What to consider when buying a new car ?Car Buying Tips

Here, i have prepared approximately all the points which will  help you and give you a complete guide to buy the best car for yourself:

Naturally, we had to think about every possible thing. So, here goes what I’d like to call ‘most of the list’:

Exterior Design

Yes, that matters. And this is also subjective because tastes vary. You may not like what I like and vice-versa. But I’d recommend you stick to what you like. Friends/family can always have their say, but it’s you who’s putting in the bucks.

What’s more important is the fit and finish, build integrity of the car. Every manufacturer strives hard to make the car look good on their websites and marketing material. Take a long good look of the car when you test drive - observe the stance, tap on the bumpers, door panels, etc so that you get a ‘feel’ of the build.

Interior Design

Sometimes cars look really good on the outside but disappoint you on the inside. Again, it’s not just about looks. It’s also about the fit and quality of material. Be fair to your budget and check if you’re okay with the plastic on the dash, buttons, fabric, etc.

Safety

Ah. Sensitive topic. I’d like to categorize ‘safety’ into two different types. My categorization differs from the regular generalization.

Native Safety

Native safety basically takes into count the structural integrity of the car. Better question is - how well are you protected by just the body shell of the car?
The unfortunate thing about native safety is that it’s not tangible. It isn’t countable (like the number of airbags) thereby making it lesser marketable. It’s difficult to convince a car buyer by just saying it’s got a ‘great build’. Neutral crash test scores however don’t get the deserved respect in many countries.

Added Safety

Added safety includes safety features that are added to further protect the passengers. Airbags, ABS, ESP, TC, etc. Though they can’t be retro-fitted, they can still be counted and are therefore tangible. ABS can be felt too.

You need to consider an option which you feel has a good mix of the two. Some manufacturers are globally known for their build integrity, do some research on that too.

Driving enthusiasm

Yep, that’s important to a lot of people who don’t have chauffeurs driving them around. But this is not just about how ‘fun’ it is to drive, it’s about how ‘good’ is it to drive, sit inside.

Ride and handling

A test drive would tell you how the car feels, but make sure you take the new car on roads that you use the most. Best places would be near your house/work place.

Seating position

If the car you’re seeing has adjustable seat height for the driver seat, it’s fine. Otherwise, take your time and start driving only when you get that position that offers you best of confidence, reach and visibility.

Maneuverability

You can count this as a bit of fun too, but it’s quite important that you’re okay with the turning radius and the effort requirement. Usually, cars with EPS (Electric power steering) require lesser effort than cars with HPS (Hydraulic power steering). Almost all cars come with EPS.

Just go ahead, take U-turns at tight spots/tiny streets near your residence/office so as to judge the effort requirement.

Convenience

Steering mount controls? Oh yes. Driver arm rest? Double-yes. Dead pedal? Triple-yes. Electrically adjustable ORVMs? Quadruple-yes. Those are the simplest of things that make our life easy.

Rear seat comfort

For those who have chauffers driving them around, this is important because this is where you’d most be spending your time. This involves multiple things too:

Leg-room, head-room, knee-room

Self explanatory

Rear Arm rest

Don’t you want to relax your left/right arm on an armrest?

Adjustable headrests

Not everybody is short. For tall passengers, you need a car that offers adjustable headrests so that you can adjust your seating position however without your neck hurting.

Rear AC Vents

Super important as they help in circulating air and cooling the car faster.

Performance

The car gets 110 HP? Wow. But wait, how heavy is it?
For a lot of people, power = performance. But nope, what matters is power:weight.

Why do you think the Alto K10 is quite a pocket-rocket? It’s just got 67 HP. But it is not so heavy. Again, lower weight doesn’t necessarily mean lower build integrity. There’s this strange thing called Aluminum. I’m sure you have heard about it. What’s really cool about it? It’s bloody strong and super light at the same time.

Unrelated info : Aircrafts are made of aluminum.

Features

The set of features offered is completely relevant to your budget and the segment the car you’re seeing belongs to. With technology being upgraded every year, it’s important that cars keep up too. 2 years back, we had no idea ‘touch screens’ would make sense in cars. And now, even the Renault Kwid comes with one.

