What to Look for in a Non-Electric Car
Fuel
When it comes to the fuel, I recommend petrol. Petrol engines are quiet and don’t vibrate much. This is more than an esthetic matter — noise and vibration tire us. Petrol cars are more responsive. They’re fun to drive. They accelerate rapidly. They reach higher speeds1.
EVs are better along the above dimensions, but they impose a cognitive load of tracking range. It’s like a background process running all the time on your laptop, taking away some of its resources. They also have a lower top speed, and you can’t drive it for as many hours at one go.
Transmission
The best transmission is an electric, but for an internal-combustion engine, DCTs are second best, and awesome compared to other transmissions. I was driving in a Taigun and 70-something kph and I wanted to get ahead. I pressed the accelerator significantly. We surged forward and I was happy. After a second or two, the salesman asked me, “Do you know what speed we’re at?” I looked at the speedo, and I was surprised to see triple digits. DCTs can accelerate so fast. They’re also very quick to change gears. I was in the 4th gear, accelerating significantly, at which point I found congestion ahead and eased off the accelerator. The DCT changed from 4 → 5→ 6 → 7 in one second! As another example, in a Creta DCT, I was next to a Dzire taxi and I wanted to get away. I pressed the accelerator significantly. After a fraction of a second, the turbo to kicked in, I was pressed back against my seat as the car surged forward. DCTs are suitable for such spirited driving.
In addition to spirited driving, DCTs also perform great when driven in a relaxed manner: just be gentle with the accelerator. In other words, don’t surprise the transmission with unexpected inputs.
DCTs are linear: the acceleration before, during and after a gear shift is the same. You don’t even know it has changed gears! Technology that works well enough to be seamless is amazing.
Turbo
Buy a turbocharged car — it has a lot more performance. Otherwise, it will be sluggish. Or it will rev more, producing a lot more noise for the same acceleration, which makes it unpleasant to drive. Having said that, if you’re buying a car to drive in the city, a turbo isn’t required.
Conclusion
If you’re buying a fossil fuel-powered car, buy a petrol DCT.
Diesels are the worst — they make a lot of noise and vibration, even when the engine is idling. They have more lag between you pressing the accelerator and the car beginning to accelerate. They accelerate slowly even when you floor it in Sport. They can’t reach high speeds. People claim that diesels can tow more, but check whether that’s true for the specific car you’re buying. It may not be true. Diesels also pollute more.
As for CNGs, they take 15 min to refuel! There are only 6K CNG filling stations in the country vs 100K for petrol / diesel. When I was in Hyderabad, a taxi driver told me that there are so few CNG stations in the city that he has to wait for an hour every time he refuels.