[zulfi hansi]

I cannot help but compare Brio with Beat (diesel), both are almost the same size & price OTR Bangalore (there may be a mismatch in versions, like the base version Beat diesel is priced almost same as mid variant Brio), what say guys with the petrol prices shooting up like everyday, the buyer out there will inevitably cross-compare between petrol's & diesels purely based on OTR price and space, how many will really think about Honda refinement in contrast to diesel cost of running in today's time.

[algos&autos]

Originally Posted by zulfi hansi

I cannot help but compare Brio with Beat (diesel), both are almost the same size & price OTR Bangalore (there may be a mismatch in versions, like the base version Beat diesel is priced almost same as mid variant Brio), what say guys with the petrol prices shooting up like everyday, the buyer out there will inevitably cross-compare between petrol's & diesels purely based on OTR price and space, how many will really think about Honda refinement in contrast to diesel cost of running in today's time.

In the process of deciding on car to buy, i considered couple of choices.
1)buy a diesel variant of the car of choice(at a higher price)
2) buy a diesel variant of the lesser segment(at a similar price)
3)buy a petrol variant of the car of choice

now, i liked Jazz, with its looks, comfort, safety features, FE and space,. It fit the requirements of me and my family.

#1, wasnt an option for me.
i tried #2 , the diesel cars i considered were Swift and Punto,both had their problems and couldn't satisfy all my requirements.

so i chose #3.

I believe Hondas are more than refinement, they offer lower maintenance, good FE, better power, better space management and reliability with one drawback of being petrol only.

Diesel Beat is like #2 of my choices, its your call.

[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by suhaas307

The new Swift must be a better car on the inside. From the pictures, it looks pretty well designed. From the reviews here, I've understood that the space is not much more than the outgoing Swift. However, it feels much better on the inside, which is a great thing. The ride, as you've mentioned, just made the whole thing worse for the old Swift. How's the ride in the new one? I've heard that there have been improvements, which can only mean that new Swift customers will enjoy the smoother experience.

Like GTO mentioned, drive it to believe it. Suzuki has got the ride handling balance spot on this time around.

I went and checked the Brio out today. No TD yet. A few bits. The car is very compact on the outside and the design is quirky at the rear. I didn't like it much. I would say it looks smaller than the Beat on the outside and the lower stance of the car also doesn't help the little Honda.

But what I liked was the interior space. Honda's packaging brilliance at work here. The seats are quite thin and there is a very airy feel to the cabin, front and back. But the boot space is not very usable. It is quite narrow with a very high loading lip and is very deep. I felt the quality of interior is a few notches below that of the Jazz, though it is still very good for this segment.

Overall, I didn't like the Brio that much. It is a quality product no doubt. But for the S(O) MT variant with safety equipment, Honda is charging 5L which is 60K more than the base model Jazz. And so far, it seems, apart from city drivability, Jazz trumps the Brio in all aspects. And I think that is Brio' biggest problem. The Jazz base model is awesome value for money and one just cannot ignore that. So, if someone is thinking of the Brio S(O) MT or V MT, I would say stretch a bit more and get the Jazz.

[zulfi hansi]

Originally Posted by algos&autos

Diesel Beat is like #2 of my choices, its your call.

I forgot to make one point, what if the budget is fixed at 5 to 5.25 lakhs OTR Bangalore (+ or _ few thousands), for a city run about. Would the customer think irrespective of his running which may not even justify a diesel by minimum running standards that is, I know one friend of mine who has a running of less than 10 kms / day and he still wants to buy a diesel hatch, then what.

[algos&autos]

Originally Posted by zulfi hansi

I forgot to make one point, what if the budget is fixed at 5 to 5.25 lakhs OTR Bangalore (+ or _ few thousands), for a city run about. Would the customer think irrespective of his running which may not even justify a diesel by minimum running standards that is, I know one friend of mine who has a running of less than 10 kms / day and he still wants to buy a diesel hatch, then what.

I never owned Honda or GM cars before. The cars i owned were Toyota Camry and now i use a Santro and will be moving to Jazz. Please consider my 2 cents in this context.

I lived in the US for a while,the near-unanimous opinion there was the Japanese(Toyota, Honda, Nissan) cars are better than American(GM, Ford,Chrysler) cars. infact most sales of American automobile companies were in the segment of trucks. The Japanese cars were known for low maintenance costs and better FE.

I have been advised strongly to not buy Chevrolet cars and i know of engineers who work for GM, who state that their cars are below market standards.

Based on what i hear and read. I strongly recommend staying away from Chevrolet, unless you get a very good price, be prepared to pay more for maintenance compared to Hyundais, Suzukis or Hondas.

I would strongly recommend buying a i10 or Brio if you are ok with petrol or consider a vista, punto or swift if you want to pay more and buy a diesel.

[dipen]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

But for the S(O) MT variant with safety equipment, Honda is charging 5L which is 60K more than the base model Jazz.

No variant of Brio is expensive than any variant of the Jazz.

Below are the ex-Bombay prices.

E - 4.18
S - 4.61
S(o) - 5.21 ---- Jazz base 5.84
V - 5.41 ---- Jazz select 6.1

Note that there is a near 70k+ on-road difference between comparable variants (while the Jazz packs little more features like wiper, defogger, reclining seats, better audio, trim etc in comparative models)

[deetjohn]

Originally Posted by dipen

No variant of Brio is expensive than any variant of the Jazz.

