Buying Your First Car in India - The decision making process

During the first 6 months after coming to India, I really didn't see a need to buy a car because all my needs were met with the available public transportation and the taxi services available in Chennai, India.  My office provided me a cab service so commute to work was easy.  However, there were at times I couldn't book a taxi when I needed it because the app server was busy or down.  In the last few weeks before I finally decided to buy a car the taxi hailing app experience went down sharply.

When the time came to buy my own car here in India, I went to a lot of showrooms and test drove a lot of cars.  And that's also how I learnt to sharpen my driving skills in India.

Here is my decision making process:

• I listed down my needs for the car - basically when/where I would take my car out.
• I did some online research and jotted down the cars in range with the features I'm looking for.
• Prepared a top 5 list and went to one showroom every weekend to test drive them.
• Prepared an excel sheet with what I liked and disliked in each car model.
• Discussed the models I liked with others in my family and colleagues to get some inputs but took their suggestions with a grain of salt.

List of features I was looking in my car:

• I wanted to buy a car with mechanical transmission because I didn't know how to drive one and it's an opportunity to learn it.  Second, it costs a lac lesser than the one with automatic transmission.  Third, what if I have to drive a manual car one day and I don't know how to drive it because 99% of the cars in India have manual transmission, including the cars owned by my close relatives.  Looking back, that's the biggest mistake I have done in my car purchase process.  I'll explain why later in this blog.
• The reason I had to buy a car was for city commute with my family during the weekends for movie, beach, restaurants and for some errands during the weekdays.  So decided go with Petrol version than the Diesel version.  Also the maintenance cost for a petrol car is much lesser than a diesel car.
• I was looking for a car manufacturer with best quality of after-sale service.  Based on my discussion with several car owners, Mauriti Suzuki, Toyota, and Honda stood top on the list.  No wonder Japanese cars hog the world's top selling cars list.
• I was not willing to compromise on the bare minimum safety features like front dual-air bags and ABS.

My shortlisted cars and test drive experience:

1) Mauriti Swift and Swift Dzire:  Liked: power of the car, sturdy steering with precision control over the car, quality of the make, Mauriti service network.  Disliked: Insufficient legroom both front and back (I'm six feet tall), and the overall seat comfort.

2) Toyota Etios and Etios Liva:  Liked: Toyota service, suspension(awesome), legroom.  Disliked: Cheap parts used to make the car that's obvious esp. doors, dashboard, thin metal sheets, single windshield wiper that too with hardly any power to wipe off water when it pours heavily.  I hate this car and Toyota for having such a bad notion about Indian consumers.  Indian consumers look for a quality product at a cheap price but not a cheap product at a cheap price.  No wonder this car failed to sell in the market.

3) Hyundai I20:  Liked: Interior and refined finish, smooth gear shifts, legroom.  Disliked: Engine lacks power, not so much fun to drive, steering is not sturdy and lacks the control at high speeds, last but not the least horrible stories about the Hyundai service centers - consistently every Hyundai car owner I enquired said the same.

4) Mauriti Baleno Hatchback:  Liked:  Legroom, smooth gear shifts, powerful engine and steering control, safety features for that price point, Mauriti service network.  Disliked: Interior was cheap, seats were of very poor quality, suspension problems report heavily on several online customer review.  Given that this was the first gen car in this model, I didn't want to take any chance.

5) Honda Jazz:  Liked: Legroom, huge cabin space, visibility, quality car seats, boot space, international model (sold as Honda Fit in Americas), dashboard, Interior, quality finish.  Disliked: pathetically engine power at low RPM's, which makes the Honda Fit un-Fit for city driving speeds.  You cannot imagine to over take any cars on the road, if you wish to.

6) Honda City: Liked: Everything.  It's a premium model, semi-luxury car. Disliked: Nothing, may be the price, the government fees and additional tax on >10L cars.  Otherwise I would have gone for the automatic transmission on this model.  It's relatively a narrow car unlike Honda Accord, so the size of the car was never an issue for me to drive.

Final Decision:

Based on the analysis, test drive, budget and my taste for driving, I decided to opt between Mauriti Baleno, and Honda City.  Having driven full-size sedans like Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima, it was hard for me to settle for something like Mauriti WagonR, Mauriti Swift.  Also, consistently all cars in the 7 Lacs range were made with sub-standard quality products and compromised safety features like airbags, ABS, heavy duty body-frame.  So finally I decided to go with the Honda City.  I got the car delivered in just couple of weeks after booking.

I loved Honda cars in general(I owned a Honda Accord in the US) for its power and the Japanese quality of workmanship, so I decided to buy a Honda City, a quite popular and successful model in the Indian (also Asian) markets.

3 Month Ownership Experience:

At the time of writing this blog, it's been 3 months since I bought my Honda City.  So far I have been enjoying it.  It's a no-brainer to buy this car.  No complaints at all.  I'm glad that I bought what I bought.

The only buyer's remorse I have is not with the car but with my decision to buy a manual transmission car.  Looking back I think I should have bought Honda City with an automatic transmission.  It is so much painful to drive a manual transmission car in slow moving, stop-n-go Chennai city traffic.  For every few feet, I have to press the clutch and shift the gears.  Sometime when you have to literally roll your car at 3-5 kmph in a very slow moving bumper-2-bumper traffic with half clutch pressed in the second gear, my knees and ankle cry for rest after becoming so numb.  I wish I had bought an automatic transmission even if the SV model with automatic transmission cost 2 Lacs extra.  It's worth every penny of it.  May be I'll get accustomed to it in the long run, I donno.

What would be my next car ?

In just a month after buying the car, I learnt the art of driving a manual transmission car, including on the steep slopes and rough bumpy terrains - the very reason I bought a manual stick-shift car.  My next car definitely will be a one with an automatic transmission, for sure.  It's so much fun and peace of mind to drive an automatic transmission car.  It'll be a 7-seater SUV too.