Car & Bike Punto or Polo ?

madnav said:
That is not what he mean.
Its like maruti has over 2600 service stations nationwide and they provide parts for even EOL products for long. Spares are easy to acquire and are light on pocket due to availability.
They still control around 45% of the car sales and that thus the parts quality speaks for itself.
however incomparable to build quality of VW.

i do not have source for actual figures but they are as per what i have read over TBHP and you are free to explore there :)
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Well, to most Indians, a car has to be Maruti, a commuter bike has to be Hero Honda, a 150 cc bike has to be Pulsar, a phone has to be Nokia and so on :) Doesn't necessarily mean they are the best in class. It is just that most of them build a reputation over the years owing to poor or no competition, and Indians are very brand loyal! Honestly, I wouldn't even bother comparing the quality of a Maruti or Tata with VW, Honda, Toyota or Ford. A simple test would be to compare the quality of a 5 year old car from each. Case in point - a 10 year Honda City vs a 2 year old Maruti SX4!
 
oh and i forgot to mention, the polo felt quite cramped(i'm 6'4")... most comfortable in the segment were ritz followed by the i10. You should consider the new i10, looks way better than the previous one.
 
Dude the punto looks are killer specially in blood red but I would suggest not to go for it. Initially you will enjoy the ride but once the FE starts biting you will regret for sure.

Three of my colleagues in office have Punto and everytime they sit in my Swift D they say why the heck we did not buy this hatch :eek:hyeah:

You should definitely give Maruti Ritz a TD. It may not have the interiors and features comparable to other hatch in the price range but it has a great K12 engine with performance and FE and with Maruti peace of mind :)
 
agantuk said:
Well, to most Indians, a car has to be Maruti, a commuter bike has to be Hero Honda, a 150 cc bike has to be Pulsar, a phone has to be Nokia and so on :) Doesn't necessarily mean they are the best in class. It is just that most of them build a reputation over the years owing to poor or no competition, and Indians are very brand loyal! Honestly, I wouldn't even bother comparing the quality of a Maruti or Tata with VW, Honda, Toyota or Ford. A simple test would be to compare the quality of a 5 year old car from each. Case in point - a 10 year Honda City vs a 2 year old Maruti SX4!
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Rest assured i didnt mean it that way, actually experienced maruti service since 10-12 yrs, had a honda car too and a tata car at home too..

The maintenance bills for somewhat similar usage was atlease twice for honda and tata, the service- like duration they take for work, then work quality, pick up drop, and almost anything related to service required you to be very vigil with them, but with maruti, inspite of showing the same vigil, we cud never find a single fault, delivered car when they said they wud, spares reached right as per their estimation, and pick up drop, plus if ur car goes dead somewhere there's always a maruti centre nearby!!

They dont charge exorbitant service charges, plus help as much as they can with insurance..There have been countless good experiences with maruti, while others have been avg or bad..
 
I would suggest you wait for few months and go for the New Swift.What's up with the build quality.With India's pathetic roads even cars build on adamantium wont last.Maye be interior will be superior but on the outside its more or less same.All these polo punto ...etc their spare will cost a fortune.More over i heard for polo you should go for Original Spares else you are devoid of warranty.All these cars runs smooth with less maintenance for about 1 lakh km.But it also depends on the roads you drive.I had to shell out thousands of bucks for my Hyundai santro every now and then.And most of the Spare parts had to brought from Hyundai,not available in the outside market.For more city drive and less drive on NH's i would recommend to go for Maruthi.Don't invest in these New Cars and spend you fortune on Maintenance.
 
I think u should go ahead with Punto because
*Built Quality of both more or less same.
*Active variant has more features than Trendline
*Dont know what maintenance costs would be but would 100% be more than Fiat.
*a.$.$ better...but i still always think VW would treat us better then what Tata does(no offence but whenever i go to TASS 70pc of the people are TAXIwallahs)
*Great Suspension!!!!!

about 1.2 FIRE engine its not that great but you can get mileage of around 11Km/L during B2B...15-16Km/L in Highways..Polo would have +1 in mileage.
 
I would also agree with some of the above posters and suggest that you do give Maruti a serious consideration. I myself have a Ritz and I can say its quite a car. If you have problems with Ritz looks(as many people in TBHP have) go for the new Swift.

Now, if you are going for Punto based on the looks, then I'd say go for it. Some people listen to the heart. :) Nothing wrong with that. My office colleague's hubby just bought one based only the feel of it.

Also, the new i10 features look amazing on paper. That is also a great option.
 
your choice of car makes it evident that you're a car noob :p

there is a lot more to buying a car than the car itself. The polo is like the good looking chick who just joined college, but who you have no idea about, and the punto is a high maintainence hottie. Do you really want to marry either of them ? I wouldnt, considering the risk.

Do a bit more research. why have you narrowed down to these two cars? Looks ? image? reputation? ( as a car noob, thats what usually comes to mind first - I've been there too :ashamed:)

the things to worry about are actually more sensible things like resale value, quality of service, cost of spares, build quality, repairablity, cost of servicing, driveablity, ergonomics etc. Would suggest you give it a lot of thought :)

or jump in and buy one of these , and learn these lessons the hard way !
 
^^Then do let me know other sensible choice .. I already mentioned the reasons I chose the two. Basically the looks and features.

I am even considering Beat and other options available but its too perplexing for a newbie like me :p
 
look at the cars several thousands of indians buy every month. the swift, the i20, the ritz - these are the risk free choices :p

I understand that right now, looks and features are the critera on which you can make a judgement, but I just wanted to consider these other factors. these will work out far more important in the long term :)
 
I own Fiat Linea. Its been more than 6 months since I bought it.
The Fiat Service is good (Cochin). They have done several free services for me & also pickups. The mileage of the Petrol version is a bit low. But from what I heard from my friend who owns the Diesel version of Punto, he gets good mileage.
 
el33t said:
If looks is the most important criteria then why not go for the i20 :p
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because looks are subjective :)

i for one find i20 to be bad looking :p

@OP

just consult with local fiat owners about service quality.

visit showroom and check out the interior material quality of punto.

if both of the above things are positive then punto becomes obvious choice.
 
I would suggest you to get a Swift and pls don't bang me :p.

Trusted service network, easy available parts, good engine and performance, nice ride quality etc etc. Swift VXI would be in your budget though I would suggest go with ABS version. :)
 
Well if you are looking to buy the Punto 1.2, then it gives me an FE of around 13-14 overall in Navi Mumbai roads (read, one of the best areas to drive in India, wrt traffic and road conditions)

Fiat service is dependent on the dealer so ask a few owners near your area how good the service is. Other than that, it is an excellent car and fun to drive and unlike most people think, the spares are very competitively priced. Palio was a very high maintenance car but Punto and Linea parts are localized and are as cheap as Maruti or Hyundai, for cars in their segment. The build quality is excellent, the plastic quality is not. Resale value is poor. This is a compromise you have to make if you want a chick looking, fun to drive car. Take a TD and see how well it drives, with respect to dynamics and also excellent ride. In your budget, you can get a 1.2 Emotion which is quite loaded, however no ABS and Airbags. You mentioned you didn't want these, but these, especially ABS is very helpful at times.

VW Polo is again excellent built and good dynamics, although a little low on features. Cost of spares and service, yet to know but service in general could be better than Tata-Fiat.
 
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