Verna Review: The Best Car For Under A Crore
The Audi A6 is the best car, at 95 lakhs.
The Verna is the best affordable car, at 23 lakhs. If your budget is less than 95, such as 70, buy the Verna. There’s nothing better unless you stretch all the way to the A6.
The Verna is better than any other sedan I’ve test-driven:
Mercedes EQS Sedan (1.9 crore)
Mercedes 530 Li M (95 lakhs)
Toyota Camry (60 lakh)
BYD Seal (53 lakhs)
The Verna is better than any crossover I’ve driven:
BMW X3 (97 lakh)
BMW iX1 electric (78 lakhs)
Mini Countryman (72 lakh)
Jeep Compass (41 lakh)
Mahindra BE 6 electric (33 lakh)
XUV 700 (32 lakh)
Hyundai Tucson (29 lakh)
M.G. Hector (29 lakh)
Creta (26 lakh)
Seltos (25 lakh)
Tata Curvv EV electric (25 lakh)
The Verna is better than any SUV1 I’ve driven:
Fortuner (66 lakh)
Mahindra Scorpio N (32 lakh)
Thar Roxx (30 lakh)
The Verna is better than any MPV2 I’ve driven:
What makes the Verna so good?
✅ Spacious
I can stretch my legs comfortably in all four seats3. Since it’s a sedan, the headroom will be less than a Creta’s, but it’s not claustrophobic. In fact, even with the seat fully raised4, the headroom is not bad by sedan standards.
✅ Comfortable
The suspension is excellent, as good as or better than any other car, smoothing out bumps and potholes. The bumps in my driveway, which I’ve driven over thousands of times, and in multiple cars, felt smoother in the Verna than they ever did. The morning after, when I drove in my Ritz, the same bump, and for that matter every bump on the road, felt jarring, as if the car didn’t have a suspension at all!
The Verna is also comfortable, stable and planted at expressway speed, while other cars can be bouncy, which is both uncomfortable and unsafe.
When you try to accelerate significantly, there’s turbo lag, and after a second, wham! the car jerks forward. The Verna is the only car I’ve driven that has a turbo5 without lag! I thought that was impossible, like a petrol car without emissions, but Hyundai squared the circle. The Verna accelerates fast and smoothly6, with less noise and no discomfort. The Verna is the internal-combustion engine (ICE) vehicle that comes closest to an EV. I was able to surge from 20 to 80 kph while changing lanes to overtake. It didn’t feel dramatic as it would in other ICE cars. I didn’t even realise I had reached 80 till it beeped. The Verna understands the forces of the universe and harnesses them to its advantage, rather than foolishly trying to fight them. Instead of getting stuck in the middle of a boxing match with the car on one side and the universe on the other, which is no fun, the Verna is a magic carpet that easily glides over the road. I can weave through traffic easily in the Verna, more than in other cars. Stellar design and engineering make hard tasks easy. If you’re used to driving only the Verna, you may feel, “What’s the big deal? That was easy to begin with!” Then you drive an inferior car (which is to say, most of them), and you realise that it wasn’t easy in the first place, that the Verna solved half the problem for you, making it feel easy.
The Verna, being a sedan, has no body roll, which means that it doesn’t tilt to one side when on a curve or when changing lanes. People are much more sensitive to body roll than to straight acceleration. People find 0.25g acceleration comfortable if it’s forward7 but not sideways. When people feel uncomfortable, it’s because of this, though they don’t know why they feel that way. The Verna has no body roll. When I was in the rear seat and the driver changed lanes quickly at 80 kph, I didn’t feel anything. This was amazing because I’m generally not comfortable with such driving as a passenger. The next time the driver changed lanes abruptly, I did feel it, and I thought, “Ha! The Verna is beat this time.” Then I realised to my suprise that he’d changed lanes abruptly at 120 kph! It didn’t feel like 120 at all. I couldn’t feel the acceleration to 120 nor the cruising at 120.
It’s easy to find gaps in traffic and weave through them8, given the immense power of the 1.5 turbo petrol, no turbo lag, no body roll, and its seamless 7-speed DCT. I can’t tell when it switches gears. I’ve observed DCTs be able to shift gears thrice in one second! If there’s a vehicle in my blind spot, I see a
warning in the wing mirror, so these maneuvers don’t feel dangerous.
Even when accelerating fast while completing a turn, there was no body roll. I took a turn uphill while accelerating from 20 or 30 to 55, and it was fun and safe, rather than feeling uneasy in my stomach. The next day I tried to do the same thing in my Ritz. Even flooring it, the engine was weak and could only manage 40, and doing that sharp turn at 40 felt reckless in the Ritz, while the Verna could go faster safely.
The Verna changes lanes at expressway speed quickly and easily, without the body roll that makes it concerning.
