[jijivishu]

Went with a budget of 9 lakhs otr for the polo hl+ last year.
Bought a turbo edition at 7.8
Head still appreciates the vfm deal we got, yet the heart goes out to cruise control, the tinted windows, rear ac and the mfsw.
Was getting a hl+ for 8.5 otr then, can't get these done in a 70k budget now.
Regrets in the free honeycomb seat covers and spoilers

[GrandTourer]

With both my purchases, I was very clear in my head about what I wanted, and had set the budget for it accordingly. So I would say stuck to my budget. Whether setting the budget at that price point was financially prudent or not, is a whole different conversation

[narayans80]

Original budget was 10L, brought the S-Cross Zeta for 12.8L in Nov 2018. Nothing else below that budget satisfied our use case.

We've more or less stuck to our budget in this case, any segment above would have put a significant monthly expenditure. It was a good decision in restrospect, we foreclosed the loan little under 3 years.

We now a loan free soft road family tourer.

[Latheesh]

Budget?
I did not have any fixed budget when I started looking for car last year. I was without car for little over 2 years after selling my last car and was happy with my bicycles. I started looking for used car and was glued to olx for few months. I just wanted a 'car' that I really 'like'.

Following used cars were checked/test driven.

Tata Nano - few (cheapest was ~ 60K)
Figo
Aspire
Amaze - few
Jazz - few
Honda City - many
Rapid - few
Vento - few
Ecosport
Elantra (Fluidic)
Corolla Altis - few
XUV500
Civic
F30 320D

Decided to go for new car after seeing/test driving many cars from tiny Nano to big XUV.
Booked Polo TSi (~ 8.xx OTR) and cancelled due to delivery issue
Booked Kushaq Active (~ 12L OTR) cancelled due to many 'Skoda v2.0' concerns
Ended up buying Honda City V MT (~ 13L OTR) last year.

[vennarbank]

When i was replacing my WagonR, i was sure of sticking with Maruti and mostly Celerio or Alto AGS and it will be used by my wife. One fancy visit to Ford dealer and i returned with Ecosport AT. So then onwards i shortlist cars across segments and then decide.

[Ess]

Took a test drive of the 330i towards the end of 2020. Luckily, the M340i was announced a couple of days later, before we booked the 330i. A test drive in the M340i as soon as it was available sealed the deal immediately.

Overbudget, yes. But well worth it.

[sunikkat]

Well, I think I need to select both options - Under Budget and Over Budget.

When I got Octavia TDI MT in 2016 I had a budget of around 35 lakhs and choice was clear between 3 cars, all in diesel - A3 vs Jetta vs Octavia. Jetta was cheapest of the lot. Dropped A3 due to the space and almost same mechanicals like other 2 and did not find value. Also did not struck my heart. Had almost finalised on Octavia TDI top end, but being a MT fan I found manual to be most engaging and went for it. Now MT came only with mid variant and in the process I saved 5 lakhs (Octavia top end AT vs Ambition MT). If it was a year later I would have got VRS230.

Similarly in 2010, I had a budget of 12 lakhs and was planning on Honda City (first gen arrow design) which was around 11.5 lakhs for mid or top variant. One back to back drive in Fiesta 1.6s and City made the decision for me and I never thought of City again. How wrong would I have been if I had gone for City then. Saved around 2.5 lakhs.

In last Dec when I was looking for a city car, my initial budget was 8.5 lakhs and we had almost finalised Tiago AMT. But Tata’s dealer experience was bad and we dropped Tiago. Then decided to go for Swift AMT top end which was costing 10.5 lakhs OTR. For that price we felt i20 Asta IVT is more value at 12.2 lakhs with CVT gearbox, better interiors, more spacious, bigger wheels etc. All through the while tried Polo too (though cramped) but there were no stocks available. Finally we got i20 IVT and spent 4 lakhs more than our original budget.

Honestly, I am happy with all these decisions.

[JoshMachine]

When we wanted to upgrade from the Vento to entry-level luxury segment, we had planned a certain budget. Shortly after that, we started test driving the Camry, Superb, S60, the 3er and the A4. Harsh reality dawned and we quickly realized that the term 'entry-level' is a misnomer!

For the cars we were considering, the ex-showroom prices ranged from 41.xx to an astonishing 53.xx, and these kept increasing with every passing month!
Luckily, the overwhelming choice for us - the A4, didn't fly off as insanely as the others and we managed to stick more or less to the original plan.

[arbardhan]

Overbudget by over 2 lakhs. Went to buy Tiago , bought polo. Which is currently in garage with an EPC issue ( looks like fuel pump :( )
I am a new driver and the sales associate just asked me to push the pedal hard and it flew off. He did not take a lot of effort in explaining any more features. He knew we were sold

[condor]

Cant vote.

Have stuck to the budget
Have over-paid than what should have been a suitable price
And didnt go for the higher model when I should have over-shot my original budget.

All on different cars. Let's see what happens with my next purchase.

Having said that, I try to stick to my budget.

