[Hagaru]

Hello All, need your guidance with a decision.

We have a 2021 Model Hyundai Verna SX(O) MT at home. The car is taken out rarely, only once a week and the main runnings are usually on Highways.

My mother is now showing interest in wanting to drive. She has to commute to work twice or thrice every week on average, and the occasional family visits and shopping over the weekend. And she has some requirements, but we are not able to shortlist many options in her range.

She is uncomfortable taking the Verna out due to the MT and her perception of it being a 'big/long' car.

1) Automatic is a must. She is quite dead set on this.
2) Compact car/Hatchback. She would have bought the Nano brand new if it were on sale.
3) Budget is 5 Lakhs, stretchable up to 10-15%, including all purchasing costs (except interest)
4) She would like to have a car that she won't regret even if it scratches a little, this is the general concept of a beater car I assume.
5) The car will be financed by a loan.

The car will be purely city driven by our family. Boot space, Rear Leg room, etc are not a concern at all. But, personally, I would prefer there to be some safety features. I do understand it would be hard with this budget.

For Reference, we are based out of Bangalore, and would prefer a KA registered vehicle but are open to buying a KL registered vehicle if the price difference is huge.

Some Cars that were suggested
1) Alto
2) Santro AMT
3) Jazz (We think it would be hard to find a good pre-worshipped example at this price)

Hoping to hear inputs from fellow members.

[bijims]

Considering your budget, new cars are more or less out of question with even the Alto K10 AMT costing 6.5 Lakhs on road, so you are left with used cars and the best options would be Alto, Wagon R, Ignis, and i10, if you want safety the cheapest car you could get used would be a Tata Tiago

[GTO]

For a smooth experience & to avoid the Bangalore used car mafia, best to go through one of the startups. On Cars24 & Spinny, I am seeing some good AT options - Honda Jazz, Brio, Grand i10 & Ignis (but AMT).

Take your Mom along for a test-drive and buy the one she is most comfortable with.

As much as possible, avoid the AMTs.

[Hagaru]

Originally Posted by bijims

Considering your budget, new cars are more or less out of question with even the Alto K10 AMT costing 6.5 Lakhs on road, so you are left with used cars and the best options would be Alto, Wagon R, Ignis, and i10, if you want safety the cheapest car you could get used would be a Tata Tiago

Thank you.
Tata Tiago would be a good choice for safety, yes but I'm not sure if there are options in the used market, and even if there are, from what I've seen they are usually overpriced. Gotta keep a good eye.

Originally Posted by GTO

For a smooth experience & to avoid the Bangalore used car mafia, best to go through one of the startups. On Cars24 & Spinny, I am seeing some good AT options - Honda Jazz, Brio, Grand i10 & Ignis (but AMT).

Take your Mom along for a test drive and buy the one she is most comfortable with.

As much as possible, avoid the AMTs.

Thank you for the suggestions, I'll not look outside the websites.

I saw a Brio on Team-BHP Classifieds and was going to show that to my mom this weekend.
I feel Jazz is a very good option for her, it suits her personality but a little worried about the cost.

I'm not well versed with Automatic transmissions, is AMT bad?

[civic-dk]

Originally Posted by Hagaru

I'm not well versed with Automatic transmissions, is AMT bad?

I will suggest not to go with an AMT as the head nod during gear change becomes quite irritating. In my opinion, 5 lakhs is a good budget for getting an used automatic hatchback car.

[IshaanIan]

Brio would be your best bet since it has a torque converter apart from that the Micra and Jazz both make for good CVT options.

[omar]

Brio would be my pick as well, as it has the smallest footprint and is also good to drive.

Jazz would be my next recommendation, if the relative size increase, over the Brio, is comfortable.

Would recommend the car to be driven first and then should you decide. With cars, specs are one thing, drivability can sometimes be a completely different thing.

[deep_bang]

Here a crazy option. I call it crazy as I would not suggest it to a new driver. However, Bangaloreans are very adoptive of new technologies. So here I go.

If her usage of 3 days + the rest equals to approximately 10k kms a year, how about taking a loan for 5 more laks and buy a Tiago EV. It's an auto. The savings on fuel will offset the emi to be paid. You get a brand new car.

Only, it means you HAVE to drive 10k a year for the next 3 to 4 years to justify it financially.

