Why I did not buy Gli and bought Altis 1.6?
I have to travel daily about 50 kms in the most congested road of Islamabad, the notorious Islamabad Expressway all the way from adjacent to Bahria Phase II to F-7, Islamabad. I started hating manual transmission since 2011 when I moved from I-8 to current location. I was desperately looking for a new car with automatic transmission as my Xli was also completing 10 years, but still in good nick and could fetch some good money. And then 11th Gen was launched in Pakistan and I decided to get it.
Gli, Gli AT or Altis 1.6, I was caught in this dilemma, but booked Gil 1.3 Manual as Gli AT deliveries are in June for this variant. But after two weeks I changed my order to Altis 1.6 for the following reasons.
A difference of just 220,000 rs between Gli MT and Altis 1.6 and 125,000 rs between Gli AT and Altis 1.6 but you get a powerful, dual vvti engine. You can get rims and DVD in any car, but cannot change engine (of a new car).
Main attraction for me in Altis 1.6
1- Dual VVTi engine 1.6 litres
2- Auto transmission
3- Alloy rims
4- LCD with reverse camera
5- Choice of Super White and Bronze Mica colours which are not available in Gli AT (though I opted for Med Sliver :))
6- Better power to weight ratio
Annual token tax is not much, it is just like 1.3 City.
Withholding tax for Altis is same as for Suzuki Swift i.e 50,000 for filer (just 20K more than Gli) and 100,000 for non-filer.
Other choices:
For quite sometime I considered the base model 1.8 Civic Prosmatec but it went beyond my budget (2142,000+ 125,000 = 2,267,000) and when add WHT of 75,000, it was not worth that much money. Plus the shape of this 9th Gen Civic never attracted me and it is a global failure and embarrassment for Honda Japan. It's my personal opinion, no offence to any fans
Security:
As you all know that only Civic, Liana and Swift come with immobiliser feature and IMC has not yet provided it despite so much hue and cry at PakWheels. So insurance is your best security, not in terms of loss due to theft or snatching but also it covers you from losses incurred on account of accidents. So I have got comprehensive insurance for my Altis from Askari General Insurance at an amazing rate of 2.5 % . Allah sub ko apnay hifz-o-aman mayn rakhayn. Aameen.