[FlashMustang]

Background
Primary car
My current car is a 2012 Honda City V AT, which I bought it new in July 2012. The current odometer reading is a little over 72,000 km.

Primary car's upkeep
I have been the sole driver of this car all these years. I have also been maintaining the car well, with regular servicing at the Honda authorized service center every 3-4 months/5,000 km, whichever is earlier. The car runs well, and has been my primary driver for office commute every day as well as for inter-city travel with family, when required.
I intend to continue driving this car myself. I am wary of letting chauffeurs driving it.

Work situation
My work hours are typically long, and I start my work days typically between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m., and return home sometime between 6:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. with some miscellaneous work and meetings thereafter from home. I also work six days a week, though I typically wrap up my Saturdays sometime between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. This mostly leaves Sundays as the only truly off-day of the week.

Parents' situation
My elderly parents (in early 70s and late 60s respectively) live in the same city as us, about 15 km away. With my work situation, almost all errands for both my family and my parents get slotted into the Sundays of the week, with me becoming the bottle-neck to take them around for most of the needs.

We currently use app based cabs for my parents' needs.
Some of the challenges with this option:

1. My parents are not tech-savvy, and find it difficult to use these apps. Their primary use of phones are to make and receive calls.
2. Lack of knowledge of the local language is a barrier to explain destinations and directions to someone coming in new every-time for each ride.
3. My wife helps them with cab bookings for now, but, in these cases, it becomes a three-way communication among the driver, my wife, and my parents with regard to explaining their current location to the driver and the destination. We also make additional calls to my parents re-confirming their safe pick-up and drop for each trip when we book cabs for them.

The need
I am considering getting a second car as a beater car, and employing a full time chauffeur for the car, to help my family.
Some of the typical uses I expect the beater car with chauffeur to serve are as follows:

1. Helping my wife (she doesn't drive and doesn't wish to drive in the city traffic) with any local trips for purposes such as shopping, any medical visits for periodic check-ups, personal care, and other household needs.
2. Helping my parents with trips to nearby temples, their local shopping needs, scheduled visits to hospitals for their periodic medical care, any visits to banks, etc.
3. Helping visit each other. Right now, for the most part, we visit my parents, but, a beater car would make it easier for them to visit us as well.

Expected running
I expect the beater car to run somewhere around 150-200 km a week.

Considerations for the beater car
1. Open to pre-worshipped and new cars:
I am indifferent to the beater being bought pre-worshipped or new. Having ardently read the forum's thread on pre-worshipped cars (main thread (ARTICLE: Buying a New Car vs Used Car), pre-worshipped beater car thread (Pre-worshipped car of the week : The cheap beater car)), I must confess that I am leaning towards the pre-workshipped route. However, if buying new would help consideration #4 below, I am open to buying a new car.

2. Budget:
I am willing to budget up to a total of about 6 lakhs. Obviously, lesser is better, but, can stretch the budget slightly beyond, if there would be long-term value in doing so.

3. Moderate level of comfort:
The beater is expected to be used for short rides, with one or two passengers in most cases (in addition to the chauffeur). Hence, moderate leg-room and knee-room and basic level of comfort from seats should suffice. My dad or my wife who might need more leg room could easily push the co-driver seat to the maximum forward position and enjoy more leg room in the rear seat. My mom is not very tall and so leg room and knee room might not be constraints for her. I am not expecting this car to have loads of leg room and comfortable seats to suit long road trips for hours on end. More comfort would be nice to have, but not a must have.

4. Abuse friendly, easy and cheap to maintain:
I don't wish to lose sleep over how the chauffeur might be driving the car. Scratches from other vehicles, scratches from parking at inconvenient or tight places, broken side view mirrors due to other vehicles, and other such abuses are to be taken in stride and replaced/repaired. I would like consider these as expenses as part of owning the beater car and move on. However, I would like to avoid footing huge bills for such expenses. I would be open to maintaining the cars at authorized service centers, as well as at FNGs, but, I have no prior experience of maintaining cars at FNGs. However, I am willing to learn, if required.

5. Transmission option:
Having driven an automatic transmission car all these years, I would prefer the beater to be automatic too, as it would allow me to take the beater for my use if my primary car is out at the service center. I am also influenced by this thread (Why even chauffeur-driven owners should choose an Automatic gearbox). In case I end up buying a good and a comfortable pre-worshipped car, I wouldn't mind driving it myself for a few out-station trips with family. This would be an added benefit, but again, I am willing to stay flexible on this consideration.

6. Fuel type:
Open to both petrol and diesel options. But, given the expected higher running, I believe diesel cars might make it pocket friendly over the ownership period. However, petrol cars with good fuel efficiency might serve my purpose too. The intent is to keep the running costs low.

7. Safety:
Since the car's primary intended purposes are for short city runs at low speeds, cars with high safety are not a primary requirement. Better safety features would be nice to have, but, not a must-have.

8. Form factor and boot capacity:
I am indifferent to the form factor. My dad uses a walker to assist with his walking, so, carrying the walker in the car would be a requirement when my parents are driven around in the car.

