in hatchbacks.

[fawad0222]

Please do check out if the lady with the physical disability fulfills the criteria for PWD who can avail GST discount as well as Road Tax waiver. If she does then there are certain restrictions about the length of the car and engine displacement size for availing GST discount but no such rules for road tax waiver.

regards