[theexperthand]

Over budget

When we started the hunt, the initial budget was 20L, then increased it to 22L. But, after TD, it was either almost stick to the budget but miss my dream car or increase the budget and get the dream car.

End of the day listened to my heart and to a friend and wife, and to the TBhp Posts and went above the budget and got the car - Harrier Dark Edition XZ+.

After getting the car, I realized that I would have been sorely disappointed if I did not stretch the budget for this particular variant, so really happy that I made the right decision to extend the budget.

--Anoop

[chandrda]

Under Budget Always

I am a big advocate of used cars and keep telling every one "not to act like a school kid in a toy store" while buying cars. But underneath we all are.

I have a 2003 Fiat Palio GTX (used, bought in 2009) and was in Market for car which can handle highway and city plus it must be AT. So I decided on Kia Sonet D AT for a budget of 14 Lakhs.

But the price got hiked twice since I booked in October and now OTR Bangalore was way over 15 Lakhs.

Came to my senses in April after the second price hike. Ditched the idea of Sonet and went the used cars way.

Bought a used 2017 Honda BRV V Petrol for less than half the budget of Sonet and now I am in the market for used Small AMT car to do city runs.

Even If I pay 4 Lakhs for a used small AMT Car, I will still be way under budget considering I had set aside 14 lakhs for Sonet. I can use the remaining amount on petrol for years.

Regards

[varun.petro]

Can't vote. Cars have got very costly recently. After effect of Covid and chip shortage etc. Fixed budget at 10-11 lac for automatic compact SUV.

However, I wanted a big vehicle having driven Landcruiser Prado for 4 years in Kuwait.

Nexon AMT gearbox was really bad. Expanded budget, scouted preowned (2-3 year old). Nowadays even for used cars, owners are expecting close to new car price. Decided rather to spend slightly more but have peace of mind.

Finalized Seltos 1.5 CVT. Rejected after 4-5 test drives due to low safety rating and stiff suspension. Drove Kushaq, fell in love with its superb handling. Eventually expanded budget to 16lac and got Kushaq.

However, my love for a bigger car with big road presence is pushing me to book either XUV 700 (those waiting times) or Scorpio -N in next month.

Car prices have gone really crazy. I can't find even 1 VFM option in market now.

[PaddleShifter]

Voted for under budget.

Back in 2020, I listed a set of must have and good to have features and shortlisted the following:
Creta CRDi mid variant (12 something lacs exshowroom)
Seltos CRDi HTK/HTK Plus (same as Creta)

I was also tempted by a Harrier which was out of my budget in top models. Evetually I decided against the lower variants.

Two more cars were added to the shortlist then:
Venue SX CRDi (sub 10 lacs)
Sonet CRDi HTX Plus (sub 10 lacs)

I happened to see a S-Cross 1.5 petrol and it was a surprising package. All must have features and more, most good to have features except sunroof and rear AC vents. Bought the Zeta manual for 9.xx ex-showroom price.

[SaiSW]

58 lacs for a fortuner, good lord where is our auto market heading towards. Could we see a day in the coming years where a Creta is 30+ lacs?

And I voted for stuck to original budget. I always wanted to own a car with the 1.5 TDCi but kept procrastinating until this year when I finally decided to bite the bullet and got a decent deal on a mint condition Aspire Titanium diesel. Belonged to a family man, 2 kids. Now that alone is not neccesarily a guarantee that the car was driven with care, but tests at the SC and checks with the insurance company returned excellent news which further established my confidence in the previous owner.

The future is electric and my next new car purchase will be an EV, so might as well enjoy IC engines while we can. Have a lot of mods planned for it in the coming months including roof wrap, auto orvm fold on vehicle lock relay addon (car already has electric fold so im confident i can do this somehow), remap/piggyback ecu, xenon projector conversion, tailights led conversion, auto wipers and headlamps if possible, touchscreen infotainment system from a reputed brand like Pioneer, Kenwood etc etc etc

[RakishRam]

I just voted "over budget", but when I think, it I not exactly that way. I normally know what car I want and then make money and buy it. Rather than evaluating many and pick one based on budget also as a parameter.
The last buy, I was sure I will buy the inline six cylinder petrol 3-series if available.
Then the question is about affordability rather than budget, hence there is no Range Rover yet

PS : Then I know I keep the car for ages - Civic is into its 15th year, so buying something with heart makes more sense for me. M340i I may never sell.

[ShreyG]

So I manage to strictly stick to the budget.
Primary reason being I first finalize the car and variant and then start to arrange the funds for the same . Downside of this approach is that this time can range from a couple of weeks to a few months.
Now by some luck, both my last purchases ( S-cross and Nissan Kicks ) have been when the lockdowns were lifting and economy was opening up. It was an out and out buyers market in early to mid 2021. Point to note that this was true with other products as well ( Electronics, furniture etc.)
Got some pretty sweet deals (approx 7-8% reduction for both) with waiting times of about a week for the Kicks and some 15 days for the S-cross.
Yes, these are slow movers and don't exactly light up the sales charts. But I believe waiting times for even slow movers now is more than a month. I remember a recent conversation with the SA at Nissan about waiting times being about 2 months for the Kicks and almost 6 months for the Magnite in Bangalore.

[ajay_satpute]

In 2015, I started with a budget of maximum 8 lakhs on road and I ended up buying Scross Zeta at 11+ lakhs on road. Clearly over budget. But the smile I had when I test drove the Scross for the first time on an open stretch of road was worth it ( and I am still smiling).

