How to choose the Winner?. Review on General Tips on Buying a Car

Deciding to buy a car is a BIG BIG event for most Indians. A car is a DREAM come true for most middle class families and therefore PLAN well, study reviews, ask friends and relatives and DECIDE.

There is no single formula for choosing a car. If it was so we would all be seeing only one type of car on the streets. But the car that suits you best depends on various factors. The most important being your BUDGET. In this review I will explain the steps that I used to decide on the car to purchase.

WHICH SEGMENT?*

The first step is to decide the segment. As I mentioned this will depend on 3 factors.

1. Your Budget.

   
   




2. Is it a second car?

   
   




3. The family member who may use it.

   
   

Of course for most Indians the Budget will be the most important factor. You may want a Merc but if your budget is between 3 to 4 lacs then drop the thought of Merc and settle for a B-segment car. However you may have a big budget, but may still consider a B or C segment car if you are fussy about using your prized Merc in the jostling Indian road and want a cheaper car for daily use or want you son or daughter to start their driving.

Selecting the segment is the first and most important step.

My budget was between 3 to 4.5 lacs and so I settled for the B-segment.

The rest of the review will consider cars from the B-Segment

WHAT YOU WILL USE YOUR CAR FOR?*

Will you be primarily using it for city driving?

Will you be driving outstations more often?

Is your place of work far from home, say 100 kms.?

Will you be using the car daily or only on weekend and holidays?

In my case I normally take the train to office and would use the car on weekends, holidays or for a family outing. Most of my travel would be in Mumbai city and would be less than 30 to 40 kms. Since my usage would be less mileage was not a consideration. I needed a car that would make city driving comfortable. Easy parking was paramount in my consideration.

I shortlisted 4 cars - Santro Xing, Fiat Palio, Wagon R and Zen

All these cars met the above criteria. However in most reviews that I read Xing was given the reputation of being a city car with ease of parking. So I gave a weightage of 9 points to Xing and 8 points to the other cars.

WHAT ABOUT INTERIOR SPACE?*

Are you tall?

Is your family big?

Do you drive with more members?

Do you often have to drive to airport or railway station and therefore need luggage space?

The tall design of Xing and Wagon R is ideally suited for tall people. I found getting in and out of Zen quite difficult. Most of the time I would use my car accompanied by my wife. So on this count my weightage was 8 points to Xing and Wagon R, 7 points to Palio and 5 points to Zen.

WHAT COMFORTS AND CONVENIENCE YOU CONSIDER?*

In this area all cars have versions that carry similar features. Power steering was important for city driving and parking. Of course all cars have AirConditioner. Power window and central locking was another convenient feature that I looked at. Smooth drive, strong AC effect, less noisy I considered would make the drive comfortable. In this score Palio, Xing and Wagon R all were winners. Weightage - 9 points to Palio, 8 points to Xing and Wagon R and 7 points to Zen.

BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER*

Well we can't forget the looks. Ultimately people buy cars according to their looks. How one finds looks is personal. When Santro was first introduced in India people thought it looked like an upgraded autorickshaw. The Xing is more refined and classy to look. In my opinion Palio has the best looks followed by Xing, Zen and Wagon R. This is my personal taste and all may not agree. Weightage - 7 points to Palio, 6 points to Xing, 5 points to Zen and 2 points to Wagon R(sorry Maruti!)

ONE SHOULD NOT FORGET SERVICE*

Well if you are staying in major cities service may not be a problem. All the 4 brands have good service in Mumbai. But if you are in a smaller town then check this very important factor. Maruti(Wagon R & Zen) score on this point with better service network. Hyundai also has a wide service network atleast in major cities. As for me I felt I would not have much problem with Hyundai's service and with their mobile support it was the best thing I could ask for. So 8 points to Wagon R, Zen and Xing and 6 points to Palio.

GENERAL PERCEPTION*

What is the general car buyer's perception of the various brands. Total sales figure is one such indicator. Friends and relative owning the cars is another indicator. Among the 4 cars that I listed Santro has the highest sales followed by Zen. Reviews on websites has rated Xing, Palio and Wagon R very highly. General perception has been in favour of Xing and Zen, less favourable towards Palio because of the past experience with Fiat's unstable stance. Weightage - 8 points to Xing and Zen, 6 points to Palio and 5 points to Wagon R.

YOUR PERSONAL PERCEPTION*

Of course there is something called gut feeling. After doing all this study my shortlisting finally was only Xing and Palio. But since I already owned a Fiat Premier Padmini I was little apprehensive of considering another Fiat product. I wanted to try a different brand.

FINALLY ANALYSIS*

After narrowing down to B-segment and shortlisting to 4 cars and rating them under different factors it was now time to do an analysis. So first I totalled the weightage assigned to each car. The result was as follows -

Xing - 47 points

Palio - 43 points

Wagon R - 39 points

Zen - 41 points

The clear leaders were Santro Xing and Palio. In my rating the Xing scored a 4 point lead. In the final analysis I choose the Xing. What if Palio also achieved a rating of 47 points. Then the price factor would come into play. I would still opt for Xing because it is cheaper than Palio for the car with identical features.

I hope I was able to present a proper perspective of choosing a car with my personal real life experience. All those planning to buy a car would help if you sat down, jotted the factors that matter to you and start RATING.