[GTO]

It's a total seller's market out there, discounts are slim on good cars, waiting periods are long and prices have just gone insane! I see so many Team-BHP Review posts, where the OP states he had to revise his budget upwards to get the car he really wanted.

For your cars, did you go over budget? Or did you stick with the original plan?

For our most recent purchase (Superb L&K), we went way over the intended spend. Idea was to spend 20-lakhs and get a Seltos, but its GNCAP rating eliminated the car from our shortlist. After driving lots of cars, my kid bro finalised on the Superb L&K, a 60% jump from the original 20-lakh intention. For my 530d, I'd thought of getting a good pre-worshipped example for ~30-lakhs, yet when I saw an almost-new 16-month old M-Sport for 42.5 lakhs, I knew I just had to get her home. A whopping 40% jump. On the other hand, my used Civic V-MT & used City Vtec were bought within the original budget of 7 - 8 lakhs.

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.

Adding a picture of the car I consider to be the "BAAP" (Father) of price hikes, the mighty & unbeatable Fortuner. The GR-S Variant costs 58-lakhs on the road, Mumbai! The Legender 4x4 AT is 54 lakhs:

[androdev]

I have become more open to pre-owned route as upward revision of budget is a very painful pill to swallow, especially given the lack of VFM aspect these days.

For example, you go to the shop to buy a Honda City and you end up liking a Camry Hybrid. Even if budget is flexible, it's hard to be convinced about the VFM aspect. The prices have certainly crossed the psychological barrier of being sensible. I think this was not the case some 10 years back where jumping a segment seemed like a good value proposition.

One can argue that the price increase is in inline with inflation and growing income levels but I feel psychologically it's hard to justify the prices now. Especially the current market scenario is just too wild.

[CEF_Beasts]

Was in the market to purchase a car in July-August-September 2021.

Ideal plan was to replace our 14’ Fortuner with the 2021 Fortuner 4X4 AT which cost 45-46 Lakh OTR at that time (OTR today is 49-50 Lakh).

Decided to check out the premium segment, checked the GLA, GLC, X1 and X3. All in the family liked the X3 the most; powerful petrol engine - check, lovely Blue colour - check, AWD - check and it was our pick as our first luxury car.

Fortuner was the one that was planned to be replaced, but was retained and we ended up replacing our now sold EcoSport for the BMW.

Jumped two segments, way over our originally planned budget and got home the X3 30i. Will obviously keep the BMW for a long time now, considering it’s a brilliant all-rounder and reading other BMW ownership reviews, will be reliable in the long-run as well compared to other premium brands.

[Parts007]

Cannot vote. But in my case, back in 2019, I stuck to the budget that was decided initially.

It was our first car that would be driven predominantly in the city on the weekdays by the spouse and in the weekends by me. Idea was to get a fully loaded premium automatic hatch for 10L. Choices then were limited to Baleno, i20 and Jazz in the hatch segment. We also looked at CSUVs like Brezza and Venue, which was newly launched.

Found the Jazz fitting our requirements to the T and with the discounts thrown in, we were able to close the VX CVT variant well within the planned budget along with extended warranty and RSA thrown in.

[ashis89]

Voted for "over" budget. I have a tendency of listening to the heart and making impulsive purchase decisions and the car was no different.

I went ~20% over-budget after finalizing my preferred model, just to get the variant of choice. This 20% jump is very conservative considering my other decisions.

While I was car hunting, I had cars in the final shortlist which were almost half the price of my final spend and it was likely I would have gone under-budget too.

[Vid6639]

Saw my name in the opening post. lol.

Wayyyyy over budget. The whole premise of changing a car was triggered with the launch of the Kia Seltos.

I had settled on changing my Ecosport with the Seltos. Then slowly I got over the Seltos and was hell bent on getting a Euro brand. The most vfm option was the Octavia 1.8L TSI. But my dad vetoed it off saying he didn't see the point of the Octavia over the Altis. It didn't as such feel like an upgrade.

The only car which I always liked in the back of my mind but was way over budget was the Kodiaq. Thanks to Manson and GTO who managed to convince me to get something which you will never think of replacing even after 5 years, I ended up getting the Kodiaq. And I am sure glad I did!

Even after 2.5 years nothing close has been launched to match the Kodiaq. Had I picked the old Octavia, I would have really regretted with the launch of the Octavia 2.0L TSI 1 year later on.

So yeah way over budget but worth every rupee extra paid for it for that feeling nothing can replace it.

[SSD2122]

Voted : I stuck to original budget as that's what I have done so far.

Until now for past purchases like the ever dependable Maruti Omni, smooth Getz Prime 1.3, fast Linea Tjet and cartoonish Nano Twist I have stuck to my planned budget.

Now with ever increasing prices, am looking at preowned route though I do not find quality cars to my taste.

Usually I am a stickler to budget and most probably will stick to it. Tough luck if I can find one in my budget else my Tjet will keep giving me good company and the turbo whistle will soothe my nerves for some more time.

