[DicKy]

Is a car an aspirational purchase for you?
Err..No. A car is a hygiene factor for me (know its rich to say that in a country with 22 cars/ 1000 people)
Growing up in a West Asian city that is said to be worse than Los Angeles in car dependency, having a car was as important as having a place to live in.
All that notion came tumbling down when we moved back to India and I realised middle class in India meant using buses and 2 wheelers, and that going around in cars was an indulgence. No two wheelers at home, crowded peak time KSRTCs, I was just waiting to turn 18 so I could take our car out.
Wait. Was that an aspiration?
Don't know.

Coming to the subject. Have cars become a commodity instead of an aspirational object?
Yes
Good thing.
I know it means losing out on elitist exclusivity, more rush on the roads and less social pride in having a car.
But IMHO, it is better to have cars treated as a commodity.
Hear me out.
Till the 90s, atleast in Kerala, car owners were treated as elites, not necessarily a good thing. While parking in urban areas was easy, in rural areas the quality of motorable roads were abysmally low and some places were not even accessible by cars.
A small accident by a car would lead to mobs coming down on the driver to mete out socialist justice.
Protests, bandhs or harthals, cars would be the first target followed by public transport buses.
Things didn't improve in the 2000s either except for the increase in traffic.
But post 2010, it changed for the better.
Ofcourse, traffic increased heavily but then the road quality also increased. Even the remotest places could be accessible by car.
Eventhough parking maybe a pain, parking facilities are a given now. Shops don't rip you off just cause you arrived in a car. Even today car driver's are always at fault in an accident, but they are not manhandled by people.
And panchayat roads don't have mountain sized speedbumps that could be traversed only by socialist Ambassadors, jeeps and buses.

What happened?
From the early 2010s onwards, most households started having cars. An Alto or Dzire. Atleast a used 800 or Ambassador.
People demanded better roads, parking facilities. Domestic/local tourism, eating out became more popular.

Am not advocating that cars are the answers for everything, far from it.
I love walking in big cities and with Gmaps in my hand, confident of getting by in most big cities using local buses and metro trains. I love efficient public transport.
But at the same time, the urbanist wet dreams of car-free cities and trains for long distances creep me out.

True. Cars have become more a commodity than desirable ones.
But one thing we forget is that we never had desirable cars in the first place. We were just excited to have modern cars post license raj.
Desirable cars are easy, with sky high price tags.
But for affordable desirable cars to come, cars should be commoditised in the first place.

But guess with upcoming connected autonomous cars and ride/car sharing, subscription models and all. We just missed a bus too many.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by EightSix

Is a car still a status symbol? Well, a ₹60 lakh Mercedes is, but what about a new Alto or even a Wagon-R?

Yes!

Be it an Alto or WagonR, any car is valuable to the buyer since that is what he can afford and buy with least stress possible. I am not considering the German trio here.

With so many families now looking at personal transport, upgrading from a 2 wheeler to a 4 wheeler itself is a great jump for that family and a WagonR will be a proud moment for them whenever they use it over the Splendor/Passion plus which they were using earlier.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by GJ01

Well firstly, the thread title and the question asked are different. The title says "Which Indian . . . " - whereas the poll is a Yes / No question asking "If" cars today are aspirational purchases for us Indians.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

The poll question and the title are a little out of sync with each other.

Thanks dudes! A new, more suitable poll that is in sync with the thread title has been created. Do vote again .

[ashis89]

Voted No!

With the increase in purchasing power, easy finance and used car options, I see an increased penetration of car owners in India today. About 20 years ago, our M800 was the only car owning family in our village. By 2005, another 800 and an Alto had joined. Today, almost half the families have someone in their circle owning a car. No rags to riches stories, but you can find Balenos and Ecosports on our village roads. My car is just another car lost in the crowd!

Gone are the days when a first time car buyer could afford a small hatchback. Today, a first time car buyer targets a B+ or C segment car directly. A friend took a personal loan to make down-payment for a Jazz, 2 months into a job because he wanted his own big car ASAP.

Similarly, traffic, congestion, good local transport options (like metro, AC buses) and easy availability of OLA/Uber has made car ownership look not so attractive. So much so that, my ex-boss used to come to office daily in cabs while he took out his brand new City Vtec for outstation trips only.

That said, the euphoria around the first or a new car purchase remains with buyers. Sadly, because of the reasons stated above, the euphoria is dying sooner than we would have liked.

[landcruiser123]

I'd say both. It depends on the perspective of who buy what car.

Due to sub 4m cars, pollution, and lack of transit, cars have become a necessity in some cities. While a rich CEO can live well with a Honda City, his BMW is the aspirational purchase. OTOH, the young couple who were recently blessed with a kid will consider their humble hatchback a necessary commodity.

In the rural regions, many people still aspire a car. I know that it was an event to celebrate in my village when a neighbor bought a new Hyundai Santro in 2019. It was the second car in a village filled with a multiple tractors, LCVs, and autos.

[mmxylorider]

Voted Commodity. Not sure how to interpret this completely, but since it is personal opinion, I consider it like your bath soap. I can make do with your bottom segment bar or a Lux or the Dove/luxury/designed brand.

Purpose to get from A to B gets served like a bike v/s Alto v/s BMW but with fringe benefits.

