Fiat Avventura vs Mahindra Verito Vibe CS

The Urban Cross was first showcased early this year at the Auto Expo, where it sported large built in LEDs and bezel around the headlamps. The production version, however, has skimped on this, and instead, it gets conventional Punto Evo headlights. There is a large stylish grille that helps set it apart along with new roof rails. Furthermore, the 17-inch wheels from the show have made way for 16-inch alloys.

For the last one month, the Mahindra Verito Vibe has been my companion for the daily torture test and commute of 52 km from home to office and back. At the end of it, with a very heavy heart, the hatchback has been returned to Mahindra (fortunately) in one piece and here is our closing report.

The fast evolving Indian automobile market has spun out some interesting innovations. While few of them are an interesting work-around the absurd tax system, like the sub-four metre sedans, others are just cosmetic changes to take advantage of the market trends, like the hatchback-based crossovers. The Volkswagen Cross Polo and the Toyota Etios Cross fall in this category of pseudo UVs that offer the same value as their hatchback counterpart, with the addition of just beefier and rugged styling.