Buying a car???. Review on General Tips on Buying a Car

I know it’s a very daunting task. Unlike their western counterparts, a typical middle class Indian doesn't buy a car every two years, so careful planning goes into the'execution' of the task of buying a new car, which in many cases is a'dream come true' for them.

What car to buy

Frankly, you should be bit practical when you ask yourself this question, need for speed, comfort, ease of maintenance and after sales, cost of the car (Which is basically your budget) and looks are the most considered factors. But like in real life, its extremely difficult to get all in one, you need to make some sacrifices. But if you get your needs or 'specifications' right, and prioritize them, it becomes quite a easy task really. Most of the middle class of course prefer the mid-size ones instead of the big sedans, so I will use the Santros and Indicas and Palios as example.

Evaluation

After deciding that you really need to go for a car, and setting aside a budget for the same, the next most important phase would be the Evaluation. Assuming that you are going for a mid-sized car, you need to look at various manufactures, the type of engine (What I mean by this is whether to go for Petrol or Diesel), the features you are looking for and construct a matrix.

For example, the ex-showroom price(Chennai) of Hyundai Santro LP is around 3.6 Lakh where as the Tata Indica(Petrol) LSi comes to about 3.54 Lakh. Now, you get more in Indica, you get a rear spoiler, more powerful and of course better looking. But in the mileage(fuel consumption) department it falters. Now what about Palio, the base model of Palio EL 1.2(Anniversary edition) comes for around 3.79 Lakh, the performance of this one is similar to Indica, but what about the features. The base Palio doesn’t come with a power steering where as Indica does, and the Palio with around 1080 KG's is heavier then Indica. Tata Indica and Palio(The models am discussing) also comes with body color bumpers and internally adjustable rear mirrors which is missing in the Hyundai baby, whose main advantage is the fuel consumption again. Now am confused.

Advanced and familiar customers could even go for advanced details like the BHP and Torque, like which has got more Torque while in low RPM, you will realize that Palio and Indica are better in this front.

Talk to your friends owning the same make of car and get their opinion, first hand experience is always better then an auto-review:-). They may have different opinions. See what shape their car is in and what kind of service they are getting from the manufacturer.

Test Drive

After preparing a matrix, probably the next thing you should do would be to take a test drive. If you are learning to drive, you could ask one of your close friend to test drive for you. You get a feel when you are in the car and you can look at the subtle things like the interiors, the seat upholstery and general aesthetics of the design and the space. Now in my example, Palio is more mature then Indica in this respect, but certainly, lots of improvements have happened in the New Indica V2, the interiors are pleasant and attractive. Most often, this is the phase when you truly fall in love with a car. This is an opportunity to see all the colors available for the model of your choice, and believe me, it also matters. You can also decide on a color if you have not done it yet. Finally, you know the'one' when you sit in it, its a made for each other scenario.

Bargaining?

Now you must have almost zeroed down on one car, but its essential that you still see what else you may get. Most of the dealers have some schemes floating around, and you wont get if you don’t ask. In Chennai Hyundai Santro (Dealer: Hyundai Motor Plaza) throws in a Free car stereo and a floor mat and 2000 bucks discount, but I know there are guys who got more then that. Indica (Dealer: Concorde Motors) gives a normal 3000 Rs of Accessories package and you will get more if you push for it. You can get a further discount on accessories separately.

Things that are essential

While getting the car that you at least include Sun control film, Under-chassis painting * and *Teflon coating in the invoice and demand a discount. Most of them comes with 1-2 years warranty and these three stuff are essential. Go for a medium range security system like Cobra or Autocop, with central locking, reverse horn and motion and sound sensors, its needed in big cities.

Put all these stuff together and request the sales guy for a good bargain, push hard for couple of days and you are bound to get it and voila, you got your dream car.

Hope that this was useful.

Peace

Ranjith