[sunilch]

Originally Posted by GTO

For our most recent purchase (Superb L&K), we went way over the intended spend. Idea was to spend 20-lakhs and get a Seltos, but its GNCAP rating eliminated the car from our shortlist. After driving lots of cars, my kid bro finalised on the Superb L&K, a 60% jump from the original 20-lakh intention. For my 530d, I'd thought of getting a good pre-worshipped example for ~30-lakhs, yet when I saw an almost-new 16-month old M-Sport for 42.5 lakhs, I knew I just had to get her home. A whopping 40% jump. On the other hand, my used Civic V-MT & used City Vtec were bought within the original budget of 7 - 8 lakhs.

Personally, I feel no-one will go 'Over-budget' in real sense to buy what they want/desire.

Most of us (perhaps 99%) here are sensible folks and many are rational too when it comes to purchasing things that are a 'desire' rather than a 'need'.

If you are expending your ticket size after looking at available options from your earlier planned budget and not finding the right car, you are simply utilizing what is available to you and buy what is the best value for your money. So effectively you will stay within your budget. You just started as a 'under-budget' buyer

When you started with 20 or 30 lacs, you were simply being conservative in allocating the resources you have saved to this discretionary purchase. If someone extends the budget by another 10 lacs for example, it simply means they had the budget but were just trying to make use of it for some other purpose. It was for sure not some emergency funds that they have decided to utilize. No sane mind will empty their emergency or contingency corpus to buy a car from a higher segment.

The reverse might be true though. You may have a budget of 20 lacs but if you find a car for 10 lacs that makes you happy or satisfied, you will go under budget.

MODS: Might be OT and if so, can delete this post.

[wilful]

Stuck to my budget of 10 lacs OTR for my purchase of Renault Kiger AMT. While I am ok with it there is a slight feeling of regret that I didn't stretch it a bit more and go in for the Turbo CVT version.

[jkrishnakj]

I’ve always ended over budget.

When I was aspiring for the Zen, I got an esteem. At a time when my wife was ok with a Nano, we moved up to a WagonR, and finally what came home was a Baleno, and this was after booking the Ignis. When I was ok with the 3 series or the C class, I test drove an A4, and got home an A6. Since I do a minimum of 1.00 L km, I think I don’t feel the pinch beyond the first 5-6 months of paying the additional EMI’s.

[voldemort]

My budget — what I intend to spend — is always significantly lower than what I actually have in the bank. (Thought I'd mention that, because sometimes I get the feeling that people buy cars they really cannot afford).

I usually do not go over the budget.

In most cases even without thinking actually about the budget I kind of know what I want to buy. The car I want is probably subconsciously affected by my financial situation.

When I bought the Optra I knew I wanted the Optra before any of the testdrives began. Sure, we testdrove a few other cars in the price range of the Optra, and decided Optra makes sense (though Corolla was a close alternative).

When I bought the City, I knew I wanted the City. When I bought the Figo I knew I wanted the Figo.

The only time I went over what I intended to spend was when buying the Benz. Initially I was under the mistaken impression that the C-class costs under ₹40 lakhs. Went to showroom to discover it was actually a little over ₹45 lakhs. And it was a little tight on space. Eventually bought the bigger and much more expensive E-class.

[BrakeDancer]

Can't vote, but under budget.

September 2021. It was my first foray into putting down money for a car after years of procrastination and having been used to the general convenience of having a cab on your doorstep at the click of a few buttons. Considering that I'd be new to the whole 'ownership experience' and the associated learning curve, I didn't want to splurge heavily, but at the same time wanted something that would make me want to drive every time I turned the ignition on. My budget was 22 lacs. However, after having deeply considered most options I zeroed down on the top trim City in its petrol automatic version. Cost me 18 lacs on road including everything. Best decision I made.

[niranjan.mulye]

I had finalised the Creta in June 2021. I was still reluctant due to the lack of VFM factor. I always felt it was overpriced. Some 6th sense of mine kept holding me from booking the car. Come August, the XUV 700 was revealed and I was sold just by looking at the videos and the rest is history. Booked on the first day, luckily got the car by December end.

Budget worked out to be around 6 Lakhs more than the Creta but it was worth it.

[charanreddy]

All times decided on a Budget and stuck to it. I religiously assess all factors and list down non-negotiable ones and Budget is one of them.

1. Chevrolet Beat 2012 Diesel LS : Bought new for 4.98 Lakhs Ex showroom.

Needed a frugal diesel with in budget as I was going for my first car for 80% loan. Decided on my budget after looking at take home, responsibilities etc and stuck to it. Was very tempted by Swift VDI, but looked the other way as it was 2L more expensive.

Sold this in 2021 with 1,03 lakh KMs on the Odo for 1.25 Lakhs to Cars 24.

2. Maruti Zen MPFI - MY 2002 : Bought for 1.15 Lakhs in 2014.

Needed a frugal car for my parents to commute in village. Key considerations were budget and easy to maintain. Got it at about 70K KMS from a long time family friend and sold it off in 2017 with 90K Kms on the odo and just before FC renewal for INR 78K. The car picked up some dings along the way with a cracked windscreen but still sold for INR 78K.

3. 2018 Tata Nexon Diesel XZA+ : Bought new for 10.3 Lakhs ex Showroom.

Again needed a frugal automatic (thanks Bangalore traffic and a tired left leg) with a 10 Lakh budget and decided on the Nexon for the awesome overall package. Still going strong with 50K KMS+ on the odo and close to 4 years age. Would have been much more if not for Covid (daily office run is 45 Kms total). Will be passing this on to my brother in mid-Q3 as I have taken up an overseas appointment.

4. 2013 Honda City SMT : Bought in 2021 for my brother at Rs 3.5 Lakhs with 1.28 Lakh KMs on the Odo from a known friend who lives just 3 houses away from me. Car has done 10K KMS till date with no issues. Still runs like a charm and offers immense practicality.