[Jeroen]

Excellent thread. I do agree whole heartedly with the premise that an expensive car can work out cheaper in the long run.

I would add, that irrespective, if you buy new, or near new, it could make a lot of sense to keep the car for a good number of year. Depreciation on most cars is atrocious in the first 3-4 years.

There is still this myth that cars need to be replaced after 4-5 years / 100-120.000 kilometers maximum. Maybe a little more on diesels.

It is partly fuelled, kept alive, certainly here in western Europe by the big lease companies.
But you can not compare a leasing company owning a car, compared to yourself as a private person owning a car. For them it is a depreciating asset on their balance sheet and the depreciation comes out of their annual P&L no matter what. Leasing companies are just financial institutes, they need to generate continuous cash flow amongst others. Just sweating assets will not work for them long term.

Just about any well maintained car can easily double those numbers, both years and mileage, probably more, without too much worry. Sure, there might be some added maintenance cost. But buying a similar car new would cost a heck of a lot more than the little extra maintenance.

If you are planning to keep your new car for longer, go for the best, most options, your budget allows for! Make sure you get something you will be enjoying for years to come.

Here in the Netherlands the average car age is almost 11 years! That is an increase of almost 2 years compared to 2009. Cars are becoming more reliable and new cars are becoming more expensive. So people tend to keep longer what they have.

Jeroen

[trkauditya]

I can't agree more on this. I got myself an Ecosport last year when I was infact looking only for a premium hatch like the Baleno. Just after one test drive I found that the Ford was simply a more qualitative product overall. It certainly deserved a few extra lakhs and I was pretty sure that it is a product that can be retained for a longer time.

[Thermodynamics]

Thanks for the thread, great food for thoughts, very useful for potential buyers/sellers. Couldn't agree more with all the comments, it is all worth taking that extra stretch to get a better product. More so if we can jump a segment up, even if it has to be the lowest variant, the jump in mechanicals would justify all the effort.

At the same time, not necessarily a more expensive car has to be better. If the expensive car is unreliable compared to cheaper tin cans, a premature selling could be inevitable.

Originally Posted by GTO

A superior car will also lead to nicer memories because it'll make every drive, outing & holiday that much more special. As BHPians, the drive is as important to us as the destination.

^^^ sums up everything. After all, life is but creating memories.

[TECHNIKER]

Thanks GTO, , I agree with your notion.

This post just urges me to worship my existing steed for more years to come.
A 2012 Honda Jazz - GE8, Tafetta White, with 82K on clock, as of date.

Which actually was a pre-worshiped (bank managers car) when I bought it in early 2017 & was actually 1.5 Lac over my budget (Hefty amount for a professional-who's in his nascent years of career).

I would've definitely ended up with beat up Swift / Ritz then, thanks to my family they helped me with the "moolah" & here I am after 2 years & 23K tallied up on the clock, really happy/content that I bought it.
Gives respectable efficiency figures on highway/expressway rides & has good NVH(untill wringed hard - i-VTEC)
And as mentioned by you, has many years worth of life it yet, & I am taking care it, You bet!!

[Sanidhya mukund]

This is something we have been doing for a long time now- just buy the most expensive car we can afford, and keep it for as long as we can. Once we buy a new car, the older one becomes the beater. Believe it or not, but we are on our third car since 1993. Our first car( Tata estate ) literally fell apart in 7 years. But the ikon bought in 2000 was used all the way up to 2014. Since then, the ikon had become a beater and the new Mercedes joined the garage.

[RaviK]

On a ligher note, I've seen an extreme version of this thinking in play. Quite a few uncles/relatives of mine are still driving Mahindras/Marutis of early/mid 90s (not for financial reasons but to get the maximum out of it)

So when I recently traded my 2014 Swift for a baleno few days back (this Diwali itself), got a good lecture from an uncle on financial decisions, no amount of arguments on safey, feature, comfort etc. will convince him (he still drives a 97 DI Jeep)

[shobhit.shri]

I bought a used, 5-year-old, 3rd gen Honda city last year at one-third the cost of a similar new car. Even in this thread, the car is highly rated. I bought it because I needed a car urgently and didn't have time for research.

This car is one of those virtuous beings that make you hate yourself for not loving it :(. Just like another post here, I think I should also save the money for the eventual upgrade to BMW X3 a few years later, or a Tesla!

[pseudo_coder]

Originally Posted by shobhit.shri

I bought a used, 5-year-old, 3rd gen Honda city last year at one-third the cost of a similar new car. Even in this thread, the car is highly rated. I bought it because I needed a car urgently and didn't have time for research.

Looking the glowing reviews, 9am tempted to look for this 3rd gen Honda City in the used car market. Is this the same as Honda City ZX? Which year cars should I look for?

[saion666]

I got my A-star LXI(it doesn't even have power windows) in 2011,still holding on to it.
Have been tempted to buy a new car many times, but never succumbed.

Considering the traffic and parking woes we have now in the cities, I will hold on to the A-star as long as I could and hopefully go for a small EV next.

[bordeaux]

100% agree with you there. Bought a used Honda City (Feb 2009 model) in 2013 at 49,000 KMs and odometer reads 1,49,000 KMs now. I have been looking for a replacement for many years now but they keep launching crappy cars with ~100 bhp engines and I am like I already got that in a decade old car. Gimme more power please! The only thing I (well, mostly my wife) miss is Bluetooth connectivity. Other than that no complaints whatsoever!