[IshaanIan]

I forgot to mention the A-Star as well considering you mentioned that boot space and rear leg room are not a concern, it would be the ultimate car for your mom and they were relatively popular in Bangalore so it should not take much time to find one. The A-Star is one of those rare Maruti products that was well built as well from a build toughness perspective and should be the cheapest used automatic to buy and run out there. Sure you may not be getting the refinement of a 4 cyl motor or the best Torque Converter gearbox out there, but it's got the smallest footprint and surely the fact that it's a Maruti must make up for all that considering how easy it will be to buy and own

[Hagaru]

Originally Posted by civic-dk

I will suggest not to go with an AMT as the head nod during gear change becomes quite irritating.

Will keep this in mind. Thank you. I would definitely take a test drive too just to gauge how much of a difference
When we saw Maruti Options, they had only AMT available, at the TrueValue showroom near us.

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Brio would be your best bet since it has a torque converter apart from that the Micra and Jazz both make for good CVT options.

Thank you for your input.
To be honest, I'm a little biased towards Brio, as I find the rear profile of the car eye candy. But, it's a hard task to find good AT examples. We did find a few manual examples that we plan to check.

Originally Posted by omar

Brio would be my pick as well, as it has the smallest footprint and is also good to drive.

Jazz would be my next recommendation, if the relative size increase, over the Brio, is comfortable.

Would recommend the car to be driven first and then should you decide. With cars, specs are one thing, drivability can sometimes be a completely different thing.

100% Agree with the last point, thank you.
When we had the opportunity to keep a Chevrolet Beat for a few months, I was genuinely surprised at how low the flooring was, contrary to my thoughts on hatchback driving.

Originally Posted by deep_bang

Here a crazy option. I call it crazy as I would not suggest it to a new driver. However, Bangaloreans are very adoptive of new technologies. So here I go.

If her usage of 3 days + the rest equals to approximately 10k kms a year, how about taking a loan for 5 more laks and buy a Tiago EV. It's an auto. The savings on fuel will offset the emi to be paid. You get a brand new car.

Only, it means you HAVE to drive 10k a year for the next 3 to 4 years to justify it financially.

Thank you for your input.
To be honest, when the talk of buying a car came up, this was my first suggestion as well. But, a few important points were brought upon.
We are not sure if we will even keep the car for 2 years, and upon enquiring, we realized it would be a giant hassle to install an electric charger at our apartment, mainly due to lack of space. We intend to use a parking spot outside our apartment for this car and charging, in general, would be a hassle.
One alternative pointed out was to charge at the Tech Park my mom works at, but she is averse to the idea, citing range anxiety.

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

I forgot to mention the A-Star as well considering you mentioned that boot space and rear leg room are not a concern, it would be the ultimate car for your mom and they were relatively popular in Bangalore so it should not take much time to find one. The A-Star is one of those rare Maruti products that was well built as well from a build toughness perspective and should be the cheapest used automatic to buy and run out there. Sure you may not be getting the refinement of a 4 cyl motor or the best Torque Converter gearbox out there, but it's got the smallest footprint and surely the fact that it's a Maruti must make up for all that considering how easy it will be to buy and own

A Star has been a popular option in consideration, and this re-affirms the stance. Thanks a lot for this. Refinement isn't a great concern, fortunately, as we expect to run into mechanical issues with any pre-owned car.


With all this being said, dad and I checked some cars and then took mom. After an evening discussion, we feel we need to open our options to manual and have a refresher driving course for mom. This has opened the catalogue to a whole new set of vehicles previously ignored.

[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by Hagaru

we feel we need to open our options to manual and have a refresher driving course for mom. This has opened the catalogue to a whole new set of vehicles previously ignored.

Are you guys considering a manual only because you're finding it difficult to find the perfect car in the second hand market? The used car market in India is tough to navigate and definitely requires time as people are out to scam you left right and center regardless of what you are looking for. Considering you stay in Bangalore I'm sure it won't take more than a couple of months to find the perfect automatic hatch for your mom. Apart from that another reason why I would recommend sticking to an automatic is because it is tough to find a petrol hatchback from the last 10 years with enough torque to make driving it easy in manual guise. All the K series motors from Maruti, the Honda V-Tecs, they all lack grunt and need to be revved up to get anywhere which requires finesse when it comes to throttle input thus I would suggest sticking to something with a Torque converter or a CVT gearbox considering your mother is not the most experienced when it comes to driving.

