New Delhi, May 9 -- Alto is hailed supreme for a reason. It's not just about navigating treacherous mountain roads-the kind you see in countless Instagram reels with bigger cars struggling-but its ability to glide through the real battlefield: the potholed, dug-up, traffic-choked streets of Bengaluru.

Ever since I moved here, I've fully embraced the idea of a compact car whose sole job is to smartly GPS its way through narrow bylanes, dodging main-road bottlenecks and getting you to your destination faster. So, now that I am back in the market for a car, I find myself torn. Do I stick with a small car that does well in city chaos or upgrade to something bigger that also lets me explore the outskirts more comfortably?

For an auto enthusi...