[petrolHead_1609]

I wanted buy my first car, started looking sometime around September 2020 I was turning 26, there wasn't any pressing need of a new car as offices were shut (still wfh) .

Decided budget : 14-15L

Existing cars (both purchased by dad) :
2012 purchased i10 magna,
2016 purchased grand i10 sportz petrol

I was clear about buying car only when offices reopen, as it always felt like they'd open it 2-3 months.

October 2020 :
Decided Creta SX manual petrol. I liked the feature list and that panoramic sunroof wowed me (realized it's not needed)

December 2020 :
Honda City ZX MT petrol or
Honda City V MT petrol (all safety tech and decent kit)

November 2021 :
With wedding date in April 2022, booked City ZX MT

February 2022 :
By now, I couldn't wrap my head around all the price increase in 2 years and there was little hesitation. I was just curiously looking around for 2020 pre-owned ZX MT.

March 2022 :
Out of nowhere found 2015 Toyota corolla altis 1.8 VL.
Bought it for 7.3L, still don't know if it's pricier.
please let me about your opinion as it'll help me plan my future purchase.
Happy as I ended up saving 7 big ones. (Kept 2 aside for repairs)

[bullitt1]

Always stuck to budget whether pre-owned or new car. It would be an endless pit if the budget is flexible as there's always a next variant/other car that offers more for some more budget.

[MaheshY1]

New WagonR Duo LPG 2009 - 25% Over Budget

Dad wanted to have a car around after retirement and didn't mind even the Alto 800. We wanted to keep spare cash for home renovation and some farmland purchases. Since I was also expected to drive the car once in a while, I instantly rejected the Alto. I couldn't sit comfortably in the driver's seat. My dad is 3-4 inches shorter and found the driver's seat acceptable.

We stretched the budget and jumped to the WagonR, which had crazy leg and headroom.

New Beat 2014 Diesel - 140% Over a sensible budget

Since the WagonR wasn't seeing the road much, it was often running into rat problems. So, I started driving it. Once my commute became 100km/day, even with the LPG, it was becoming quite expensive. Plus the headache of planning a refill and taking a detour to tank up. Moreover, the highway performance was lackluster. So, I decided to get the Beat diesel.

This time, it technically fit in our budget (with a loan), but I now see that I bought more car than I could afford at the time. While I got a good deal and it is still serving us well to date, considering my then income, the Nano was the only car that would've made financial sense.

2015 Used Nano XTA Automatic (purchased - 2019) - ~65% under budget

For the Nano automatic, I stayed well within the budget. A new K10 AMT was also within budget. But I stuck with the used Nano because a new one wasn't on sale anymore and a used one also met our requirements. Moreover, I had a soft corner for this little egg. I believed that in time, people would come to see it for the amazing and ahead-of-its-time product it was.

[ashis89]

Reading one of the post triggered this query. Will be interesting to see how of us have gone over budget while taking a car loan? A loan and it's EMI would cushion the impact of jumping the budget.

As taught by my father, I never took a loan for the car and waited until I had the money. Going beyond the budget was a tough move.

My friend was looking for his first car with a budget of 10L. He started looking at Punch, booked the Baleno AMT top end for 12L and now, he has upgraded the booking to Nexon dark edition top end costing 16L. And extra 4L would be ~4k pm worth of EMI which is fine.

[Night Raven]

I had started with a budget of 15-20 lakhs ex showroom for upgrading from our Punto. Looked at the top end versions of seltos and Taigun, briefly considered the Astor and Slavia, even Verna turbo was there in the list at one point. On the way to test drive the Seltos and Taigun we walked in to the Jeep showroom. Totally fell in love with the Compass after the drive. The problem was only the base sport trim was falling into our budget. We could have easily extended the budget, but coming from a humble middle class background I just couldn’t convince myself to go beyond 20 lakhs. Eventually settled for the Sport petrol at 17 lakhs ex showroom.

