Hi All
This post ended up having a superbly long one. So here's a quick take of the things i liked and some that I didn't:
Thumbs Up:- The look! I know it's a like it or Hate it design, specially because of that rear, but i love it!
- Very Car like to Drive
- Has almost all the features of a fully loaded contemporary car.
- Built to last. Almost all things looks and feel sturdy.
- Has the old world Honda charm which has worn off in the current times sadly.
Thumbs Down- It's a Guzzler and How!
- Bumps come in at low speeds. Not the HEXA material here.
- No DRL's despite having the provisions in the assembly :(
- Availablity of Costly Spares is a big hinderance thanks to this one falling in a 'bombed' car unlike Civic.
In January 2020, if anyone would have asked why don't you own a car in Mumbai, I would have told plenty of reasons of happily not owning one, some of them being:
- Cramped Roads of Bombay can never offer the 'joy of driving'
- It's better to have Ola's and Uber's of the world with you having all the time at the rear seat instead of being on the driver's seat
- The self driving apps give you ample of choices to play around with different rides.
Boom - And then Corona Happened! Suddenly, without a Car, you were simply not safe on the road!
And after four months of crazy twists and turns between new vs. old, Sedan vs. C-SUV's and Crossovers, it finally resulted in this:
The Prelude
I used to own a pre-owned 8th gen Civic that i bought from a fellow TBHPian. Civic was a dream come true for me!
It was a car that i first experienced after learning how to drive, when i was in school. So was pretty much a first love!
And that was the car that literally made me say to myself -
"One day!"
The deal just happened out of nowhere as if it was destined to, and suddenly, I was driving THE civic!
Quite simply, a Civic still sets my heart racing with it's 'spacecraft'ish' looks, go-kart'ish stance and pure bliss behind the wheels of a rev happy motor.
I've had some really memorable, largely hassle-free time with the vehicle.
While on the lookout for the new car, I actually quite seriously considered buying another 2012 AT civic that I saw at a dealership in pune. It looked like it was coming straight out of factory, but then an extra hard steering on that, plus the resistance from family towards buying a 2012 vehicle made me let it pass.
From No Car to Which Car?
I love driving, but not in Mumbai (wonder who does, specially at these times when the already cramped roads are now dug up, thanks to Metro). I sold my civic in 2016 and quite frankly, the uber's and the Ola's were keeping me happy with the new found charm of sitting on the backseat and doing things other than driving for a change! Despite the occasional irritants like some unkempt cars, some idiotic drivers and 'kaha jana hai' based cancellations from drivers, I had a pretty okay experience of 'not owning a car'.
In this journey, i even subscribed to Zoomcar's Zap Subscription by getting a Creta manual for almost 9 months just to explore.
Guess what, being an early adapter to the platform, i got a perk from zoomcar to attend the one day Mahinda Adventure Academy Experience too courtesy Zoomcar.
Yes those were the days for this company which seems to be struggling sadly in the current times, pretty much like this jeep that i found myself in at the Mahindra Adventure Academy in Nashik:
Coming back to the main topic, I was completely clueless which car to buy ,and of course, like most of us, ended up spending way more hours on TBHP trying to figure out which car.
I tried answering it in my head:
- I definitely wanted a 'fun to drive' car.
- If it wasn't Covid and if I were to still buy a car, the criteria was pretty simple then - A weekend, fun to drive Sedan! I'm not a SUV guy, thanks to my fun times with go cartish Civic stance. Driving the Creta via the Zap Subscription only cemented that thought! (no offence to creta owners!)
- Since the purchase was during Covid, the thought of having an absolute workhorse was a strong one. (Read 'It was clear that i should be going for a no nonsense VFM Car following only the mind, not the heart!' How little do i know myself haha!)
- The budget was anything between 9-12 Lakhs, however was keeping it open.
- The mind said, go ahead and buy a decent Hatch (and save funds), the Heart was stuck on a Lateral Upgrade!
The Contenders
I kept my options open with respect to the body type and the segments.
Around that time itself, Skoda had launched the refreshed Rapid, which i did seriously considered. I even waited for the Automatic version to get launched, despite knowing what Skoda can do with it's ownership troubles.
Somehow the heart was never convinced, the mind did find some solid rationale in buying a rev happy 9 L rupee car which is a 10 year old design.
And that's why, three things became important while looking at used cars:
- Sorted Driving Dynamics
- Spacious Cabin + an old world ~2L Engine
- Preferably a Direct deal (with lot more patience) as I really saw the crazy manipulations that the dealers do.
Cars that I considered and turned down:
Skoda Octavia - Can't rule out the absolute performer, but then, the cars which were under warranty were simply out of my budget, and i did not want to bring an octavia with out of warranty worries.
2018 Manual SX Elantra - I got a fantastic deal on a 2018 Elantra. Under warranty, single owner car used by a young musician with 20Kms on Odo. Got it checked at Hyundai ASS and got all thumbs up! Paid the token for an agreed price of 9.6 L!!! The guy was in urgent need of money. I asked him that i can pay only after getting the NOC from HDFC Bank Loan. That proved to be a miss as the person ended up selling the car to a dealer, who happily paid the amount to him without waiting for NOC. That really made me wonder if i played a lil too safe on this deal, as the car was in real good shape!
