The Indian passenger market is infamous all across the globe for its obsession with small compact cars and entry-level segment offerings. Over the years, Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai have consolidated an unparalleled market position with their small compact vehicle portfolio in the country. However, other segments like sedan and Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV) are slowly catching up in terms of total sale numbers and popularity among the car enthusiasts residing on domestic turf.
Evidently, both middle class and upper middle class Indian audience has started exploring available options in both saloon and utility vehicle segments of the Indian market. With so many enticing products available, the domestic car lovers face a great dilemma as in to go for either a stylish luxury sedan or an uber cool SUV. Obviously, the features and needs vary by many miles between the two segments, but Indians are known to judge and purchase cars on the basis of their relative price tags. Interestingly, for a given price bracket, both luxury saloons and off-roading capable SUVs are offered in the domestic passenger car market.
The sedans are designed so as to cater to comfort and luxury needs of its customers, because of the naturally low step-in height coupled with great legroom and headroom. These class of vehicles have a comparatively low centre of gravity, which enables them to possess less roll-over risk along with better control while driving. Further, most luxury saloons deliver better fuel efficiency as compared to their utility vehicle counterparts.
Coming to SUVs, these class of vehicles offer a completely different set of service and features, besides cater to contrasting clientele as compared to sedans. All SUVs share a common DNA and are designed to tread all sorts of uncertain terrain thrown at them. Further, this vehicle segment offers much greater seating space, towing capacity and better visibility than sedans, which make them ideal for taking to long drives, intercity getaways and weekend picnics.
Additionally, larger seating capacity of SUVs make them attractive to customers with big families and those who love to ride along with a group of friends a lot. The ability of SUVs in storage space cannot be matched by sedans, regardless of their boot space and size. In all fairness, it can be said with certainty that sedans are great for comfort and luxury needs, whereas SUVs offer a more fun kind of driving experience and are not exactly popular in terms of their luxury attributes.