Slowly, a lot of things are being standardized. With benchmarks being set and broken with every product, it’s more important to be practical with the features because not all cars offer everything. Don’t reject the car just because it doesn’t have a touch screen for example. The Kwid, like I mentioned earlier, gets one but the Honda City doesn’t.

Have a mental idea of what’s important to you. Does Sat-nav really make sense when you have google maps? Cruise control is a deal breaker for you? Auto headlamps, auto-wipers?

Fuel economy

We all know an ARAI certified fuel economy number is under ‘standard testing conditions’. An ARAI certified number of 24 kmpl, might give you 14 kmpl in actual conditions. (Don’t quote me on the numbers)

The point to be noted is that it gives some idea of fuel economy comparison. A high ARAI fuel economy car is bound to give higher fuel economy in actual conditions than a lower ARAI fuel economy car.

But, fuel economy is directly related to how you drive as well. If you’re an inefficient driver by nature, the car’s going to have drinking issues.

Utility Space

I’d like to exercise my right to classify here things as well. So, utility space, to me involves two things:

In-car Practicality

Toyota cars ensure that there’s a coffee mug/bottle holder for every passenger in the car. There are other things too. Can the doors of your car hold a 1L water bottle each? Do you have a coin deposit place? Are the bottle holders an the center ergonomic for the driver to use? Is the glove box deep enough?
These things matter a lot especially if you’re someone looking to do multiple road-trips.

Boot Space

Again, it’s not just about mere volume. It’s about accessibility too. How high is the loading lip? Higher the loading lip, higher you’d have to carry your luggage to dump them inside the boot.
Or, how deep is the boot? The deeper the boot, the more difficult it is to pull out the spare tyre in case you have a flat.

An ideal boot has a nominal loading lip, is wide and only fairly deep.

Maintenance Friendliness

I need to classify again (damn, I’m quite annoying uh?). When it comes to maintenance, there are three things I think you should consider:

Cost of ownership

Ideally, nobody would buy a car which is expensive to maintain unless they have some fair confidence in point b.
Cost of ownership includes general service costs, spare parts costs, labor among other things.

What is also important to note here is the frequency of service requirements. You might be required to spend Rs. 5,000 /- when the car goes in for service every time. But what if it needs to go in every 4 months?

On the other hand there are cars that need to go in for service only annually and might cost you Rs. 14,000 for a visit.

What’s better? 5000 X 3 or 14000 X 1?

Confidence of ownership

A car might be expensive to maintain but has the reputation to not give unnecessary problems, ever.
This sometimes over-rides the cost of ownership.

Service network support

This depends completely on your location/city. But my recommendation is that you are better off choosing a car option that has more dealer support for maintenance. If there’s just one dealer and he has monopoly, it’s sometimes better to avoid it

Choose an option that has a balance between all the three points. There are some cars that strike well with all 3 - Toyota products, for example.

Resale Value

Resale value and maintenance friendliness have a good sync. A car might have a low resale value mostly because of lower maintenance confidence, high spare parts cost, etc.

But given the scenario in India, if you are looking to own a car for the next 5 years, I’d recommend you go in for an automatic. This is mostly because the automatic revolution has started and growing rapidly. The used car market usually take some time to catch up and would start responding to the change in preference in the next 3 years or so.

Naturally, I’ve left out a couple of basic qualifiers - the construction (hatch/sedan/compact sedan/compact suv/suv), the fuel (petrol/diesel/alternative) and the transmission (manual/some form of an auto - AT or AMT or CVT).

I left them out because they are personal decisions that would change according to preferences. But just to give you a brief:

Choose the construction based on the purpose of the car purchase- take a hatch/compact sedan if you are just a small family. Take a SUV/MUV with 5/7 seats if you are looking to go on multiple family trips.

Choose the fuel based on your current, future driving usage and the planned ownership time. If you’re covering more than 1400 kms in a month and have a planned ownership period of 5 years/more, diesel is the choice for you. Otherwise, a petrol would do just fine.

Transmission

Choose the transmission based on your convenience. Don’t worry about fuel economy, most ATs now give better fuel economy than MTs. (yes, I’m serious).

Conclusion:

These are the basic key points that everyone should check before buying a new car. I hope and am sure that it will help you alot in buying a new car.