[k10_nag]

A first car in the family is always an aspirational and special purchase. I remember long discussions in my family to finalise the car and budget. Subsequent car purchases will be less and less aspirational and special.

[Rajeevraj]

In this forum, It will be always both. My first car- A 2nd hand Maruti 800 was highly aspirational as we had never owned a car before. Subsequent purchases were obviously more expensive and better cars, but they became more and more commoditized purchases. Going ahead, if I buy for example a car from one of the German big three, at this time, it would again be an aspirational purchase.

In general, considering the penetration of cars in India, for a vast majority, a car would always be an aspiration purchase.

[headbanger]

In my view, in the current Indian ecosystem a very low percentage of folks see a car as a plane jane commodity.

Whichever car it is and whatever segment it belongs to, aspiration as an emotion is synonymous with a car. I wish to see car as a pure commodity in my life time because that will only happen if India sprints on growth track like Usain Bolt for the next few decades.

[shabash]

Voted Both

It solely depends on the class of the car. I still feel that even in Metros, if you own one of the 3 German Marquees, people still see that as a status symbol. Even in my society where I live, with an average income range of 25 lacs to 250 lacs (there are some with more, but they are outliers ) I still see that owning one does set you on a pedestal and people consider you are someone who has arrived in life.

It might also depend on the Social environment someone is living in also. For example in my parent's home town, owning a Merc is considered great, but if it is a BMW or Audi people may not recognise it as a Status symbol. About 10 years ago, when my brother bought Skoda Laura, I asked him why not the Jetta, he said no one knows the Jetta and if he wants to show you arrived in life then it has to be the Laura

[Eddy]

I own a 1.3 S-Cross, so obviously a commodity

[PrasannaDhana]

Purely a commodity in my case.

Last year, my answer would have been "Both".

But life is constant evolution, I guess. I find it incredibly stupid to attach status on a car purchase. Major reason a middle class family remains middle class for decades is because they can't manage money & care too much about proving others that they have "settled" in life.

A new car, how ever "aspirational" it might be, is still a stupid use of money when you think about the depreciation and the interest you pay extra if you avail a loan. The really rich people who have crores in their accounts may disagree, that a car is a feel good purchase and it doesn't hurt. Ofcourse, a 50 lakh car purchase by someone who makes 10+ crores a year is no big deal. A guy earning 6 lakhs per annum buying a 10 lakh car or a guy earning 12 lakhs per annum, buying a 20 lakh car, paying 30-40% of his take home pay on his car EMI for the next 5 years is nothing but insanity, IMHO.

No offense to anyone.

Buying high end mobile phones, gadgets, cars that you cannot afford, just to make a statement amongst your peers, relatives and friends is what a lot of people do to mask their insecurity.

When you start to seek validation from your own self and realise that no one cares about how well-settled you have become in life, you would view your major purchases much differently.

In my opinion, the car I drive should meet my needs, which currently is to travel comfortably with adequate power to keep me interested while driving it and I must like it's looks. I don't care about the segment nor about the brand nor about the image of the car I drive. That is why I drove around in a Maruti ciaz, now in a Kwid or Storme or celerio.

What car would I buy next (not "upgrade") ? - may be a used Hexa/ city or something that's spacious, comfortable and not more than what I can cut my cheque for, without diving into a loan. And that would happen atleast 5 years down the line, when I have done 1.5 + lakh km on my storme. I don't feel great about travelling in an expensive car nor do I feel bad driving around in my Kwid. As long as I am debt free and the car meets my needs, I am happy as a puppy.

I witness my own acquaintances, who often buy cars that are way beyond their affordability, pay back emi for 5 years and then sell that overpriced car for a dead cheap rate in the used market and buy another stupid unaffordable car in loan, and when you ask them why, their answer is "The loan on that car is closed, so I wanna buy a new one". Majority of us don't really put enough thought about saving money or creating wealth.

I have seen a few extremely valuable (to the society) people who are also quite wealthy, drive around in modest cars, like 2011 Innova/ old gen swift dzire and one of them asked my suggestion for a new car within 8 lakhs!! He could just pay cash for a new fortuner or an endeavour and wouldn't even feel a pinch in his bank balance, but all he wanted to spend was 8 lakhs and he did not care being seen in an Altroz.

Broke people act rich while Rich people act broke

Do I mean one shouldn't aspire to buy a great car that he loves? Not at all. You aspire to buy that car, work for it and pay it from your savings and not by falling into the trap of debt. Now, that's aspirational! In my life though, there isn't much aspiration towards the mode of transportation. I have used/driven my once aspirational cars and it all was fun and frolic only during the honeymoon period, beyond that it's just another car.

[Asish_VK]

As a self confessed petrolhead and a Team-bhpian, any vehicle is aspirational for me

[imp!]

While there are certain types of cars I would like to drive. For me they aren't aspirational purchases. I think there is a certain build quality and drive experience I want. The only thing I aspire to is the type of income that would give me a certain lifestyle regardless of business conditions as well a specific entrepreneurial structure in my life.

Having said that, I do have people working for me that do aspire to owning "4 wheelers" and I would love to grow to the point where their aspirations become a reality.

[amol4184]

Our Kwid was a commodity. Thar was aspirational. We wanted a Jeep like vehicle. It didn't have much purpose. We bought it for being rough and tough, suitable for farms.