CHALK AND CHEESE

Back to the old question, should you get a car or an SUV?

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO you moved from whatever your first car was to a sedan. A City, or if you’d really, really made it the W124 E-Class – the ultimate embodiment of success. Today though it is an SUV. Whether it’s the Brezza or Fortuner or Q7, an SUV is what everybody wants; what commands respect.

But bullying power aside there are a number of practical considerations to make before you decide on a car or an SUV. Take the Skoda Octavia, the best sedan you can get for Tata Hexa money – would you switch from the obvious choice to an SUV-MPV crossover?

Simply put, the Octavia outdoes the Hexa when it comes to sheer driving pleasure. It’s a superbly knit package, the engine is more powerful, more refined and far more efficient, the gearbox is excellent be it them manual or the absolutely fantastic DSG, the pedals have a superb feel to them, the steering talks to you, the brakes are sharp, the accelerator is well weighted. With all this nestled in a superb chassis, the Octavia can out do, out handle cars a class above on a good road. And did I mention its high-speed cruising ability?

But that’s about it. When the roads start falling apart it has got to slow down. That’s where the Hexa comes in and makes life carefree. The Hexa may not be able to show up the Octavia in terms of The Thrill of Driving, but it certainly does in terms of simply being versatile. In a country where road conditions are fickle, the Hexa certainly offers more peace of mind. Higher ground clearance, a more supple suspension, the option of all-wheel drive should things get really rough — it has got you covered.

Though Tata has come a long, long way when it comes to fit-and-finish, the Octy is still ahead. However, the Hexa has a trick up its sleeve that the Octavia really has no answer to — more seats. The Octy is spacious, quite possibly the most spacious in its class. But seating seven? Erm… pass.

Whether you require a car or an SUV really boils down to utility, but over a week with these two we discovered that the Hexa does make a solid case for itself over one of the few cars we’d spend our own money on. ⌧