[roadrunner_nv]

Lovely thread!

I'm currently with three cars in my stable, a Skoda Rapid TDi DSG - used only for "out of the city" runs, a Nissan Sunny XV petrol - used by wifey for her office commute and our family runs inside the city and my ultimate nuclear weapon (I wont call her a beater), the Tata Nano.

Boy o boy, what a brilliant vehicle. Must say that Tata failed miserably to market it as a smart city car. Nothing better than the Nano in the city. Low cost maintenance and parts make it a joy to use in the city.

Of late though, am considering buying a scooter to go to the really crowded areas in the city and to beat peak time rush for office commutes.

[R2D2]

Great thread Vishy76.

I thought of buying a beater car (a mid priced hatchback) once upon a time and guess what landed in my lap? A Palio 1.6 GTX but it is a car I am attached to given it was my father's and became mine after he passed away. It holds a special place in my heart and it is used for light errands in the city. It's a pain to maintain with lack of spares and qualified mechanics as a major bugbear.

For any place that has iffy parking or rough roads I choose the on-hire beater - an Ola or Uber taxi. Saves me the effort of driving through Pune's horrendous traffic and the maintenance on both the cars. And it's the only option when my wife and I attend parties or choose to dine outside.

So, my Altis and the Palio have been "elevated" to position of "Garage Queens" for much of the year. Which means low mileage and infrequent use. Oh those smart battery chargers are of such a great help.

[pinin]

Super thread vishy76.

Punto a beater car!!! Made my day. I drive a 2010 Punto 90HP and it has been extremely reliable (touch wood). Against popular belief, no breakdowns, nothing has fallen off - well almost. The IRVM once fell off when I inadvertently took a crater at high speed

My beater car (until recently) was a 5 speed 2002 Maruti 800 DX. Loved every bit of that car. Had to scrap it with a heavy heart due to body corrission. Would be driving it even today, if it were not for that crappy build quality and even crappier brakes.

PS: I never lost an IRVM over ~15 years of Maruti 800 ownership. Fiat are you listening?

Cheers,
Pinin

[motorworks]

Beater or not, it always makes sense to have one car in the family that is meant to take abuse and when you know that it is not going to cost you much to bring it back to shape, then it is surely a boon in todays City conditions and also at an era where taxi drivers at times seem to be learning on the job ( read : the BPO taxis in Bangalore)!

I have always ensured that the 2nd car in my family is he more easier one to maintain. First it was the Alto and now the Brio does the job of short commutes to the bank or places where parking is a bit difficult and also the local markets etc. This helped me to maintain my earlier car, A Rapid in a neat condition and the same now goes for my new drive Creta. And I think I have always imagined the 2nd car to be one of the easy to maintain Japanese or Asian makes that do not demand too much from you. Another reason for choosing the Brio was that my wife drives it on a daily basis and it was important that it should be fairly reliable and trouble free car and also easy to service ( the Honda service centre is right next door!)

[bansal.sushant]

I think this concept, even if not theorized, has been used by most families for a long time.

What I do is instead of selling our current when buying a new one, we degrade it to the beater car. The return is higher than what I would get selling it.

Previously it used to be the Esteem, and now the Dzire! Next shall be a City.

It provides a peace of mind, especially when 90% of your driving is in a city like Delhi. Honestly, these cars are fun to drive even, and sometime perform better than the ones that cost twice, especially in bumper to bumper traffic!

[PrasannaDhana]

Oh yes, I can relate to this topic very well. We have always had beater cars in our garage.

Armada
Tata Estate
Pre owned Zen
M800
Wagon r
Sumo gold
Beat diesel
Kwid 1.0

The last two, Chevy Beat 1.0 & Kwid 1.0 especially were of absolute use and fun. I love small nimble cars that are fuel efficient too. I can park them anywhere and can have oodles of fun extracting every pony out of them.

They are pretty cheap so that I can buy new, and sell them at a decent price a few years later.

Example: I bought Beat diesel for 6 lakhs otr, drove it for 90000km in three years and sold it for 3.25 lakhs.

I bought Kwid 1.0 for 5 lakhs otr and it is already 14k km old and I don't have any idea of selling it before I make a lakh km on it.

It is always a great feeling to take delivery of a new car isn't it.

[v12]

We have been having beater cars since more than a decade. One big MUV and another small car / sedan to use as a daily vehicle for work / regular chores / weekend drives with minimum <5 passengers. We have had the Baleno and Altura (Suzuki Baleno Altura & the Indian "Real Estate" Market) some years back which were converted to CNG and used day in and day out. The Xylo was used occasionally when the entire family was travelling together. Ultimately both of these were sold and we now use a Kwid 800 as a beater car (not entirely though).

A motorcycle / scooter as correctly mentioned is the ultimate Beater vehicle. Especially smaller capacity ones and ones which are easy to maintain and spares easily available. The RX100 is my ultimate Beater motorcycle - which I have been using to work almost everyday ... It replaced my earlier mode of transport (Z800, Xylo and Kwid) when the Metro work started.

