Guys, here's a question. You have a budget of 16 lac, and you have following options:
Brand new:
Honda Civic
Mitsubishi Galant
2nd Hand:
Toyota Mark2
Honda CL7 or may be CL9 (not sure)
others (?)
Honda civic vti oriel is good but does not have leather seats (if that makes a difference). It's also Pakistani assembled, and my experience has been that there are always a few problems here n there. My 2005 vti prosmetic, started to heat up recently (don't know why, even though it's fully maintained!), just gotta get it checked.
Mitsubishi Galant, has leather seats, is 2.5 L, brand new from factory but has an older shape which Mitsubishi is still selling in Pakistan. It's steering looks just like Lancer which is a big turn off (because i've been driving lancer for a year now).
Honda accord CL7 has audio controls on steering, 2.0 L engine but may be driven 20,000 km. Also there may be concerns with car tempering etc. However, you may get TV/Nav, back camera which is cool
Toyota Mark 2, I dont like the shape, it looks too unclish.
Suzuki Vitara XL-7 is also in the same price range, by the way, however, it's a different category and not sure if we can compare it with others. It has a 2.7 L Petrol engine, and has a pretty good interior.
So between CL7, Galant and Civic. Probably Civic has the best resale. CL7 has the best options, and Galant as the best engine performance (2.5 L). Civic also has the best fuel consumption probably. The type S in galant also has AYC (Active Yaw Control) same as Evo. Shape-wise I think CL7 is the best.
So what do the PW experts think?
PS: I had almost made up my mind for Mark-X but had to reduce the budget. I also think CL9 would be hard to get in 1.6, so that;s out of question too.