[BlackPearl]

Originally Posted by petrol_power

What do you guys consider when buying your second car. Do you buy it with functional considerations like above, or just buy the vehicles which your heart says? Is there any definite calculations and parameters checked while planning a multi car garage ? (I am not considering various brands and their service levels here).

I don’t know whether it is just listening to the heart or my paranoia for having a back up of everything that I ended up with a Bolero and Thar in India and then a Range Rover Sport and Defender 90 in the UK. But I can definitely say that there has been no calculation involved. The basic criteria have been capable go anywhere vehicles with low ratio gearbox!

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by Axe77

At the risk of generalising, culturally, there is also a bit more of “keeping up with the Joneses” in certain parts of the country compared to others. That might play its part too.

Actually that cultural difference is massive. At the risk of generalising, folks in some places would be impressed if a young lawyer or banker turns up in a 3 series. On the other hand, about a decade ago, when one of our Associates bought a 3 series, we actually forbade him from taking it for client meetings - would not do that today, as the Germans have become far more commonplace in Bombay.

[petrol_power]

Originally Posted by armaan_singh

I work with the ultra luxury segment of real estate in the NCR region.

Armaan

Originally Posted by Axe77

Personally I think once you’ve actually “arrived”, whatever be the field of work, it is mostly irrelevant what car you drive or other comparable flashy accessories. I can understand if perhaps there are some limited exceptions to this of course but for most part I do believe this to hold true.
.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I think it is always irrelevant what you drive, arrived or not. There are some people that believe otherwise.

I am sure there is, to some extend, a cultural component to it. Showing up at Greta’s talk about safe the planet in your RangeRover might get you some frowns, if not eggs in your face.

Life is way too short to try and impress others by the size of your car.

Jeroen

As mentioned by Armaan, I have also noticed the same, especially in real estate field. I once saw a site visit done by the company in which I was working along with external architect for their upcoming new building. Our department head arrived in an old Skoda Superb (even though he could have easily afforded very premium brands), where as the flashy architect came in a Lexus ES300h. And in sites, many a times the vehicles are parked just outside the meeting area and everyone can see that. Architect goes for his pitch with great energy and his "arrival" in Lexus did add a flavor to his personality.

So I guess it matters for some "specific type/ nature of jobs ".

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by petrol_power

his "arrival" in Lexus did add a flavor to his personality.
.

Why would anybody believe his skills and competence as an architect are related to his car? The overhead he needs to charge too you definitely is, but driving a car does nothing for your professional skills.

The question here is the following: Why are people so gullible as to be impressed by a person because of the car they drive?

Jeroen

[petrol_power]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Why would anybody believe his skills and competence as an architect are related to his car? The overhead he needs to charge too you definitely is, but driving a car does nothing for your professional skills.

The question here is the following: Why are people so gullible as to be impressed by a person because of the car they drive?

Jeroen

Okay, so well know how branding/ marketing works, right? Why did people aspire to buy a Raymonds suit? Because of the following:
1. The self confidence a person gets when he wears Raymonds suit. And how did that person get self confidence, because of the power of branding.
2. The recognition he used to receive if the near-by person notices he has Raymonds branding. In-fact people of similar stature or above can even identify from the type of suit that it used to be Raymonds.

Anyways that's how branding works. It captures our sub conscious mind.

In fact when I am thinking more about it, I am able to find this prevalent in many industries. Next point, when client comes to us to present something, each and every aspect in his presentation matters. The person who has a beautiful communication skills who can put things in a holistic way definitely has an upper hand when compared to a person who has content & matter but lacks the flair.

Especially when advertisement agencies/ creative agencies come, I have noticed that there are some brilliant players who used to comes as a larger team with diverse abilities for any meetings in which they will just introduce the capabilities, but they wont have any role in the meeting. Why do you think they do that, and that is how they have been doing for ages, which proves they are being right in it as they are earning business. They could have very well saved the flight ticket charge of bringing them for the physical meeting and could have just shown the website or deck with photos.

So its not just the content, anything can matter at times - attitude, personality, presentation skills, dress he/she wears or even the car he/she has arrived in.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

The question here is the following: Why are people so gullible as to be impressed by a person because of the car they drive?

If someone is in sales, one would never know if a client is "shallow" or not. In that case, they might want to play it safe (lest client thinks that he can't afford a nice car/watch/.. himself and is trying to sell this big investment/house/.. to me).

