Hi, I currently drive my car for 6,500-7000 km a year. 85% of my drive is within the city (mainly home-to-office) and 15% on NH. Looking to buy an Automatic Petrol car (SUV) with a Rs 15-16 lakh budget. Interested in a car with good handling, which is comfortable for 6-foot-tall people to sit, and has annual maintenance not in excess of Rs 10,000. Please advise.

Autocar India

•3h

The Kia Carens Clavis is probably the closest match to your requirements at this price point. The challenge is that the combination of features you're looking for is typically found on higher variants. In the Clavis, you'll need to move up the variant ladder to get most of these features, and that means accepting the sunroof as part of the package.As for the petrol versus diesel debate, your usage pattern actually favours petrol. Your monthly running is relatively low, and the frequent 3km city trips are not ideal for modern diesel engines. The occasional 500km highway journeys are easily handled by a petrol automatic. Ethanol blending should not be a major concern either, as modern petrol cars are engineered to run on the fuels currently available and planned for India.

Kia Carens Clavis

Autocar India

•1h

Considering the features you've listed, namely ADAS, a 360-degree camera and ventilated seats, the shortlist effectively narrows down to the Hyundai Verna and Kia Seltos.In fact, the car that would normally be recommended to an enthusiast is the Volkswagen Virtus 1.5 TSI DSG. It remains one of the most rewarding cars to drive in this segment, and there are attractive discounts available at the moment as a facelift is expected in the near future. However, it misses out on some of the features that are clearly important to you.Between the Verna and Seltos, the nod goes to the Seltos. It is the newer product, feels more premium inside, offers greater practicality and has a more spacious cabin. It also benefits from the same excellent 1.5-litre turbo-petrol and dual-clutch automatic combination as the Verna, so you are not sacrificing performance. Over the long term, it is also likely to hold its value better.

Hyundai Verna

Kia Seltos

Volkswagen Virtus

Autocar India

•1h

For your usage as a second car that will spend most of its life in the city, the Tata Punch EV Long Range would actually be the first choice. It is compact, easy to manoeuvre, offers more than enough range for daily duties and is based on a dedicated EV architecture rather than an ICE conversion. It also gets a modern feature set and feels purpose-built as an electric vehicle.If you want something larger and more spacious, the MG Windsor EV is the alternative to consider. It offers exceptional cabin space and comfort, and feels like a segment-above product for the money.As for the Mahindra XUV 3XO EV, it carries over the 39.4kWh battery pack and electric motor from the XUV400, rather than using the newer INGLO-based technology seen on the BE 6 and XEV 9e. So while it benefits from the new 3XO interior and feature set, the underlying EV hardware is not all-new.

Tata Punch EV

MG Windsor

Mahindra XUV 3XO EV

Mahindra XEV 9e