[Axe77]

Stayed TO the budget. [40-50L]

I have been in the market for a second vehicle for a year or so now but without any pressing urgency. I was running out of patience more recently though and had come to a point where I wanted to finally pull the trigger on this.

The market is indeed very challenging (this price point specifically so IMO at least), with meaningful compromises to be made on the product side and simultaneously eye watering prices. Shortage of vehicles has spilled over into the used market as well with choices being limited and those that are there being ridiculously priced.

What was clear from the above that I was less and less keen to break the 40 - 50L sweet spot budget and booked the Meridian, despite some compromises in the decision - accepted it as the most palatable from the few imperfect options I had.

I could have gone to the 60 - 65L range as well but the only product that made sense in that zone was a less than 2 year Discovery Sport - and I am still a bit reticent about brand JLR to take that plunge. The new cars that I associated with that price point have all gravitated to 75L+ (e.g. X3 and similar). Other option was to go down a segment to a Tucson (the most compelling alternative) or the new Toyota Crysta petrol hybrid that's being but ultimately I just found the Meridian a more desirable alternative. If it works for me, its much more likely to stay in my garage for the long haul. While its not a Kodiaq level performer, its still likely to be nicer to drive over long highway runs than a 25-30L segment petrol hybrid. For those reasons, I decided not to go under budget either.

I have for now bought this car with an open mind - it could stay with me for 8 - 10 years as is preferably the case with my car purchases - or alternately if I feel options have improved in a 3 - 4 year horizon, I may also consider early flipping it for something else while resale still is in a palatable spot (3.5 - 5 year window).

More on the Why Meridian in the more appropriate thread but broadly the above reasons are why I've stayed strictly within my budget for this one.

[Torq]

Back in 2017, after driving mom's Tata Nano for a year and about 20k kms, realised the necessity of getting a safe hatch. Initially budgeted about 4L for an entry level hatch with celerio and alto as top contenders. Very soon realised I couldn't fit into driving seat in a celerio without hitting knees. Upgraded decision to get a Tiago in turn upping budget to almost 1.5x of original intended and finalizing deal at 6.7L on-road incl extended warranty and P2P.

Now that Tiago has crossed 1.2L kms odo, planning to replace with a compact suv with initial budget of 10L which has, in an extremely short amount of time increased to 15L for a Sonet D AT HTX.

To me, budget has never been a line in stone, rather, a guide and ultimately long term comfort matters more. Not to mention, long term ownership completely negates the initial additional expenditure one incurs.

[cbrspn]

Doubled the budget

I've wanted a VW Polo ever since the GT TSI first came to India. I was too young for a license, let alone get my Maruti-loving family to get a "high-maintenance" German.

Got a job in 2018, started saving. By the time I got to 2022 and got a car for myself, My new long-term vision and financial planning told me to get something I can use and appreciate for a long time. So kicked the Polo (just a few months before it's discontinued) and got the Astor CSUV (Ares, My first car | MG Astor 1.3 Turbo AT Ownership Review) to serve me.

Started with a budget of 10L and expanded to close to 19L on-road for the ADAS L2 Astor with 1.3L Turbo.

[fiat_tarun]

Slightly overbudget for me.

Back in 2018, once I had narrowed down to the Ecosport, I had the Titanium model in mind as it was the most value for money (pre feature deletion !). One fine day spy shots came online for the S variant with those sexy alloys and all reasoning went out of the window . I had to get those wheels !

Well, it's been 3.5 years since and I have not one regret of paying those additional 2 lakhs (which also brought a lot of kit, especially safety) and I am still in awe of these wheels, come on just look at them

[lamborghini]

More or less we've stuck to our budget : though there have been exceptions on both ends.
Our most recent purchase was very well within budget given we ended up with a pre-owned ES, but prior to that we saw the budget go up by 50% when we picked up the Tiguan (original plan was for a creta auto).

[Nilesh5417]

When we got the Elantra 7yrs ago, we were actually looking to replace our Getz and Honda City was the preference. But we took the opportunity to drive the cars a segment higher - Corolla, Octavia and Elantra just to kind of benchmark the City. My wife loved the Elantra due to its better rear seat comfort(her opinion), gizmos like audio control on rear armrest / ventilated seats, looks and overall finish of the interior/ exterior. And it just looked a size bigger than the other two (probably that boot!). So we took the plunge.

When I got the Marazzo, I didn't want to splurge and wanted to stick to something like Innova GX 2.4 but those were BS4 to BS6 transition days and got a great deal from Mahindra so bought the Marazzo instead. It has its share of idiosyncrasies but saved so much money that i overlooked them as it ticked all the base requirements.

So been on both ends of the spectrum but usual tendency would be to get what I like by stretching a bit more since I keep my cars for 8-10yrs.

[lsjey]

When we were looking for a new car last year, I'd zeroed in on the VX trim of the Honda City 5th Gen. But those extremely good-looking LED headlamps of the ZX trim bowled my family over. So went over budget.