[sodapop]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Sure, what I meant to illustrate is we each have a car, a very different car. We each take our car for our own journeys. Just because we have a Ford Fiesta sitting in our yard, doesn’t mean I will use it to pop into town. I use my own car.

We are a family, but we still also have separate careers, interests and things to do.so we often travel alone and we often travel together.

I have a company car too. Which doesn’t cost us anything for private usage. (Or rather, irrespective of private usage it cost us the same). My wife will never take my company car, she will take her little Fiesta.

When we travel as family, we tend to take one of my cars or the company tin. I will drive. The only time my wife will drive the car with me as a passenger is when I have had a drink. We alternate. So one of us is the designated driver for the evening, the other is not. If my wife is the driver, we end up taking her little Fiesta. Even if the party we are going to is in Paris.
Jeroen

I feel this showcases the vast difference between the cultures we come from. In India, we are brought up in a very communal way with lots and lots of people around. So it's always "our" car and not mine or yours. Due to this it isn't uncommon really to see people borrowing their friend's or uncle's car etc. very regularly. While on the other hand in the western cultures, individualism rules.

Note: I'm not saying either is better, just pointing out the difference in our thought process

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I think it is always irrelevant what you drive, arrived or not. There are some people that believe otherwise.

I am sure there is, to some extend, a cultural component to it. Showing up at Greta’s talk about safe the planet in your RangeRover might get you some frowns, if not eggs in your face.

So to me, as long as it is about empathy, thoughtfulness it’s fine. If it is about ego and showing off, I am not impressed. Nothing to do with careers or having arrived.

Or perhaps we are saying here that the potential buyers of luxury real estate in Delhi are an extremely shallow lot, that can be easily impressed. I would not know, but I have come met most of the wealthiest people in India. And I might have certain names for them, neither shallow or easy to impress springs to mind.

Life is way too short to try and impress others by the size of your car.

Jeroen

It does make a difference, believe it or not. The car you drive somehow gives a subconscious knock on the other person's head. If you step out of a Lexus, it will definitely portray you as a more "successful" person that somebody who steps out say, an old Corolla. There is a so called image associated with luxury cars which is also why the luxury carmakers sell tons of their cheaper models like the C, CLA, 2/3 Series, A3, Q3 etc when the flagships of decidedly more mass market brands offer far better value for less money.


While "Keeping up with the Joneses" wouldn't resonate with you, when the same Joneses come to you for business, you do need to impress them to earn their time and mindspace

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by petrol_power

1. The self confidence a person gets when he wears Raymonds suit. And how did that person get self confidence, because of the power of branding.

You should re read that sentence. I hope you realise how utterly sad that is. Perhaps not wrong, I am pretty sure there are people out there who’s self confidence relies primarily on material stuff.

Originally Posted by petrol_power

2. The recognition he used to receive if the near-by person notices he has Raymonds branding. In-fact people of similar stature or above can even identify from the type of suit that it used to be Raymonds.

Take a gullible person to recognise another one I guess.

Originally Posted by petrol_power

Especially when advertisement agencies/ creative agencies come,

You must be dealing with very different advertisement / creative agencies than I do. Perhaps you deal differently with them as well.

Any meeting where I am buying, I will open the meeting and tell everybody that I want the pleasantries done in max 1 minute and then I want content.

Anybody without content needs to keep their mouth shut, preferably leave. Once, or twice, I had the whole creative team leave within minutes, because none of them was capable of discussing any real content! Raymond suits and all.

Yes, people respond to all kinds of things, but it is also up to yourself. And what impresses you, says a lot about yourself. Probably more about you than the other guy. He/she is playing you.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by sodapop

. The car you drive somehow gives a subconscious knock on the other person's head. If you step out of a Lexus, it will definitely portray you as a more "successful" person that somebody who steps out say, an old Corolla. )

I must be a real looser than, never ever having owned my own new car! Always second hand, always at least 100.000 km on the clock.

Still, managed to lead, successfully I link to think, a 23000 people organisation in India. I don’t think anybody ever thought any less of me, because I drove old cars.

Same in the USA. My car was just about the cheapest and the oldest on our campus. I don’t think anybody was in any doubt as to whom the CEO was. My assistant drove a brand new Range Rover. I drove a 15 year old $2500 Jeep Cherokee.

Look around you. In India too, there are vastly successful people who do not rely on cars, suits or watches. But when they step inside the room, they fill the room with presence and demand everybody’s attention even before they speak up.

