5 Affordable Cars With Luxury Features - Hyundai Grand i10 Nios to Tata Nexon

Not too long ago, affordable cars in India used to be quite basic, with bare minimum creature comforts and next-to-no equipment. Those times, however, are long gone. Nowadays, technology from high-end cars is trickling down into smaller cars, one feature at a time.

Top expensive features in affordable cars

Here, we have a list of five affordable cars that offer expensive premium features in a low-cost package.

Hyundai Grand i10 Nios

Price: Rs. 5.04 to 8.04 Lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi)

Hyundai Grand i10 is a premium hatchback offering from the South Korean car giant, and the company has surely laid some emphasis on premium. The car is available with wireless charging pad on a few of its higher trim levels, namely Asta for the diesel models, and Sportz dual-tone (petrol), Turbo Sportz, Turbo Sports dual-tone, Asta, and Asta AMT for the petrol models.

Ford Freestyle

Price: Rs. 5.89 to 8.19 Lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi)

Ford Freestyle is a crossover hatchback based on the extremely sporty Figo. Its SUV-ish raised stance, however, brings the car’s centre of gravity higher than the Figo, which means that the handling characteristics aren’t as sharp. That said, the car offers a brilliant safety that isn’t seen in any car even a segment or two above. The Active Rollover Prevention (ARP) is a program that works in tandem with the Electronic Stability Program (ESP) to prevent any potential rollover situation. The ARP is available on the top-spec Titanium+ trims of the petrol as well as diesel variants.

Tata Nexon

Price: Rs. 6.95 to 12.7 Lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi)

Tata Nexon is already quite famous for being the first Indian car to score a 5-star safety score for adult occupants, as assessed by Global NCAP in 2018. The car also offers ‘iRA’ connected car technology now! There is another impressive feature available on the Nexon, one that’s inspired by expensive sportscar and supercars! We’re talking about the driving modes of the Tata SUV.

Some readers might be aware that the Tata Nexon comes standard with three driving modes- Eco, City, and Sport. For the 1.5-litre diesel variant, the ‘Eco’ mode limits the power to 70 PS and 180 Nm, the easy-going nature of the engine makes it more fuel economical. The ‘City’ mode increases the power figure to 90 PS and 220 Nm, enough for your daily commute. In the ‘Sport’ mode, you get the entire 110 PS and 260 Nm from the engine. The petrol motor also has driving modes, but we aren’t sure of the individual figures in that.

Hyundai Verna

Price: Rs. 9.3 to 15.09 Lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi)

The new Hyundai Verna (facelift) is one of the best-looking sedans in the Indian car market today. It is also surprisingly well equipped. It is the first car in its segment to offer connected car technology and a fully digital instrument cluster. There is one piece of equipment that impresses us ever more than these- ventilated seats. In India, where the summer temperature soars upwards of 40^o C in almost every major city, cooled seats are a boon. The feature is available on all trims, except ‘S’ and ‘S+’.

Nissan Kicks

Price: Rs. 9.55 to 13.69 Lakh (ex-showroom, New Delhi)

The Kicks may not be as popular as the other cars in this list, but Nissan did their best with this SUV, offering a lot of premium equipment and a decently affordable price.  You get an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment display with Nissan Connect, that offers multiple connectivity options, like Bluetooth, Apple Carplay, Android Auto. While these are pretty standard for a car in this segment, one feature on offer in the Nissan Kicks stands out among others- a 360-degree parking camera.

In a market where reverse parking camera is an optional extra in many cars, having a 360-degree camera is quite a luxury. Kia Seltos and MG Hector also offer it, but those are marginally more expensive. The feature is only available in the top-trim for the diesel variant though, and as Nissan has made no comment on the future of the Kicks and its BS6 avatar, we don’t know if the feature would be added to the petrol trims