Let us start with a brief pic­ture of our roads. They are bad. Abundance of uneven terrains throughout the country make for ridiculous uphills and downhills, snake ways, swivels, tight hairpins and wild off-roads. We even have a few amazing off-road circuits within the capital city itself! Take Boudha-Jorpati-Narayantar strip for example. SUVs combat these roads the best.

 

As SUVs are best suited for our roads, we are also spoilt for choices. There are different SUVs to choose from and all of them have gotten so good over the years that the only thing differentiating them is how they look, which can be subjective. Another thing that we have in abundance are high-rank­ing government officials and their need for SUVs. These offi­cials are constantly travelling to distant places across the country, places where travelling by anything other than an SUV is impossible. But the consistent preference for SUVs costing crores is a bit unpractical in a developing country deep in foreign debt.

 

We are not implying that they should sell off these expen­sive SUVs and start riding a bicycle. We are simply saying that there are cheaper, much cheaper SUVs, which can do the exact same thing the expen­sive ones are capable of. The automotive industry has grown more advanced and today you can get many SUV relatively cheaply. Take all the Indian manufacturers for exam­ple; their SUVs and compact SUVs are one of the very best today but cost half of their Western and Eastern counterparts.

 

They offer the same offroad capability and all the bells and whistles of an SUV in an affordable package, which makes them much more practical. Just like the big expensive SUVs, these small SUVs all come with a good ground clear­ance, all the offroad equipment, spacious and practical cabin and a host of safety features. These SUVs are also a better choice when you consider their fuel-efficient engines, as well as cheaper maintenance cost and spare parts. In addition, there are pick-up trucks, which offer the same performance and comfort in a cheaper package because of the low tax rate on these vehicles, which make them great alternative to big SUVs.

 

A decade ago, there were only a handful of good SUVs but the auto­motive industry has made a giant leap over the years. The fruit of their labor can be seen in the compact SUVs and crossovers we see today. Yes, high-ranking government offi­cials do need their own vehicle, but why only the ones that cost a fraction of the annual budget of the country? Why not choose the ones that cost much less to purchase, to run and to live with?

 

The big SUVs are good, really good, and our officials look handsome in it, but at the end of the day, the small SUVs aren’t exactly bad either. While the sacrifices of switching from a big to a small SUV are negligible, the huge vehic­ular expenses this switch will save for the government is substantial. Which is why the small SUVs make a compelling case.