Innova Crysta or Innova Hycross: which one should you actually book?

We run both. Guests ask us this every week, and the honest answer is not the one most operators give, because most operators only have one of the two and will tell you theirs is better.

Here is how we decide when a guest leaves it to us.

The short answer

• Seven passengers, or a lot of luggage, or rough roads. Take the Crysta.
• Six or fewer, a long highway run, or anyone who gets carsick. Take the Hycross.
• You are buying the fuel yourself on the flat daily rate. Read the section on fuel below before you decide on price, because the dearer car can work out cheaper.

What is actually different

The fuel point nobody explains

On our flat daily rate you buy the fuel yourself, full tank to full tank. That is the rate most guests take for an outstation trip, and it is where the two cars separate.

The Crysta is a diesel. The Hycross is a hybrid, and on a highway run it returns far better mileage than the Crysta does. So on a long trip, where you are the one filling the tank, the Hycross costs less to run even though it costs more to hire.

If we are buying the fuel, on the per kilometre rate, this does not apply to you at all. Then it is purely about the car.

When the Crysta is the right car

• You are seven people. The Hycross seats six and a driver. The Crysta on the three seat middle row seats seven and a driver. There is no argument here, it is arithmetic.
• Serious luggage. With the third row in use, the Crysta boot takes more. A family of six with six suitcases is a Crysta job.
• Rough roads, village roads, unmade approaches. The Crysta is the more forgiving car when the surface stops being a surface, and it is what we send on Konkan interior routes and temple roads.
• Budget matters more than refinement. It is ₹500 a day less on the flat rate and ₹5 a kilometre less on the per kilometre rate.

When the Hycross is worth the extra

• Someone in the car gets travel sick. This is the single most common reason guests switch after their first trip. The hybrid is smoother and far quieter, and the middle row captain seats recline.
• A long expressway run. Mumbai to Goa, Mumbai to Ahmedabad, Mumbai to Statue of Unity. Hours of quiet add up.
• You are carrying someone you want to impress. A client, a senior colleague, in laws. It is the top specification car and it looks it.
• Children. Captain seats mean nobody is squeezed in the middle, and the sunroof buys you about an hour of peace.

What does not differ

The chauffeur, the rules and the paperwork are the same on both. Same driver allowance, same toll at actuals, same duty slip signed at the drop, same 300 kilometre a day minimum on the per kilometre rate, same written quotation before you pay anything. We do not run a better service on the dearer car.

So which do most people take?

For a family of five or six going a long way, the Hycross, and they usually stay with it. For seven people, a lot of luggage, or a tight budget, the Crysta, and they are not missing much. Both are genuinely comfortable cars. One is simply quieter and newer.

If you are still unsure, put your actual trip into the estimator. It prices both cars side by side on the same basis, so you can see the real difference on your route rather than a general one.

Written by

Siddhesh Rane

Siddhesh runs Konkan Central Car Rental Service in Andheri East with his brother Soham. The family has been driving people out of Mumbai since 1988, and he still takes the bookings himself. He is a Company Secretary and a lawyer by profession, which is why the quotations on this site say exactly what is included and exactly what is not. More about the family and the fleet.

More on each car: the Innova Hycross ZX Top and the Innova Crysta. Or see the full fleet.