5 Unimpressive Cars
I drive a lot of cars every year and while I have both positive and negative things to say about most of them, in some cases, the negatives outweigh the positives. While I had high expectations from these cars, they ultimately left me disappointed. Here are 5 such cars which really didn’t impress me when I went to drive them.
Mahindra TUV300 Plus
The TUV itself didn’t do well and they got in the TUV300 Plus which beats the whole point as it’s no longer sub-4-metre, which is what the USP of this car originally was. While the TUV was a 7-seater, this is a 9-seater. Neither can the TUV300 seat 2 in the last row comfortably, nor the TUV300 Plus can seat 4 people in the last row comfortably. It just doesn’t make sense to launch a variant of a car just for the sake of it. The engine isn’t the 1.5-litre unit but the 2.2-litre unit in a lower tune which although offers better performance than the TUV, it also vibrates quite a bit.
Maserati Levante
The Maserati Levante’s cabin has average quality at best and feels out of place for a car of this price and the price is 2x of what it should be but then that’s the problem of all Maserati cars being sold in India. The infotainment system is poor, sourced from other FCA cars so what could you expect anyways, and even the switchgear is shared with other FCA cars. The diesel engine’s performance isn’t exciting, in spite of it being a V6 unit. Maserati has poor reach in India and barely any service centres. Along with that, the spare parts are really expensive so for Rs. 2 crores, you’d rather buy a house and eat Italian food in it.
BMW i8
You might be shocked to see an i8 here, well the world resonates with me on this one. Great looking car, poor powertrain choice. A supercar can’t get away with having a 3-cylinder engine, period, no matter what battery pack it possesses. Getting in and out is difficult, the ride is stiff and the price is very high at Rs. 3 crores. But by far the biggest problem is the lack of oomph as the plug-in hybrid system means two aggressive launches and 0 electric motor assistance, taking the i8 from sports car fast to regular car slow, 4.4 to 7 seconds in terms of 0-100 km/hr. Such an expensive car should have been a self-charging hybrid because at the time it was launched, the charging infrastructure wasn’t that great. The fake sounds and lack of natural aural pleasure are further hiccups.
Lamborghini Aventador
Lamborghini fanboys will be stunned. The Aventador is the Grande Punto of the supercar world, no wonder both are Italians, because only the Punto and Aventador have been on sale for such a long time with little changes. Why I was disappointed – single clutch in the flagship Lambo, making the cheaper Huracan faster. There are also way too many ergonomic flaws and I am not even talking about getting in and out which is a pain in any supercar but the positioning of the pedals is so weird that the dead pedal is placed where the clutch should be. The interior also feels old, the infotainment system feels difficult to operate and too many Audi parts make me wonder why is this car so expensive! Rs. 7.4 crores for the LP700-4 Roadster? Get a house and a Huracan for this price and you will still be faster.
DC Avanti
This car that left me baffled with its poor construction. Things felt so loose that the car could fall apart at any moment. Now maybe it was to do with the particular example I drove but my colleagues who drove another unit also found the build quality to be sub-par. Handling is poor, you point steering somewhere, the car decides to go elsewhere, the ride is stiff, quality is bad, things fall off, safety is poor, this is no way a sports car, let alone India’s supercar. The clutch is super heavy and the car loves to stall. The Avanti also delivers pretty poor efficiency for a 4-cylinder engine. The output of the Avanti could be so much better as crucial parts are sourced from elsewhere and all DC had to ensure was a perfect integration with good quality, the latter is something they excel at it with their interior mod jobs but not on this one. This car’s brakes are as good as no brakes. One rather get a Skoda Octavia RS which is 1000x better, which means that a Honda Civic petrol with the CVT box is still 100x better. I am not hating here but if one pays Rs. 40 lakhs just to look cool, your priorities in life need a rethink. Then too, people are confused which direction the car is pointing as the front and rear both look like the front.
As you saw, the cars in this list are from various segments but I can confidently give a big no to them. I know it’s harsh but that’s the truth of the matter. Anyways, do let me know in the comments section as to which car didn’t impress you.