Test driving three sedans: Honda Amaze, Toyota Etios and Maruti Suzuki Dzire

Buying a car is never easy First you get excited A new baby will come into the house after all Then reality bites Itrsquos going to be a costly affair And high maintenance too Sounds familiar So when recently I sold my sixyearold car and got down to deciding which carmodel I wanted next it turned out to be a longer and tougher decision than I had bargained for Clockwise Amaze SMT Etios G and Dzire VXI PicDutta Kumbhar My brief was simple we wanted a midsizedcompact sedan where three people could sit at the back It needed to look smart be delivered quickly remember we were selling off the old one and of course could not be a gas guzzler Oh and also it couldnrsquot be beyond our lsquobudgetrsquo After much soul searching we whittled it down to a battle between the three Japanese brands one of them half Indian the Honda Amaze the Toyota Etios and the Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire Over the next 48 hours we test drove all three the Amaze 12 SMT petrol the Swift Dzire Vxi and the Etios G class all of them midrange models and almost direct competition to each other The look The Amaze SMT scores high on this Clearly the classiest looking of the three cars in question itrsquos sleek clean cut lines impressed us upfront The fog lamps the downward sloping cuts the neat finish all win brownie points The new Etios G class is a surprise too Twelve spoke alloy wheels a bold new front grill and smarter headlights no longer conjure up images of a fleet cab car By comparison the Dzire VXi suffers a bit mostly because itrsquos the oldest of the three models has been around for a while and is one of the countryrsquos fastest selling cars It looks a bit overweight chunky and despite the compressed posterior it comes out second best on the style quotient Interiors and features But then beauty is hardly ever skin deep So we venture deeper The Dzirersquos desirability zooms up almost immediately While all the three cars have door ajar low fuel and seat belt warnings only the Dzire has a button that tells me how many kilometres the curret fuel will take me The space inside the Dzire is also big three adults fit comfportably at the back The same cannot be said of the Amaze where we manage to squeeze in but by holding our breath The Etios scores the highest on space with three people sitting very comfortably The leg space is the best too All three cars have really cool music systems with the Etios also having a wheel switch to control the channelsvolume We are pleasantly surprised with the Dzire here as it more than matches up to its more glamorous throughbred Japanese cousins The Etios a corporate sedan with its extra leg space also wins us over Drive quality This is critical as I am going to do much of the driving once we buy the car The Honda purrs and then roars The 12litre IVTEC engine makes Honda the brand that it is We go up Pali Hill and then down again cross over to Khar and enter bumpy stretches No problems at all The Etios is as good with the 1500cc 15 litre petrol engine making the drive up and down the lanes and roads of Bandra and Khar a dream I deliberately switch off the music but I still hear no engine noise Itrsquos powerfully silentu00a0The Dzire does not score that high even though we must admit the new 12litre VVT engines are so much better than the older version In that sense the Dzirersquos drive quality comes as a pleasant surprise Shifting gears is not as hard a task as it used to be on Maruti cars once And even with the windows down the engine sounds like a dreamu00a0 Value for money Ah Finally that quintessential Indian question Quite simply the Amaze has a city mileage of between 10 and 12 kmpl the Etios of 1112 kmpl and the Dzire also of around 12kmpl stretchable to 13 if you are lucky Very little there But maintaining a Maruti is less costly we are told Also there are service centres everywhere The resell value is also higher But then the Honda and the Toyota need only a single servicing in a year at best The Dzire needs two Toyota is offering a three year100000 km free servicing on the car Maruti gives it for two years and 40000 km The cost The Honda Amaze 12 SMT comes with a Rs 712 lakh on road price in Mumbai The Etios G class costs Rs 726 lakh but is currently on offer for Rs 12000 less as part of a special scheme The Dzire VXi costs a cool Rs 50k less at Rs 660 lakh on road in Mumbai So is it about money or maintenance cost Or drive quality and the leg space in the passenger seats Or maybe the choice comes down to who has the larger boot space Etios has 500 litres Amaze a little over 400 and Dzire just under 400 Or do you go by the looks Whatrsquos my choice Iwill find out in a weekrsquos time when I finally book my chosen oneu00a0 Specifications Amaze SMT 1198cc petrol Rs 712 Lakh Dzire Vxi 1197cc petrol Rs 660 lakh Etios G 1496cc petrol Rs 726 lakh Prices onroad Mumbai