There was a time when owning a sedan meant you had finally arrived in life. But if you look at the roads today, that dream has been hijacked by SUVs. In April 2026 alone, SUVs made up almost 60% of all cars sold in India. Why you may ask? You see our bad roads? and of course our obsession with heavy road presence (read it “system”). We stopped buying cars for driving pleasure and started buying them to feel safe in traffic. Automakers noticed this trend and happily cut off their sedan lineups.

But then the VAG group did something brilliant. They brought back the sedan but engineered it specifically for our market. Cars like the Volkswagen Virtus now come with 179 mm of ground clearance. That is pure SUV territory. You finally get that beautiful sedan styling without the constant fear of scraping the bottom on every speed breaker in front of every house.

For anyone who truly loves driving, the sedan is still the ultimate choice. My absolute favourite is the 1.5L TSI Virtus GT Line. But it genuinely breaks my heart that they discontinued the manual transmission :( You can only get the DSG automatic now. Sure, if you have a family to drive around, there are other pretty options like the new Kia Seltos turbo petrol is a fantastic practical choice. But if you want a true enthusiast car under 20 Lakh, the Virtus GT is hands down the king of the segment (I mean Slavia too).

Honestly though, buying a new car in India right now feels like a financial punishment. The moment you want a decent engine or a bit more cabin space, the government slaps a massive 40% GST on it. You pay all that money just to get stuck in brutal Kalindi Kunj traffic where your expensive automatic gearbox just sits there and overheats. Anddd, the government is aggressively pushing ethanol blended fuel to save on crude oil import costs. They do not even give us the option to buy pure petrol anymore. And do not even get me started on the sudden death of fun diesel cars.

So what is the actual solution for a car lover? In my opinion, the smartest thing (tier-2/3) you can do right now is find a sexy, well maintained used diesel car with less than 50,000 Km on the odometer. Bring it to a Tier 2 city where you do not have to constantly worry about those absurd 10 year diesel bans that plague the capital. Just take it out on an open highway, squeeze every bit of power out of it, and listen to that diesel engine rev. Pure bliss.