I have always dreamt about buying a car from my school days. I haven’t spent my time playing with car toys, but whenever I see or hear some conversation about cars, my attention goes towards this four wheel monster. Though I have liked different cars during different periods of time, I have never lost my interest in owning a car. These are the cars that were in my wish list for a longer period of time:
- Contessa – Hindustan Motors
- Esteem – Maruti Suzuki
- Matiz – Daewoo
- Jazz – Honda
- Baleno – Maruti Suzuki
- Compass – Jeep
- Creta – Hyundai
- Seltos – KIA
Not all of these are premium ones. My interests/likings have varied over a period of time which is visible in the wish list. With all said, I own a “Huyndai – XCent” petrol model car bought in 2015. There were various options in my purchase list, however I had left the decision making to my Dad and his choice was XCent.
Topic says Dream Car and am I doing justice to this topic with a purchase of Hyundai XCent ? Read further and understand what I am trying to convey.
Purchasing a four wheeler in India is a “TRAP”.
Automobile sector has evolved like any other business model. It has its own up’s and down’s, but the consumers/”pride owners” are always ready to fall in this trap. I call this a trap because:
- Most of the car manufacturers have entered Indian market not to do any kind of social service. They have their own benefits (Hidden/Visible), but the advertisements connect with your emotions and make you think of purchasing a car.
- Financial sector (Banks, NBFC’s) targets the middle/upper-middle class families in India and put them in a trap with their “Attractive loan schemes”.
- Even if you are stubborn with the attractions from advertisements and financial sectors, the next trap arises from your immediate family/friends circle. Either they have bought a car with #2 or talk to you in terms of applying a car loan. This is the next trap.
- Your status in the society, family/friends circle will be under an impression that you are earning great, but never want to spend money for car. “Luxury” slowly takes transition and moves to “Necessity”.
- You have slowly fallen in to the trap wherein you would have started comparing the advantages of petrol and diesel models.
- Government officials might have already got the details about middle/upper-middle class discussing this trap. Slowly they would have started increasing petrol and diesel prices proportionately.
- You would have already started accumulating your “initial investment” for this liability. Adding to this there would be festive offers, year end sales, stock clearance that would have disturbed your sleep.
- You would have prepared a budget of 3 lacs and would have started searching for models starting from 7 to 8 lacs. This attracts loan.
- You will apply for a loan, transfer your savings and book a car to pose for a pride car owner and wait for it to deliver. (What an advantage for the manufacturers! You are paying your money, borrowed money with high interest rate and they take this as a prepaid order).
- Yes. Finally, you have fallen in the “TRAP” and the journey begins ….
When the journey starts be prepared for these:
- All good roads are maintained with the collections received from the Toll plaza.
- Fluctuations in fuel price, but when you take a long term view the price has always been rising.
- Parking fee, reserved space for four wheeler, move to the allocated space (with additional fuel spent for the drive).
- GST for Fuel, accessories, services
- Transfer your savings account amount to FastTag account and lose your interest. (In the meantime, you are giving away your hard earned money without any interest to these FastTag accounts).
- Insurance for your so called “Depreciating Asset” ==> “For me it is a Liability “.
- Additional waiting time in the traffic for owning a car and driving it alone. Advantage is you get to listen to your favourite music.
- With the luxury always think about going to a place in Ola/Uber cabs. You convince yourself with a saying that “Time saved”.
My personal opinion:
Car can be thought of as an asset only when the purchase price comes down to “Cheaper”.