I must mention the one car I really liked among this lot -- the Fiat Petra.

This one is built like a cross between a sumo wrestler and a rhinoceros. Also, what you get for the price -- an ultra smooth 1900 cc engine. In some respects, I found the smooth tractability and build quality as good as the Octavia, which was easily double its price.

The one place Fiat couldn't make the grade, whatever they tried, was in resale value. Checking a used car dealer revealed that new Fiats lost almost 45-50 per cent of value the moment they moved out of a showroom. Never mind that, technically, the cars were brilliant. Fiat just blew it by way of indifferent dealers, the high cost of parts and poor after sales service.

Unusually, I didn't have an entry from Hyundai, as I had briefly seen their Peugeot-based DLS, which I was hardly impressed with. Then, some friends suggested I try the CRDI version.