Buying My First Car Need Suggestions

😳 10L me SUV , mujhe bhi apna budget 30L se 10L karna padega.

Btw, if i were you, i would have chosen TATA (though never held one)

Tata after service didn’t hear a good feedback.

Between swift and Altroz overall winner is Swift, considering after service and resale value and other factors.

Have swift 2009 model even if I sell today or after 2 years it’s easily going to fetch 1.50 to 1.75 lacs. But all the peer cars won’t even fetch 1 lacs with similar condition

Altroz has more features and value for money though

Owning a car is real pain until you make full use of it.

Ownership cost alone per month for cars below 10 lacs is minimum 7K

if choose maruti then baleno,brezza,swift are options

ford ecosport also good

Check Ertiga

Get Altroz DCA. 

Suggestion based on below assumptions 

1. You will keep car longer let say 5+ years 

2. Safety is important 

3. Comfort is important

4. MIlage is secondary as compared to Comfort and Safety.

Buy automatic, rest is secondary.

Swift is not a good option if you consider safety ratings. Of late, people fancy travelling on highways quite a lot for road trips and vacations and safety ratings matter a lot! The new age Marutis are different though - Baleno 2022 has a very good safety rating. So consider a Baleno instead.

Having owned Hyundai cars over 15 years and now moved to Tata, I can personally say fit, refinement, finish is pathetic in Tata vehicles compared to Hyundai. Also, after sales is pathetic.

If automatica, Tata Altroz has an upper edge over both Swift and Baleno which sport an AMT engine that’s way more inferior as compared to DCT on Altroz.

Though AMTs have come a long way, the new age AMT engines are only good in lower gears and in traffic. Once you rev up, you see the lag, stutter and offer a bit jerky gear shifts as compared to DCT or CVT.

Overall my suggestions would be Baleno for manual and Altroz for automatic.

For flooded city roads, Punch will be a better option if Manual transmission is required over Altroz and Swift/Baleno

You need to tell your requirements for appropriate suggestions.

For example, monthly running in kms, maximum budget, road and driving conditions, city or highway, who all will be driving, traffic status if mainly for city, parking/charging facilities (in case of EV), etc.

Only after knowing all these details can one give a proper suggestion.

Without knowing any of the above, my picks would be Brezza/Baleno from Maruti, Punch/Altroz from Tata. If need an automatic for a tight budget, it might make sense to go for Tiago EV, if the running is going to be a lot but not many long trips.

There can be 20 good picks in that budget of 10 lakh, but the most appropriate one will differ for everybody depending on individual requirements.

Get a citreon c3 test drive before you decide on rest.

As a Car enthusiast, having tested owned and driven 100s of cars including sports cars and on track, I will tell u the following

1. Please do urself a favor and as a 1st car go for a used car which is minimum 4/5 star rated. 

Why used ? : u get a highly depreciated car, at half price, and a car is not a mobile phone to have new tech each year, same engines are being used from last 15 years, whatever feature is missing can be added. Also how much running is expected?

Which brands to go for in used? 
Maruti (only brezza, coz 4 star), Honda, Toyota. U can get Volkswagen and skodas on the cheap as well but beware of the parts and maintenance costs. Japanese cars are very reliable and last literally lacs and lacs of kms, so a car that has run say 50k kms, has HUGE life still left in it. One more advantage of getting a used car is u can get one with a sequential CNG fitted as well. 

Cars u shud aim for

a. Honda city ivtec - ultimate in driving. comfort, status, reliability and tech, one of the rare cars that does 0-100 under 10 secs without any mods, an engine that revs till 7-8k rpm, drives soundlessly when u want and roars like a tiger when u want, comes in auto and paddleshifters as well , feels like Heaven, closest thing to a sports car, as u can get. U can find many with cng fitted. The diesel idtec is not the same, go for it only for mileage

Honda is the biggest mfg of engines in the world, it makes engines as small as lawn mowers to as big as aircraft and they are even f1 champs
not just quantity, they make the MOST reliable engines, and powerful as well, the 1.5 litre ivtec is one of the best engines ever, and it is said that not a single vtec has failed yet

b. Honda Civic - The ulimate dream car of many, but considering honda city satisfies all needs and has better resale value, not much advantages here

c.  Toyota Corolla Altis : U get a D segment car in the budget of A segment, need  I say more? More Comfort than sporty

d. Amaze/ Jazz/ WRV - Good reliable cars, but come with only 1 .2 litre engine

e. Etios Cross- A 5 star toyota that looks good, might not have good resale value, same with brv/ mobilio

f. Brezza- Good car but might be costly

g. Polo/ tsi/ tdi/ vento/ rapid : go for these if u r prepared to pay maybe a higher maintenance, if u are an enthu go for tsi/ tdi

h. Ciaz- another rare 4 star rated car by maruti

2. As its ur first car, go for a manual, learn it and enjoy it

Which shape to go for? Sedan is the best shape for a car in all aspects, followed by hatchbacks, I know nowadays SUVs are in fashion, but hey guess what, non of those are actually suvs, they are raised hatchbacks

3. SInce I expect u might say hey, i wanna go for a new one, i will answer that as well
Again here, min req is 4-5 star safety, and reliability, which brands to go for? Honda, Toyota, Tata, Maruti ( only 5 star models) 

Also in this budget u can try for TIAGO EV

Considering budget, only 4-5 star tatas are in this range, the new baleno and citroen c3 has not been tested yet

There are 3 options to choose from , the Nexon, Altroz and Punch, all 3 are good, the Nexon being most powerful with the Turbo engine

The altroz is a gem of a car , but u get a non turbo 3 cyl engine, same with punch, the punch base or mid variant with rythm pack is very pocket friendly as well , around 7.5 lacs on road

I suggest u go to a good tata showroom and test drive all 4, and if u do end up buying , go for their extended warranty package 

In fact go out and test as many cars as possible, both used new even lesser and over budget, call em for td, and ask em to drive if u not comfy, do check spinny as well

pls note,even though the magnite, kiger are in ur budget i have avoided them due to unreliable dealerships, and less powerful engines

Many people saying tata here,i was thinking of Nexon booked punch,for refund of punch car i saw their service and decided not to go for tata.

I won't suggest Swift,but new Baleno is lot better in terms of safety when compared to Swift ,you can consider brezza too.If you can stretch budget Nexon diesel is good, venue SX+ diesel is an excellent option(9.99 exshowroom).Car should not only save you in an accident it should be able to prevent them,like not stop in highway,or stop in the middle of nowhere

If you are buying pseudo/SUV  or any car for that matter,make sure you have ESC . Even though Nexon has ESC we still see a lot of rollovers due to it high ground clearance (it's bad for stability as its Centre of gravity will be lot higher from the ground)

my advise less than 1200 cc and less than 4 meters just to save big taxes

and if your normal use is low then Electric ?