I have a feeling though that I may need to increase my budget in coming months.

[neoonwheels]

Well voted for 'Over-budget' as thats what I did just last week. I sold off my Jetta for a lovely 320D but after I paid token, it met an accident (Known owner) and we decided to call it off. I was in two minds to then let go of Jetta. One fine day got a very good deal as the buyer wanted to change his 2008 Jetta to my 2016 (I had bought it pre-owned - 1st owner VW itself).

Budget decided - 25L, Spent 30L

Then given I was WFH, I did not find it apt to invest on a car (Have i10 which wife drives) and decided to move to Harrier AT but posts related to its safety (Lack of) put me off. Then came the news of XUV and after initial hoopla, booked it in Feb' 22. Now with office restarting, I found it difficult to wait for XUV till Sep 2023 (Yes, 2023) and so started car search again. Almost zeroed on Slavia/Virtus but one drive in Octavia sealed the deal. Got to know about discounts being offered on 2021 cars and could secure one. Will be getting the Octavia Style AT delivery this week

[GreasyCarb55]

Our 2017 Honda City, went to book a 2016 V MT Petrol in November. Ended up taking delivery of a 2017 ZX CVT Petrol in February.

Same with our Innova in 2011, originally went in to book a 2.5 G 7 seater. Ended up taking delivery of a top of the line 2.5 V 8 Seater.

Hell even our 2005 WagonR, wanted to buy a LX in black, ended up with a LXI in silver.

[deehunk]

When I stretched my budget in 2019 to buy XUV 5OO, it was a bad decision. In 2022, after seeing all the price hikes, I think I have the most affordable and luxurious 7-seater.

[PrideRed]

For almost all my purchase, I have almost stuck to my budget and the car that I shortlisted. May be couple of thousands/lakh here and there depending on segment of car I bought. This is primarily due to change in variant, price hike or lesser discount offered. Once I short list a car , go with same, I have cancelled a booking only once that too recently.

[adi.mariner]

I stuck to my budget while getting a pre-owned German. The only reason being that I had to keep enough cash aside for maintenance as I was buying a 7 year old car. Tyres, suspension, engine mounts and timing chain were changed with this spare cash last year and the car is good to go for atleast 5 years now.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Voted for under the budget

My most recent purchase was Jeep Compass, bought pre loved.

We were originally looking at the new Creta, who’s top end diesel automatic was costing 20L back then. I just happened to stumble upon the Compass listing out is sheer good luck. I liked the car, had it evaluated, negotiated the price and wrote the cheque. All in a couple of days. The car finally bought was cheaper than the one we were originally considering.

Our purchase before this was Hexa, back in 2017. Here, we were originally sold on the Ford Endeavour 2.2 automatic. The deal fell through during negotiations, and we went with the much cheaper but equally competent Hexa.

It is common sense to not spend huge amounts on depreciating assets like cars unless you can truly afford it or you actually get appreciable value/utility benefit out of it. Especially in today’s world where car prices have crossed the realms of reasonable. Law of diminishing returns catches up very fast if you become too flexible with your budget.

[Eddy]

Have purchased two cars till now: Swift Diesel in 2007 and S-Cross in 2015.

In both cases, I was always knew which car I would buy so there was no deviation. However, in the case of swift I moved from VDI to VDI (ABS) at an additional 20k, so not cosidering that all.

My vote - No deviation from planned expenditure.

[WhiteKnight]

I've been buying used cars for almost 15 years. This time, there was not particular reason to change cars. Given covid, both my cars were mostly resting in the garage.

The idea was to replace ageing Verna CRDI Automatic with another automatic SUV, that can also do highway duties. My wife is not keen on driving manual transmission vehicle (read Laura TSI), which puts a mental load on me while we're on road trips. Verna, while being trustworthy throughout, was now creating a bit of paranoia on the safety front.

I started with used-car route with ~18 Lakhs budget. With that, of course, options were plenty. While on it, it struck the family that we've never brought a new car. The lucrative car lease plan offered by my company also fuelled the thought, as the tax benefit was substantial.

Now, with the plan of buying new, we started plan to test drive every SUV under the sun, starting with Nissan Kicks and Mahindra Thar. Unfortunately, that Kicks test drive never materialised. Thar was rejected the moment my family stepped into, or rather stepped up to the Thar. I've learned driving Mahindra CJs and MM540 as a kid. I found them comfortable those days. However, I found the Thar to be too high up. May be age?

To cut the story short, on a casual call, PPS Jeep team brought Jeep compass to my home, and gave us a long test drive. To make the matter worse, Kia Seltos was next, and we drove through the same stretch the next day. The result- family unanimously voted for Jeep compass. My wife, who was reluctant to drive the Compass, was so elated post the drive. She drove the Seltos for 5 min and rejected it immediately.

So, the idea was sown and now it is the matter of how deep one go into the pit. Eventually we went the deepest, with Jeep compass 4x4 S, crossing 36 lakhs on road. To be frank, once I overcame the middle-class guilt, we're loving it!!