I was more comfortable in the Verna after 2-3 hours than I’m in the Ritz after a decade. I was reclined, with my right hand on my thigh, holding the wheel with only one hand, almost with just two fingers, chilling, driving on an unfamiliar curve at speed in traffic at night. I was a beautiful moment of man and machine working together seamlessly.
The Verna has low NVH — the engine isn’t noisy or harsh, even at expressway speeds.
The dash is low9, so I don’t feel boxed in.
The Verna has a Sport mode10, and even that doesn’t make the engine sound annoying.
Emergency braking on the expressway by 50 kph in a second triggered ABS. Except for the pulsing from the front wheel, it didn’t feel like emergency braking at all. There was no drama. It didn’t make me panic. The car was perfectly in control, didn’t veer to one side, braked precisely as needed, no more, no less.
In stop and go traffic, auto hold11 eliminates even the small friction of engaging and disengaging Park.
Digital
✅ The car comes with 2 USB and 12V (120V ports) in the front.
❌ One of the USB ports is C and the other, A. A car bought in 2025 should’ve had all its ports upgraded to C.
❌ Worse, wired CarPlay requires the A port.
✅ The car comes with the exceptional Bose 8-speaker sound system — the best I’ve heard12. Music is emotional on it.
Cooling
✅ My fat red Thermos fits in the door.
✅ The two center bottle-holders each fit a 500 ml Thermos.
✅ Ventilated seat
❌ No sunglass holder
✅ The AC has physical controls, unlike some cars that force you to operate touch controls when driving.
❌ The sunroof isn’t panoramic, which is unfortunate, because a panoramic one cools a black car instantly that has been baking for hours in the summer afternoon sun. The sunroof is hardly visible from the rear seat. So this sunroof isn’t the best at either cooling the car instantly or providing a view.
Rear seat
❌ My fat red Thermos doesn’t fit anywhere.
✅ Phone holder.
✅ The center armrest has the typical 2 cupholders
✅ The rear passengers get 2 USB-C ports.
± The interior is black, which makes it look small and it can get hot, but on the other hand, it’s easier to clean.
❌ Each of the rear passengers can independently angle the AC vents up / down / left / right, but can’t adjust how open the vent is — they need to ask the driver if they’re feeling cold or warm. There are no controls.
Boot
✅ The boot opens and closes manually but since it’s a sedan, it’s much easier to do so than with a hatchback or crossover.
± The boot is spacious and deep but short, as is typical for sedans.
❌ No light
❌ No hook
✅ The boot has two small depressed storage areas at either end, with a tie-down net to prevent items from bouncing out.
Misc
✅ The car has aerodynamic and streamlined styling, which I prefer since it’s safer, more comfortable and fuel-efficient at speed than the boxy, dominating look that crossovers come with. The world is big enough for all of us, and I’m not interested in dominating anyone. I don’t glare at them when I drive by.
❌ The car has a fastback style, which is to say that there’s a single unbroken curve from the highest point of the roof13 down to the boot, rather than the typical flat boot of a sedan. As I understand, the latter is more aerodynamic.
❌ The TPMS was defective, showing a warning for a front wheel but not a rear though both were 30. Hyundai TPMSs are known to be untrustworthy, such as the one on the 2022 Creta. In that case, what’s the point of having one?
✅ The door has a pocket for a key (next to the window controls).
✅ There’s a small compartment to store things to the right of the steering wheel and below.
✅ In reverse, you get curved guidelines that move as you rotate the wheel, helping you reverse confidently.
❌ No front or 360-degree camera. So you have to be careful around pillars and other parked cars when navigating tight parking spaces.
✅ No animal leather
✅ You can turn off traction control
± The car comes with idle start / stop but it’s better to turn it off so that the AC works better.
✅ Electric wing mirrors
± There’s a compass view on the dash.
I never go off-road, tow, or subject my cars to rough use. If you do, an SUV may be better for you.
I don’t need three rows or seats, nor do I load long cargo like a bicycle. If you do, an MPV may be better for you.
With the driver’s seat fully up, I still had good legroom.
The driver’s seat is 3-way adjustable: front / back, recline and height, of which the first 2 are electric.
The passenger’s seat is only 2-way adjustable: front / back and height, all manual.
There’s no lumbar adjustment anywhere, but that’s not a reasonable expectation for a 23-lakh-rupee car.
A naturally aspirated engine has to rev more, even if it has higher displacement, resulting in a lot of noise, and making the car feel cheap.
Probably because the Verna optimises jerk.
On an unrelated note, you have to press the Verna’s accelerator more to get a given amount of acceleration, but this is not a problem, just something you get used to in minutes.
Or backward.
This probably indicates that its steering is precise.
But the windshield and windows are small, as is the norm for sedans.
It maintains a minimum RPM of 2300. In other words, the RPM immediately after upshifting is 2300.
It also has an Eco mode, but I didn’t try it in the test drive.
+ EPB
Above the B-pillar