Dear friends
First step is to categorise yourselves into the segments of car you wish to purchase . for eg. 2-3 lakhs, 3-4 lakhs etc. Write down all the models available in this category and start elimination. Like you are a 4-5 lakhs category customer. then you have santro, icon, versa, palio, swift, indica, etc in your bracket. Then eliminate them according to your preferences of social acceptablity(eg. I dont want to buy a palio.no one seems to have one), fuel(eliminating petrol will leave you only one option indica) Monthly mileage(diesel makes sense if you do more than 1800-2000 km/month) features(eg. icon sucks.no powerwindow etc.) Your taste( eg. wow.that swift looks kool and fresh of the lot) driver( who cares for sluggish power of indica.my driver will take care of it.) etc etc.
The motive is to eliminate the choices. Dont forget to enter all available models of a particular car like elx, gls, slx etc since they may also be your prospective choices.
If you are going to avail finance for the car, keep in mind that besides EMI, you will also have to afford the monthly fuel expenses which may range from min 5000 to 10000. 2000 kms in amonth on petrol will costs you 6000 to 8000 Rs. similarly, diesel will cost you 5000 rs. in hatchback to 8000 rs. in a SUV like scorpio.
There are few things more to keep in mind.
Power figures: They may be very misleading from a mfg to other. 90 bhp @ 6000 RPM will surprisingly feel sluggish or at par with 75 bhp@ 4000 RPM. Not going too technical, I prefer 60-80 bhp @ <5000 RPM. 2500-4000 RPM is the range while you drive most of the times.
Power steering: Choose a car with PS only if it is ELECTRONIC! Hydraulic PS as in fords are worse than non-PS cars.
ABS/ EBD: these are features which come usually in the uppermost models only. You wear seatbelt in the city coz its mandatory, not on highway. Why wear seatbelts when you cant cruise beyond 40 km/hr! Moral: why ABS / EBD if you dont travel on Mum-Pune exp highway daily.
Resale: personally I hate ppl who contemplate about the resale value of a car even before buying it. You are here to get a new car and lo! you started thinking of its sale after 2-3 years. Its not foresightedness.its blindness.
I think this should help buying a car. Feel free to ask que. on agrawal.anuj@gmail.com
Cheers for your new dream car!
Anuj