After Starting this thread almost 7 months ago, I researched many cars and was arranging for Finance.
On 28th June'12, I brought Ford Figo Diesel Car, its Red sporty colour. It was a very tough decision to go through various models and make a selection. And finally, considering various aspects, opinions, needs, cost, suitability, I decided to go for Figo (Figo means "cool" in Italian) Here's my purchase experience -
I reviewed other cars like Volkswagen Polo, which has excellect looks, but has 1200 CC engine with 3 cylinders (should have 4 cylinders for mileage, pickup, less noise & vibrations) priced high with premium. The rear seat is like a bench with less comfort and more over, maintenance cost is too high. Nissan Micra also has 3 pot engine 1400 cc and looks are a bit femine with least power. Cherverlet Beat was too small car with 1000CC engine and was not up to the mark. Fiat Puto's handling & looks are good, the same engine which runs Maruti Swift (Maruti buy diesel engine from Fiat) Fiat's service network is very lean and poor and maintance is also high. We do not know, when will Fiat will windup the operations in India.
The left over models were Hyundai i20, Swift and Ford Figo. i20 came with a face lift, minor changes in head lights and added great features in Sportz model like Rain sensing wipers, rear parking camera, electro chromic mirror(the mirror will dim when there is a car at out back in night drives), ABS, only driver side Airbag, Electric folding mirrors, Great upmarket interiors, but all these come at a price - 8.6L which is too high for a hatch back car. Maintenace cost is hight and bookings for 1 month, So ignored
Suzuki Swift my favourite, thought the engine is from Fiat, they have tuned to get more mileage, 18-19kms in city, 23-24kms in highway, good interiors for Rs.7.33L The facelift was in Aug 2011 and feels fresh. The service network is huge and you find them in all small towns, maintenance is too low. What else Indians want when they get great mileage and low cost of maintenance? Also, to get Swift, we need to wait for 2 months, so much is the bookings. It also has serious Braking issues, which made me to take a step behind. When on bumper to bumper traffic and if you are pressing half clutch and try Braking 2-3 times, the 4th time, the brakes become hard and will not apply. The engine will not pump enough vaccume to brake boosters during half clutch. In that case, you have to press clutch fully to get brakes effective.
Then left over was Ford Figo. Earlier, prior to Figo launch in 2010, Ford was to be a premium car company in India with high priced cars and high maintenance and this led to their decreased sales and hence Figo was introduced with less cost of ownership and less maintenance experience. This was a hit and sold 80K cars in a year and bagged more than 20 awards. Reason: Value for Money, Good Road Behaviour, Handling, Good Space Management, Great Fiesta Engine and low maintenance cost. The high end model costs Rs.7.32L which is same price as Swift's. But what I get over(more than) the Swift is - Driverside and Passengerside Air Bags, ABS-Anti lock Braking System, EBD-Electronic Brake Distribution, Alloy Wheels, Electric Mirrors, Tilt Steering, Nice 4 speaker Audio System with Bluetooth for Phone, Rear Defogger, Rear Wiper, Parking Sensors with length display, Leather Seats, Big Boot(dicky) More Comfort and leg space for rear passengers(looks wide as in a Sedan), A very chill 170CC compressor AC (All other cars come with 120CC compressor AC)
With so much above features, Figo stands out to be more value for money car, though the looks are not as great as Swift's, the interior plastic quality is not as great as Swift's, Mileage is not as great as Swift, Maintenace cost is at par with Swift.
But my RANT is that, Ford is launching face lift Figo during Dassara, Deepavali time and I have seen photos of the test mule running in Chennai, It has new headlight, new tail lamp and new front grill. My car will become one step old model in 3-4 months. Wanted to wait, but our Tugalaq Government is standing on one leg to hike diesel car by 50-80K because we get subsidized diesel.(Govt calls it as subsidized diesel, but real thing is that they charge less tax compared to Petrol) So went ahead to buy now considering these aspects.
Thank you all guys for your valuable feedback and support.