Mileage-oriented hatchbacks with manual transmission under Rs 10 lakhs

Wants to replace the Sonet iMT and has shortlisted the Fronx and Baleno.

BHPian 07CR recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

My dad plans to replace his Sonet iMT Turbo Petrol. Rationally (There are some irrational reasons that are driving the need for replacing Sonet, unfortunately can't share those here) there is only one issue with this car, i.e. the low mileage he gets (10 km/l in Pune traffic, I get 12-14 in the same region). Somehow he is not able to extract more mileage from it.

He has shortlisted the Fronx Delta + MT (NA motor) and Baleno Zeta MT. He expects to get 16-18 km/l from both these cars.

Any other car I should check out? The budget is under 10L and can't be stretched. It has to be a manual transmission. No to AMTs. CVT/AT can be considered.

Fuss-free, cheap ASS and great mileage are prime requirements. Everything else comes later.

Would be very helpful to hear your comments. Thanks!

Here's what BHPian Vishal.R had to say on the matter:

Nothing can beat diesel in mileage, Can consider Altroz XM Plus diesel. Also, agree about CNG offerings from TATA and Hyundai as other options.

Here's what BHPian xenon0025 had to say on the matter:

I would suggest checking out the CNG versions of Tata Tiago and Hyundai Nios.

I recently drove my cousin's 8-month-old Tata Tigor on a highway for ~40 km and was fairly surprised with the performance. It completed 10000kms on our drive. My earlier reference for a CNG vehicle was when I drove a friend's i10 which had an aftermarket CNG kit. It felt way underpowered and I did not like the drive. However, my recent drive of the Tigor changed my perception for factory factory-fitted CNG vehicles.

While you shortlist the vehicle, get a test drive of both the CNG vehicles as well and it will help you make a decision.

Here's what BHPian sonmi-451 had to say on the matter:

I have driven a 2022 Baleno CNG for 30,000 kms and in Hyderabad traffic I used to get 17 to 18 kms/kg in the city. As some commented above, I do wonder how can get 18kms/litre in a petrol car in the city! I am

Not heavy-footed. I am now driving a Brezza cng which has clocked close to 3000 kms and I get about 15 kms/kg of CNG in the city. As it was with the baleno, I expect the mileage go up by 2 to 3 in the city as I cross 10k. My father drives an Ertiga CNG and has covered 36000 kms so far. He gets 17 to 18 kms/kg of cylinder in the city(2nd tier city). Recently on a highway trip, I maintained a speed of 85 to 90 on the way on the Ertiga and it returned 28 kms/kg of CNG with 4 people and 3 bags of luggage. The best I got in the baleno was 31 kms/kg while maintaining speeds of 90 to 95kms/hr.

Between Baleno and Ertiga covering more than 65,000 kms we never faced any issues or high maintenance costs. Of course, it’s a little early in the life if the car. Hope this information helps you. I would highly recommend a CNG car, especially from Maruthi if you can put with the lines at the CNG pumps and limited boot space(baleno is far better with bot space than Brezza in CNG form).

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