Below are the ex-Bombay prices.

E - 4.18
S - 4.61
S(o) - 5.21 ---- Jazz base 5.84
V - 5.41 ---- Jazz select 6.1

Note that there is a near 70k+ on-road difference between comparable variants (while the Jazz packs little more features like wiper, defogger, reclining seats, better audio, trim etc in comparative models)

Oops! that was a typo dipen. I wanted to write "But for the S(O) MT variant with safety equipment, Honda is charging 5L which is only 60K less than the base model Jazz"

And as you rightly said, the Jazz base model at that price is truly VFM. And the reason why I recommended people to stretch a bit more and get the Jazz instead of the Brio S(O) MT or V MT. Though, no reclining rear seats in Jazz base model.

[S350L-E240]

Any concrete information when the deliveries start? Would really appreciate this information as different dealers are saying different time, some say mid - november and some december and another says jan so has Honda said anything on this?

Regards,

[informmaha]

Originally Posted by algos&autos

Based on what i hear and read. I strongly recommend staying away from Chevrolet, unless you get a very good price, be prepared to pay more for maintenance compared to Hyundais, Suzukis or Hondas.

Who told you that maintenance cost is less in hyundai? We were owning 2 hyundai's before, but 1 now, 1 chevy and 1 maruti now. I agree with suzuki's maintenance, but not with hyundai's. I have known my uncle owning a spark for the last 3 years and his maintenance cost till now is very very less compared to what we spend on our hyundai. So before commenting on something, please have data's in hand and not just by word of mouth. I have never owned a honda, so cannot comment on that.

[algos&autos]

Originally Posted by informmaha

Who told you that maintenance cost is less in hyundai? We were owning 2 hyundai's before, but 1 now, 1 chevy and 1 maruti now. I agree with suzuki's maintenance, but not with hyundai's. I have known my uncle owning a spark for the last 3 years and his maintenance cost till now is very very less compared to what we spend on our hyundai. So before commenting on something, please have data's in hand and not just by word of mouth. I have never owned a honda, so cannot comment on that.

have you read the disclaimer?

[algos&autos]

Originally Posted by informmaha

Who told you that maintenance cost is less in hyundai? We were owning 2 hyundai's before, but 1 now, 1 chevy and 1 maruti now. I agree with suzuki's maintenance, but not with hyundai's. I have known my uncle owning a spark for the last 3 years and his maintenance cost till now is very very less compared to what we spend on our hyundai. So before commenting on something, please have data's in hand and not just by word of mouth. I have never owned a honda, so cannot comment on that.

also, i use a Santro for about 18 months(the car is now 10 years old), and the maintenance costs are quite low. I have had plenty of colleagues envy my Toyota compared to their fords and chevrolets when i was in US.

[zulfi hansi]

Originally Posted by algos&autos

also, i use a Santro for about 18 months(the car is now 10 years old), and the maintenance costs are quite low. I have had plenty of colleagues envy my Toyota compared to their fords and chevrolets when i was in US.

I agree with infommaha on ownership cost Hyundai, I used to own a Santro too, its not as cheap to maintain as a Maruti any day. That said I agree with you as well on Toyota since I own a Corolla now, its simply amazing how its virtually non-existent when it comes to service costs. Also I've got enough and more feedback on Honda which is similar to a Toyota in India when it comes to cost of ownership. But also the fact that some of my friends who own Chevy here are also happy too (not withstanding the fact that I used to own an Opel Astra and sold the wonderful car only because of the indifference of the GM service or no service), I have had very bad experiences with GM when it came to my car until 2008, but it all seems to have changed after they launched Spark and Beat.

But I may still not buy Beat diesel so soon, (I have never owned a diesel car and I am reluctant to) especially since I need to check out the Eon from Hyundai, compare it with the K10 first and then take a view on what I want, Honda Brio actually fits my bill (for wifee), but end of the day I still cannot digest the fact that a diesel car owner pays only Rs. 44 and I pay Rs.75 for a liter of petrol, its not done.

[Equus]

I own a Santro for 10+ yrs, and the maintenance is not cheap at all.
In our family, we have owned an alto and a wagonR - the typical maintenance on the WagonR was like half of the Santro, year over year.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by algos&autos

I lived in the US for a while,the near-unanimous opinion there was the Japanese(Toyota, Honda, Nissan) cars are better than American(GM, Ford,Chrysler) cars. infact most sales of American automobile companies were in the segment of trucks. The Japanese cars were known for low maintenance costs and better FE.

I have been advised strongly to not buy Chevrolet cars and i know of engineers who work for GM, who state that their cars are below market standards.

Based on what i hear and read. I strongly recommend staying away from Chevrolet, unless you get a very good price, be prepared to pay more for maintenance compared to Hyundais, Suzukis or Hondas.

Just wanted to point out that the Chevy cars you find in India are more Korean then American (since they are rebadged Daewoo)

[algos&autos]

Originally Posted by Guna

Just wanted to point out that the Chevy cars you find in India are more Korean then American (since they are rebadged Daewoo)

Thanks, I wasn't aware of this information.