Today Car has become a necessity for any family. Some buy it for Comfortability, some buy it for Show off, some buy it as status symbol and only some others buy it for real travel purpose. So Buying a "good" car is most important thing. May that be a new car or old, a sedan or hatchback, a small mistake in this process will make you suffer for years together including loss of your hard earned money.
So here are some of the Advice I can give on buying a car -
1) Use your brain -
Take a lots of time in Analyzing while buying a car. "Never buy a car blindly just because your friend loves it". Use your own brain and buy the car which you love.
2) Buying for your Need -
There are two different types of cars. I don’t mean SUV or Sedan. But I mean "New car" and "Used Car". If you are a first time buyer and don’t have car driving experience, its always advisable to buy a used car first. But if you are experienced in Car Driving, then buy a new car.
3) Car that suits you -
Never buy a car which doesn’t suit you. I have seen people buying a SUV where they only have 2 in a family and I have also seen people buying a Wagon R where all 4 in the family at Fat enough!
4) Budget -
This is the most important point which many commit mistakes. Buy a car which suits your budget. I have seen people buying Expensive new sedan, where they don’t even have own house to live. If you are Rich enough to buy anything, then that different story but if you belong to middle class family, then start buying a low cost car initially.
5) Chose the brand wisely -
Choose the Brand for the car wisely. Well primarily its actually personal interest including likeness, like some will love Honda cars and some Ford. But my advice is, buy cars which has factory in India because thats easy for any major servicing.
For instance, My friend recently bought a VW Polo and the car engine gave big trouble and then got ceased suddenly. since there is no VW factory in India, it took about over 4 months to get his car repaired.! My suggestion is to go for Hyundai, Ford, Maruti, Nissan and Tata. Even BMW is preferred because these have Factories in India for many yrs including well established and long running service centers.
6) Analysis on type of Car -
Well buy a car which suits your family. If you are family of 3, then a hatchback is enough, but if you family of 4 then a sedan is good to go like Verna or SX4. If you live in a place where the roads are rough/bad, chose a SUV like Duster and if you prefer to keep the car for over 10 yrs then do a future analysis and buy accordingly.
For instance, if currently you are a family of four and you buy a Hatch back say a Hyundai i10. After two year you get married. So its 4+1. So here comes the problem after 3 yrs where the family grows from 4 to 6(plus a child) and i10 is not enough. Then you may end buying an another i10. Then comes is the fuel problem, parking problem, finance problem and so on.
7) Analysis on best showroom -
Well if you have already purchased a car from a showroom and had good experience then go for the same showroom again. Because they will check their database and after they find that you are regular customer, they will give good response to you.
Otherwise, its better to do "Your own analysis" from places like Mouthshut and car based review websites.
The other way is, you can directly visit different showrooms just for knowing/understand how good they basically are. With this itself you can come to know which showroom is better. This takes some effort but its worth.
8) Choosing a Showroom/service station -
Choose the showroom which is closer to you. If you choose a Showroom which is far away from you, it will difficult for you in-case of future further regards with them.
The Most important is Service Station. Chose the station which is closer to you.
9) spend your own 100% -
I don’t mean the money here but I see many of us today buying new cars and bikes just because they trust their friends, colleagues, relatives and even TV ads. So just after acquiring trust from some unreliable source, they jump into showrooms and buy the car and then face the problems.
What I would say is, Go to showrooms personally all by yourself, Check the specifications yourself, Analyse yourself, Do you own test Drives and even read the review by own eyes at websites and then take own decisions.
For instance, we bought a Hyundai elantra 2 yrs ago. Many said its a bad car and won’t last at all. The reason they said that is because they personally don’t like it. But we did our own research and analysis and then purchased the car. and now its over about 3 yrs and our car is absolutely good and we are still satisfied 100%.
10) For buying used Cars -
Make sure you are buying the car from a reliable source.
Take your own well known car mechanic to test the used car before buying.
It is advisable to buy the car from a well known friends or relatives, because most of time our well knowns never cheat us.
Don’t buy expensive used cars like BMWs or new expensive Sedans. because if the car creates some kind of problems, you again have to spend a lot on it. also the Spares for Expensive cars are more costly.
It advisable NOT to buy brand new used cars. Like don’t buy cars which is just 6 months to max 1 yr old. Do a little thinking on why he is selling a brand new car! Who knows that the new car might be defective and irreparable.
In This Case the exceptions may be like - NRI who are planning to leave India, big Business men. Dont go with politicians, who know the car may be under some case!
Finally, before buying a car, make up your mind in such a ways that "You are buying a expensive product which costs in lakhs and not a inexpensive Trouser or shirt".