Korean, American and now Indian - Our pre-owned Manza BACKGROUND
My wife and I have typically not believed in spending a fortune on our cars. It probably began with my parent going the "pre-owned" route (it helped that my brother's friend was a used car dealer). We inherited this quest for Value and thus we had a pre-owned 2001 Hyundai Santro that faithfully served our travel needs (and continues to do so). With my office merely 2km from my residence and my wife's office even closer, this worked perfectly fine for us. THE SECOND CAR
Two years back we were blessed with a daughter. Post delivery when my wife had to resume work, her work place had moved 17km away from home. My work place too moved 7km away from home. A second car was the need of the hour. Considering our parents/in-laws would be around for some time to support us, we need a car with lots of space. Plus I never liked sedans and always wanted a hatch. With other requirements (like VFM, better ground clearance, compact size, large boot space etc) we (or rather I) narrowed down to a pre-owned Ford Fusion. Wifey took some time getting convinced but agreed stating it needs to be in Black. Searched for over 9 months, before found one in Bombay. Flew down to Bombay (my home city - my parents and most of my family is still there), bought it, had it transported to Bangalore and then been using it for last 2 years. Absolutely loved the car, definitely the most under-rated car as per me. Needless to say, I drove the Ford daily to work while my wifey would be driven (by our driver) to her work place in the Hyundai. Why would i buy a Ford for my driver to enjoy it? CHANGE IS INEVITABLE
Our daughter got admission into the daycare facility setup in my wife's office. WOW !!!! This was a blessing for a working couple like us. How much further could we inconvenience our parents to help us. So my daughter joined my wifey to travel 35km (roundtrip) daily to her daycare, needless to say - always seated in an infant/toddler car-seat. Suddenly the Santro started to feel cramped and uncomfortable. There were toys, books, trinkets everywhere. The bouncy ride at the rear was getting accentuated by pathetic BLR roads (the outer ring road stretch between Sarjapur road and Marathahalli). My driver (unlike most other drivers) drives with the driver's seat pushed furthest back, thus making the rear seat even more cramped (cannot blame him as he is rather tall + we believe the driver must be comfortably seated when driving). Change seemed inevitable, but we were trying to live with it, delay it as much as possible. GOVERNMENT HELPS MAKE PERSONAL DECISIONS
Well, with petrol prices shooting up from Rs 50 (2 years back) to Rs 78 (per liter currently in BLR), a change was definitely INEVITABLE. We could not afford to keep 2 petrol cars with a combined running of over 50KM per day. Fuel expenses were shooting up and we knew it was sooner rather than later to switch to diesel. LETTING IT GO
This was always going to be a very tricky decision. I absolutely loved the Fusion, but the Santro was very close to heart (it was our first car). We also had very limited budget and that meant we had to let go of the Fusion (the Santro would fetch us close to nothing). An post on TeamBHP classifieds helped us find a very passionate buyer (a fellow and ardent BHPian). Was a difficult (but essential) decision that we had to make. THE SEARCH BEGINS
Finding a well-maintained pre-owned Diesel car is NOT easy. Trust me, I have been searching for one for last 3-4 months (while travelling to work on my rickety Kinetic Honda). We had an open mind (or should i admin no clear requirements) when we started. Anything and everything from a used Ford Fusion TDCi to Tata Safari Dicor to Mahindra Scorpio CRDe/mHawk was on our initial list. To be very frank, for some time I was even looking at a pre-owned Chevrolet Tavera as well. But after a couple of weeks, we started to understand what we were looking for (did i mention - this would be used by my wife/kid, not me and would be driver driven)
1. must be a Diesel (heard that before, eh?)
2. Budget of 6L max (ruled out all budget SUVs)
3. Two most important criteria - Backseat comfort/Space and Ride quality.
4. VFM (that's applicable by default to all cars we buy)
5. Preferably something that is still in warranty (a nice-to-have). THE SHORTLIST
Our 5 requirements practically struck off all options we intially had besides three - Tata Indica Vista, Tata Manza and the Ford Figo. The Ford Fusion TDCi made a wildcard entry into this shortlist (though the Ride Quality was known to be bumpy). It was very close to heart and honestly topped our shortlist. Started actively tracking online portals (filtering out any dealer cars). A lot of petrols were up for sale in the market, some extremely mouthwatering deals (e.g. Mitsubishi Cedia) but the focus could not be lost. 3-4 months of active search resulted in no results. PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE
There was none left. My daily commute on my really-old Kinetic Honda on absolutely pathetic BLR roads (probably the worst state ever after we moved here 7 years back) meant any traces of patience left, were vanishing rapidly. Ford Fusion Diesels were not easily available and those which were commanded a huge 2-2.5L premium over their Petrol siblings. This topped the list but was the first to get knocked off. The Vista could not shake off it's Indica tag (and the associated Taxi image) and wifey was strictly against it. The boot space was limited and I was not too keen on the central console. Was struck off the list too. Next was the Figo. There were very few specimens for sale in the pre-owned market and we contemplated buying a new Figo. Test drove one and it was off the shortlist instantly. Reasons?, few but significant. Very noisy (at least the TD car) and we could not stop thinking how similar but inferior it was it was to the Fusion (primarily in terms of space/power/refinement/big-car feel). Left us with the Tata Manza. HYUNDAI, FORD AND NOW A TATA???
Wifey did not like it at all. Her friends/colleagues reconfirmed her doubts. TATA, no WAY !!!! Took me a lot of effort to convince her. She kinda knew that she earlier did not want the Fusion either but it really suited our need, so she agreed but very reluctantly. The Team-BHP official review helped. Further I had posted some time earlier on behalf of my friend who was looking for a car in the 12-15L budget with the best rear-seat comfort (given his back problems) and GTO actually suggested to consider the Tata Manza (while saving a significant amount of money). That was saying a lot, specially from an ex-Tata Indigo owner and a Team BHP stalwart who understands cars very well. So the search began (again). Fortunately a month later found something in budget. This was a 2010 Feb Aura model (unfortunately no ABS). Sparingly run (with under 9K KMS, and some plastic covers still not taken off), Well-maintained. The guy who had bought the car had moved to the US (work assignment) and his father (with a POA) was conducting the sale. Some unfortunate turn of events led to a month's delay but the buyer now was back in India (for a short period). Finally settled the deal and got the car home yesterday. BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.............. |