[youknowitbetter]

Underbuget. I had a budget of around 30 to buy a SUV. Only Jeep was around that budget and it wasn't great value for money. My running is extremely limited, hence I wanted to buy petrol automatic, which is not the most preferred option. Hence, much against my earlier belief, ended up buying Seltos GTX+ and ended up saving 8-10 lakhs overall. Though this goes against GTO's advice of buying a higher segment car and keeping it for 10 years, the lack of options prompted me to buy Seltos. Looking back, had I been open to buy sedans, there were quite a few options, which I could have considered.

The only time, I was tempted to go over board was when couple of lucky souls got A4 at 39 all inclusive. But middle class mentality prevailed and I ended up buying the more-common than wagonR, Seltos!

[rpunwani]

Voted "over budget"

In early 2021, BMW has launched the 3L (320Ld) series. Out of curiosity, I approached one dealer for pricing. At that time there was a good discount on the 5 (520d) series and price difference between the 5 & 3L was approx 3L.

The dealer suggested I test drive the 5 series first, which I did.

There was absolutely no intention of replacing my 2012 Passat, which had 50k on the odo and I had just upgraded the ICE with an original VW unit having apple carplay/android auto. To cut a long story short I got the 520d at a much lesser price that the 320Ld. For me it was once in a lifetime opportunity

[ysjoy]

2021 June got our new car- Maruti Suzuki Ertiga VXI
Our budget was Rs 10 lacs OTR, when hunt for new car began

Initial quotes were about 10.3 OTR- about 6-8months before actual purchase/ delivery
By the time we got it, it got to 10.8 lacs OTR
About 8% above our budget

~ysjoy

[PrasannaDhana]

I always plan ahead and determine the budget after putting a lot of thought into the purchase.

I bought 2 cars in 2021, both of which I stuck to my budget. Altroz diesel was chosen with 10 (+ or -) 1 lakh & Celerio was chosen in the 6.5 (+ or -) 1 lakh budgets, though both cars fit almost exactly in the upper end of the budgets.

Going forward, i feel it's better to buy used cars. New cars seem overpriced for what they offer, specially C2 segment and above. My kwid is 6 years old and might need a replacement soon. An used diesel C-SUV would be a right fit I guess.

[josetom89]

Went under budget.
Original plan was to get Compass limited auto. Did a test drive and really didn't like the gear box. 4x4 was not a requirement since I have my thar 2019. Purchased Sport diesel manual as it was mechanically the same and extra gizmos in limited were irrelevant for me. Only complaint is the absense of rear and curtain airbags.

[Sandman689]

My original budget was a safe 6-6.5 lakhs. Would have been comfortably able to pick up a used Verna. But I couldn't find myself living with a Hyundai.

The V Cross then came to my attention. Budget was (strictly) set to 10 lakhs. Finally bought a pre-worshipped Isuzu at 12 lakhs.

Given the current market, I don't have any regrets.

[RGK]

I always go for used cars and try to stay within my budget. I was able to stick to my budget.

When it comes to new cars, we have a tendency to overspend because we consider all of the options.

[ketan007]

Voted for Over budget. In 2018, I wanted to buy a Ford Aspire but eventually ended up with Ford Ecosport (which I wanted to buy, but was not within my budget). Not regretting the decision though.

[amitayu]

Over budget.

We (as in my and wifey) spend over a month shortlisting the car, chose a make, model and variant, went to the showroom to make the advance payment and sign the car loan doc...

and in the 11 hour we decided to go for the top most variant!

[vivekkp]

I went over budget than initially planned. I was in the market last year to buy a comfortable 7 seater people mover and at the same time something that would be comfortable for my parents. Initial budget was 10lacs OTR, hence Renault Triber and Maruti Ertiga/XL6 were the primary contenders.

Actually Maruti was never in contention because of the poor driving dynamics and build quality, however i would have bought the Triber if it had the turbo engine instead of the NA. This was the only thing going against Triber and then came news of Kia planning to launch Carens which i eventually purchased due to the VFM and the comfort it was offering.

Since i don't intend to sell the car for the next 15 years, this budget increase was justified in a sense for me.