[Carpainter]

Nice thread. Yes a beater car is required if one covers more than 10k kms every year because then if he drives an expensive car, it does need some protection. But this thing depends on budget and lifestyle to say a few. Someone who drives a S class can use a fortuner as beater car while for some it's a dream car to buy. But overall a beater car should be the one which is reliable and cheap to maintain as mentioned by many.

In my case, my dad uses his Innova and I drive City and so a beater car is hardly required. But for some city runabouts we have a scooty which is of immense help.

[giri1.8]

In my case, my only car is my beater I bought something very much within my budget and reach, I do like fine things in life, but don't wish to lose peace of mind just because someone else made a mistake (even we do) and lose my sleep over repair bills.

P.S: recently bought a scooter,helps when parking is an issue. feels more like an transport appliance than a machine

[jassi_jeeper]

4500 cars come to my work place (The Punjab and Haryana High Court) everyday. Parking there is a big mess. I used to own an old zen lxi and parking it was a breeze as I used to fit my zen in the smallest of gaps where sedans and SUVs dared not venture. My zen had bruised black bumpers and I used to have no worries of bumper scraping which is a routine affair there. Also when I used to attend overcrowded marriage functions with valet parking, I took my zen as my other car is an automatic and I just cant trust parking attendants with my automatic. The zen had the essentials which are most required i.e. power steering, ac, heater and front power windows. I miss my lovely beater car.

[Varun_HexaGuy]

Originally Posted by vishy76

• Cheap to buy and insure
• Cheap to maintain as well
• Should be backed by strong A.S.S and good spare availability
• Simple and robust mechanicals
• Should be frugal as well
  

Well, the above points sum it up. There are many advantages of owning a beater in a garage. I do own two of them of which one being the Figo and the other being the Nano.

The Nano is strictly a car for the places where I don't dream of getting my other big cars. This car does the duty of going to Sabzi Mandi's to the crowded marketplace. If I'm in the nano, I don't look out for a safe parking place as I do for my other cars. Just park it, wherever space I available. Making U-Turns is a breeze with this car (well, not so much since mine doesn't come with a power steering!). I'm worry free of the dings and dents and if any new ding finds a place on my car, I hardly notice it!

Maintaining her is as simple as maintaining my Activa. An interesting fact is that the annual service costs of my nano and activa are almost the same (give or take a few hundreds). And it's fuel efficient in city as well, so keeping her running doesn't dent my dad's pocket. Talking of Fun to drive proposition, it's a RWD, the engine is mounted at the rear and the staggered wheel setup It's still a nice car to drive nonetheless.

IMHO, a beater should be easy to drive in city since most of the people use these for the city runs and having big cars such as the Innova and sunny as a beater doesn't make sense in my case since I don't have a chauffeur and they are simply too big as a beater.

So even the size matters for the most of the aam-junta for using a car as a beater.


Varun

[skchettry]

Beater cars - a great topic to talk about. My 'premium' car is Honda City 2009 model having done around 24K on the odo (it hardly gets driven in Mumbai; most of the time I am out of town and when I am in, the traffic pulls me back). I have it on AMC at ASS and from one service to another, the car would have done a couple of hundred kilo only. So Ola is my beater car.

[hema4saran]

I guess most of our folks missed one of the best car which can be used as a beater. Toyota Etios twins. Especially in the petrol avatar. That petrol mill in Etios coupled with the smooth clutch will make one fun to drive car. Also maintaining it is very cheap and it is very much reliable. Etios makes a very good beater car than a Sunny. I have heard issues with Nissan's electricals and AC units except the engine as it is a proven one.

Any scooter would solve the purpose for the people who can't afford to own a second car. Activa is one of the best in business in our scooter marker.

[jayram.r]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

But for most nuclear families, the primary/secondary car ends up being the beater car. More of a one-size-fits-all kind of a situation.

Personally, that is why I bought an EcoSport. I wanted a car that I could use as a daily driver to work and all my travels.:

This is true for a lot of us. The beater car concept sounds logical but may not be very practical for most Indian middle class. (Given a single parking spot, cost of maintenance etc.) That's why budget cars are being differentiated. Eg. The NEXA offerings. Or better still the compact SUVs - Brezza, Ecosport etc.
They do a dual role of being the everyday runner, fun to drive as well as ability to withstand our road conditions.
The concept of a beater car is all relative, depends on where one is in the economic ladder!

[SJM1214]

In my Opinion, The award of "The Best Beater Car" goes to MS Swift Dzire.

I have always noticed a Swift Dzire accompanying "German Big Three" in wealthy neighbour's garage. The best use of a beater car is to use it to learn driving. We have a 2008 Swift Dzire in our firm, owned by my partner. This car was used by almost all of our wives to learn driving. Currently, it is in my custody and used by my wife. We are going to add my Dad's 2009 Swift Dzire in the fleet of beater car of our firm.