I started my career in the merchant navy. I have sailed with captains who were particular about their uniforms and the uniforms of the crews, but that did not necessarily make them good captains. They were giving my crap about how I needed to wear a smart uniform to get the crew’s respect.

I have sailed with captains that could show up in their undershorts on the bridge and be in total control and earn total respect from the crew. Actually, I did happens once, we came under fire in the Persian Gulf and the captain who was off duty at the time woke up, jumped out of his bunk and ran up to the bridge and took control, in his underpants!

I did not like this navy uniform business at all and ultimately I joined a shipping company that did not have uniform regulations. Attracts a very different kind of seafarer.

Real professional people don’t rely on gimmicks and external material exhibits. They are completely comfortable with themselves and they are genuine. What you see is what you get.

And for me, being professional is a very broad concept. I have dealt with companies where I thought the receptionist was more professional than the CEO.
it is all about attitude, not gimmicks. Works much better, in general much more pleasant and a lot cheaper too!

Just to be clear; I am not saying there are people out there that dress, drive to impress. And that actually works too for some.

I am saying that I prefer to do things differently. If anything it tends to irritate me immensely if I think people are trying to impress me, with stuff that doesn’t matter to me. I don’t care about your gender, your social class, your sexual orientation, your political beliefs, where you come from, where you live, your watch or your car.



Jeroen

[petrol_power]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Same in the USA. My car was just about the cheapest and the oldest on our campus. I don’t think anybody was in any doubt as to whom the CEO was. My assistant drove a brand new Range Rover. I drove a 15 year old $2500 Jeep Cherokee.

Look around you. In India too, there are vastly successful people who do not rely on cars, suits or watches. But when they step inside the room, they fill the room with presence and demand everybody’s attention even before they speak up.

I started my career in the merchant navy. I have sailed with captains who were particular about their uniforms and the uniforms of the crews, but that did not necessarily make them good captains. They were giving my crap about how I needed to wear a smart uniform to get the crew’s respect.

Jeroen

1. You are talking about the system inside an organization.
2. You are generalizing & stamping your theory with a very minimal sample size.

I did not deny that CEO cannot come in Ambassador as its his wish. As I have said above, my previous company head came in old superb.

But I would completely deny the fact that we can be like what we want if we are in a product/service sales organization and trying to pitch for the requirement of the client. The most important aspect is to understand the requirement along with the company culture and multiple other attributes. We cannot wear printed tees when discussing our solutions and products with senior doctors as many doctors want professionalism (and a high ego in India) and I have worked in healthcare industry. Of-course, outliers are there. At the same time, pitching our solution, wearing a suit to facebook CEO also feels out of place. The success of a person/company lies in being dynamic enough to understand and provide what customer needs, not what I have.

So these things cannot be generalized. What you like may not be liked by a few and vice versa. Your concept and business model may not be the concept others have and since the world has successful leaders from different wakes of life, let us not believe that "only I am right". Let us not try to prove we are right or wrong in this. Because we all are right under various circumstances and also wrong under certain circumstances.

[armaan_singh]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Why would anybody believe his skills and competence as an architect are related to his car? The overhead he needs to charge too you definitely is, but driving a car does nothing for your professional skills.

The question here is the following: Why are people so gullible as to be impressed by a person because of the car they drive?

Jeroen

I'll take the second part of that question, while still trying my best to stick to the contents of the thread.
Speaking strictly from experience, many a times we need to take the client on tours of multiple homes before he sets his mind on one, and more often than not atleast In this part of the country, clients are simply not happy riding with you if your car is say a tiny hatch. I've actually lost business on occasion owing to my choice of wheels for that particular meeting.

While this may not be the most appropriate way of going about a transaction, it's a sad reality which one has to adjust too in order to make a go in this line.
That's where the Civic comes in for me, and as stated earlier, for everything else there is an Spresso

[Sheel]

I have a 2 car house.

One 4WD SUV if for the open highway & its uncertainties and the other FTD hatch is for city commutes. Will stick with this combo.

Originally Posted by Axe77

I feel as many folks grow older, the more they appreciate the “value” of money and the less they feel the need to lean on the material stuff to define their stature.

Most, with time and experience, realize that these materialistic things do not define them and in-fact, they over grow these syndromes and are immune to it.

