Sunday Drive by Hormazd Sorabjee: Luxurious, compact and confident

Small cars mean a small price. It’s a mindset deeply ingrained into the car buyer’s psyche since the dinky Maruti 800 revolutionised Indian roads over three decades ago. Conversely, customers are happy to pay big money for a big car which is why SUVs are a rage not just amongst people that buy them, but the companies that make them. The thing is big cars are hugely profitable for automakers because they can charge their customers significantly more than what it costs to make them and this crucial ‘price-to-size’ ratio cuts across the full spectrum of cars in this market.