Candidates
Potential options - New cars
Here's the list I compiled of potential options, if I go the route of getting a new car:


Potential options - Pre-worshipped cars
Here's a list I compiled based on looking through some of the ads on used car websites:


Some of the used cars seem to be available at prices that fall within the budget. However, I am unsure if they are a good buy given the odometer readings and the year of make of the cars and the brands.

Notes:

1. I have not personally taken a look at the options considered (new and pre-owned), nor have first-hand experience with them. These are based on a desk research. I have also not explored the pre-worshipped options in detail. They are based on a quick web search for a few hours just to get an initial idea of the options available and price ranges quotes on websites. I understand that it requires a lot of leg-work and research to get good options and some negotiations to get the right car and the right price.
2. I am looking to finalize this and complete this purchase sometime over the next three-four months. This thread is part of my preliminary research, looking for guidance at the start of my purchase journey, before I go too far in any wrong/mis-guided direction.
3. The considerations I have put together above is based on my limited knowledge. I am willing to reconsider and change them based on inputs from practical experiences of others.

Looking forward to guidance from esteemed members of the community.
Thank you for your help, everyone!

[GTO]

Love such detailed "what car" queries .

Originally Posted by FlashMustang

I am considering getting a second car as a beater car, and employing a full time chauffeur for the car, to help my family.

Great call . Must pamper our parents the way they did us when we were kids.

Suggested options:

- Brand New WagonR 1.2L. Will suit your needs perfectly. Very practical beater, the new one has better ride quality, easy ingress, tall seating, spacious and you will enjoy the 1.2L whenever you drive it. Go for this option if you want something more straight-forward (used cars require a lot of effort to find + buy).

- Used Corolla. Tall seating, reliable, practical, all-rounder. Will also nicely compliment the City. Incidentally, Moderator Aditya just came back yesterday from a round-trip to Hyderabad in his Corolla!

- A used Maruti like the Ertiga (top choice) or S-Cross.

- A used Honda WR-V. Taller seating, really nice ride quality, can be maintained by the Honda folks you know.

[Vinod_nair]

Excellent homework done, your Excel spreadsheet reminded me of my working days.

As GTO suggested Wagon R is the true workhorse, you can literally move a household intercity.

I had one for 4 years, before I moved on to Nexon.

[gkveda]

Used grand i10 (Automatic) with less kms on ODO and less than 3 years old are available within 5 to 5.5 lakhs.

Very easily drivable car within city. So, if in case, you or better-half take driver's seat, you \she will start loving the ease of driving(if you go for Automatic, I am sure you can see some change in your better half and she will love it)

(just as an instance) My wife has DL since 10 years but was afraid of driving till very recently(with Santro manual). However, after i10 automatic came home, she now expresses her desire to drive on long journey although she has not driven i10 so far. This is a big change for me.

Main point, Your parents can get back side AC and features loaded car with decent power. Parents might also appreciate plushness and luxury feel when they sit in car.

Personally, even I prefer to drive i10 over Fortuner in city. Sometimes, even for long journey, my heart itches for i10 although I finally pick fortuner only.

[asit.kulkarni93]

If you can find a decent Honda Jazz CVT then please pick it up. I would have also recommended the Amaze Diesel CVT, but I doubt you will be able to get one under 6 lakhs in the pre-owned car market. The Honda Jazz has easy ingress & egress. The boot is humongous and the CVT is surprisingly fuel efficient and smooth. If you can stretch and get a pre-owned Amaze diesel CVT then nothing like it. It will help you save a lot on running cost.

[V.Narayan]

Well thought through analysis and good clarity of thought.

If I were you I'd go for a new Wagon R as choice number 1 and a pre-owned Ertiga as choice number two. In my circle of relatives I have observed older folks getting in and out of these two with maximum comfort and least struggle. Also both are high on practicality, space, carrying tall items etc.

Best of luck. Let us know where the dice falls.

[Researcher]

Kudos to you for your detailed analysis!

I prefer the pre-owned ones, and will like to add two from my side (in addition to the suggested Corolla and Ertiga):

1. SX4 ZXi Automatic- You will get one from early 2010s at a good price (should be 5 lac at the max). I believe the 4 speed gearbox is still used in Ciaz, Ertiga/XL6, Brezza and S-Cross. They are usually cheap to buy and run with acceptable FE when driven sedately. Safety-wise, its just dual airbags and ABS. I own a 2008 manual one from 2017 and have been quite happy with it overall, like a typical fuss-free Maruti. Recently, BHPian vigsom shared his experience with a pre-owned one - (Experiences with a 2010 Maruti SX4 Automatic). I am posting an ad below from Olx Hyderabad (apparently the only automatic SX4 on sale):
https://www.olx.in/item/maruti-suzuk...iid-1624901966

2. Honda Jazz CVT- Having an Honda already, you will be quite at ease with this. Great space management on the inside (better than SX4), a good engine-gearbox combo. There are quite a few listed on Olx Hyderabad, but I believe it will shoot your budget by 50k or more. This will be easier to manage than the SX4 due to its size.

Good luck hunting.

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by GTO

- Used Corolla. Tall seating, reliable, practical, all-rounder. Will also nicely compliment the Civic. Incidentally, Moderator Aditya just came back yesterday from a round-trip to Hyderabad in his Corolla!