[ninjatalli]

Technically I fall into both 'stuck within budget' and 'went over budget' categories for my cars, but voted for the former option keeping in mind my most recent purchase (which was well within the budget limits I had kept), and the fact that this survey is for the current timelines.

[model-t]

Voted Under budget. Started with a budget of 15-18 OTR. Booked the Astor (Top model and Super) , Skoda Slavia and Kia Carens. The confused soul that I was , checked out all of them thoroughly but none of them could replace the XUV 500 I was retiring.

Due to work and schools starting after the Covid break, the idea of a small city car resonated. The rogue Ola/Uber played their part as well. Checked out Nexon/Magnite and Kiger. Did not work out.

To add to the confusion, also booked an XUV 700 AT AWD .

Finally cancelled all the bookings save the Astor and XUV 700. There was an approximate 4 lacs difference between the 2 models of Astor so picked up the cheaper one. Cost me around 13 odd OTR.

XUV 700 booking is still active and the delivery is currently showing in Nov-Dec 2023 (Yes,2023!). By the time the delivery time arrives, will decide weather to buy the XUV or jump a couple of segments to the Germans.

[GForceEnjoyer]

We went over budget when buying our Superb L&K in 2021. Truth be told, we started looking for a new car in early 2020, and started out looking for a C2 segment sedan. However, our 2006 Ford Fiesta 1.6 SXI turned out to be incredibly difficult to upgrade from. We had half-expected this, and turned to the D1 segment.

We test drove all four offerings at the time, the Corolla, Civic, Elantra and Octavia in their top end petrol-automatic guise. We had nearly sealed the deal on the Octavia, but then Covid19 hit. We put the purchase on the back burner until the arrival of the new Octavia, which we test drove. While the powertrain really impressed us, we felt the car was overpriced. The lack of physical buttons for the climate control, volume and infotainment menus was another downer and I for one wasn't too sold on its looks.

We saw that the Superb wasn't too far away and decided to test drive it too. Well, that was all we needed to have our hearts set firmly on it. It came with a wet-clutch DSG which is theoretically more reliable too, but the fly in the ointment was the aftersales in Hyderabad. Mahavir Skoda was the only one, and its reviews were... less than satisfactory at best.

Even after verifying that the purchase made financial sense, we kept putting it off. Then one fine day, I read about PPS Skoda and Mody Skoda that had just opened. Having talked to owners who took their cars there, we finally decided to go ahead. In September 2021, we bought the car from Mahavir Skoda since the pre-sales experience was top notch, but have been getting it serviced at PPS Skoda.

So this is why we went over-budget: a car that tugged insanely hard at our heartstrings that also made financial sense, and a brilliant stroke of luck in the form of other Skoda aftersales centres opening up. Was it a good decision? So far, my answer would be a resounding YES!

[@og_adi]

1) Chevrolet Aveo U-VA LS
Remark- Under budget.
Explored choices like Fabia, Honda City so 5.2L on road wasn't exactly a problem. Lovely vehicle with acres of space (Saif's ad makes true claims about the vehicle ).

2) Maruti Suzuki Celerio VXI AMT
Remark- Stuck to the original budget.
Wanted a city friendly gearless car and 5.5L for the same was definitely on cards considering a Grand i10 (next cheapest gearless car then) started at 7.6L (AT version).

3) Tata Safari Adventure Persona AT
Remark- Over budget.
Was in the market for a C-segment sedan (~13 lakhs) but the search ended with Safari which costed more than double the initial set budget.
No regrets about the same though. It's an absolute beast on road and it has turned our family to a road trip loving one now.

So the answer in my case to the poll would be all of the above. Voted over budget as our most recent acquisition (Safari) was so. Super happy with all our cars.

[na_agrawal]

Voted for Under-budget! I can only answer for my dad as of now, well, for most of the part!

Back in 2011, we had a clear budget of 6L +- 1L. We went ahead with our 2011 Hyundai i20 Asta(0) variant. It was 6.36L OTR. We looked at Fabia, Punto, Swift, and i10 as well.

Fast forward to 2017, we were planning for a big car at 15L OTR (Creta was really the best seller then, at 14.4L OTR for petrol top model was right in our range) and the only good option was XUV500. For me, SUVs without 4x4/AWD are more of like Honda calling WR-V an SUV But the Xuv500 with 4x4 was costing us a good 17-18L OTR. We dropped the plan and came down to a hatchback. We finalized on again - the 2017 Hyundai Active SX(o) at 9.6L OTR. So, essentially we dropped from our original budget of 15L.

Now in 2022, it was time to buy my first car. For this 26 yo kid in me I was pre-decided on a Polo GT TSi at 10.5L OTR and had I been in Pune far away from my family (WFH due to Corona, I was in Guwahati with my parents) I would've gone straight for it without a blink of an eye.

BUT, then parents and sis came-in between and they wanted S P A C E - So this happened -



I am super glad and considering the sweet deal that I got on my Vento, I couldn't have asked for more. Also, the exclusivity- that mine is the last Manual Vento to be delivered in the whole of North-East.

~NA