And it is here!
So the D-day dawns. The wait should be over today.
Flashback
April '06 - 4 months into living in Bangalore and life had come to be defined by "arguments with auto drivers". That is when I first realized the importance of owning a vehicle. It saved the 'lazy me' a lot of unnecessary auto to auto walk before finding one and still getting fleeced.
City traffic necessitated the owing of a second hand car at that time (and the financial situation). Buying a car, at that time, did not involve extensive research. I walked into a True Value showroom (had no predetermined notion on what and what not) looking at the various options and mentally calculating monthly outgo. I test drove only one car - a silver Zen and quite liked how small (can park anywhere including on the road in front of the house since there was no parking), easy to manoeuvre (have you seen the traffic), smooth it was. One test drive was enough for me and I was ready to buy it.
On hindsight (which happens to be 20/20 for me), I should have bargained more, got a lot more freebies, test driven a few more vehicles, gone to a few more showroooms and all the resultant running around and comparisons that would arise.
But, I have always gone more with the heart and not the brain. (On a completely different note, I do realize I have made tons of mistakes due to that, some of which, I am paying for till today, but overall it has stood me in good stead.) And so it was with the Zen. It has been 5 years that I have used the car, gone from 32k kms on the odo to now 86k (54k in 5, averaging 10k a year - the first few years used more by MX and for travels, the latter more for office to and fro). It has been the best decision of my life led by the heart (probably only good one, but that's for another post). It still averages around 14-15km/l, has broken down only once (when I put in stronger headlights and that screwed up the wiring), involved in 2 minor accidents (needing visits to the workshop), still has a steering wheel as smooth as butter and no major complaints. All in all, an amazing buy and a lot of it, I guess, is a testimony to the original owner (a certain Mr VV, who I have never bothered to track, but had kept the car like I would have wanted to keep it).
It has done numerous trips across the whole of South India, traveled to 3 states in this part of the country, seen me move 3 houses in Bangalore and an equal number of people.
Present
But, 5 years down, I finally realized, I should move on (as I seem to have in various other facets of life). And the itch to get a new car finally saw me going for a detailed research plan (learning from previous experience), shortlisting options and doing test drives. For a change I went from dealer to dealer, looking for the best product and offer, played one against the other and finally have agreed on the SX4.
The other options were the Verna Transform (would have gone for it but they had put in some ugly brown seat covers and charging 40k extra for it), the Vento (VW, how could you put out a car without basic features as Aux input) and the Manza (didn't bother). The City and Linea being out of the budget.
Will have a follow up on the car buying experience and the new car. Today is "new car day"!
Flashback
April '06 - 4 months into living in Bangalore and life had come to be defined by "arguments with auto drivers". That is when I first realized the importance of owning a vehicle. It saved the 'lazy me' a lot of unnecessary auto to auto walk before finding one and still getting fleeced.
City traffic necessitated the owing of a second hand car at that time (and the financial situation). Buying a car, at that time, did not involve extensive research. I walked into a True Value showroom (had no predetermined notion on what and what not) looking at the various options and mentally calculating monthly outgo. I test drove only one car - a silver Zen and quite liked how small (can park anywhere including on the road in front of the house since there was no parking), easy to manoeuvre (have you seen the traffic), smooth it was. One test drive was enough for me and I was ready to buy it.On hindsight (which happens to be 20/20 for me), I should have bargained more, got a lot more freebies, test driven a few more vehicles, gone to a few more showroooms and all the resultant running around and comparisons that would arise.
But, I have always gone more with the heart and not the brain. (On a completely different note, I do realize I have made tons of mistakes due to that, some of which, I am paying for till today, but overall it has stood me in good stead.) And so it was with the Zen. It has been 5 years that I have used the car, gone from 32k kms on the odo to now 86k (54k in 5, averaging 10k a year - the first few years used more by MX and for travels, the latter more for office to and fro). It has been the best decision of my life led by the heart (probably only good one, but that's for another post). It still averages around 14-15km/l, has broken down only once (when I put in stronger headlights and that screwed up the wiring), involved in 2 minor accidents (needing visits to the workshop), still has a steering wheel as smooth as butter and no major complaints. All in all, an amazing buy and a lot of it, I guess, is a testimony to the original owner (a certain Mr VV, who I have never bothered to track, but had kept the car like I would have wanted to keep it).
It has done numerous trips across the whole of South India, traveled to 3 states in this part of the country, seen me move 3 houses in Bangalore and an equal number of people.
Present
But, 5 years down, I finally realized, I should move on (as I seem to have in various other facets of life). And the itch to get a new car finally saw me going for a detailed research plan (learning from previous experience), shortlisting options and doing test drives. For a change I went from dealer to dealer, looking for the best product and offer, played one against the other and finally have agreed on the SX4.
The other options were the Verna Transform (would have gone for it but they had put in some ugly brown seat covers and charging 40k extra for it), the Vento (VW, how could you put out a car without basic features as Aux input) and the Manza (didn't bother). The City and Linea being out of the budget.
Will have a follow up on the car buying experience and the new car. Today is "new car day"!
Comments
Post a Comment