+1
We have two 2009 Altis VL AT in the family. One is a beater and other one has been beaten As the latter was given to some of our office staff for few weeks/months, just spent 40k on it's overhaul and its back to its glory just like the first one that is regularly serviced and cared. I plan to keep both for another 2 years atleast. Even though there are enough cars in the house, these beaters have proven to be reliable inspite of them being exclusively chauffeur driven. The resale is horrid so why change it. The back seat is great, VL model was fully loaded with leather seats etc.
If you find a well maintained one, it will feel even more premium that your city and you might swap to make the city the beater instead.

[hellmet]

If looking to buy new, your requirements have S-Presso written all over it. The S-Presso is the new WagonR, in terms of size and bootspace.

We recently bought one ourselves for my parents to use. It fit the bill just perfectly for what my dad wanted:

A very enjoyable 1 liter K10, with AGS, powerful A/C, touchscreen-infotainment with steering mounted controls. Rear legroom is also excellent for a product in this class.

The driver is my dad himself. It's my parents' primary and only car.

Steer away from the Kwid AMT even in the 1.0 avatar, IMO. It's response is slow and the engine is nowhere close to the K10 w.r.t performance.

And yes, the S-Presso is ugly, but it looks far better in person in the red, silver and grey avatars.

[S15]

A slightly different take, but pass on the Honda City to them, and buy something newer for yourself.

Their usage, by the looks of it seems will be quite limited, and the 6 lakhs would be far better utilized in getting yourself something newer, like a Kia Sonet or a XUV 300.

[AYP]

Any reason why the Ignis is not being considered? It is a segment above the WagonR and it shows when you sit inside it(and also from the outside). The Delta variant will exceed your budget by 50-60k but since Ignis does not sell as much as the Swift, a 20-30k discount is generally always available. Being an SUVish hatch, it has a very decent ground clearance as well. Yes, you may loose out on some features when compared to the WagonR ZXI, but many of these missing amenities can be added later whereas the core of the car can't be changed.

My pick would be the Ignis. If you are willing to add another 30k, the Zeta offers you the alloys and the 7 inch touchscreen system as well which has android auto and carplay.

[lamborghini]

This is a great initiative!

Some thoughts :

1) Since it's for your elderly parents, avoid low slung cars like the Civic - especially over the years.

2) Since this would be your first pre-owned vehicle & that too chauffeur driven - avoid that tempting Laura unless it's really in great nick and you are tempted to use it as a daily & give the chauffeur your City.

3) A lot of people have suggested the Corolla which is really a great option!
We have a 2017 Altis CVT being used exclusively by the chauffeur to ferry mom around & the odd beater duties that come with it. The previous generation is equally reliable & comfortable.
The only con is fuel economy of the petrol AT which is dismal! Since it's going to be chauffeur driven, look for the unpopular diesel variant, or petrol manual which may do slightly better.

4) GTO & Researcher have suggested some great options like the Jazz (dismal resale in your favour), S-Cross, Ertiga.
Our 2016 S-Cross has also seen multiple chauffeurs behind the wheel for 80% of it's odo (60K Km), and despite a really bad run the last 20,000kms (entirely chauffeur driven, 200km/day within city limits, in Mumbai monsoons with the monsoon ravaged roads) - it's held up really well! Yes, it does require some work & has had a few niggles which are common for the vehicle. Would be a pick over the Ertiga for it's better build quality & ride + handling.
Also amongst the most friendly for ingress & egress.

5) Other options to look at would be the abuse friendly Etios & Mobilio, new WagonR

[comfortablynumb]

Originally Posted by FlashMustang

Looking forward to guidance from esteemed members of the community.
Thank you for your help, everyone!

With an expected running of 150-200 kms/week, and considering the upward trajectory of fuel prices, I would recommend a Wagon R in its CNG avatar. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a CNG + AMT variant, if that's important for you.

[SoumenD]

Would have suggested Wagon R like a majority here but since you want an automatic, I won't suggest that. AMTs won't feel that great after having used proper automatics.

You already own a Honda City, so a Jazz CVT would be perfectly seamless transition for you whenever you feel like driving the beater car. You are already used to HONDAs so would feel right at home in the Jazz. The 1.2L iVtec and CVT combo is ultra smooth and decently frugal as well. Space-wise nothing beats it this side to 12L and ingress/egress would be easy for senior citizen parents as well.

[nimishlalwani]

Originally Posted by GTO

Love such detailed "what car" queries .

- A used Maruti like the Ertiga (top choice) or S-Cross.

I would go with GTO on this one. A used Ertiga suits your bill perfectly because:

1. It has all the space and comfort for when your parents/wife want to travel.
2. You can get a diesel Ertiga and forget worrying about running costs.
3. These are reliable and easy to maintain machines. My friend's Ertiga has done 170k kms already and still going strong.
4. Best of all, you can use the extra space to store your dad's walker or travel together as a family.

The only suggestion I'd make is to stretch a little bit more and get a used Marazzo if you can. The comfort levels are something else in the Marazzo, plus it's much safer.