It is hard to shortlist or pinpoint a car without knowing a few more of your requirements like, rear seat space, importance of performance or ride comfort etc. Since you are moving up from a Hyundai i10 and drive mostly in the city we would recommend a mid-size SUV as this size is just right for India. Space inside is good and the exterior dimensions of the car are just about ok for our crowded streets. Thus we would advice you to not go the way of the Tata Safari or Tata Harrier and look instead at the Sierra or the Kia Seltos. Both car are very good all rounders and offer both petrol and diesel engine options. We would stay away from the 1.5 naturally aspirated Tata Sierra, but the turbo DI petrol and the diesel engine as just fine.

With your driving style, which is largely highway, Tata Nexon Diesel AMT makes better sense. It delivers good mileage, the engine performance is impressive and the ride quality on highway speeds is among the best in the segment. In our real world mileage test, the manual returned an efficiency of over 19 kpl on highway, and with AMT, you can expect a figure close to that. The Nexon is also well-equipped, featuring a 10-inch infotainment screen, voice commands, wireless phone charging, a sunroof, and more, giving you a feature-rich package. However you must know, the Nexon AMT is not the smoothest and and NVH levels in the diesel Nexon are on the higher side.

With a Rs 16 lakh budget, you could consider a turbo-petrol automatic version of the Kia Sonet or Hyundai Venue. Both offer ample ground clearance, are compact in size, and are loaded with modern features, such as a 360-degree camera, ventilated seats, sunroof, etc.

Since you are still learning, two cars that you can look at in the second hand market are the Maruti Suzuki Swift or Hyundai i20. Swift is slightly smaller, making it easy to drive in the city while i20 comes with more space and premium interiors. As you wish to keep the car for over 5 years, it will be wise to go for a car which is around 3 years old and should have an odometer reading between 35-40000kms. This way you will save on cost and still get a car which has some life left in it.