Benchmarking

Let’s make a Benchmarking report helping Pughazhyendhii to compare and choose between the current cars ranging from 8 – 10 Lakhs INR for his use and keeping in mind that he commutes to the office in a traffic-ridden city & visits his native once a month with his family & his fondness for “big cars”.

Considering the criteria, the car should have:

• A decent leg room & Rear seat space with ample boot space.
• An automatic gearbox would be preferred, but it would cost more than the budget.
• Daily commute calls for a Diesel powertrain, but with the Government's move against small diesel Engines, it wouldn't be the right choice.
• A crossover.

Benchmarking: The process of obtaining data & comparing is called benchmarking.

In layman’s terms, it is the process of comparing two or more things, especially against the best in class or the one above.
In the Automobile industry especially the space, features, safety & performance are compared in its price range or the segment the automobile is built on or a standard.

The motive of the benchmarking is:

• To improve the product & make it better before launch, document the process
• To create new ideas & make if cost-effective.
• To make minor tweaks which produce long-term effects.
• To analyse the difference & justify the decisions made to the customers & the board of directors.

The following table contains the comparison between the cars that I think Pughazhyendhii should look at.

Models Criteria	Tata Nexon	Renault Kiger	Nissan Magnite	Kia Sonet	Hyundai Venue	Maruti-Suzuki Brezza
Powertrain	Petrol & Diesel	Petrol only	Petrol only	Petrol & Diesel	Petrol & Diesel	Petrol only
Gearbox Type	Manual & Automatic	Manual & Automatic	Manual & Automatic	Manual, Clutchless Manual & Automatic	Manual, Clutch-less Manual & Automatic (P)	Manual & Automatic
Space & Boot	Spacious Legroom & 350L of boot	Decent legroom & 405L of boot	Decent Legroom & 336L of boot	Poor Legroom & 392L of boot	Poor Rear Space & 350L of boot	Good Space & 328L of boot
Aftersales Network	Good	Poor	Poor	Good	Good	Best of the rest
Real-world Mileage	16 Kmpl (P&D)	19 Kmpl	17.5 Kmpl	14 KMPL (P) 18 KMPL (D)	14 KMPL (P) 17 KMPL (D)	16 Kmpl
Pros	Safety, Fun to drive & Build Quality	Looks, Performance & Price	Looks, Performance & Price	Looks & Features from a class above.	Connected car features.	Service Network & Cheap parts. Space & boot. Tried & tested product.
Cons	Interior Plastic Quality, Infotainment System.	Gear Slip issues reported by customers, & overall Quality.	Same as Kiger & unstable at highway speeds.	Rear Seat Space, Service cost & Price	Rear Seat Space, Service cost & Price	Plastic Quality & Expensive price tag for a compact SUV

There are also other cars for consideration such as Tata Punch & Altroz (Diesel) & Mahindra XUV 300, etc.

With the complete Analysis, the following are my conclusion:
Suzuki Brezza is a popular choice, but the cost is so high compared to the competition On Road since it doesn’t get a Tax exemption for cars below 4 meters.
Sonet & Venue are crazy expensive with mid rage features we shall consider their bigger cars Seltos & Creta respectively.
Kiger & Magnite are good in performance but lack everything else.

I’d recommend him a Tata Nexon XM, Petrol with Manual Transmission for his budget and usage considering the inflation into play.