Mid Life Crisis - Automatic in < 17 Lakhs Budget. Will i Find my midlife love ? It’s that time of the life when a person graduates from Manual to Auto Transmission for various reasons, but primarily for stress-free driving (to an extent). Having driven over 180000 Kms in Manual Trans vehicles in the last 11 years, my left knee was begging to take some rest since the traffic was getting from Bad to Worse to Worst to Ridiculous. Its Bengaluru.
My new job is further fueling this change, since I need to travel 60Kms per day (through the city traffic, JP Nagar 7th Phase to ITPL) and spend atleast 4 hours in the traffic. I could no longer drive the way I use to drive 10 years back. My stress level is quite high with the new Job and I really DON’T want to get to office in not-so-good mood with all the trouble one has to take to wade through the traffic. Im in people’s manager role and the last thing people want to see me is in a bad mood entering the office or grumbling with knee pain. All of this is making me lose interest in driving (something that I loved few years back). Driving has become stressful and drains the energy out. Enough of my ranting. So the Need is clear. I need a new Car with Auto Transmission with a Budget of 17 Lakhs. Thats the stretch
I did fair amount of research and end up more confused. Im listing my requirements to help me navigate the ambiguity and find the one that would fit my purpose. Finding my Love to Drive again.
Requirements:-
1. Preferably Diesel car since the usage is more than 60Kms per day. But not hard bent since there are very few options in diesel model at < 17Lakhs.
2. No/Minimum Turbo Lag. I want to enjoy the ride and feel good without getting bored. Should suit both City and Highway trips. I want to feel Good and Energetic driving this vehicle. I want to look forward driving every morning to office.
3. Since I intend to keep this car for atleast 10 years (yes, you read it right), I would prefer a sturdy, reliable and easy-on-pocket vehicle. Vehicle that has proved it’s reliability.
4. 90% of my driving will be in the city with occasional 1000Km round trip twice a year. Basically a city centric car.
5. Ability to seat 5 adults comfortably.
6. Budget of 15 lakhs, but can extend upto 17 Lakhs Max.
7. No Pre-worshipped vehicle. Need bread new since my association with this will be for 10 years atleast.
8. Reasonable Mileage, irrespective of Petrol or Diesel vehicle.
Cars that I have shortlisted:
1. Ford Fiesta PowerShift Titanium +
2. Scorpio 2WD AT.
3. City AT.
4. Verna Crdi or Sx AT.
Cars I didn’t consider and why ?
• Vento or Rapid - I’m made to believe that auto gear-box in both are not upto the mark. Again, this is based on the reviews and I haven’t TD’d any vehicle so far. If this is wrong, please let me know. I will add them to my list of TD.
• Laura TdI 2.0 with DSG – Maybe out of my budget.
• Cruze – Huge turbo lag and not good for city driving. Is this true?
Verna comes with 4 speed Auto gearbox. I like everything about Verna except the 4-speed. Wish they had a 6-speed option. Anyways, for now this is in the bottom of my list.
My Dream would be to own Laura 2.0 TdI with AT. Even Ambiente/Ambition version is fine but the OTR is 17.5 in Bangalore. Bit of a stretch for me.
City AT – Tried, tested and a strong contender here.
Fiesta AT – I have read tons of review about this and love the car on papers. The Powershift thing seems to be as good as DSGs in Laura, but I doubt if this car can take 5 adults comfortably.
Scorpio AT – I just love the looks of Muscular Scorpio. I don’t know how reliable their AT box is, but I just Love this vehicle. Been my dream for long. I will take TD this Saturday and know how good their AT box and steering comfort is. It almost checks all my box + few more.
There aren’t too many diesel options is less than 15 lacs in India which is a bit frustrating. All we have is Verna and SX4. Petrol has few but with spiraling petrol prices and high usage, I wish to invest in diesel. But wait a minute, what if Diesel prices are rationalized and all subsidies taken out ? Will it then become more expensive to own a diesel ?
Experts/Gurus - Kindly help me with your valuable inputs since this is THE CAR that will pretty much take me from my 30s to 40s in my life. It’s very important that I make a wise investment.
Last edited by noopster : 30th April 2012 at 15:07.
Reason: Please avoid using hard-to-understand acronyms like ANHV
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