[Cooltronics]

Our shortest car experience was our Maruti Omni - bought in 1998 and sold in 2000 after driving it for only 6000 odd km.
We purchased it for approx. 1.93L and sold it for 1.8L so it was not too much of a heart burn financially.
The car had oodles of space which was required back then as all of us where nearly 6 feet and more but sadly the benefits ended there.

We could never come to terms with replacing our then 11 year old Maruti 800 https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...storation.html (1987 Maruti 800 (SB308) Restoration)with Omni as the performance and drive was no where close - it was just terrible !

We replaced it with first gen. Hyundai Santro in the year 2000 while wanting to finalize Daewoo Matiz - thanks to terrible sales support from Daewoo and quite the opposite from Hyundai.

[livetodrive]

Owned 2 preworshipped cars which fall in this class, both I owned for 6 months. But I wish I could hold them longer.

A Honda City ZX, the dolphin, though looked ugly to me, was butter smooth to drive and handle and it was fast too.

Other one, a Chevy Aveo was the only car I owned which was so easy to drive that I felt damn sleepy while taking it out either in city or highways.

Both cars had an amazing steering, perfect gear slots and a nice clutch, had such a linear response and just the perfect braking. I surely miss both of them.

Reason to sale them off was well, they were kind of backup cars while a new Dzire was mainly taking the workload.

[shady_lawyer]

Tata India V2 Petrol. Sold in exactly 18 months for scrap value. What with its "bendix" having being replaced thrice, to pressure or vacuum hoses popping off like drunk snakes it was a handful. Not to mention its ability to eat its rear tyres at a rate faster that it would need re-fuelling. An atrociously engineered car, the only good thing was the instrument cluster, it looked fabulous but god forbid you started the car. The tacho went crazy, the speedo stayed lazy.

[bharatbits]

Shortest ownership period was

Chev Beat LT Diesel, Gold. Bought pre-owned @43000 odo in 2016 Aug and sold at 56000 odo in Aug 2018 in 2 years. There was no reason to sell except for the lack of parking space for 2 cars at the new house I moved into. Lot of fond memories attached to it. Absolutely, no niggles. ACC on it was a chiller. Great fuel efficiency, low maintenance. Easy to zip around in traffic areas. The 50k service that I had done at Chevrolet ASS Vellore costed around 5k. Wifey loved the Beat over the Linea for its cute looks. Changed the battery and 2 tyres during my ownership period. Did few trips to Vellore, Tirupati, Chennai, Pondicherry, Ooty, Bangalore, Yelagiri, Chittoor and never did it complain. I miss it, more so while I am driving my Linea in areas where traffic on G Maps shows in red.

I usually keep my cars till the end of their life i.e i dispose when the cost of repairs exceeds the residual value of the car. Wouldn't have sold if not for the parking space problem. Chevrolet shutting operations added as a catalyst.

The only place i get to see the Beat now is on the Traffic Challans site

[King_pin09]

Well, the shortest term for which a Car stayed with me was the 2016 Ciaz ZXI, which was submerged during the infamous flashfloods of Kalyan Dombivali region during August 2019 and was eventually declared as total loss.

The Car stayed with us for 3 years and two months. It was a faithful companion and stayed close to the hearts of all my family members. No wonder, it was eventually replaced with the 2019 Ciaz Alpha petrol.

[procrastinator]

We sold Indica in three years.
Why: It loved going to garage for repairs.

We sold AltoK10 within three years of purchase.
Why: moving overseas

We usually keep the cars for 10 years.
The i20 will complete 10 years in November 2020.

We sold Zen in 16th year of ownership.

[1.2TSI7DSG]

It's more than 5 years for us. There were a few company owned vehicles which had a short lifecycles but they were not "ours"
The cars that have been owned in my family

Padmini- 1986-1998 - 1982 make our first own car was stolen in 1998 by some poor fellow who didn't make it out of the city. Was found 6 months later in a poor condition had to scrap it.

