[GTO]

Thread Rules

1. With your *own* money, not parents or similar. Of course, EMIs are okay as long as you paid them.

2. Pictures mandatory.

I bought my first car with my own money at the age of 33. It was the pre-worshipped Honda Civic in 2010. All the cars prior to that were courtesy family, either fully or partially.

Always feels special to see & appreciate a machine bought with your own sweat & blood. What say? Let this thread be a tribute to the first cars we proudly bought ourselves . Am happy my 1st was a really special machine with that high-revving petrol, great styling, low seating position and one of the best hydraulic steerings ever offered in India.

[SR-71]

Unfortunately I do not have a picture though the car is still in the garage lying around unused 2 decades on. Its a Silver Tata Indica V2 Petrol that I brought with my own money after getting the second job at an MNC. I was 25.
EDIT - A bit OT, I remembered poloman's middle class guilt thread and it struck me, I brought the Indica whose cost was same as my annual pay back then... yet I have been thinking for many many weeks now to buy my next car that costs way lesser than my pay! First car is special indeed.

[sumeethaldankar]

My first car bought with my own money was the 2007 pre-worshipped Honda Civic.

I got it in 2011. Was worth all the money spent even though it had plenty of issues. Loved it and still miss it.

I Keep kicking myself for selling it off. Still have dreams that I still have the car in my parking spot only to wake up and realise that it was a dream.

I was 33 when I bought it.

[anshuman_b]

I bought my first car in 2017, an used Grand I10. I was 27 back then.
Did many road trips, including touring entire Rajasthan, on this.
Later sold the car in 2019 to buy a Honda City.

[catchjyoti]

It was a used Nissan Sentra that I bought when I was 24 years old and working in Dallas. But unfortunately cannot locate a single picture. First cars are always special

[fazayal]

When Chevrolet Beat was launched in 2010, I totally fell in love with the funky look of the car. I checked the car out and was also impressed with the interior quality which was one notch above the competition. That day I decided that Beat would be my first car.

As fate would have it, I got a job with General Motors India in 2012 and within three months I purchased a red colour Chevrolet Beat Diesel. Diesel costed Rs. 46 a litre while petrol costed around Rs. 60 a litre, so it was a no brainer to buy a diesel version which was also the most fuel efficient car in India that time.

I was 28 years old then. Have amazing memories with the car.

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by GTO

- With your *own* money, not parents or similar
- Always feels special to see & appreciate a machine bought with your own sweat & blood.

Thank You for this thread GTO. I've bought all my cars pre-owned, with my own savings, at typically between 25-35% of the new car listed price. Only exception here was the 7 month old Versa that I picked up in 2004.

Here are pics of my first two cars.

Premier Padmini bought when I was 28


Maruti Esteem when I was 30

[silverado]

The first car i bought with my own money was humble Tata Nano 11 years ago. It was brand new and the emi i was paying was around 5k thanks to 5% rate of interest which was specially offered for Nano. I actually couldn't afford a new car and didn't want to buy a second hand one, so Nano was the only car i could buy.

I was 30 and i already had a Premier Padmini at that time.

My expectation from a Tata product back then were just 3 years, Nano was a stop gap arrangement till i could afford a better car. For a car which costed me 2.13 lacs on road in 2011, it has exceeded all expectations! It continues to amaze us even today and is used as primary car in city.

Link to Long term ownership thread.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-...-years-14.html

[irdevanand]

Hi GTO

Nice thread. Jogs old memories and makes us feel how the prices of cars and petrol 2 decades ago look ultra VFM now. Here is my contribution to this thread.

My First Car
Pre-owned Opel Astra bought in 2002 for 1.9 lakhs when i was 23 years old. Number was TN 01 L 6003. I am writing the number from my memory because my bike was 5002 and car was 6003 which sounded special at that time. My salary was around 30k or something i guess. I had a Suzuki Fiero bike at that time and once the bike loan was closed i took a car loan and bought this. It was one of the SOLID cars i have ever seen. My nephews used to run on top of the car all day long. I am not kidding. It was real. They will climb from bonnet, run over the roof and get down via back and repeat this all day. Non stop. I didn't appreciate the roof strength until i got my next car :-) a maruti zen

GTO - unfortunately i dont have pics of my Astra. Sorry.

