ONE might bandy about cutting edge technology, the number of valves or the power of the engine and how torquey it is, but at the end of the day what counts is the performance of the car and its fuel efficiency. The Joes don't care whether it is eight or 16 valves that are doing it or whether there are one or two camshafts or whether they are driven by belts or chains. Yes, it would matter whether the engine feels rough or smooth though and that's where we'll tell him to start off.
There's little to choose between the cars in this aspect. The carburated Esteem would have been miles in front but since it got injection, the engine has a peculiar screech that seems to go well with some. The Ford, Fiats and the Opel all have typically European engines and try as they might, the westerners just fail to achieve that typical oriental (well, its actually Jap) refinement. The Indigo is on the other end of the spectrum, the harshness typically European and the jerkiness typically Indian.

The most powerful of the cars is the Siena 1.6 followed by the Corsa 1.4, the Esteem, the Indigo, the Fiat 1.2 and the Ikon 1.3 Nxt (with a Rocam engine). The performance in terms of acceleration and quarter mile times also follows the same pattern, well nearly. The power to weight ratio of the Esteem at 96bhp per ton is far superior to the rest as it is 245kg lighter than the Siena 1.6. It easily takes the performance honours with the Siena 1.6 coming in second followed by the Corsa, the Indigo petrol, the Ikon and the Siena 1.2, in that order.

To get comparative times for all the cars we took all of them to our test track and did four acceleration runs for each of the cars one after the other so that all the cars had to face the same ambient temperature as well as wind and weather conditions. Starting off, the Siena 1.6 was the quickest to the 40kmph mark in 2.51s, followed by the Esteem in 2.89s and the Corsa in 3.01s and the Siena 1.2 in 3.04s, the Indigo in 3.09s and the Ikon in 3.37s. The Esteem and the Siena 1.6 touched 50kmph in the same time of 3.85s and the Esteem pulled away from the Siena 1.6 thereafter. The Ikon and the Siena 1.2 also shifted positions at the 60kmph mark with the Ikon forging ahead slightly. The Esteem got to 100kmph in 12.76s followed by the Siena 1.6 in 13.69s, the Corsa 1.4 in 14.35s and the Ikon in 16.00s followed by the Indigo in 16.26s and the Siena 1.2 in 16.93s. Please note that these figures are comparable across these cars only and not against our road test figures.

There is a slight change in the pecking order though as the cars get to the 400m mark. While the Esteem crosses the line in 18.54s, the Siena 1.6 in 18.76s and the Corsa 1.4 in 19.36s, the Indigo switches places with the Ikon in getting to the 400m mark. While the Siena 1.2 comes in last in 20.40s, the Ikon is second last as it does the 400m sprint in 20.21s as compared to the Indigo which does the same distance in 20.21s.

Gearshifting is quite slick on the Esteem followed by the Corsa and the Ikon but slightly problematic on the Sienas and the Indigo.

Whatever the fuel efficiency figures the cars might have had during their respective road tests have been given in the data sheet at the end of the comparison test. But to get real time comparative figures, early morning on the day we were setting out for our shoot-out drive, we all met at our petrol pump and tanked up all the cars before leaving for the hills in between the Mulshi area and the Mumbai-Goa NH17. After nearly a full day of driving interspersed with photography, all the cars returned together to the same petrol pump to be tanked up and the fuel efficiency figures are accurate if you want to compare the cars but might not be reflective of the figures Joe Average might get under normal usage. The Corsa returned the best figures of 10.72kmpl followed by the Siena 1.2 at 10.47kmpl, the Esteem with 8.90kmpl and the Siena 1.6 as well as the Indigo with identical figures of 8.50kmpl with the Ikon registering the worst figure of 7.70kmpl. It would be correct to add a qualifier here though. The Corsa 1.4 is probably the car that was driven most gently because of the tendency of its sump guard to kiss the road on bad stretches. The habit of the older Sienas seems to have been taken over by the Corsa. On the other end of the spectrum was the Ikon 1.3 which was a joy to push hard with its excellent ride and handling characteristics. So on flat out stretches of winding mountain roads, it was usually the Ikon 1.3 which kept company with if it was not ahead of the Esteem and the Siena 1.6 and more often than not it was the Corsa which came in last.

Coming to the diesels, they are of no match to the petrols in terms of performance. And although there is not too much separating the two in terms of performance figures, the difference seems to be much wider when you drive them. The same Peugeot engine that makes the Zen D a spirited performer is out of its league in the Esteem. The car, to put it very concisely, is a dud. One has to constantly keep it above the 3,000rpm mark to feel the slightest hint of acceleration and there is not too much of a rev range left above that before the engine starts getting unduly harsh. That is why even the lowest spec Esteem D comes with a tachometer, I guess. The Indigo D on the other hand is a refreshing change, in terms of performance, mind you. The turbocharged 1405cc engine revs much more easily and it is easier to keep the revs high and the Indigo on the go. However, where the Indigo loses out is in its gear shift. There is no feel to the shifting and it feels as if you are pushing blindly and hoping that sheer force will help you find a slot, and a right one at that. Aspi, who was entrusted with the acceleration runs for the shoot-out had to do nine runs for the Indigo D as compared to the four that we were doing for every car because of a botched up gear shift under pressure. Normally driving I missed only a couple of gear shifts on the way back from our test track as compared to none for the Esteem D. Fuel efficiency on the shoot-out drive was 16.47kmpl for the Esteem D as compared to the 12.40kmpl for the Indigo D. And although Joe Average does not care whether he ends up buying a diesel or a petrol car, on the basis of engine and performance, the two diesels available in his budget range do not compare to the petrol engined cars. However fuel efficiency sees them right on top. So the important thing is to get Joe's priorities right before OVERDRIVE can decide on the car for him.