Padmini- 1989 to 1992 was totaled when it flipped again a 1988 make- our first company owned car
Padmini 1992- 1994 - temp car issued to dad against the totaled one
HM Ambassador - 1994 to 1996 Company car used till dad quit in 1996. Was used for another boss till 2003- one of our few old cars that was updated on vahaan and can still find the details there
Maruti 800 1998 to 2004 - 1994 make
Indica DLS 2004 to 2010 - this was our first brand new car
Manza Aura + 2010 - 2016
GT TSI 2013 - the foreseeable future
Ciaz - 2016- is a company owned vehicle for dad

[musclecar]

There are multiple cars that I bought and sold. Two of them I changed within 6 months -

1. Chevrolet Optra Magnum Lt 2.0 diesel, though I didn't want to sell it but got an offer which was too good to refuse.

2. Skoda Laura L&K 1.9 TDI - Laura was a great competent car but the itch for buying an automatic got me. Sold it in 5 months of buying it.

3. Passat Highline - Passat was by far one of the best cars I had used but work led me to shift locations and sold the car within 2 years of buying.

Both these cars were pre-owned and hence didn't end up loosing too much money on them.

Family on the other hand is exactly opposite.

1. Swift Dzire first gen served us fro well over 3 years

2. Skoda Rapid 1.6 TDI is still going strong from last 8 years plus. Was planning to upgrade it but COVID delayed the plan and the resale is also nothing great. So seems this will pull through for another couple of years.

[51morris]

Originally Posted by Dr.Abhi

I thought of starting a new thread where we can discuss the Short car ownerships, the reason for which the car was sold at such a short notice and if possible how much deprecatory loss was incurred during the process.

From my side,
My dad once bought a Maruti van in 1997 (his fourth van) but sold it within 6 months for no obvious reason (may be he had too much of vans) and bought a Zen after it. During the process (purchase and sale of van) he incurred a loss of about Rs.45000 (which I consider is too much for that time and class of the vehicle).

My shortest car ownership has been THREE DAYS!!!!

For many years, my work places were always within Central London and I have always lived in one of the suburbs of London. Therefore, there was no need for a car - I would always take the Tube to work. Driving into Central London was always a pain and an expensive affair as well (expensive parking charges and daily congestion charges).

This changed in 2018 when my new workplace was at a client location outside London. Getting there meant a bus and two train journey which took me close to 2 hours one-way. I therefore desperately got a driving license (passed first time, thankfully!) and immediately decided to buy a car.

Being my first car purchase in the UK, I went to this dealership called Car Giant, who call themselves the world’s largest car dealership. They have about 8000 cars on display at any given time. Having done my driving test in a Vauxhall Corsa, I stupidly went ahead a bought a 2013 model Vauxhall Astra 1.6 turbo petrol. At the time, Car Giant had a policy of allowing test drives only if The driver has held a full UK car license for at least 1 year. Since my license was only a week old, my test ride was me riding shotgun while the dealership guy drove the car up and down a small lane, for a distance of about a mile!

I bought the car and drove it back home, immediately realising that there was a hum from the engine in gears 4, 5 and 6. I dismissed it with a reminder to check it while driving to work the next morning.

The next day, I set off nice and early to beat the traffic and was soon on the motorway doing the legal limit of 70mph. The hum/buzz from the engine was almost scary and the whole front end of the car was vibrating quite badly. I knew something was seriously wrong and immediately slowed down to below 50, reached the office and called Car Giant. They asked me to bring the car back in for a check-up. That very evening (day 2 of car ownership!!), I drove straight to Car Giant after work and dropped the car off.

The next day I get a call saying the fly wheel needs replacement, the clutch assembly needs replacement and the front suspension needs replacement! What was worse is that I was told they can only replace the faulty parts with parts salvaged from scrapped cars and CANNOT replace with new ones! I immediately felt very uncomfortable with the whole situation and exercised my consumer rights and asked for a full refund since I was well within the stipulated 30-day policy.

To my pleasant surprise, they simply asked me to bring the spare key, locking wheel nut and the service booklet for a refund. Went there the same day (day 3 of ownership!!!), returned these items and was given a full refund. There ended my 3 day ownership of my first car in the UK!!!

