Hot take: "Road presence" does matter while choosing a car
I've seen many people say that you shouldn't care about road presence and that may be true in civilized countries but doesn't being in a vehicle with good road presence offer certain benefits in a lawless chaotic country like ours where people have zero regard for rules and no basic courtesy to others on the road and the only thing that actually matters is power?
What I mean is, if you're in a Fortuner as opposed to something like an Alto, don't you get more "road respect"? As in others not trying to bully you and push you out of your lane, not cutting you off as much, giving you way more easily, etc?
And also wouldn't you be subjected to less harassment? Both actual harassment like a two-wheeler guy banging on your car, yelling insults, trying to beat you up, etc and mild harassment like a cab honking from behind non-stop because you slowed down for 2 seconds to let a pedestrian cross the road?
Being on the road already sucks in our country due to things like the examples I mentioned above, the terrible infrastructure, and countless other reasons. If one wants to have a slightly less shitty experience by at least driving a car with good road presence, that seems absolutely valid and logical to me.
Btw I've never driven a Fortuner and this post is based entirely on my assumptions. Would love to know what your experiences have been.