[nd4$pd]

We don't have a beater car per se.

Just horses for courses. My 2012 Honda City is driven within the city and mostly by our driver. My XUV is for outstation drives and occasional city drives. The City is now over 6 years old with 80k on the odo. The XUV has been driven around 12k km/year for the last 3 years.

I find the City to be much more manageable in Bangalore traffic (since both are manual cars, the lightness of the clutch and steering really help). Nothing has broken down and I have not had to change anything other than brake pads (besides normal service). I still service the Honda at the authorized dealer. The only pain point with the City is its frequent service schedule (5k km - which I have adhered to).

[yogesh.8984]

Originally Posted by BLACKBLADE

The car I own is my daily driver, my weekend getaway, my highway cruiser, my grocery shopper, my luxury ride, my status symbol my love and passion too !

Exactly my sentiment.

Beater car is a wonderful concept and is practiced by many and for long as we have already seen from the responses here. However it may not suit for one and all. Like for example one of my friends has three cars and suddenly he had to travel abroad for long term and has no one to take care of cars here.

When I bought my first and only car, I made sure it ticked most of the right boxes in terms of requirements (fun to drive petrol, spacious rare and boot, sedan, premium, features). To top it all - it was my dream car!!

[gkveda]

Originally Posted by vishy76

Conclusion

Nicely summarized and concluded. After reading the post, my brain started asking question from another perspective. Are Luxury cars really essential for one's life after having a best beat car that serves most of our purposes?

Then, I could not resist myself from quoting the below lines nicely said by someone

"We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like"

Summarily, to put it in one sentence, Beater car is for "Self use" and luxury cars are for "Others"

This is just my opinion definitely applicable to myself and not sure if others agree

And, to add to your list of conclusion, Beater car is the first Prefered car when you want to get out of house

When I want to get out from home, my first preference car would be Beater car.

[romeomidhun]

Originally Posted by gkveda

Are Luxury cars really essential for one's life...

The term "luxury" is very much "relative". For example, a person with a small income will find his bike more than enough for his use, and a car is a kind of "luxury" for him. For a person with better income, he will find an Alto as a car that serves his purpose, and think a premium hatch or sub-4m sedan / SUV as a "luxury" car. The income and trend moves up, and eventually will reach the other side of 50L. For them, his 60L current car just "serves" his purposes, and a 2-crore car may be his definition of "luxury".

Originally Posted by gkveda

...having a best beat car that serves most of our purposes...

In my case, considering the following,

Income
Petrol/diesel prices
Congested traffic
Non-availability of spacious parking slots
Occasional need for 7 seats
Occasional need for luggage capacity
Big potholes on certain areas
The kind of usage...

I'll think of a car of length 4m, width 1.7m, a 1.2L Turbo Petrol engine of 100 BHP, 7 seats with foldable 3rd row and essential safety and other features with GC of 200mm at a price point of 7L ex-showroom will be my one and only luxury+beater+daily car - if such a car comes. New Gypsy? Any chance?

[megazoid]

In my case, the Duster AWD was the beater to protect the lowered polo GT TDI on non existent roads I drive on. When it came to selling a car to make space, I found myself sticking to the Duster and letting go off the Polo. Now that the Duster has elevated itself to the primary car, I use a sixteen year old gypsy as the beater car for local runs. It really helps that Bangalore does not have much of roads to offer and the gypsy feels absolutely at ease in these conditions.

[shreyan_k10]

Originally Posted by Moto_Hill

Excellent thread ! For folks like me who work and stay far from their native. Keeping four cars (2 at each place) isn’t economically practical. I have a i20 at my native place and Punto at my workplace. Poor souls have to play both roles

+1 to that. That was exactly the reason I left my new Ignis with my folks back home and brought the 2012 K10 with me. Well obviously, my running is much more than the folks and the K10 is kind of a 'beater' now doing all commutes/errands within Hyderabad and all the mile munching outside city limits. Plus the Ignis is more comfortable for the elderly.

