The Brezza Still Has No Diesel. The Nexon Does

The Maruti Suzuki Brezza starts at ₹7.49 lakh and the Tata Nexon at ₹7.4 lakh, ex-showroom, so on paper India’s two best-selling compact SUVs look like twins. They aren’t. The Brezza facelift still doesn’t offer a diesel engine at any price, and real autonomous emergency braking exists on exactly one Nexon variant, not the Brezza at all.

Both are 5-star rated under Bharat NCAP and sell a turbo-petrol and a CNG version, and both get cross-shopped by the same buyer walking into a Nexa and a Tata showroom the same afternoon. Here is where the real gaps between them sit, using current ex-showroom prices and The Spec’d’s own on-road figures for Mumbai.

Starting Price and On-Road Cost in Mumbai

The entry trims land within ₹6,000 of each other, both on the base petrol manual. On The Spec’d’s Brezza on-road price page and Nexon on-road price page, Mumbai insurance actually runs higher on the Nexon despite its lower ex-showroom price.

Both figures are estimates that include RTO road tax, insurance and FASTag, and both move with your state and insurer, so confirm the final number with your dealer before booking.

Which Variant Is Actually Worth Buying

Skip the base trims on both. The Spec’d’s Brezza page flags the ZXi Turbo Petrol MT at ₹9.95 lakh as the best-value pick, ₹2.45 lakh over the cheapest Brezza, and it earns that tag honestly: electric sunroof, LED projector headlamps, cruise control, wireless charging and blind-spot warning, all with the stronger 110 PS turbo engine instead of the old 1.5 NA.

The Nexon doesn’t flag a value pick, but the closest match is the Creative Petrol MT at ₹10.17 lakh, ₹2.77 lakh over its cheapest trim, adding a 360-degree camera, 16-inch alloys and automatic climate control, though it skips the sunroof the Brezza already has for less. Want autonomous emergency braking specifically? That only arrives on the range-topping Fearless+ A PS Petrol DCA at ₹13.77 lakh, a jump most Nexon buyers never make.

Safety: Two 5-Star Cars, Different Years and Different Tech

The Nexon was Bharat NCAP tested in 2024 and the facelifted Brezza in 2026, both scoring 5 stars for adults and children, with 6 airbags standard on every variant of both cars. They split on driver-assist tech. The Nexon carries a Level 1 ADAS bundle, blind-spot monitoring, front parking sensors and adaptive cruise, on its mid-to-upper trims, with genuine autonomous emergency braking only on the top Fearless+ A PS Petrol DCA. The Brezza’s equivalent tops out at blind-spot warning on the ZXi Turbo and above, with no braking intervention on any trim.

Running Costs: Petrol, CNG and the Nexon’s Diesel Option

These are claimed ARAI figures, not tested real-world numbers. The Spec’d hasn’t tested either car, and no independent real-world test of the Brezza’s new turbo engine has been published yet, so expect less in city traffic with the AC running.

Worked out at ₹100 a litre of petrol, ₹90 a litre of diesel and ₹80 a kg of CNG, per The Spec’d’s Brezza mileage page and Nexon mileage page. On petrol, the Brezza’s 1.5 NA is genuinely cheaper to run than the Nexon’s 1.2 turbo. But nothing the Brezza sells beats the Nexon’s diesel AMT, and if you cover big monthly highway distances for work, that’s the one real reason to cross the Brezza off entirely.

CNG Buyers: Which One Actually Costs Less

Maruti Suzuki sells the Brezza’s CNG kit across LXi, VXi and ZXi trims from ₹9.4 lakh, with a 55-litre factory cylinder mounted underbody, so boot space stays untouched. Tata’s CNG Nexon starts cheaper at ₹8.35 lakh, but its twin cylinders cut usable boot space to 321 litres, a real loss from the Nexon petrol’s own 382 litres. If boot space with the gas kit fitted matters more than the extra ₹1.05 lakh, the Brezza CNG is the better buy.

Buy the Brezza if you want the cheaper-to-run petrol, a sunroof at a lower price, and don’t care about autonomous braking. Buy the Nexon if you actually want a diesel, a bigger boot, or are willing to pay ₹13.77 lakh for real AEB. Neither car is wrong, but they aren’t actually interchangeable the way their starting prices suggest.

Cross-shopping either against the segment? See every other compact SUV on sale in India, or put the Brezza and Nexon side by side spec-for-spec on The Spec’d’s Brezza vs Nexon comparison tool.

Does the Maruti Brezza come with a diesel engine?

No. The 2026 facelift sells only two petrol engines, a 1.0L turbo and a 1.5L naturally aspirated unit, plus CNG. Maruti Suzuki hasn’t offered a diesel Brezza since 2020. The Tata Nexon is the one with a diesel option, a 1.5L unit making 115 to 116 PS depending on the transmission.

Which has better safety features, the Brezza or the Nexon?

Both score 5 stars on Bharat NCAP with 6 standard airbags. The Nexon goes further on driver-assist tech, with a Level 1 ADAS bundle on its mid-to-upper trims and autonomous emergency braking on its range-topping Fearless+ A PS Petrol DCA at ₹13.77 lakh. The Brezza’s top safety feature below that is blind-spot warning, with no trim offering automatic braking.

Is the Brezza or Nexon cheaper to run on CNG?

The Brezza CNG claims 26.90 km/kg against the Nexon CNG’s 24 km/kg, which works out to about ₹2,970 against ₹3,330 per 1,000 km on The Spec’d’s running-cost estimates. The Nexon CNG starts ₹1.05 lakh cheaper, but its twin-cylinder setup eats more boot space than the Brezza’s underbody tank.