[shresan23]

Hey all. This has always been a big brain itch of mine. Given the fact that i am hunting for a new car, i have been going through multiple car brochures.

I have found two types of brochures, when it comes to specification listing.

1. Ones where all the features are listed and the variants in which they are actually available are ticked or marked

2. Ones where the standard features are listed and then for every increase in variant, subsequent additions alone or listed.

I hope the explanation is clear.

Which ones do you guys prefer? The first one or the second one.

I personallly prefer the first one because, comparison is a whole lot easier and there is minimal chance of overlooking or masking.

Type 1



Type 2

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Indian Car Scene. Thanks for sharing!

I personally prefer the Plus (+) display, which is option 2 in your list. In a second, I can see what the higher variants are offering me. We usually go for the top variant only...or in very few cases, the 2nd from top. This makes the comparison easy to see.

[sam264_2000]

I prefer the 2nd option. Much cleaner and quick to grasp what you get. Now a days, even Maruti Suzuki has resorted to option 1 on their website. It's very cumbersome to make out the differences when data is represented that way. But the marketing thought behind it could be to confuse the customer so eventually they opt for the highest variant rather than wasting time in figuring out the differences.

[AYP]

I prefer the type 2.

While type 1 may be easy to read, type 2 is cleaner and clearer and makes it easy to figure out the differences between the variants. Sadly, more and more manufacturers are shifting to type 1 due to the bazillion variants on offer(looking at you Tata Motors). While this may not be the case with each and every manufacturer, but I have seen that the type 1 format often misses out the smaller features(or the lack of it) in a particular variant.

To the best of my knowledge, it is Jeep that started the type 1 type of brochure in India, atleast among the mass market cars.

[ron178]

Type 2 any day. I’ve often missed things in Type 1 - it seems to be more of a way for the manufacturer to ever avoid explicitly saying some variant doesn’t have a feature. Type 2 makes it very easy to compare two columns while for type 1 you need to go through all intermediate variants to see what’s different.

Honda I believe have both types in each of the Elevate and City’s brochures.

[ghodlur]

Can I suggest an Option 3. I have seen this in the Harrier Brochure and immensely helped me decide quickly amongst the variants. Its very simple to understand as well.

[el lobo 6061]

Type 2 is a simple way of understanding difference between variants without confusing the customer.

[ashvek3141]

Type 2. Simple & clear. Hyundai , Maruti type brochures. Kia’s brochures are a disaster!

P. S.: I think your text / description is not matching with the respective picture.

[SiddharthR]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Can I suggest an Option 3. I have seen this in the Harrier Brochure and immensely helped me decide quickly amongst the variants. Its very simple to understand as well.

I like this option as well. Clean and simple to understand.
Tata has over the last few years, taken a lot of effort in increasing the variants (giving more options to us consumers) and also communicating the variants effectively

Increasing variants is a nightmare in an automobile manufacturing setup since it adds complexity and they have really invested behind this which must be appreciated. Whether it pays off remains to be seen

[Jeroen]

I prefer the second one. These sort of tables I find are the easiest to get a quick feel of the various differences.

Jeroen

[DicKy]

The second option is easier to read no doubt and let's us know what we are getting by going up each variant, but I prefer the first one.

It may seem more cluttered but it allows us to also see what features we may lose. Especially useful for those looking at the lower variants.

Ones where all the features are listed and the variants in which they are actually available are ticked or marked

[vignesh207]

Its the second one for sure. If I'm picking a variant, I'll clearly know what it has (looking at lower variants) and what I'm missing (looking at the higher).

Hyundai always has the 1st type and its a hectic process to go through the list and find out what you are missing in your variant, especially if you are on a mobile device, you've to scroll all the 4 ways !

[RVR]

I'd prefer the second one any day. However, would prefer first one as an option too especially if it is for KIA, considering the spread of variants they have and the features that gets mixed up between the GT line and normal variants.

[Vkap257]

I always prefer the type 1.

We usually have a list of "must have" and "good to have" features in mind when we are shopping for a car. It is very easy when the features are listed and categorized and then there is a lateral "tick mark" showing what variants carry those. The 2nd type of brochure makes it very difficult to find specific features in a Sea of words.

Besides, in case the car has engine specific features such as a Sonet, the the automaker resorts to "(automatic only), (iMT only)" markings which confuses things further.

[IshWish]

I always prefer Option 1.

It gives a side-by-side comparison of various trims as our eyes always move from left to right.

Also, it is in psychology that our brain registers symbols faster than words because they give concrete visuals to ideas or representations. With a single symbol "S" in option 1, it gives enough clarity on what that particular trim has/doesn't have.