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Ford Fiesta (India) Duratec Petrol – Road test and review

I had test driven the Ford Fiesta 1.6 SXi petrol variant last month and written a detailed review of this awesome vehicle at Mouthshut. As usual, I am just posting the excerpts from that review here.

The Ikon legacy continues

Ford Ikon was a super-successful model in India. To be frank, I haven’t enjoyed driving any other vehicle in India as much as an Ikon (Read about my Ford Ikon experience. The trademark of an Ikon – despite its incompleteness in many build aspects – was its exceptional drivability. It’s a true drivers car and so is the Ford Fiesta!

ford-fiesta-india-1.6-duratec-sxi-petrol

The car I chose to test drive as the SXi variant though the sporty S variant was available for test drive as well. Basically, I wanted to feel the family sedan experience as against the sports variant as I presumed that the S variant with low-profile tires will offer bumpy ride.

The following are the highlights of my test drive (more in my detailed review as per the link below)

Major plus points

  • Great to drive car – excellent handling
  • Low turning radius
  • Good features at this price – electric ORVMs, 2-din music system, semi-leather seating, ABS, Airbags
  • Good gear ratios (along with low turning radius makes great city driving)
  • Reasonable mileage and good power for the price

Improvement areas

  • A bit outdated looks
  • Poor plastic quality at places
  • Uncomfortable, straight backseats
  • No alloy wheels
  • Poor tire dimensions

Overall, it’s an exceptional car for the price at which it comes (with all those current discounts) and my rating is 4/5.

For the complete review, please read Ford Fiesta review.

Happy motoring!

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Fiat Linea India – An eagle with sparrow wings

I had a chance to test drive the Fiat Linea Petrol – Emotion Pack – a couple of weeks ago. I must say that, I haven’t seen any better looking car in this segment or for that matter even in immediate upper segment until today in India. It looks so beautiful, feel heavy and nice but unfortunately has a weak heart.

fiat-linea-india
Image courtesy: Fiat India

Fiat make amends in India

Fiat had spoiled its image in India way back in 70s and 80s itself. Since then nobody seriously took Fiat as a serious brand probably except those Mumbai taxi drivers who still maintain their 1965 Fiats. However, eight years back, Fiat India surprised all of us with a stunning Fiat Palio which was a highly successful model. It went through many modifications and the next was the turn of the Linea.

If Palio was peppy enough and beautiful, its bigger brother has its European traits of inherited looks but it really drags on the road. The 1368cc (what a pity, it’s not even a 1.4L engine) petrol unit delivers a pathetic 115Nm torque at peak which means that you have to be somewhere in third or fourth gear to feel that the car can actually move. The engine offers a decent 90BHP power but nobody will feel it due to the poor torque.

The ground clearance is another area of concern. It hits almost every speed breaker on the road with just two people in the car itself and I can imagine the situation if the car is fully loaded. The car comes loaded with a lot of features such as Blue and Me blue tooth integration and the interiors are okay for the price.

However, a car is a car first because of its engine, anything else comes next. Due to the same reason, the Fiat Linea’s Indian edition is not a great car. On top of this Fiat’s notorious after sale service adds to the woes. Overall, the vehicle can be rated something like 3 out of 5.

You can find my road test report of Fiat Linea Petrol at Mouthshut.com. Let me know your thoughts on this beautiful laggard.

Happy Motoring!

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Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla Altis reviews

I have been test driving quite a few C and C+ segment cars of late because the time has come to bid bye to my favorite Ford Ikon 1.6. I preempted Skoda Octavia from my test drive suite as it was already becoming an outdated vehicle.

The reviews

You can find my detail reviews on both these awesome cars at the following links. At the end of it, though my heart said Civic, my head said Altis for the practical reasons in Bangalore and hence booked a Toyota Corolla Altis.

honda-civic-india
Image courtesy: Honda Siel Cars India
Honda Civic review

toyota-corolla-altis-india
Image courtesy: Toyota Kirloskar Motors India
Toyota Corolla Altis review

Enjoy reading and Happy motoring!

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All New Honda City (ANHC) iVtec road test

As usual, I had posted my detail road test and review of the ANHC (All New Honda City) i-Vtec on mouthshut and here are the excerpts from that review. You may head to the All New Honda City i-Vtec review page for more details.

All New Honda City - iVtec
Image courtesy: Honda Cars India

Futuristic design

Honda India has been one of the pioneers in bringing in futuristic car designs with their Honda City and Civic series. The ANHC is no different. In fact, from the exterior design point of view, it’s an extremely good looking vehicle. When it comes to the interiors, it has tried to mimic some part of the Civic’s console and steering but the plastics and finish are extremely disappointing.

