At a starting price of Rs 11.99 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the starting J (S) petrol variant and Rs 13.07 lakh for the diesel in basic J trim, it seems like great value for money. But does the rest of the range offer the same value? And how do its prices stack up against the other very capable competition in this small but quite competitive segment of executive sedans? Here’s a quick breakdown.
Petrol manual variants
At Rs 11.99 lakh, the Toyota Corolla Altis J (S) petrol variant is currently India’s most affordable executive sedan. The rival that gets closest to it is the Hyundai Elantra S petrol, which costs Rs 12.73 lakh. While the two Asian carmakers use traditional 1.8-litre, naturally aspirated petrol motors, their European counterparts use high-tech, 1.4-litre, direct injection turbo-petrol engines, and this is reflected in their prices too.
Take the base-model Volkswagen Jetta, the 1.4 TSI Trendline, which at Rs 13.20 lakh, is Rs 1.21 lakh more than the Altis J (S) petrol. Then there’s the Skoda Octavia 1.4 TSI Active; at Rs 13.95 lakh, it’s a whopping Rs 1.96 lakh more than the base Corolla.
What’s really interesting though is that while the Corolla’s middle G petrol trim (Rs 13.74 lakh) is still cheaper than the higher variants of the petrol manual Elantra, Jetta and Octavia, the top-end Corolla GL petrol manual, at Rs 15.38 lakh, is more expensive than all of them.
Petrol automatic variants
As with the last Toyota Corolla Altis, the new version gets the option of a CVT automatic with the petrol engine. The CVT is available in mid-spec G and top-spec VL trims, priced at Rs 15.04 lakh and Rs 16.89 lakh respectively. Hyundai offers the Elantra petrol automatic in one high-spec SX variant that costs Rs 14.91 lakh. That makes it Rs 13,000 cheaper than the automatic Corolla Altis in G spec and a full Rs 1.98 lakh cheaper than the VL spec, so consider the Hyundai if you’re after an automatic petrol.
While both the Octavia and Jetta’s 1.4 TSI engines are only available as manuals, the Skoda offers a bigger petrol engine – the 1.8 TSI – with an automatic. This single top-spec Octavia 1.8 TSI Elegance costs a whopping Rs 18.25 lakh; Rs 1.36 lakh more than the top Corolla Altis VL automatic.
Rivan RS 
Viraaj Bhatnagar
Uday Singh
Suraj Viswanathan
