Best buy cars in 6 lakhs INR - Punto Fabia Jazz i20 or Swift

Fiat Grande Punto versus Skoda Fabia

To start with, Fiat Grande Punto and Skoda Fabia fall into two different segments. If you are concerned about your budget and need a frills-free car, it makes sense to buy a Punto. Punto is very well modeled car with smooth curves all over its body. I test drive a Punto with multijet engine and it is an awesome engine with superb fuel efficiency (though a little lacking in torque). This car is totally maintenance free one. The price of Punto is between 399,552 and 611,590 INR ex-showroom in New Delhi, India.

On the other hand, Fabia is a little more expensive. Both the cars are very spacy. In Europe, Fiat is considered as a most prestigious brand than Skoda, while it is the other way round in India. Both cars are equally good, but Grande Punto is amongst the top 10 selling cars in Europe, while Fabia does not feature in this list. Overall, if you are concerned about the budget and need a minimum maintenance car, go for Punto because maintenance cost of Punto is lower than Fabia.

Fiat Grande Punto is derived from Fiat Linea just like Skoda Fabia is derived from Skoda Octavia. The build quality of both these cars are exceptional. With the coming of Honda Jazz and VW Polo, the car market has got a lot of interesting choices.

Fiat Grande Punto is superb, especially handling. No need to mention about the engine and for its price, it offers a lot. The only problem is that sound insulation could have been better. The same problem is with Linea also. Swift has a turbocharger and all new engines coming in 2009 are from the same family which vary only in naming multijet, quadrajet, DDIS etc. with little modification in torque. Each one has its own advantage. The only competitor to Grande Punto is Hyundai i20 diesel, but in terms of handling and reliability Fiat is far ahead but the only problem still persisting is service.

Features of Skoda Fabia

1. The design is fantastic.

2. The leg room and boot space is more than that provided with most of the sedan cars in the same price range.

3. It gives you a mileage of 20 kilometers per liter.

4. Skoda Fabia has good pickup and the ease of driving is great.

5. All the controls in the car are electronic, even in the base models - rear view mirror, seats, and everything.

Skoda Fabia Petrol

The petrol pricing seems very fine, but Skoda has priced the diesel variants a bit too high, charging a premium of 1 lakh over its petrol variant is not justified, when we all know that Skoda does not charge any premium on its other cars, i.e. Octavia, both the petrol and diesel versions are almost equally priced. Skoda has adopted this practice of charging a premium for diesel engines, which most of the other car manufacturers in India are already doing.

Overall, Fabia is still a gem. The quality of the interiors and the legroom is definitely much superior than its elder sister Octavia. The engine is very refined although a bit noisy like Laura because of carrying the same PD technology. The ride quality is absolutely fantastic and this car is a lot of fun to drive. The performance of the engine is just about adequate and cannot be compared to Swift Diesel or Verna Diesel.

Price is a big letdown factor for Skoda Fabia

The price is a big letdown for Skoda Fabia. It should ideally have been priced between 5 to 6.5 lakhs but it is priced between 6.48 -7.8 lakhs. This is way higher than expected. The middle model of Fabia is even higher priced than the middle model of Honda City (Gxi). Indian consumers would rather go for bigger cars as compared to Fabia.

The elegance model is priced at 7.8 lakhs. When you compare the active/classic and Ambiente model, the features are below par as compared to the Honda City or the Maruti SX4 and even with Maruti Swift if you consider the GXi model. When it comes to similar features with similar price, the size of the car automatically comes into picture. One would rather go for a sedan than a hatchback. Skoda is a great brand I agree but Skoda has failed to understand the psyche of Indians and priced its base model way higher than it should have been. Ideally, it should have been a notch higher than the Gxi or Vdi model of Swift.

Maruti Swift

Maruti Swift is a good car, but as we all agree, the build quality is really poor. It is good to see new cars being launched in this segment, which are addressing this issue. People who can shell out a little more would opt for the new cars than the Swift.

So it depends on you what you are looking for in a car. You can buy any of above-mentioned cars in budget of 6 lakhs but at last if I had been on your side, I would have gone for the lovely and royal Fiat Grande Punto instead of Skoda Fabia, Honda Jazz, Hyundai i20, or Maruti Swift in this budget.