Second Car
As i dont have pic of first car i am adding this one. Bought in 2005 i think. Here is a picture. It was around 3.4 lakhs or so. Again took a car loan.


From third car onwards i started getting advice from teambhp as you can see from this thread here which dates back to 2006 https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/sedan...sta-1-4-a.html (Accent GLE or Fiesta 1.4)

Regards
Dev

[iamahunter]

Brought my first car at the age of 34.

Earlier were all sponsored by family!

Ecosport


However I had brought my first bike at the age of 25 - HH Hunk


Then a Benelli at 31


Then a CBR at 33


And the Versys at 36


I Hope the bikes qualify as well.

[V.Narayan]

First car - 30 - new Premier Padmini, bucket seats and floor shift gear
First Scooter - 22 - pre-owned Lambretta

Drove the Padmini for 10 years and the Lambretta for a similar length. No EMIs - car loans didn't exist then. No photos, only memories - In the 1980s the current trend of clicking photos wasn't there. The joy, nay ecstasy, of owning these two and the pride with which I drove them has never been experienced with all the much superior and more expensive cars that followed. First loves matter.

My kids who came much later can't believe their parents rode around on a Lamby! Spoilt brats. But back then in 1982 to own any set of wheels was a big thing. The early mopeds - Luna, Suvedha, Vicky etc were available off the shelf but viewed as not manly enough by the younger me. The first generation of modern bikes was still 3 to 4 years in the future. The Bajaj products had a long wait list and even the second hand ones commanded a premium my salary couldn't bear. So the second-hand Lamby fit the bill perfectly.

[starter]

First car at 22 - Ford Fusion 1.6. This also happened to be the first four wheeler in the family. So, a very special one.



First 6 months salary towards down payment and a 5 year loan

[sahil624]

Wow a thread so close to my heart. I bought my first car in May 2020 (at the age of 29 years), bang in the middle of the lockdown and drove it 300kms to my hometown on that day itself with a huge grin on my face the entire day
The car I got was Nissan Kicks Diesel, one of the last BS4 diesels left in the country. I always had fascination of owning a diesel car and munch miles with it. And this is what I have been doing over almost two years of ownership.
This car is and will be so close to my heart and intend to keep it for a long time.


The trip when I was moving to Mumbai


The first day


Somewhere in the middle of no where


At the Statue of Unity


On the way to Padsare waterfall


OTW to Padsare waterfall


At Jaisalmer Indo Pak border


On the way to Jaisalmer


At a hotel parking in Jaisalmer with the backdrop of famous golden stone architecture of Jaisalmer


At the famous Statue Circle of Jaipur on Republic Day

[fhdowntheline]

My first car was a pre-worshipped Honda Civic (1988 make), which I got at the age of 25 during my first assignment abroad in Chicago in 1999, for USD 1500! . It was such a terrific runabout, although I had some doubts about its ability, being a high miler, but as they said back then, better have a Japanese car with 100K+ miles on it than a American with less than 80K miles.

Checking the timing belt was one of the primary items on the Go-No Go checklist for a used car buyer. And buying a used car was a hit-or-miss back then as it still is now in India.
PS: Please excuse the shabby sunglasses-they are obviously not real!

[Rajeevraj]

In my 20s. It was a pre-owned Maruti 800 in 2006. That time did not know or do any research on cars. Only question was, what is the cheapest one I can buy and the answer to me was the M800. I had a budget of 50,000. Ended up buying an almost new 11,000km run M800 on loan for around 1.6L. Have only one picture of it.

It was very special because we had never owned a car in the family and I never really got to drive until I bought this.

Lasted only a year though, by then the upgrade itch started and I moved on.

Edit: I actually still have one key to this car. When I sold it, I thought I had lost it, but it turned up in a cleanup several years later.