Dawood Ahamed, Chennai: I need your suggestion on upgrading stock headlights. I own a 2019 Ford Freestyle 1.2 Petrol Titanium and I am happy with it; it is value for money and has all the required bells and whistles. Its performance and handling are great and have brought out the enthusiast in me. However, it requires improvements and topping the list would be its stock headlamps. They have very poor visibility and do not have a good throw. My neighbour’s Kwid performs comparatively better. I take my car for long drives, but due to the headlamps’ poor night-time visibility, I don’t take it when I go with family. Should I upgrade the stock headlights from halogen to projected HIDs, or go for Philips X-treme or OSRAM Night Breaker halogen lights? I don’t want anything that will void the vehicle’s warranty.
Since your car is almost brand new and still under warranty, we suggest upgrading to equivalent wattage halogen bulbs from the OSRAM Night Breaker series. This would be a plug-and-play solution and should solve your concerns to a great extent with their overall better light intensity.
Vishesh Kedia, Bengaluru: Which car should I buy between the Ford Endeavour, Toyota Fortuner, Mahindra Alturas G4, Skoda Kodiaq, Superb and Mini Cooper convertible?
Firstly, we are wondering how a Mini Cooper convertible got onto your shortlist when you are mainly considering SUVs! So let’s address the Cooper first. This cheeky hatchback is good if you are going to be driving it yourself, but it’s a waste as a daily driver in Bengaluru traffic and should be bought only if you have a great place to drive to during a weekend. The Superb, which is the only sedan in your shortlist, is ideal if your usage is mainly in town and you are chauffeur driven. Coming to the SUVs, it only makes sense to look at them if you are regularly driving out of town and travel with luggage and lots of people. The Endeavour, which has been upgraded with a new engine and a 10-speed automatic gearbox, is the one we would pick. It is more comfortable, more premium and offers better value than the others. The Skoda Kodiaq is worth considering too, but there’s no diesel variant and you’ll have to wait to consider a BS-VI petrol.
