I like driving. Call me anti-social, but I rarely talk while driving, preferring to listen to all the sounds a car makes and the feedback it gives the driver.

My previous car was a Hyundai Santro, circa 1999, perhaps the earliest of the Zip drive powered cars. In those salad days, I was interested in a peppy city car that I could use, on occasion, to lug family and friends on weekend trips. Graduating from a Maruti 800, I never had the Santro in my radar (mainly because its sheer ugliness made me feel like wearing a brown paper bag over my head while approaching the car – only the Xing improved its looks somewhat).

A friend’s experience of surviving an accident in a Santro changed my mind. I test drove one and found that, once you were inside, it was actually comfortable to drive. Its peppy engine actually caused me to forget the awful styling outside. Fast forwarding to 2004, and it was time to move to another car. Only this time, petrol prices were nearly double of what they were when I bought the Santro. Plus, my weekend forays were only increasing.

It was time to look at diesel.

I began by compiling a list of all models available, irrespective of whether they were saloons, estates or SUVs. I limited my budget to just under 14 lakhs – and the Skoda Octavia topped the list.

My considerations were: drivability (which included power, economy, handling, etc), cost of maintenance (fuel, service costs, spares) and, most importantly (given my previous experience), resale value.