Well I am one of that IT professional.
From my observation I can say
"In General on majority cases" IT professional buy a CAR lower than what their budget affords. ( for Example buying 4-5 Lakhs Car where as their budget can afford 7-8 Lakhs OR buying 7-8 lakhs Car where as their budget can afford 11-13 Lakhs Car etc ).
In short a deliberate "Under the Radar" majority of the time by IT professionals.
While understanding that Behaviour one needs to understand the underlying concept of Consumer Perception / Need of buying "so called flashy / Expensive Cars" in India ( will Hold true anywhere in world Actualy )
for Any Person
1) HOME is the Biggest financial Asset in Life. Car came as second most big Financial Asset at any point of time in Life.
2) However the fundamental difference between HOME Vs CAR is Home is Immovable asset where as Car is Movable Asset. In Layman terms one can drive Car anywhere with him/her up to certain resonable limit ( like parking in Office paring lot or parked in froont of Shop or park in front of relative/friends house in social function etc ).
3) Hence this Car becomes a STATUS SYMBOL for a person. Looking at Car there is a general tendency in society to gauge person's financial position ( Guess / perception not a reality ) or becomes IMAGE of person.
4) Hence in order to get "Better Status Symbol" many time some people try to bite more than what can be affordable when it comes to Car. Many times it's a Business Need for "Small Scale Business Person" to keep good Car to impress Client or make a show as Status Symbol for thier own benefit.
5) Generally those who have money but not a "White Color / Respect Earner ( Doctor, Engg, Professor etc )" job also wants to have big / expensive Car for the same reason to get Respect from Society.
Now Let's see why in General IT professional tends to come out on to this "buying lower than what they can afford" tendency as an Exception.
1) IT people do not have Business need for Expensive Cars. Whom are they going to impress ? Business clients ? where as clients sits in different country. Also still in general the clients ( of US / UK / Europe ) have better Cars than in India and hence the "Business Need" as well as "want" is not justificable.
2) IT people ( of many ) who have been out of India Exposure in terms of Living for few years / months has satiated their "Glamor / Fancy" of driving / owning flashy / Expensive Cars like ( Accord, Camry, Lexus, BMW, Merc which are equivalent to 6-12 lakhs Cars in India in terms of PPP )". Hence the HUNGER / DESIRE is not present to own this kind of Cars ( for that matter Corolla / Civic ) etc in India.
3) In general IT person do feel "Mentally Secure" about who he/she is in terms of Status / Image in society ( thanks to above average salary & respect from Society ) that he/she does NOT feel a need for making overtly display of "status symbol & Image Enhancement" by buying flashy Expensive Cars on relatively speaking terms.
4) It is also no secret ( many IT professional are pretty much aware of this reality ) that IT people taken for "more money expectation from counterpart party" as compare to others while having transactions in society. I guess that's the price of above mentioned point 3 . After all nothing is free in the world
So staying "Under the Radar" can reduce some of the impact of "more expectation" syndrome.
5) Being more Logic oriented diciplined approach ( due to professional trait ) the IT person do more VFM ( Attributes & Financial impact ) analysis and actual need of objective. Hence once someone understand that a decent 6 lakh lakh car will be giving you same 90% output of equivalent 12 lakhs Car ( Specially for India Road Conditions ) the choice of "point A to B within certain parameter becomes more crystal clear "cutting thru the Noise".
Hence based on above 5 points "In General on majority cases" IT professional buy a CAR lower than what their budget affords.
Please Note : This is on general majority level. There will be always Excpetion of either side.
* SZ *