New Special Edition cars under Rs 10 lakh – Which one deserves your money?

As the festive season nears, automobile manufacturers have started to lure customers with some really nice new products and a few special editions of existing cars. And while ‘Special Editions’ are sometimes less special the regular versions, we look at the current ones to see whether or not they deserve your hard earned money.

[Editor’s Note: To keep things simple, we’ve included the recently launched special edition versions, priced under Rs 10 lakhs. Needless to say, if there are enough launches in other categories, we’ll include those in future articles.]

Tata Nano Celebration Edition

Based on the GenX Nano, the Celebration Edition brings along a few nifty features. At Rs 24,999, the premium kit gets stuff worth Rs 27,000, which is a good start. There’s a sunroof, art leather seat covers, remote controlled hatch release, bumper protectors, and body graphics and badges.

You can get all of that but not the sunroof, for Rs 10,500 in the standard kit, which is, again, not bad at all. So, this is a definite buy if you want a compact, affordable city hatch.

Maruti Suzuki Alto K10 Urbano Edition

The Alto, especially in the K10 guise, makes for a great vehicle for city runabouts. It comes with a peppy engine, light steering, and has okay space to carry a little more than a week’s groceries. With the Urbano Edition, MSIL makes the Alto K10 a bit more usable. It gets reverse parking sensors, art leather seat covers, Bluetooth handsfree and USB charger, and scuff plates. All these and the other special edition bits – chrome appliques, stickers, etc. – bump the price by Rs 16,990, but it appears to be worth it.

Volkswagen Polo Exquisite

VW is no stranger to the trend, with multiple limited/special editions of the Polo and the Vento already plying on the roads. But this time around, the company has added some useful features. The Polo Exquisite is available only in the regular (non GT) form, but gets features like cruise control and detachable window blinds. Carbon fibre finish for the mirror and centre console, black roof and side mouldings, special edition seat covers, and trunk garnish complete the list.

Tata Zest Celebration Edition

The real reason to celebrate is the Zest, if you’re looking at feature to price ratio. The Zest Celebration Edition is dearer by Rs 15,000 but gets additional equipment worth Rs 31,000. The worth noting features include a remote controlled rear windscreen curtain, illuminated scuff plates, bottle holder on the centre console, etc. There’s also a new paint on the outside, not very loud body graphics, black paint for the mirrors, and even special ‘anniversary’ embroidery on the seats.

Honourable mention

New Toyota Etios Liva

Shunning the trend, Toyota has gone ahead and launched a new Liva – okay, old wine in new bottle, sans the special edition badges. A dual tone paintjob, a roof spoiler, and 15-inch alloy wheels are the big changes. As always the Etios Liva gets dual airbags standard, but the dashboard now comes a wood finish interior (why?).