[Ankoor]

Kind of agree with you @gkveda but there's another side to this as well:

There are cars that you buy and in some cases that stretch your budgets to accommodate is also because you want them, want to experience them for their engine, luxury quotient or any other reason really, I mean a classic example would be a regular Polo v/s a Polo GT and it is essentially not about the snob value of the car (from a regular person's perspective).

But the irony and I speak for myself is that you end up using them rarely and the beaters are used for the daily commutes as you want to protect your prized possession. I mean at least I do not give my ride to the driver to drive where as I end up spending more than 95% of my car time in a week in the beater.

I am still struggling to figure out a mid way to enjoy the car and also to ensure that it is kept the way you would want it to be kept.

[puntOOs]

Originally Posted by Relax&Cruise

With the i10 gone my plan is to get an automatic hatch for my better half so that she doesn’t have to bother about changing gears and can concentrate better at which signals to look at.

Nice post

My wife similarly was uncomfortable with the Punto 90HP in peak Bangalore traffic. We got the Celerio AMT and there was no looking back after that. We use it as our beater in the city. It is not the most comfortable or spacious but gets the job done and is easily manoeuvre

[Relax&Cruise]

Originally Posted by puntOOs

Nice post

My wife similarly was uncomfortable with the Punto 90HP in peak Bangalore traffic. We got the Celerio AMT and there was no looking back after that. We use it as our beater in the city. It is not the most comfortable or spacious but gets the job done and is easily manoeuvre

Thanks for the pointer, how is the Celerio AMT in bumper to bumper traffic, can it creep along without any issues?

Will get a TD once am home of all the small autos and amt's, then probably go for a used one.

[puntOOs]

Originally Posted by Relax&Cruise

Thanks for the pointer, how is the Celerio AMT in bumper to bumper traffic, can it creep along without any issues?

It has a decent amount of creep although I can't remember the exact speed it does.

[strawhat]

Originally Posted by Relax&Cruise

Thanks for the pointer, how is the Celerio AMT in bumper to bumper traffic, can it creep along without any issues?

Celerio is a highly functional car and is an epitome of beater car. I have driven it in almost all conditions; with/without traffic, rains, freeways, bad roads etc. The car didn't let me down once. It does the job without much fuss. Probably due to its Maruti lineage.

To answer your specific question, the car moves when you release the brake. Effectively its creep mode. A very useful feature in peak traffic, saves our right leg from extinction.

[itsashishsharma]

Even we have an old Baleno. First clutch replacement was done at 1,09,000 KMs. It requires just no maintenance at all. Fill it and forget it.

[Biohazard]

My biggest deterrent is the limited - and therefore expensive - parking space in my housing society. It'll effectively double to cost of a second car. So it's Ubers and Olas for now.

Side note: Been wanting to get a nice bike, but Mumbai's roads and a stern NO from the wife pretty much shot that idea down.

[torquecurve]

Interesting topic and something I personally believe in. Interestingly my garage has what you can say are two beater cars.
1 - the Vista -94000 kms and still on the original clutch. Just the regular service. It takes a lot of abuse easily. Nice to drive (the ride comfort) , amazing interior space and load ability. I have taken the car to the toughest rural roads, inside farms etc. Just a few days ago I bought the groceries for our hotel in this car. Almost 500 kgs odd of load and no complaints.

2 -. My Nano XTA. Bought it to drive around in the city. Super cheap to maintain. Tough car which withstands a lot of abuse. Easy to drive with the excellent steering and AMT. Can carry decent loads and still doesn't complain. A scratch here or a dent there is easy to repair. 20000 kms done in about 13 months! It goes like a small rat out of a trap. 0-40 acceleration is phenomenal and fun. Power steering but you know exactly what the wheels are doing.. Take it on a gravel road and step on the gas. Wheelspin!! Drive on the same gravel ar 30-40 and quickly move the steering and feel the rear lose traction . Fun!

[vsrivatsa]

Originally Posted by Relax&Cruise

Thanks for the pointer, how is the Celerio AMT in bumper to bumper traffic, can it creep along without any issues?

Do make sure you go through the Maruti's AMT Woes thread before finalizing on the Celerio - URL