While the experience left a bitter taste, I was still pleased it was with Car Giant, who offered me a full refund without asking any further questions and dealt with it in a very professional manner. Had it been a local dealership, I would have been in a world of trouble!

Post this experience, I have always stuck to “Approved Used” cars, which are a lot more reliable and come with manufacturer’s warranty. Have been very happy with the cars that I have owned ever since the Car Giant experience! Touch wood.

Cheers,
Praveen

[Rocketscience]

All these are before my era when my dad was in charge, i subscribe to spend minmum use maximum school of thought but my dad was just opposite, also none of these cars had any mechanical faults and it is not that he regretted buying or did not enjoy any one of them, this was just a nature thing, a few of his shortest kept cars are:-

1st generation Honda City - 8 Months
I know it is a shame but he bought it in mid 2002 and by 2003 it was announced that next gen Honda City is about to launch and also the new Corolla was launched so he decided to buy the Corolla.

Maruti 800 - 10 Months
This was his 4th Maruti 800 in a row because according to him there were not many options in the market at that time, at least what he could afford, so when Maruti launched Zen, he immediately switched over.

Hyundai Santro - Gen 1 - 1.5 years
Sold it because new Ford Ikon was launched, also because it had a major accident so after carrying out the repairs he sold it.

Ford Ikon - 1.5 years
As a child I remember he was extremely fond of the Gen 1 Honda City and ever since its launched he took me (a 4 year old) to Honda showroom every few months or so but could not afford the car at that point, so by the time 2002 arrived we finally did buy the car, selling the Ikon but then again it is the first one in my list to be the quickest to be sold.

Infact his longest kept cars before my teenage years were Zen and Corolla and even those were not much more than 3 years. This list would have been longer but perhaps this kind of reckless spending eventually caught up to him and financially he/we could not afford keeping cars for such small periods anymore, plus i don't allow it now.

[charanreddy]

Less than 3 years.

We bought a 2002 Maruti Zen Lxi MPFI in 2014 for my parents when they stayed at my native village. We had a 2012 Chevy Beat as a primary drive in the city.

The Maruti was bought for INR 1.05 lakhs had awesome alloys and Yoko earth1 s .

We sold it off in 2017, ~3 years and 20 K kms later for about 80 K as we needed to renew fitness and our usage didn’t justify 2 cars as parents moved to the city.

Still miss that car ! Spend less than 15 K in maintenance for the 3 years which included injectors cleaning as folks had accidentally filled diesel instead of petrol.

[PVS]

I purchased a second hand mitsubishi gallant in September 2009, when I was in the US. It was a decision I was to regret over the coming couple of years. I had brought it in Schaumburg IL, and took it with me to Lake Forest, CA. A few months before I had to return back to India for good, it was rear ended by a highlander, and subsequently, written off as a total loss( this was in December 2011).
It was my shortest car ownership experience, and one that made me stay away from pre- owned cars for good.

[ksinghg]

Hello Everyone, my shortest car ownership was of Jeep Compass Limited Plus. It was with for only 3.5 months. My father bought the car for himself as it was easy for him to sit in it because he is overweight. But after 2 months he told me that I am not getting comfort drive in it. So he told me to sell it and exactly in 1.5 months it was gone. There was no problem in car and it was perfect car for me.
So this was the shortest car ownership for me.

[scorpian]

Hey that's my van on the pic ! My cadbury on wheels that my dad purchased in 1987. Still starts on a single crank..

[ash22]

Was looking for a small car for city and bought a used Zen Carb '97 Model in 2013 for 55,000 INR.Without much knowledge bought this from a dealer without testdrive.
It was such a horrible car that had driven 1.8 Lkh KMS but the meter was tampered with 70K KMS. No Major breakdown in my term of 8 months but suffered with Hard Clutch, Heavy Manual steering, Rock like suspension, Hot Air from AC Blower.

Sold it for 50K after 8 months of ownership and moved to Alto 800 for City Runs. Whoa! What a comfortable city car with Power steering,MPFI,Good Miliage,Good AC.
Own it for past 7 years and clocked 98,000 KMS. Pampered well and still smooth as Day 1. Just done with a Mid-life make over and its good to go for next 1 Lakh KMS.