Moreover, if they have to spend, they would rather do so on a distress real estate sale which would fetch them good rentals than even bothering with these. I agree that in very few fields, even if you are mature enough, you have to be seen in an arrived car, those fields can be - cinema / movies, real estate / builders, contractors. But even here, the decision maker is either the son / younger brother kind of associate and not necessarily the *Man* or the *Woman* himself / herself.

[itsbaman]

We have 2 cars for 4 years now. The first one was Skoda Rapid Petrol 2015, our 2nd family car after MS800. Way much comfortable, capable, good handler than outgoing MS800, obviously.

Then after I got married in 2017, I bought another car as I was working far from home, and my father (who is also reasonably passionate about cars) needed a car for their need as well. And he wasn't going to settle for a consolation car in exchange for Rapid. So I went for Ecosport Diesel Titanium for its ground clearance and mileage in addition to the fantastic driving dynamics. I needed ground clearance as I live in the upper Himachal and roads go bad here due to frequent landslides. Now my wife also drives both cars and loves both of them for their driving dynamics.

We don't need another car as we both use public transport for our daily commute and use Ecosport for weekend drives and workplace to hometown journeys. We exchange Rapid once a year for a month and leave Ecosport with my father to enjoy the true car experience which only a sedan can provide (due to the poor fuel efficiency of Rapid in hills, we avoid using it much). Therefore I used both my heart and head to chose our second car. However, my next car will be a sedan as the roads are getting better now.

[Karvel]

Our choice has always been a combo of diesel and petrol. Petrol hatchback more for city driving where soft suspension and easy drive and parking was the priority. Diesel for the mile munching trips whether during the week or holidays.

Hence the diesels always ended up being the bigger one with large luggage space and heavy engines and safety features. The city one's was about comfort and easy handling and safety was not the top priority.

[car_guy1998]

We have two cars, i.e, a 2014 Honda City VMT Diesel and a 2011 Innova VX!

The Innova is used by my dad and driven by the chauffeur most of the time and rarely driven by myself, that too for short distances as I hate driving the Innova in the city traffic! The Innova is preferred when there are more than 4 people during occasions like parties, marriages and it's the most preferred car whenever we do highway trips of more than 500-1000 Kms and this car did a couple of trips to TN before the pandemic entered into our lives and we did trips to Tirupati as well, the recent was in the month of Feb of this year! This car has crossed Telangana and AP state a more than couple of times in 5 years of ownership (bought pre-owned in 2016 when the odo was at 75k Kms and now, it has run close to 1,80,000 Kms)!

Now, the Innova is due for replacement as it is 10-year-old and fuel bills are pinching our pockets as well as it gives 10 Kmpl or less in the city traffic even if we drive sedately! The replacement for Innova would be a 5 seater crossover with Diesel AT like a Jeep Compass or a Kia Seltos mostly as we aren't keen on getting another Innova or a 7 seater as we felt that having a 7 seater is not a need anymore though my dad is still adamant about getting the Innova Crysta as he loves ferrying people in the car! We wanted to get rid of the Innova last year itself, but due to the present pandemic situation, we are forced to keep this car for a while and might sell it off before this year ends!

While the Honda City Diesel is used by myself and mom, who does a daily commute of 25 Kms up and down to her office daily and rarely driven on highways and she hits highways when there are less than 4 people and this car didn't even cross the Telangana state yet! Whenever my mom doesn't go to her office, this car is used by me to go out with friends or for some work and sometimes by my dad whenever he hates taking the Innova out as it is the fuel guzzler and cumbersome to drive when compared to our City! And, the Honda City is used as a beater car as well!

And, we don't see ourselves selling off the City for at least a year as we need to sell off the Innova first and secondly, it gives decent FE in city traffic and it's a reliable workhorse as well but there are few issues, which I need to get the issues rectified soon! BTW, this car was also bought pre-owned in 2017 when the odo was 35k Kms and now, the odo as of today is at 1,09,000 Kms and this was the replacement for 2012 Vento TDI, which we sold it off in early-2017 after doing 1L Kms and the Honda City was bought after 6 months of selling the Vento!

The replacement for the City would be a Petrol AT like Polo GT TSI AT or Rapid TSI AT or City CVT mostly, as our running might get reduced in few months as my mom's office will be less than 10 Kms from our new house, where we will be moving soon! Or else, will replace the City with Thar Diesel AT, which is my present favorite and for my dad as well, in order to fulfill the dream of having a Jeep so that my dad can also drive the Thar whenever he visits our hometown!