Hello, forum members!
We have two cars in our garage, a '20 Polo and a '10 Ritz. The state of my Polo is well documented in this forum. I'm yet to have the BCM failure resolved. Owing to that, we have had to travel a lot on the Ritz and that has highlighted a need for its replacement. My father primarily drives the Ritz, bought it for its styling (yes!) and upright stance. He used to consider Ford Ecosport the natural upgrade to the Ritz but with Ford leaving, that's not an option.
The Ritz has aged well and runs perfectly. But after
the accident, we've not felt very comfortable driving it on the highways.
The Polo has satiated our risk appetite and we are now looking for robust cars with bulletproof reliability. So unfortunately, Nexon with its AMT is not on the list.
My father's going to retire in a few years, he really loves driving and wants to travel by road as much as possible before hanging up his driving shoes. He isn't an enthusiast by any means, he enjoys the travelling aspect of driving more than the adrenaline rush, so sedate cars are okay, in fact, even preferred! He would also like to keep the car for 15, even 20 years. This is going to be his last car and he wants to make it count.
To that end, we've shortlisted the Vitara Brezza (In its Urban Cruiser avatar) and S-Cross.
Requirements
1) Comfort - The car's going to be taken out on the highway a lot, but it's also going to be used for the daily commute and city runabouts. He's at a point in life where comfort is the #1 priority.
2) Reliability - Necessary for a car that's going to do a lot of highway runs.
3) Safety - For obvious reasons.
4) Automatic - He's gotten lazy with shifting gears and after having driven the Polo AT, does not think the next purchase should be a manual.
5) Tall - It's not about the seating position, but a way to not be blinded by ever increasing high beam menace within city limits. In our low slung Polo, an oncoming Baleno on high beam with its LEDs completely blinds us. We're hoping that sitting taller will help mitigate that to some extent.
Vitara Brezza (Urban Cruiser)
+ Tall : Fits the bill. It also has the very annoying LED projectors that should make people consider lowering their high beams in exchange for less annoyance for themselves. Nobody seems to care much about the high beams of my VW Polo when I try to flash them in order to signal for low beam.
+ Reliable : MSIL. Also very popular on our roads so the spares availability and repairability scene should be better than the S-Cross'. (We've faced Ritz' spares problems at times, nobody does with a Swift!)
+ Safety : 4* GNCAP rated. Not the best, but definitely not "unsafe" either. Given that the car will be driven at 90 max, this should be sufficient.
- Ride Quality : I've heard it's not very good. I've driven the Diesel Brezza on broken roads and it was nothing to write home about. The Baleno felt better at the time.
- Generic Interiors : The interior really feels cheap and bad. Decade old Polo's interiors feels better.
S-Cross
+ Comfort : I've Test Driven the S-Cross 1.5 and the suspension is pretty good. The ride quality is very good owing to it being a crossover, rather than a pseudo SUV.
+ Premium feel : It definitely feels the better put together of the two cars.
+ Driving manners : Again, owing to a more aerodynamic shape, it should be more stable than the Brezza on open highways.
- Size : My father's concerned about the city maneuverability of the vehicle. He wants something that's easy to drive within city limits.
- Not very tall : Is the seating height enough to ensure a person doesn't go blind from the high beams of the oncoming traffic? I don't know. I TD'd it at day time.
- Concern about spare availbility in the future : While spares are available for the Ritz, they're not always in the stock of our local dealer. The clutch failed once while we were visiting family and nobody had a clutch wire for the Ritz in stock. Now I'm facing issues with the steering assembly of the same. S-Cross is about as popular in comparison to the Brezza as the Ritz was, in comparison to the Swift.
Postscript : I am not a big fan of the Smart Hybrid feature. Will unplugging the battery beneath the passenger seat affect the warranty? Is there any way to disable it for good? Can one just remove the battery and keep it outside the car? Any input will be appreciated!
The decision will be taken at the beginning of 2022. We do not want to wait for the next generation of Brezza/S-Cross. MSIL is shifting all of its cars to the HEARTECT platform and that has a sketchy record with safety. Both of these are built on the old Vitara platform, I believe. This is not about deciding which is the better car of the two, which I believe the S-Cross is. It's about finding out which car will be more appropriate for stated needs.
Thanks!