The engine and performance

The best thing about the ANHC is its 1.5L iVtec engine that is so smooth and powerful. It delivers a 118ps power with a decent 146Nm torque. In fact, I thought, in a 0-100 shoot out it may overtake the Toyota Corolla Altis. The gear is slick and butter smooth so are the brake, gas and clutch pedals.

So, what’s the problem?

At the time of writing, the ANHC is a totally under-featured vehicle that has no fog lamps, no alloys, no electrically foldable mirrors and no CD-player etc. And without all these it is priced at something like 8.5L ex-showroom in Bangalore. Moreover, the interiors are extremely disappointing and one wouldn’t feel like they are sitting in a 9L car. Read more about the ANHC in my Honda City review on Mouthshut.

Happy Motoring!

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Ban IPL (Indian Premier League) and Save the Nation!

India has just crashed out of the second edition of ICC World Cup Twenty 20 event. If you ask me whether the Indian team performed to their potential, the answer is ‘NO’ and the reasons are the following:

  • There was no proper opening pair. Basically they did not have a backup for the injured Sehwag and the team composition was wrong here

  • Dhoni disturbed the #3 slot throughout the tournament by promoting himself (selfish) on flat wickets and sending in Raina and Yuvraj when the wicket was fast and bouncy. This disturbed the #3 specialist slot. Ideally, he should have stuck with Raina

  • Our paper tigers are not well-equipped to play in bouncy tracks. They chased moving and bouncing balls without any clue

  • IPL fatigue and Twenty 20 overkill! This was the biggest reason and the topic for today

Is IPL really in the interest of the nation?

Last year I had written a post about the potential threat that IPL was posing then and most of it has come true already. The players (and even BCCI) is purely after money and once they have it with IPL, there is no interest to play for the country. If you remember, last year our skipper had skipped the tour following the IPL citing the need for rest. If he really wanted to rest, he should have taken rest during IPL and not while playing for the country.

BCCI cheating the country?

I would think that the selectors and the management must have known about Sehwag’s injury but they didn’t want to admit the fact that IPL caused the problem (which was the actual reason). By sending an unfit team, they did not really put country’s interest ahead of their money minded IPL.

BCCI is an autonomous private body. If they want to play more IPL and make money, let them but then representing the country’s cricket should not be in their agenda. The government should probably take over that part. At the moment, IPL is only benefiting the franchisees, the players and BCCI but not the country!

For this edition of IPL, it was actually an irony to see that teams like Rajastan or Chennai is playing abroad with a fake fan setup around. Even more ridiculous was the way in which BCCI and IPL was pouring out money to support schools in South Africa and acting like big bosses there. Can’t they do the same kind of charity here in India?

Ban IPL or make it short!

Ideally, they should make IPL only a within-India affair. Also, they should cut down the duration to something like three weeks to save our cricketers to play for the country. Also a shorter duration would make sure that a billion fans who are country’s future – in terms of valuable human resource – will not waste their time by watching just cricket.

Let’s not overdo Twenty 20 and kill our country’s pride! (Please note that it’s not an emotional outburst from me due to India’s exit from the Twenty 20 World cup. I have written about the Twenty 20 overkill many times in the past)

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Twenty 20 World Cup feels better than IPL

It feels like a decade since I last posted on this blog. However, I have a topic now in the form of the Twenty 20 World Cup that is taking plaec in England.

Sandwiched between the IPL and the Ashes, the timing of the World Cup seems right. It is not particularly hot or cold at this point of time though the mood and interest have been a little bit timid as compared to the IPL. This is because, of late – thanks to the IPL – all of us have consumed an overdose of 20-20.

The format is interesting and is at its best when countries play the event rather than cooked up teams as in the case of IPL. Also, the shorter schedule/duration makes it more interesting. For example, in a matter of five or six days a few teams have already been eliminated unlike the IPL where the fans need to wait for a whole month even to figure out which is a good team.

A couple of facts about the Twenty 20 World cup and the twenty 20 game in general:

  • Teams like Australia are yet to figure out what Twenty 20 is all about

  • Teams that are bad at longer plans but can perform in quick bursts are doing great here e.g. West Indies

  • The teams that have maximum number of ‘generalists’ than ‘specialists’ are likely to do better

  • The formats can be made more exciting with more rules like ‘free hit’

I am looking forward to the super eight league. I personally feel that either West Indies, India or Sri Lanka will the second World Cup Twenty 20. England may not be at its best and New Zealand & South Africa are good at goofing it up towards the end of any series. The days ahead are interesting!

Hopefully, Lalit Modi may take a look at the scheduling of this event and make IPL a shorter event next time.