I am planning to buy my first car in Bengaluru. My running will be relatively low, around 50-100 km per week, mostly on highways. My budget is ₹12-13 lakh on-road. I am planning to buy the Skoda Kylaq. Is the Skoda Kylaq Signature Petrol AT a good choice?

Autocar India

•2h

The logical spiritual successor to the Volkswagen Polo for many owners has been the Skoda Kylaq, and we think it meets your needs as well. It retains that solidly built, fun-to-drive nature and also comes with a punchy 1.0-litre TSI turbo-petrol engine and has received a 5-star Bharat NCAP crash test rating. In your Rs 13 lakh budget, you'll get a mid-spec Signature+ variant, which gets you all the essentials and not too many gimmick features.Another often-overlooked option is the Citroen Basalt X, which offers a similarly punchy engine, fun chassis and European solidity as the Skoda and Volkswagen, but is a size up and much more spacious. However, it also costs more, and in your budget, you'll get a lower variant with fewer features than the Kylaq.If you want to skip fuel-blend questions entirely and your driving is mostly city, look at the Tata Punch EV. It’s quiet, quick off the line, and fits the budget. Just remember, highway trips need a bit of charging planning.

Skoda Kylaq

Citroen Basalt

Tata Punch EV

Autocar India

•20h

The Citroen C3 fits your requirement of comfort and no nonsense features very well. Space inside is good and the suspension is tuned to provide excellent ride comfort even over bad and broken city roads. The C3 is also not loaded with features but its covers all of todays essential requirements very well and will come in under your budget. The C3 also has a torque convertor automatic gearbox which is the smoothest type of autobox to have, so given that nearly all you driving is within the city, this is something you will appreciate. The only issue with Citroen is the dealer network is very sparse, so only go ahead if you have a reputed dealer in your area. An alternative would be the Skoda Kylaq, at your budget you would get the lower trims but since you are not chasing fancy features this should do well. Like the C3, the Kylaq too has a torque convertor gearbox so it will be smooth and easy in city traffic. About the Jazz CVT - there’s no official plan to bring it back to India. If they do a new small Honda car, it is not around the corner, so don’t wait.

Citroen C3

Skoda Kylaq

Autocar India

•1d

You won't go wrong with either but we would lean towards the Skoda Kylaq in this case. You spend most of your time on highways in the back seat, and the Kylaq rear offers better headroom and is the steadier cruiser and with better noise isolation than the Amaze. It also has stronger performance for quick, safe overtakes, which your chauffeur will appreciate. Since you are open to an automatic - in the case of the Honda - we would suggest you consider the Kylaq AT as you will appreciate the smooth shifting of the torque convertor gearbox as against the Amaze's CVT which during some heavy footed driving does have some of the typical ‘rubber band effect’, wherein the engine revs rise without a corresponding effect on the vehicle’s speed.

Skoda Kylaq

Honda Amaze