[Hagaru]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Are you guys considering a manual only because you're finding it difficult to find the perfect car in the second hand market? The used car market in India is tough to navigate and definitely requires time as people are out to scam you left right and center regardless of what you are looking for. Considering you stay in Bangalore I'm sure it won't take more than a couple of months to find the perfect automatic hatch for your mom. Apart from that another reason why I would recommend sticking to an automatic is because it is tough to find a petrol hatchback from the last 10 years with enough torque to make driving it easy in manual guise. All the K series motors from Maruti, the Honda V-Tecs, they all lack grunt and need to be revved up to get anywhere which requires finesse when it comes to throttle input thus I would suggest sticking to something with a Torque converter or a CVT gearbox considering your mother is not the most experienced when it comes to driving.

Unfortunately yes, it seems the automatic market in that price range is quite small. But the manual selection isn't mainly on that.

The topic of the Verna came up, and if I decide to move elsewhere for my work or further education later this year, the Verna would be treated as a garage queen. We felt it would be good to practice with a manual so my mom is comfortable taking the Verna. After a few years, the car would be taken to our hometown for their local use.

I still believe Automatic is the way to go, for a city car. So our focus lies there.

[Voodooblaster]

Spresso VXI AMT (Ex showroom Bangalore) 5.75 lacs will be a good option, though stretching your budget by a bit

S Presso has a high seating position, and the edge of bonnet is clearly visible to the driver.

Of course with Maruti, we have to factor in dismal NCAP ratings. Since the car will be used mostly in the city bumper to bumper traffic, NCAP shouldn’t be a dealbreaker

A used AT car that’s not properly maintained might throw up unexpected repair costs

Since you mentioned disposing the car after a couple of years, a new car will fetch good resale value

Interest rates for used car loans are generally high. It’s advisable to cross check the following things to see which is better:

1) Total payout on a used car loan VS new car loan
2) tentative Resale value at end of 2 years for new and used car
3) Probability of expensive maintenance costs for a used AT versus peace of mind (OEM warranty ) for a new car


If buying an used AT, ensure that it has warranty

[Joe367]

Brio might be the best car for you.

[krankstter]

I remember having this exact same requirement back in 2021 for my mom. Points 1-4 are absolutely spot on. We had a Tata Nano AMT which we had to sell owing to it's transmission issues (Only 35k total but still broke down often, gear auto switches to N on it's own). Got rid of it and started considering compact hatchbacks such as the Tiago, Kwid and Santro (Nano was discontinued by then). Didn't really want the Tata AMTs since we faced an issue with the Nano earlier, so ruled that out. Saw the Kwid, asked for a test drive, the Renault showroom itself was bleak, empty building with only 2-3 cars and a ton of empty space, highly ignorant employees plus the Kwid wasn't available for a test drive since some higher management's relative started using that as their personal vehicle, too many red flags already. We still decide to test drive the Triber automatic (we were told it's just an mpv version of kwid and it'll still feel the same way) and it felt extremely under powered, so ruled out.

The twist to this story arrives in the form of a Santro, no offense to the car or the brand, but the original Santro formula was completely missing, extremely low vehicle height and it just didn't feel like the OG, it felt slower than the Nano for some reason even though it had decent specs on paper. The sales person promptly suggested us to test drive the i10 nios and arranged for one vehicle within 5 minutes. The moment I stepped foot on the accelerator, I was sold. Mom was happy with it as well. Finally, got the Sportz AMT Nios, and it ended up being 3.5 lacs more than our initial budget.

Overall still very happy with the purchase though, because it handles great in the city. The AMT (probably the best in it's segment, no doubt) and the engine are ultra smooth, it's probably the closest ICE vehicle in the market which feels like an EV. The power is also decent and helps with quick overtakes.

Fuel economy is terrible though, we only get 10-12 in the city. The car is also extremely floaty on the highways if you push it, doesn't feel as planted as the Tiago. The NVH is also not the best in class, it gets extremely noisy especially if you drive over small pebbles. They hit the chassis and make a clinging sound which is very annoying.

We have done quite a bit of unintentional off-roading in this (have a Petrol AT Ecosport which has lesser off-road experience than this one). It handled all that very well, I was still extremely nervous during those times, especially when we had to wade through a 1 foot high flooded road in Hyderabad.

I somehow have a feeling that you'll probably end up overshooting your budget as well. Wishing you all the very best in finding a happy trouble-free ride.