Going for Gold

It’s that time of the year again when we gather the newest the car industry has to offer and have our band of experts put them through their paces to evaluate them and pick a winner. While we do enjoy driving most of them, there can only be one winner in each category. So here goes

- Team Car India

THE PAST YEAR GAVE US SOME TRULY UNIQUE CARS, many of them outstandingly so, and provided some truly memorable experiences. At the 20th annual Car India Awards jury drive, we got to sample them first hand in familiar territory.

Concurrently with the passage of time, however, the average price of a new car keeps increasing in India, with a steady shift resulting into more models with an SUV body-style, thus indicating the changing mindset of new car-buyers. Most young professionals who buy a new car nowadays are not, in fact, first-generation car-owners as was the case a few decades ago. Thus, the market keeps shifting towards more aspirational cars with an evident push to electric being the other side of the same coin. The number of new cars launched below the Rs 10-lakh price point was far lower than before, whereas there were numerous launches in the premium and luxury segments.

To make it to the list of contenders, a car must have been launched between the 1st of December 2023 and 30th of November 2024. With that list made, the cars were then shortlisted and categorized by segment, after which the jury members put them through the test process, evaluating everything from cabin space and boot capacity to safety features and cornering ability. Here is the outcome of that meticulous process.

Jim Gorde

One of the younger members of jury younger members, Jim has evolved through years testing and reviewing cars for Car India and some bikes for