Hyundai Creta The true popularity of Creta shines through in the used car Market. One can literally buy any model, any color, any variant that one fancies. I, with my 9 months of 'ownership' wasn't very sure if I wanted one, but it seemed that it was perhaps the only choice that I could practically make considering my budget and the need for a fuss-free ownership for a decently specced car.
Tata Hexa I loved the XTA when i test drove it during it's launch. I was seriously considering this but somehow could never decide about any particular deal. This was the case where neither the heart nor the mind was fully in control.
3 Series BMW The thought kept flirting with me to explore the legendary 3. I did speak to someone looking to sell a pristinely maintained 2014 F20 for 14L. I let it pass, as i wanted to keep my budgets under 12, no matter what.
Honda CR-V This car defied all logic and all practical considerations i was having.
But such is the 'power of dreams' as Honda says!
Based on the Civic platform itself, this Crossover indeed is very car-like to drive and if dare I say, has the old-world charm of the blissful Honda Designs, before Honda decided to take the Hyundai Route of excessive busy lines. I loved CR-V when it was launched and this is indeed THE car that i wanted along with Civic
My previous ownership of Civic + the usual niggles it comes with; the usual Honda Service issues etc. is something that gave me further confidence in going for it. It was a known, comfortable territory within the used car universe!
I may sound biased, but I genuinely feel that one can easily tell that Honda saw a change of Design leadership, when we witnessed the 10th Gen civic missing the benchmarks set by it's predecessor. Ditto for most of other models. CRV got the brunt of the same by a non performing diesel engine that was offered more as an afterthought IMHO. I seriously started looking out for 2016/17 petrol models, despite knowing it's guzzling nature!
There's a serious dearth of CR-V's in Mumbai. Not many are crazy to go for a petrol guzzler that does not offer serious butch off-roading capabilities!!!
Specially if you're looking for 2016/17 models. Most of the models offered by dealers are in 2014 bracket, and because we're talking about dealers, one can never be sure of what the real journey of car has been.Also, most of the CR-V's are company leased vehicles that are being sold to dealers after the tenure ends. This means almost all the deals that you get are 1L + on odo.
I gave a very very serious search online for almost 3 months, including approaching a few brokers who sounded genuinely interested in getting me a clean vehicle. One of them really tried his genuine efforts indeed and i actually missed 2 2015 2.4L models by a whisker.
During my search online, I had visited Cars24 too, and had shortlisted a couple of cars including Elantras, Tucsons, Hexa's and a few more. I had a fairly decent experience with Cars24 earlier while selling my Civic to them, and that surely helped.
Time was running out.
I wanted to initiate the process to evaluate the car in person, with an intention that if I end up liking any good one out of the shortlisted ones, i'll seal the deal.
Sadly, when i was eager to give business to Cars24, their sales/support staff seamed least interested in getting the deals done. I literally followed up for each car with the relationship manager on my own, but they were simply not keen to act on it.
In between I had come across the Elantra i mentioned above. The lockdown was coming to an end, and there were instances when the need for a vehicle was felt, specially for outstation trips. I ended up giving the Token, but after two days the seller backed out and i was back to square one!
On the very next day, I get a call from a very young chap from Cars24 called Craig. He probably was cold calling, as he must have seen that i was aggressively searching for various models some time back but then it did not materialise into anything. He's a young chap who is super enthusiastic about cars. I ended up telling him my experience of the cancelled elantra deal apart from the fact that how hard i was looking for a good CR-V in mumbai, but seems that there's no models left from 16-17 crop.
And that's when, on the same day he tells me to checkout this December 2015 registered car with 27K on odo, which is company registered, maintained and owned. He said that there are already 3 more buyers lined up for the same from Cars 24 itself (via other relationship managers). It may sound a lil over the top, but he felt the pain of me missing out on Elantra, and he said I'll do my best to get you this CR-V since you love the vehicle, to make up for the lost deal.
We went the very next morning at 8:30 am to check the car.
I could see the drive with which Craig was approaching this deal too.(there were 2 more guys chasing this within cars24! I initially thought of it as a sales tactic but later on learnt that it was indeed the case while casually talking to the seller after the deal!)
Car looked clean from head to toe. There was a CA doing the deal on the company's behalf. He could see that I'm genuinely interested in the Car. I requested him that despite Cars24's test, I'd still want to get the car evaluated at Honda ASS. If all cleared, i was ready to do the transaction the same day. He agreed.
I took a good long test drive from Andheri to Sewri (arya honda) to get it checked from a trusted Honda supervisor i know there.
I was given a huge Green Signal on the condition. The car had a very detailed maintenance history that was corroborated with Honda ASS too.
The only thing that was malfunctioning were the Boot open/close struts, which costed 8K for the pair.
The deal was sealed.