Indian IT pros don't buy flashy cars

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by 1100D

He He you probably would have given them a heart attack by mentioning further that you are not just buying a car but a Ford Ikon!! Didn't they tell u about FE resale etc. Mine did, even before marriage (as I bought the car in our courtship period), thankfully my Dad did the talking for me.

Kinda OFF-TOPIC :

Thankfully, with them not being so auto-savvy they werent really in a position to tell me about the pros and cons of the car. All they intended was snob value, as in "He owns a flat in Bangalore!!". Hehe...

Courship period, eh? Come to think of it, me and my better half took a test drive of the Ikon during the same time too!!

[greatmana2000]

I for some reason love my maruti 800 . I can afford a much bigger "flashy car" (here flashy refers to the group of people that i interact with ,my workplace,relatives,friends ) . My friends have lancers ,hondas ,mercs , but strangely , they just cannot trust their cars on a long drive . I know i can trust my car , even if it breaks down ,can get it serviced in any part of the country and till date ,my car has not given me any problems on the highway.There have been numerous instances of my friends who have been stuck on the highway ,and have had to call a toll free no. for assistance .

Resale value of the car is also important , because i change my cars every 2 years as the odo would have atleast 60000 on it .
When i change my car ,i know i do not lose a lot of money .

Even though the 800 is a smaller car , its got better acceleration (atleast the 5 speed version did) than the accent from 0-60 and that matters a lot in the ciy traffic .

Maintenace is also low , and in case if the car needs to be bough on HP ,the prospective buyer could be paying not more than 5000 a month .

Plus , when you are into IT a lot of girls are interested in driving . Its fun teaching the girls how to drive a car and even if she crashes,I know I wouldnt have to spend a lot of money getting it back into shape .

I must have taugh a numerous no . of girls driving ,i guess . This is the fun part of owning a small car ..LOL

[csentil]

During my visits to the US, I noticed that almost all Indians had Japanese cars. The long standing joke was that if it was a Civic you can rest assured that's it an Indian driving it (especially in the Bay area). 9 out of 10 guys I knew had Civics or Corolla's. Well what made it even more interesting was for any long drive they would go and hire a car from Hertz or some rental. A cheap $20 a day car. Reason: Saving the odometer so as to get better resale value.

Though I understand the reasons, it just doesn't make sense to me. Put money and buy a car and then decide not to drive it too much !! They could have bought just about any old car for $1000+ and driven it till it dies !!!

And yeah the 1 out of 10 drives a BMW convertible. :-)

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by csentil

During my visits to the US, I noticed that almost all Indians had Japanese cars. The long standing joke was that if it was a Civic you can rest assured that's it an Indian driving it (especially in the Bay area). 9 out of 10 guys I knew had Civics or Corolla's. Well what made it even more interesting was for any long drive they would go and hire a car from Hertz or some rental. A cheap $20 a day car. Reason: Saving the odometer so as to get better resale value.

Though I understand the reasons, it just doesn't make sense to me. Put money and buy a car and then decide not to drive it too much !! They could have bought just about any old car for $1000+ and driven it till it dies !!!

And yeah the 1 out of 10 drives a BMW convertible. :-)

Well, some people don't have our "driving" passion

I see nothing wrong with buying a Honda or a Toyota. As long as it's a Type R, S2000, or Supra!

[vivekiny2k]

well, i don't see anything wrong with civic/ corolla either. don't we talk about value for money all the time?

in fact, i myself have done a lot of thinking about convertibles, SUVs, pickups, and found out they don't really makes sense, especially if you have a family to support. my next car may be a station wagon. nothing more.

about renting a car, the other reason is the second hand cars they buy are not dependable for 500+ miles drives.
I use my car (120K miles) for long drives. but i felt comfortable only after i spent close to 1000$ on new tyres, battery, belts, starting motor, coolant service etc.

[SLK]

Originally Posted by csentil

I noticed that almost all Indians had Japanese cars. The long standing joke was that if it was a Civic you can rest assured that's it an Indian driving it (especially in the Bay area). 9 out of 10 guys .....

So its Indians and not IT pros.... .. its nothing to do with IT pro's.... just the Indian Conservative culture...

BTW.... On face... every person you meet in India would be enthusiastic about his car.... but still we have only 10,000+ members here at team-bhp.
POINT- Very few are actually passionate about cars...

[csentil]

Originally Posted by SLK

So its Indians and not IT pros.... .. its nothing to do with IT pro's.... just the Indian Conservative culture...

BTW.... On face... every person you meet in India would be enthusiastic about his car.... but still we have only 10,000+ members here at team-bhp.
POINT- Very few are actually passionate about cars...

Well almost every Indian in the bay area is an IT guy, except for the store and restaurant owners which is a minority.

10000 members is pretty good. Internet penetration in India is just about 3.5%. So if you boil it down to number of regular internet users to cars owned, its going to be really less.

You don't have to be a member of Team-bhp to be passionate about cars. :-)

[SLK]

Originally Posted by csentil

Well almost every Indian in the bay area is an IT guy, except for the store and restaurant owners which is a minority.

Well, why I am stressing on non-IT guy's too is b'coz I belong to an non-IT profession.... and i can tell you people here are even more conservative than the regular IT guys...

People who can buy.. civics... drive santros here....

