To sell or retain the Honda City Diesel Hello BHP'ians,
We own a 2014 Honda City iDTEC VMT at home, which was purchased "preowned" in 2017 when the odometer was at 35k Kms and has now run nearly 1.7L Kms (1.68L Kms to be precise). In effect, we did 1.33L Kms in 6 years of ownership, and the car is still in good condition, except it needs timing kit replacement, which I'll be getting during the next service. I recently restored it by getting the whole car repainted and replacing the engine mount and gearbox mouth in December 2022. In March 2023, I replaced the tyres. The car has done 23k Km since December 2022 and 12k Km since March 2023.
A year and 33k Km ago, we got the whole suspension overhauled. In 2022, we spent around ₹2L on getting the car refurbished/restored at ASC itself. Since we had sold off our other car (an Innova) more than a year ago, we decided to get this car restored, assuming that we'd be keeping it for another 1-2 years.
We usually sell off our cars within five years or before that, but this is the only car which has been with us for more than five years and selling off this car never come into my parent's minds yet, even after almost six years of ownership.
To let go of this car, firstly, I need to convince my mom, who is the daily user of this car and drives herself to her office on a daily basis. Whenever I bring up the topic of selling off this car, she tells me to keep my mouth shut as she hates the thought of selling things, and according to her, spending on a new car is just a waste of money. She couldn't find any reason to let go of this car yet except for needing an AT. But, someday, we should let go of some things for something new. To date, the experience with our Honda City is to fill it, shut it, and forget it. The reasons I want to let go of this car are:
- Need for AT is increasing daily as my mom suffers from leg issues (her daily commute is 20 km a day, and she has only driven MT cars during her more than two decades of driving). Our City Diesel's hard clutch is making it feel cumbersome to drive in city traffic, which resulted in us looking for AT this time. The car will usually be driven within city limits, with occasional highway drives once in a blue moon. Our chauffeur, my dad, and I'll drive this car apart from her.
- Since the car will be turning ten next year, we might be seeing unforeseen or unexpected expenses on this car though the car is running well and the next expense I'd be seeing now is timing kit replacement, which is due at the next service and maybe the car might be requiring 3rd set of the clutch since the 2nd set of clutch has run nearly a lakh Kms (changed during 70k Kms service in 2019)
- In the near future, the car might also see less running, and Petrol would be a preferred option, which is also mom's choice, as there is not much of a price difference between Diesel and Petrol now though we are still okay with getting a Diesel and, if we get a Diesel car now, this would be the last opportunity for us to enjoy the Diesel torque before it goes extinct and also, gives good FE when compared to Petrol, which is an added advantage
The budget for City's replacement would be ₹10-12L if used, and if new, ₹18-20L is the budget, and we don't want to go beyond that. We are ok with getting any version (sedan or C-SUV).
Any replacement car should be equal or similar to our City regarding rear seat space and comfort as we are spoilt with the comfort and space it offers. The FE of our City Diesel has spoilt us (it gives no less than 18 Kmpl in city traffic, even though the car has run nearly 1.7L Kms on the odo) but, since the car will be driven 20 Kms a day, FE will not be much of an issue and anything above 9-11 Kmpl in city traffic will be fine. Which car can replace our City Diesel?
But, the purchase will take some time since we have to get a primary car for my Dad first (City is the only car at home for now after we sold off our old Innova more than a year ago and had a VW Taigun 1L TSI MT for a brief period, which we returned as nobody liked this car and, we found we could manage with one car).
Last edited by navin : 25th June 2023 at 13:51.
Reason: typos, sentence construction, spelling and grammar
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