So I had been putting off looking at cars being too busy, but this Saturday I finally went out after breakfast with the intention of looking at ALL the cars. I live near Lahore Airport, and within a single belt there are all the dealers except Changan, Haval and MG. Everything from Picanto to Peugeot 2008 to Fortuner and everything in between.
So within a few hours I basically sat in every single locally assembled car on offer in Pakistan to compare. This was important to me because I'm 6'4".
Biggest Takeaways:
-Suzuki Swift is great all around, so much better than expectations considering interior quality of Wagor-R and Cultus. More spacious inside than it seems from outside.
-Toyota Fortuner is surprisingly uncomfortable for a car that costs 1 crore.
-Proton X70 is a hidden gem in terms of build quality and comfort for the price.(Per suna hai milne ko milti hi nahi which is a shame). In contrast the locally assembled Proton Saga sedan is horribly uncomfortable. The most uncomfortable car I sat in all day.
-Kia cars are all strange. Sort of opposite of JDMs where JDMS all are more spacious inside than seems from outside. They all are more cramped inside than their outside size would make it seem. Either they have really thick insulation which makes their walls intrude on their interior space, but all Kias are cramped even the huge Sorento. Except for Grand carnival, that one is the only one with a spacious drivers seat.
-New Civic, overpriced as it may be in my opinion, has the best interior in terms of design of any of the 20 or so cars I sat in, bar none. 2nd best was Peugeot 2008. Im talking about DESIGN mainly but also build quality. The interior design of these two cars, esp. Civic is a quantum leap above others. Every other car has a samey, typical interior design, basically interchangeable.
-Lastly, most cars, with few exceptions are more comfortable than most care from a decade/few generations ago, even the smallest hatchbacks are comfortable inside compared to cars from 10 years ago. The interior design of cars in terms of spaciousness has greatly improved. This is from someone for whom mehran is unusable because I cant fit in any of its seats, driver, passenger or back, but even smaller JDMS like esse are more spacious.
-For someone as tall as me, telescopic steering and height adjustments are a game changer. Having it makes even small hatchbacks comfortable for me as a driver, and not having them makes even sedans uncomfortable. After seeing what a difference it makes I'm probably never going to buy a car again that doesnt have them. This is my biggest complaint against yaris, otherwise it would be a great buy for me.