When buying my previous car, the Indigo Manza too, my family fell for the top-end. When there are choices, people default to getting more stuff, IMO.

No wonder I voted for the "Over Budget" option.

Regards,
lsjey

[sjain2054]

With a budget of 8-12lakhs, I am in the market for a high sitting (back problem), automatic car with features like 360 degree camera ,ventilated seats and auto dimming IRVM. The only car I can go for is the Nissan Magnite. I do not like that car. Everything else is soo expensive.

I am totally open to the pre-owned route and have been searching Spinny (Cars24 experience was soo badd) like crazy. I cannot get ventilated seats, 360 cam in used cars because these features were simple not there before.

I have put off buying for now. What else to do :( Its all soo expensive now

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by GTO

Even if you go over-budget though, don't fret, as long as you got the car of your dreams. Keep it for 10 years and you'll be happy - be sure to read this article of mine on expensive cars (How a more expensive car can work out cheaper (if you hold onto it for longer)). Moderator Crazy_Driver recently jumped a full segment up from the Taigun to the Compass, but I know he's going to keep the Jeep for 10 years. Ditto with Mod Vid6639 who simply couldn't resist the allure of the Skoda Kodiaq.

Bit of a leading statement - you really want us all to say that we must consider going over budget!!!

Sorry to disappoint but I went the other way. Had 35 big ones and searched for a good used BMW 330i, no luck, thought I might take a loan and go near the 50 L mark - nothing was worth it.

Started considering good used 320d as an interim option and along came an immaculate Q3 which I snapped up for half the budget. Its not what I wanted or had been looking for but it fits in well in my life and its grown on me!

[TorqueMonster]

Overshot the budget while buying my Dzire. Initial plan was to buy a Wagon R, but eventually that got changed to a Ritz, before finally ending on a Dzire in 2010. So the purchase went over budget by around 2 - 3 lakhs.

It's still the daily driver and in over 11 years and 85k kilometers, its had zero breakdowns, easily worth every rupee spent over budget.

[Jeroen]

When I was looking for my Jeep I did not want to spend more tha. About Euro 8000. I bought mine for about Euro 5000. And I have not spend the difference, euro 3000, on parts yet. But I’m not far from it!

At the end, it’s only money. In general I would spend extra just to get a better car. With the Jeep that was simply not possible. It was either get a fixer-upper or spend Euro 15-20000 and get a decent one.

I wanted a fixer-upper anyway, so I managed to find one at the bottom of the market. Pure luck, and hanging about on second hand car sales web sites for a long, very long time!

In general when I buy a car the budget is pretty flexible. I always buy second hand. So the purchasing price is always a compromise between what you get and what you have to spend in addition. And with second hand cars you can never be sure. At least not with the sort of second hand cars I tend to buy.

Exception being our last Ford Fiesta, which was only less than a year old and 10K on the clock when we bought it. You can’t go wrong with that and it will save you thousands of Euro’s.

Jeroen

[RoadFiend]

A decade ago, started with test drives of Celerio AT and i10 AT and via Dzire AT, ended up bringing home a Fortuner AT.

Deja vu - currently started eyeing Nexon EV, and already watching eTron reviews. Who knows 🤷

[yuvmudapa]

I chose over-budget, the car I booked(XUV 700) was in the budget at the time but Mahindra's price hikes have made it over-budget now.

[lapis_lazuli]

Mine would be really historical accounts by todays standard, so:

1) In 2012 I got my Punto: I had budgeted 8 Lakhs OTR but eventually settled for the 1.2 Punto Petrol, still serving me faithfully with no fuss. I paid 5.5L

2) In 2019, I was out in the market for an upgrade. I was looking for a low slung, barge or a stylish crossover, missus was in for a behemoth, read Endy or the Fortuner, so we budgeted 40L, and we started looking around. X1, GLA, Fortuner, Endeavour, and eventually the Superb TSI MT it was. Lovely experience so far, touchwood!

3) I am looking for a 7 seater, but this time it might go over budget, given the price of vehicles! Badget, it might become!

[Sudarshan42]

Definitely under budget. Being a FIRE aspirant where one firmly believes that the best thing money can buy you is your freedom from corporate slavery, I tend to cut costs on all big ticket items. Example- by building an additional floor on top of my parents' house, it cost me a sixth or a seventh of what I would've ended up paying for an equivalent apartment.

Similarly with cars, we started off by looking at the Ecosport, made our way down to the humble WagonR, then settled for a previous year base model Baleno CVT at an amazing discount. No regrets

Even for my upcoming motorcycle replacement which is due in a year or two, I've gone from looking at the BMW G310s to most likely settling for an Apache 200. Thread link- https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motor...ice-range.html (What motorcycle, in the Rs 1 - 5 lakh price range?))

It's a mindset thing, and definitely has its pitfalls. But this is the approach I've chosen to take for the foreseeable future.