Originally Posted by csentil

10000 members is pretty good. Internet penetration in India is just about 3.5%. So if you boil it down to number of regular internet users to cars owned, its going to be really less.

You don't have to be a member of Team-bhp to be passionate about cars. :-)

Of course 10k members is very good.... and you don't even need to be a team-bhp member to be passionate about cars....
still 10k is.. too small.... considering... team-bhp..is almost the only one. ... and delhi alone has too many car owners.

[csentil]

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k

well, i don't see anything xwrong with civic/ corolla either. don't we talk about value for money all the time?

in fact, i myself have done a lot of thinking about convertibles, SUVs, pickups, and found out they don't really makes sense, especially if you have a family to support. my next car may be a station wagon. nothing more.

about renting a car, the other reason is the second hand cars they buy are not dependable for 500+ miles drives.
I use my car (120K miles) for long drives. but i felt comfortable only after i spent close to 1000$ on new tyres, battery, belts, starting motor, coolant service etc.

Nothing wrong with the Civic/Corolla. I own one. :-) Infact after buying such reliable good cars, they go around hiring cars for their long drives.

For me its like keeping my Civic in the garage and taking my matiz for long drives.

I'm not judging their decisions here btw, a lot of my good friends live there and maybe it makes economical sense to them.

[sbasak]

On a serious note, IT guys frequently travel abroad for months and years, why would someone invent 10L in a car which would be used hardly for 2 months on an avg and remain idle for the remaining time.

Spot on, and every time you return home, the earlier car looks outdated to you! So, you'll feel like buying another then go onsite again and the story continues

At the end of the day, everyone has his/her own priorities and commitments. So, it is hard to generalize whether Indian IT pros buys flashy cars or not!

[Ram]

Originally Posted by sbasak

Spot on, and every time you return home, the earlier car looks outdated to you! So, you'll feel like buying another then go onsite again and the story continues

That's an interesting perspective.
People in my company who go onsite don't sell off their vehicle unless the assignment is for at least a year or two.
That the next onsite assignment would obviate their new car investment, does not prevent them from buying a new car in India.

Originally Posted by sbasak

At the end of the day, everyone has his/her own priorities and commitments. So, it is hard to generalize whether Indian IT pros buys flashy cars or not!

Does this sweeping generic opinion yield any new or additional information? I wonder.

[hmishra83]

Originally Posted by greatmana2000

Plus , when you are into IT a lot of girls are interested in driving . Its fun teaching the girls how to drive a car and even if she crashes,I know I wouldnt have to spend a lot of money getting it back into shape .

I must have taugh a numerous no . of girls driving ,i guess . This is the fun part of owning a small car ..LOL

Haha That was funny! Wonder, why I never had such experiences with my Zen

[DCEite]

Looks like even i need to get my 800 to office. But it doesnt have an a/c. That will be so much needed.. :(

[Jaggu]

new phenomenon in my office lol, Inova's 3 in last 3 weeks.

One VP buys an Innova, ok he doesnt drive, recently migrated from US and has a driver. Seeing this now another buys, he has a family size of 3, rarely does he goes for a long drive and his wife also drives the car. Its just matter of prestige and those executive seats at the rear and wouldnt be surprised if he employs a driver soon.

Another Sen manager also bought an innova, atleast he has a joint family and a dog, loves to drive and does weekend trips. He had a scorpio and indigo, he sold his indigo diesel and bought innova, dont jump on me for this but he sold apparently coz of the maintanence issue he faced after doing 30k plus in 2 years on the indigo.

[1100D]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

Excuse me, but have you left your car with your dad & expect him to care for it like you do ? I can't imagine a scenario like that.

1100D, i love you & respect you, but do not put that kind of load into your old man, ok ?

My cars are areason I dont like taking any onsite assignment, but then can't help it. Anyway my old man is a spoilt brat (His Old Man spoilt him). He was the first to hit 180 kmph (indicated) on the Ikon speedo, he was the one doing stopwatch launches to 100 first. He treats cars as machines to have fun on. Scratches and dents dont matter. The 1100d is his Dad's and I still recall his Dad scolding him for denting his Dodge Royal V8! The guy simply wants to drive. But dont warry I have done enough pshychological stuff on his mind, without managing to be rude, he now thinks twice before cutting off a bus from the left side to take on a truck from the right!!

Originally Posted by csentil

During my visits to the US, I noticed that almost all Indians had Japanese cars. The long standing joke was that if it was a Civic you can rest assured that's it an Indian driving it (especially in the Bay area). 9 out of 10 guys I knew had Civics or Corolla's. Well what made it even more interesting was for any long drive they would go and hire a car from Hertz or some rental. A cheap $20 a day car. Reason: Saving the odometer so as to get better resale value.

Though I understand the reasons, it just doesn't make sense to me. Put money and buy a car and then decide not to drive it too much !! They could have bought just about any old car for $1000+ and driven it till it dies !!!

And yeah the 1 out of 10 drives a BMW convertible. :-)

How more can I agree with you. You just said my heart. But then as most others have pointed out, its the general indian pshyche rather than something restricted to IT guys. As most people are not that passionate about cars.

However, people like to come back and buy something new cos of the Flash factor! (or sometimes cos they dont have any ride in India as they sold of theirs before going)