[libranof1987]

Agree that you'd rather get a better product in the first go, than have the urge to upgrade soon enough. Makes a lot of sense, financially.

But this argument is at loggerheads with another discussion: do you get the top variant of a car from a segment, or a low/mid-variant from a higher segment.

[charanreddy]

Agree with the assesment, though the applicability is very personal. When i bought my first car 7 yrs back, i objectively looked at my requirements and froze on Beat Diesel. I would have liked Swift Diesel, but given my finances and situation i would not have been comfortable.. i value peace of mind over anything else including a better car or home.

Fast-forward to 2018, the beat has run close to 1 lakh kms and still serves as the second car. I bought the Nexon Diesel Automatic XZA+ . Was sold on Creta, but I couldn't justify the 50% stretch over Nexon. Very happy with Nexon till now at 25 k kms and will definitely retain for the next 5 years / 1 lakh + kms and will choose the best option available at that point in time. For each his own i guess..

For your first car , i would ask that you buy whatever you can. Having a car in itself makes life easier by quite a big margin. Upgrades can wait as suggested in this thread

[rajvardhanraje]

Holding on longer to any vehicle certainly turns out be the cheaper option in the long run. I would go ahead and say even retain your vehicle longer than a decade as long it runs well and fits your requirement.

The secondary ride in my family is a 2008 Indica Xeta which we brought pre-owned in 2010 at almost half the price (3.8L for a new one v/s 2.0L for which we bought it). Now it is 11 years old and running perfectly fine. Yes, it is outdated, underpowered and terrible to drive but I have no intentions of letting it go. The reason, it perfectly fits the role it is assigned of multiple short runabouts across the city. Do I feel an itch to upgrade it? Absolutely yes. Will I upgrade it? Absolutely not. Now it has reached a point where it will not depreciate further. It is serviced on time and there are no niggles despite being 11 years old. Financially it does not make sense to replace it even though it might not appeal to the heart. I intend to hold on to it till the point it starts falling apart.

For me it depends more on what the requirement is for the car we purchase. As long it meets the purpose, it does not need to be from a higher segment. Paying lesser EMIs also bring in a certain peace of mind in the volatile market situation currently.

My primary ride is Tiago I bought in March this year. Although I did have the budget to buy a B2 segment car, I ended up buying a B1 segment car. The reason was it's usage. My car will end up spending 99% of it's time in heavy traffic with hardly a rare outstation run once or twice a year (A round trip lesser than 500 km). My job entails frequent travelling so it further adds up to my point. It lies idle for almost 15 days every month. Although I would have loved to buy a bigger and better car, I would not be able to justify it's usage. So I ended up buying something that meets my requirements. It has all the basic and essential features I need. Some of the features on the higher cars were those which I would rarely use and the novelty factor would wear off soon. Like all other cars in my family, I intend to use this too for more than a decade.

I have also observed people upgrading cars just due to peer pressure. Now just because your peers drive bigger cars does not necessarily mean you have to. They end up depleting savings, opting for loans higher than the repayment capacity. The want to show off is a lure that one must avoid. Any purchase whether it's a car or anything else should be done strictly as per one's finances permit.

I also know a few people who didn't 'upgrade' from their current ride and bought a car from the same segment a decade later just because it had all what they needed. A middle aged man who is not an enthusiast, a person for whom a car is just a mean of commute from point A to point B. Even if finances permit, he will not upgrade to the higher segment and stick to the same segment and spend the extra money on something different like a vacation. For them a car is not something for which they will spare a substantial amount. They would be perfectly fine driving a car from a lower segment even though other of their age could be driving much costlier and luxurious cars.

My conclusion on this is that buy a car which fits your requirements, whichever segment it belongs to. Hold on to it as long it serves the purpose.

[filcord]

I have been warming to this way of thinking the last few years. I am now post-50 years, and the need to swagger is long gone. I've been there, done that. I bought my SX4Zxi in early 2011 and have never really felt the need to replace it, except for my financial adviser telling me in 2017 to change the car. I looked at the market for equivalent cars, and couldn't find anything that pleased heart and head. Also I was offered a derisory 2 lakh for it.
My Sx4 had done 50k till then, it had a sweet JBL amp and speaker system, good sound means the world to me. It had new Michelin tyres, it has ABS, airbags, etc. the only lacuna is a bluetooth , but I have a handsfree for that. I have a hatchback Liva as a city runaround. So will use this car for as long as she runs well.

[R2D2]

An excellent thread. Thanks GTO.

Once upon a time I changed my cars every 2-3 years. Yeah, stupid me. Fast forward to today. My Altis, which cost me a pretty penny when new, is 11 years old, runs like a sewing machine and though I put her up on sale (have my eyes on the 3 series G20 or the C class, only petrol engines) there are times when my wife and I really wonder if it is worth ponying up that kind of money for a luxury vehicle that will be at best sparingly used. My commuter car will last me another 5-10 years with my type of use and maintenance. I am middle aged now and the urge to continually upgrade my car is more or less dead. It is also financially smart.

I can't stress this enough. Times are tough with news of layoffs coming fast and frequent across different sectors. If you are a salaried employee tread carefully and don't spend money on upgrading cars frequently. Keeping up with the Joneses isn't considered a smart thing to do. That money is better spent elsewhere or better still invested. If you MUST buy a car, buy a good one (stretch a bit if you have to) and keep her for a long time i.e. at least 6-7 years.