[Mafia]

Simple reason: Ground clearance

Bengaluru roads these days are all craters and mountains(speed breakers).

[gopi_rm]

I’m a low slung hatchback/sedan/estate guy but voted for crossover for the obvious reasons: pothole filled city roads, non existent rural roads and mountain high speed breakers without any sign board at appropriate distance.

[ajaiD]

Ground clearance is the reason.

I was planning to buy a Linea with that 190mm GC but plans got delayed and then ended up with a Compass (Now a Seltos) but yea GC is most important. I have had my car's under belly torn by rocks in HP.

A definite plus with Seltos is that the under belly is supposed to use HSS so rock penetration might be less overall but its almost 3 star rating is worrisome.

[Ice]

Picked 'Sedan' but only because SUV wasn't an option. My reasons:

I'd trade the slightly higher ride height and the Lord-and-Master-of-all-I-survey of the faux SUVs (read:Crossovers) for what the sedan gives me in return:

+ a lower, sportier seating position
+ comfort
+ a separated and often larger boot
+ the gift of not looking frightfully silly while chucking it around on a windy ghat road or a sweeping highway

Why I wouldn't choose a crossover:
- A crossover brings the risk of a rollover like an SUV, without being very much more robust than a sedan.
- Most crossovers don't have a suspension that is substantially differentiated from the sedans/hatches they share their platforms with, while the high seating position seduces one to take a more adventurous route. I have a fireside story featuring a tragic Seltos, a rough shoulder on the Salem-Dharmapuri highway, with ensemble roles embraced by assorted bits of engine guard, oil sump, and a particularly stubborn rock.
- Crossovers are overpriced compared to their less glamorous siblings

Leave me with my Fortuner and I'll drive it like I have for the last 10 years - with all due respect to its failings, and all respect due for the road I'm on. Or, give me a City or an Octavia (RS - if you're asking), and I'll pay more attention to the quality of the road, while the car pays attention to the curves.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a body-on-chassis fan. And a sedan fan. But it's either this or that. None of this middle-ground for me.

[volkman10]

Here is the reality (Verdict) :

There has been a steady decline in sedan sales with customers preferring SUV body styled vehicles. The decline in sales of sedan is in part due to style.
They are not as practical as hatchbacks, not as spacious as SUVs and not as comfortable as MPVs.

[abhi_tjet]

I will prefer Sedan over crossover anyday for similar budget. Between Creta and Honda City, it’s a Honda city definitely. However, if we have to decide between Superb and Endeavour, it will be tricky.

[anb]

I would have easily opted for a sedan till a few years ago. But now the climate has changed and there is frequent waterlogging on the roads due to massive rains thanks to global warming. So I prefer SUV/Cross over with slightly high water wading capacity.

[Nithesh_M]

Was torn between the City and the Creta. Yesterday the Creta was registered to my name. Kind of sad because sedans are more engaging to drive on smooth highways but then rationalizing happens and you realize you run out of smooth roads very quick. Plus I've waded into a sudden low lying area on my motorcycle once without realizing until my knee caps were covered in water. So any ground clearance is of use to me.

[Venkatesh]

SUV sales in India have crossed the 8 million units milestone in 15 years. While the first 4 million took all of 10 years, surging demand saw the next 4 million milestone being surpassed in just 5 years.

How SUV sales stack up since FY2007



Source

[pavi]

I recently bought a new Rapid, already have a Honda City. The most repeated question that I am hearing these days is "why no SUV". I am done with giving the response "I love driving a Sedan, and SUVs are not my thing". Nobody asked me 'Why Skoda?', that was quite surprising indeed . These days, buying a SUV is like an arranged marriage, all family members, relatives, neighbours are happy with your decision and buying a sedan equates to eloping with your lover, not even your family may be happy with it.

[aravind.anand]

The boot space in the Crossover-SUVs have much more flexibility, which makes it much more practical over the boot of a sedan.
Despite having a 500L boot, a Honda City cannot accommodate a microwave oven or a cycle (without a lot of effort) or a chair for example. But any sub-4m SUV can definitely take these with ease. This hugely adds to the practicality - as I have learnt from my experience while moving houses

[clevermax]

Voted for Sedan. Heck, I would even prefer voting for station wagons to voting for SUVs if that was an option.

An aggressive looking station-wagon is a beautiful sight for my eyes than any souped up SUV. I'm sure it will drive better than an SUV too. Unfortunately, we Indians hated this type of cars altogether.


Last weekend I was on a road trip through one of those neatly done state highways of Kerala. The road was very empty and had curves aplenty.

There came a Hyundai Venue in my RVM out of nowhere. By observing the "body language" of that car, I could sense that it was being driven a bit aggressively. I decided to just play around a bit so I stepped on the pedal. It was interesting to see him struggling to keep up with a sedan from the same manufacturer on every curve. On straight stretches, he would close in the gap but upon hitting the next curve, all that aggressiveness he was building up had to be relinquished.

He had to finally pass me at the next signal through my left-hand-side when I stopped. I guess his SUV-ego was a bit hurt, he probably was wondering why he couldn't pass me in spite of having 118 bhp and a taller stance.

PS - I wouldn't vote for Sedan category if it only involved the DZire and the likes (Sub 4 meter).

[animus_me]

I chanced upon this forum discussion while searching to an answer to my dilemma of choosing between a Sedan and a SUV.

My primarily reason for a slight tilt towards a sedan is the fuel economy which also translates to a relatively lower carbon footprint per km/mile.

I wonder why lower emissions (even in relative terms) is nobody's criteria in choosing a product?

[arya809]

Crossover: Faux (Fake) SUV with Front wheel drive. Practical and a necessity for Indian road conditions. Huge EGO boost as the buyer feels like he/she is driving a Land Rover Discovery! It's impossible to see a crossover driver politely braking to let others pass.

Sedan: Extremely stable, fun to drive, aerodynamic, original car. Not that practical in India anymore due to frequent waterlogging, speed breakers AKA axle breakers, lunar craters in the name of potholes.

The original post listed IMAGINARY advantages of crossover under the disguise of "height". If higher seating was so advantageous then by that logic, all supercar drivers are uncomfortable, blind and nervous.

All of these fake SUV's have FWD, only 1 or 2 of them provide AWD. So AWD is an exception, not a norm when it comes to crossover fake SUV's.

Comparing these two is like asking to choose between a Ducati Multistrada and BMW S1000RR in Bangladesh.

[Zodak]

In my opinion, the things we can generalize are :-
1. An SUV provides a higher GC which in turns is helpful over bad roads.
2. Sedan (because of physics) would have low center of gravity and hence would be more stable.

All other factors like boot space, comfort etc. etc. are on case to case basis. I recently purchased a Superb and it will beat almost all cars in the 20-40lakh range in everything (including boot space) except GC.

So essentially, choice comes down to the fact that where are you going to drive it. I realized that 90% of the times my superb would be driven on good roads/expressways/highways and may be 10% of the time, it would be on bad roads. So I decided that giving up what I need for 90% of the time for the bad 10% is not worth it. So it was sedan for me and have driven it over 2000km some of it has been on the worst roads I will ever drive. I had to take pre-cautions but my car still didn't scrape even once.