Most budget car buyers belong to one-car families and hence need a car that can do just about everything. What they need is a car that has lots of space and comfort, is cheap to run and maintain, and has a decent amount of performance and refinement. Many of these requirements are often conflicting and so each car is a set of compromises, the best one being the car that makes the fewest.
The six contestants here are divided exactly down the middle. On one side you have the Zen, Wagon R and Santro, which are a size below the ‘big’ small cars, the Corsa, Indica and Palio. The laws of physics determine what each set has to offer. The smaller, lighter trio are more fuel efficient, easy to manoeuvre and make better city cars. However, they lack the space, comfort, safety and solidity of the bigger competition.
The diminutive Zen is the smallest of the bunch here. Though blessed with a gem of an engine, it lacks space and comfort and simply isn’t as practical as the others and its 10-year-old chassis isn’t as tough as the others. The Santro Xing is more spacious than the Zen and is clearly a more practical option. The Santro is the more refined of the two with a smooth powertrain and richer interiors. The Wagon R’s strengths lie in its versatile interiors and in its pep and decent ride, which make it a better highway car. Still, neither are large or comfortable enough to pass off as full-fledged family cars and even with their aggressive prices, they aren’t the best value either.
Of the biggies, the Corsa is by far the most expensive and has a premium feel to it, but its price, fuel efficiency and cost of spares makes it a notch too costly for this segment. Plus, it’s not the most spacious either.
The Indica comes across as outstanding value for money. It is the cheapest, most spacious, very quick, comes with an impressive spec sheet and still looks great. It’s vastly improved now and we were sorely tempted to pick it from this bunch but in our brief re-acquaintance, we realised that the Indica still has lots of edges that need polishing. In terms of refinement and quality, it still is a peg down and though it is cheap to maintain, long-term ownership may not be entirely problem-free.
That leaves us with the Palio, which has something special to take it beyond all the figures we crunched out in this comparison. Performance is adequate at best and the fuel consumption below average but under that great-looking body is some solid engineering. This gives the Palio all-round abilities to make it a very attractive package. It feels safe and built to last, is a delight to drive and is extremely spacious and comfortable. And at the price, it’s superb value too. Yes, the Palio is under the shadow of Fiat’s poor dealer network but we’d still pick it over the others. It’s that good.