I own a Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder Hybrid V model. Within two years of purchase, i.e, November 2023 till now, I drove 60,000 km, an average of 2500 km per month. My usage is a mix of highway and city use. I am planning to buy an EV. I’m not comfortable with XEV 9E because it’s too big for a city commute. Please suggest a good car for mixed usage. I liked the new Volvo XE 30 and BYD Atto 3. Which one do you suggest? My budget is up to 45 lakhs.

Autocar India

•5h

Vehicles designed to run on E20 fuel simply cannot run on E85. Fuel grades of E85 and above, require hardware changes and thus, whenever the government decides to introduce these fuels, it will have to ensure supply of lower ethanol blends too. From that point of view, it is safe to purchase a car today as the fuel to run it, will have to be supplied even after the introduction of E85 fuel. The Toyota Hyryder and the Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara are essentially the same vehicle, thus pick the one that offers you a better deal.

Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder

Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara

Autocar India

•8h

You have already experienced how a naturally aspirated engine feels under load in your Honda City, especially on inclines. In a larger and heavier car like the Kia Carens Clavis, that limitation will be even more noticeable. With six people on board and occasional hill drives, the naturally aspirated petrol will feel strained and require frequent downshifts, which takes away from the relaxed driving experience you are looking for.The turbo petrol solves this. It offers stronger low and mid-range performance, making city driving easier and highway or hill driving far more effortless, even with a full load. It reduces the need for constant gear changes and feels more relaxed in real-world conditions. The DCT does offer convenience, but your concern is valid. In slow traffic and uphill situations, it can feel less smooth and slightly hesitant, which does not suit your usage.That said, since you are based in Gurugram, where traffic can get quite heavy, you should be prepared for the manual to feel tiring in daily stop-and-go conditions. If convenience becomes a bigger priority, the DCT is still usable, but it comes with the trade-off of low-speed smoothness.

Kia Carens Clavis

Autocar India

•8h

With 50-60 km every day, a 400 km trip every couple of months, and a mix of city, highway and ghat roads around Shirala, the Tata Sierra diesel in the top trim will suit you better than the turbo petrol. Your running is high, so the diesel will use less fuel day to day and, over a few years, the lower fuel bills usually make up for the higher buying price. On hilly roads, the diesel’s stronger pull at low speeds makes life easy - fewer gear changes, cleaner overtakes, and it feels more relaxed when the car is full of people or luggage.There are a couple of points to know. A modern diesel has a soot filter in the exhaust - called a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF). It needs regular warm runs to keep itself clean. Your daily 50-60 km should be enough, but those highway runs would be ideal for this. If you do many short, cold-start drives for a week or two, you may see a warning asking for a steady drive to clear it. The advantage of Tata's diesel is that it doesn't require AdBlue, as it uses a Lean NOx trap rather than a Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) system to manage NOx, so that's one less thing you'll have to keep in mind.Pick the turbo petrol only if you value refinement above all else, and performance, which is much stronger than the diesel's. However, its fuel economy is nowhere near as good, and in our tests, we managed just 6.49kpl in the city and 13.7kpl on the highway.

Tata Sierra