We are new drivers and are looking to purchase a car within a ₹5 lakh budget. Our daily driving distance is approximately 25 km. Could you please suggest suitable options?

Autocar India

•19h

Unfortunately, you don't have too many automatic options within Rs 6 lakh (on-road). Your options are Maruti Alto, Maruti S-Presso, Renault Kwid, and thanks to some on-going discounts, you could even manage to get a Celerio VXi AMT, which is the nicest and most premium option among the ones listed.

Maruti Suzuki Alto K10

Maruti Suzuki S-Presso

Maruti Suzuki Celerio

Renault Kwid

Autocar India

•23m

We would recommend you look at the new upcoming Skoda Kushaq. It sits above the compact SUV segment but is still not too large and is among the smaller of the mid-size SUVs, thus it remains quite easy and manageable in the city. The Kushaq is well equipped with many standard safety features and has scored a 5-star crash rating in the GNCAP tests, thus it meets your priority of safety too. Since you are driving in the city and looking for fuel efficiency too, we would suggest the 1.0 litre engine, which will launch with an 8-speed torque convertor automatic transmission. Torque convertors are the smoothest type of automatic transmission around, which you will appreciate in the city stop-and-go traffic. Being an 8-speed (earlier was a 6-speed unit), mileage should also improve over the previous car. It returned a figure of 8.5kpl in the city, 12.4 kpl on the highway, in our standard test cycle. Stay tuned to our channel as we will be driving the car shortly.

Skoda Kushaq facelift

Autocar India

•15h

The Kia Carens Clavis would be a good option for you. The insides and comfy, and the third row is spacious for two adults and has AC vents as well as type C ports for charging. With three rows up, there's also a fairly useable 216-litres of boot space, and there is some more space under the boot floor too.Kia cars have proven to be quite reliable, and this would serve you well since you plan to keep it for a long time. The car is well-equipped with a host of safety features that are standard, and since mileage is also your priority, we would suggest you opt for the diesel or the naturally aspirated (non-turbo) 1.5-litre petrol engine.

Kia Carens Clavis