Dad called me one day and told me he had sold our Punto! and asked to me to find a new car. We were planning to sell this car since last few months, I never imagined finding a buyer for this Fiat would be so easy and it would fetch a good amount.
There was not really a need to upgrade at all, the Punto I had bought in 2009 was aging really well, with no niggles or issues, it was holding well and might have lasted atleast a decade before throwing some serious tantrums. The service from Tata service centers was as pathetic as it could have been, but then the long 15,000km interval and niggle free nature of car kept my visits to Tata at a bare minimum, at times I even sourced the parts from Tata and got the car serviced outside(what a huge relief!).
It was Dad's idea to sell the Punto and upgrade to some other car, this time I wanted a Crossover or maybe a SUV with 4wd, though there was no need, both Punto and Laura regularly took me to places people normally do not take their hatchbacks and sedans. One thing was clear, If it had to be a Sedan, it should be a Euro car. Upgrading to a sedan looked like a boring idea, we already had the best sedan which is brilliant to drive and very satisfying to own, so the idea of getting a Jetta or another Laura was not really clicking. Picking a sedan from lower segment was a even terrible idea, I had no interest in going for Rapid or Vento, end of the day they do not feel like proper Euro cars, however hard they try they cannot hide the fact that they are Polo with boot and bigger engine, coming from Punto they hardly seemed like a upgrade(except the extra power).
There were no perfect 4wd SUV/Crossovers, each one had its own set of disadvantages-
Ever since the Launch Skoda Yeti 4x4 looked like a very appealing car to me, excellent road manners, gem of an engine mated to a equally good 6 speed manual with closely stacked ratios, a haldex AWD system.... But I already had a Skoda! There is nothing wrong with my Laura, it has proved to be as reliable as the Japs and Koreans, but Skoda Dealers are not worth trusting, Skoda has little control over them. Getting warranty warranty approvals takes months, I do not really want both my cars to be Skoda/VW.
Scorpio 4wd looked promising, at 11.80lakhs ex showroom it surely is very expensive for an ageing vehicle, I had this SUV in my mind all along, I had driven a mhawk for thousands of kilometers earlier and I knew exactly what Scorpio was all about about. This was the Plan B, there was no Plan A but Plan B was Scorpio 4wd, Java Brown color with cladding in Brown, Captain seats. A dealer in Delhi was even offering insurance free and delivery within 3-4 weeks of a freshly manufactured car in my choice of color and seating. This was a proper old school truck with proper 4wd system and a solid rear axle, it would easily take me everywhere I wished. But compared to the competition the Interiors looked bad, dynamics were bad, gadgetry was all useless and seats were uncomfortable, all in all it felt more of an compromise.
Few months back, Duster 4wd was it for me, expecting a price of one lakh rupees over 10.99lakhs of RXZ variant, it was expensive for what it offered but still it took care of most of the requirements. But 4wd variant was nowhere to be seen, and Renault over the time had bumped up the price by around 70,000 Rupees. I would have dropped my 4wd plans for a 2wd variant if the pricing was any sensible.
The local Renault dealership in Gurgaon was even pathetic, I had booked two cars earlier, one for my cousin and another for a close friend, while my friend dropped the booked(after getting 5k deducted and went in for a Rexton, I took delivery RXL 80hp for my cousin after they refused me delivery of the lower variant I had booked only because this car came at the old price.
In December we drove a Duster 85hp RXLto a holiday in Jaisalmer, we were five people in the car, and I spent a good amount of time behind steering and on all the seats to form a solid informed opinion on the car, this was not the car for me, for sure. The RXZ variant had interiors which felt like a downgrade even compared to my Punto, the cost cutting was evident everywhere, even minor stuff like HVAC controls and beam height adjust felt worse than a basic Hyundai i10, chrome plating and beige inserts did not fool us into accepting it to be worthy of its price. My biggest concern were the small front seats and the fixed rear seats that did not recline even a inch, ergonomics were weird too. Ride quality was AWESOME, at up all kind of roads without losing composure and still staying flat(for a SUV) most of the time. Handling and steering were strictly average, under hard the rear always struggled to kick out of the intended line and this car desperately needs ESP, check the ELK tests to find what I am talking about.
Mahindra XUV 500 was not a candidate till now, but since I was sort of mentally prepared to let go my 4wd drive ambitions, I decided to check it out. I had driven XUV several times and I had liked it, but never saw it from a buyer's perspective, I did not know the exact prices, all I knew was that top of the line AWD was expensive. A visit to local Mahindra dealer changed my perspective, pricing was much lesser than I had thought, the lowest w6 variant at 11.70 ex showroom was around the same price as top end Duster, at the same price the seating and some other stuff was out of this world, time to consider this one.
I called up Dad and discussed XUV, he did not like the idea much but said buy it if you like it. W6 variant in Red color looked good VFM for me, I was very happy with the package, all I was losing compared to Duster was little bit of Ride comfort and Fuel Efficiency, and adding the probability of more niggles to deal with. I had been following the XUV niggles thread from day one, nothing I had read was serious enough to scare me off, or maybe I am brave enough with cars, first I traded my Swift for a Punto, then moved to a Laura from my Elantra and now a XUV!
Long waiting lists fades away all the new car excitement I have, Punto was already gone and we wanted the replacement to arrive ASAP. Sterling Mahindra Gurgaon sales guys were decent to talk to but they were not open to negotiations of any sorts, Thank you Bye Bye! Sri Durga staff was a lot better, we started negotiations with a 2 month wait, to a 21 day offer from Mahindra to a Silver w6 in and finally ended with ready delivery of a red W6, all because I promised upfront payment, no Finance no Loan, cash transferred directly to their account.
Red XUV 500 W6 was almost final, I asked the sales executive to wait for a day or two till I make up my mind. Thought about it all day long, even most of the night, talked to close friends just to check alternate opinion, I was never confused regarding cars, this was the first time. An idea popped my mind, How about trying some options in used car market before finalizing this one, what's the harm anyways, I am paying cash and there might be a good car waiting for me. I scanned the Internet and newspapers from previous weeks, saw hundreds of XUVs before I came across two W8 AWD cars, one black and other one white, both less than a year old and done close to 10k. Called up and checked with these dealers, both cars were available, but the black one was 2wd.
XUV AWD solves all the problems for me, I do not need a hardcore 4wd, I can live without low range, I do not really want to take it to OTRs. We visited this used car dealer. This white car looked too good to be true, Gurgaon registered, absolutely all clean bodywork, everything notch, most of the plastic covers not even removed, we were not bothered about the rather high asking price which we were sure would come down when the dealer sees some cash. I drove the car, everything was right, all stuff working, no signs of wear or high usage. But I should not be trusting these used car dealers, the digital odo meters are so easy to clock, be it anything, my experience with cars was damn sure this car could not have seen more than 20k under any circumstances. The next day we walked in to a Mahindra Service center, and narrated our situation to a service advisor, he was keen to help and got us a printout of the service history, and it matched with what the dealer was claiming, the car had a consistent usage in a set pattern and had come for a minor job last month. Everything was good now, except the price. We went the next day with token amount, checked the car thoroughly again for everything, just like a forensic team we checked the car over and over again and everything was ok, all the panels were factory painted, for everything else there was a warranty left. Papers were all genuine, we started with negotiations, that went on and on for the rest of the day, end of the day I said Yes with a token. Was it Expensive, Cheap, Steal?? I feel it was just the right price for this car, in fact similar to other similar 2wd we could have managed. The fact that there are not much buyers for the AWD variant helped us score a good price.