Mahindra XUV 500: The refreshed Mahindra XUV500 was launched with prices starting at Rs 11.12 lakh and going up to Rs 14.8 lakh for the top end W10 variant. While the car’s essentials remain unchanged, Mahindra has bathed the XUV with features — some truly useful, while others are a bit unusual. To begin with, the car gets lots of chrome accents around the fog lamps, headlamps, shoulder line, etc. It also gets a refreshed bumper grille, a new set of alloys and two new paint schemes, which include the orange shade you see displayed above. Along with that, it gets a sunroof and what they call ‘projection lamps’, which are essentially small units housed under the wing mirrors to project the XUV500 logo onto the tarmac below when activated. The top end W10 variant also gets regenerative braking, which is said to improve the claimed fuel efficiency by an extra litre to the kilometre.

Volkswagen Vento: The 2015 Volkswagen Vento receives only cosmetic updates. As far as the exteriors are concerned, the car gets a new three-slat grille similar to the Passat, although in profile, the car looks more like the Jetta. A new set of headlamps also finds its way onto the Vento, tapering towards the grille end, while a chrome strip runs across the air dam and the rear bumper. No prices have been announced yet, since the car is yet to be officially launched. On the inside, the car gets a darker shade of beige slapped onto the dash. The top-end variants of the Vento also get cruise control, a cooled glovebox, a dead-pedal and auto-folding wing mirrors.

Hyundai Elantra: The Hyundai Elantra happens to be one of Hyundai’s best looking models, so it stands to reason that the car’s exteriors will not be altered heavily. For 2015, Hyundai has given the car a standard mid-life chrome job, adding LED lights to the headlamps. New alloys and a two-tone rear bumper wrap up the exteriors, while the inside of the car gets all-black interiors, leather seats and metallic scuff plates. All of this puts the new Elantra in the price range of Rs 11.4 lakh to Rs 17.94 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

Skoda Rapid DSG: The Rapid was the first car of the lot to receive an update and this time, they were mostly mechanical ones. Firstly, it swapped its engine with the 2014 VW Polo’s 1.5 litre TDI and also borrowed the same 7-speed DSG transmission unit, which does duties in the Polo GT TSI and the Vento DSG. The car packs 103 bhp of power and 25 kgm of torque, making it a really smooth and torquey motor. No other car in its range (apart from the Vento) offers the luxury of a dual-clutch gearbox, making the Rapid a lot of fun to drive. Black alloy wheels lend to the car’s overall profile, so it’s well worth the price tag of Rs 11.11 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai).