We had mentally made up mind in 2023 itself to change the car, but the newbie drivers weren’t confident yet.
BHPian Abhinav V recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
I live in Bangalore and we currently drive an Alto K10 AMT. Alto purchased in 2019 from Truevalue is a 2017 model year. When it was purchased, it had run nearly 10K Kms.
The purpose of buying an Alto AMT was to get two newbie drivers – my mother and my younger sibling – comfortable with driving in dense traffic. During two years of COVID, the car saw negligible usage. However, once things got normalized, the car has always been a daily driver. Weekdays, it takes me and my mother to our respective workplaces on alternate days.
Usage is not restricted to just office commutes. We occasionally go on breakfast drives, sunset drives, and during long weekends on road-trips. All things considered, our usage in the last three years, on an average, has been 18000 KMs a year. To sum it up, usage is 75% highways and 25% city drive.
Here are a few pics from many of my drives across Karnataka
Took it to Ooty once. The longest I have ever taken it out so far.
Alto K10 was chosen because that was the smallest and cheapest car available in 2019 that had an auto box. Had Celerio in my list too but the preference was given to a low mileage car.
In these 6 years of ownership, we have driven about 65,000 kms. Alto has brought out two confident drivers.
Alto has taken us to so many new places outside of Bangalore that are lesser known to people. With a 1000 cc engine, it had enough power to cruise easily on the highway, but overtaking always had to be planned with carrying enough momentum.
AMT being notorious for its jerky start in uphill starts and crawling jam packed traffic, had become unbearable to drive. In 2023, we had got the clutch changed completely hoping that would sort the issue. The jerk had minimised to a certain extent but didn’t last. Given our high usage, the jolting has resurfaced and now it has become unbearable.
We had mentally made up mind in 2023 itself to change the car, but the newbie drivers weren’t confident yet. Today they are very comfortable driving in any scenario.
Given its small size, going out as a family always has been a problem. At 5’9″, I am fairly tall and so is my brother. With driver’s seat set to our height, there’s absolutely no room for any adult to sit behind us. Even as a three seater, it has been uncomfortable, due to which we haven’t gone on any 500 KM drives. The itch for an upgrade has been cropping up a lot lately. The rational side of my mind has been pushing it as much as possible. Every time I feel the jolt in traffic, that longing for a better ride only surges.
When we bought Alto we had in mind only two years of ownership, but we ended up with it for six long years. With the next car, we want to keep it for at least 8 years.
What I want from the next car:
1. Power:
Being an enthusiast, this is by default number one priority for me. Driving to me gets exciting when there is action. I really enjoy overtaking vehicles and swiftly pulling ahead of someone gives me an exhilarating feeling which I don’t get even when I am doing a high speed on an empty road.
Down the line, I have plans to get the car engine remapped to extract more horses. With Alto I always had to plan my overtakes beforehand and carry momentum to make an overtake. This time, I want to just tap the throttle.
2. Handling:
Driving to me is therapy and my idea of a therapeutic drive is pushing the car around corners, hitting those apexes and following a racing line. This idea of driving to clear my mind is in complete contradiction to actual therapy
I am a slow cruiser on empty roads, I never drive at uncontrollable speeds although I hit maximum speeds occasionally.
3. Reliability:
This is a complete non negotiable. It is very rare for our car to sit at home. While we get rest days, our car never gets a rest day. Someone always needs a car in our house. More than planned road trips, we go on innumerable breakfast drives/ sunset drives that are always spontaneous.
Over the years, we have owned Innova, Ciaz and now Alto. None of the cars have broken down or left us stranded. Maintenance for us always has been fuel stop, wheel alignment and balancing and service every 10k KMS. Alto’s clutch replacement was a planned repair though!
4. Toughness:
Alto has been a delicate darling. My mom has a massive collection of pots in our house that runs into several hundreds. Many a times, while reversing the car, we have banged a few pots and knocked the plants. While the plants survived, the bumpers have always taken a hit. After having seen enough damages, I got the front and rear bumpers changed and painted recently put even minor bangs is enough for the bumpers to get dislodged. The next car should have tolerance and not get distorted with minor bangs and scrapes.
5. Safety rating:
With high usage and multiple drivers and frequent highway drives, we don’t want to compromise on safety. Anything can happen to anyone anytime. However to reduce the risk, we won’t mind extending the budget for a 5 star rated car.
After buying an almost new Alto, the case for buying a 1-2 year old used car has only gotten stronger. With used cars, for every two lakh rupee increase, the segment has been changing and this is where I am facing dilemma zeroing in on the car.
We have never financed a car purchase so the budget is set at 15 Lakh tops.
So esteemed members,
Kindly share your suggestions to help me upgrade from my current ride.
Here’s what BHPian thanixravindran replied:
If you are looking for new car, check out the new Skoda Kylaq top end or Mid range 1.0 manual of Kushaq. It has the required power, handling and will be a good upgrade and you would love the long drives. Long term Reliability is yet to proven as the India 2.0 cars are in the market just for 4 years.
If you want to move from Maruti and find Skoda too risky, please check the Hyundai – Kia combination of models of Venue or Sonet. I myself has owned Hyundai i10 for 15 years without any breakdown or downtime.
Here’s what BHPian Cyborg replied:
You have a healthy budget, buy brand new to avail of 5-6 years or more with extended warranty and the peace of mind that comes with a new car.
Hyundai Venue or Kia Seltos depending upon which brand or look you prefer. Both should be around your budget.
Cheers
Here’s what BHPian self_driven replied:
Honda Elevate and City are two cars that immediately come to mind looking at your requirements. Coming from AMT, you’ll instantly fall in love with the CVT’s smoothness in city traffic. But keep in mind that CVTs don’t respond well to a heavy right foot, and the pronounced rubber band effect can play spoilsport on spirited drives. I’ve heard some issues with the Elevate’s ergonomics as well, so do check on that if it bothers you. Other than that, these are really good vehicles to keep for long term.
I think the entry-level CVT variants of both will be over the 15 lakh mark, but it makes sense to go slightly over budget for something that you’ll cherish for years to come. If you’re not comfortable spending over 15 lakh, then Amaze, Dzire and Brezza are also good options to consider.
Here’s what BHPian RunSam replied:
We have a K10 alto at home that my mum learnt how to drive in at the age of 55. I agree with all the points you mentioned about the Alto. Ours has never been out of town though. Listing out some used 1-2 year old cars that IMO will be a good mix of reliable & Fun
Honda Elevate, The Grand Vitara/Hyryder twins, Hyundai Creta. Options with slightly lesser practicality but more fun: Honda City (Would be my top pick), Verna 1.5 turbo & i20 N-Line (Something that’s been growing on me lately), Jimny – could be fun in a different sort of way!Cheers!
Here’s what BHPian PetrolHead2272 replied:
What about a used Innova Crysta. It’s more fun to drive then you could possibly believe and all your requirements check out with this one.
You could bag one for around 15 lakhs easily and even if you pick one with 1L+ kms, you’d feel as if its just done a couple thousands of kms. The GD engine is an absolute engineering masterclass.
Cheers
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