[petrol_power]

It has become not so uncommon for families to have 2 or more cars, so I was thinking about what would be the right mix of vehicles for the majority. May be we can classify our requirements as city utility vs highway utility.

For city requirement - comfort, stability, convenience, driving pleasure matters to a very limited extent owing to the increasing traffic density across all cities in India, and the traffic will go up only. So I feel any car, with decent AC, can suit for city purpose. Some may be wary about the size, but size does not matter once we are used to the vehicle and even parking can be managed. After all we may be driving a 5 mtr car in place of 4 mtr car, but its not 15 mtr car. So parking worries are just our mental barricades. Infact driving a big bulky THAR may make others give way and would be better than driving small cars in city. And not to forget the better visibility. Also, smaller colony roads have craters and may be better tackled using a high ground clearance vehicle.

For highway cruising - We take highway trips for long distance touring/ trips, travelling to native with family, etc. Now here, since we may be sitting for hours continuously, comfort becomes paramount important. At the same time stability, driving pleasure, engine power everything becomes important. SUV trumps in comfort, convenience, ride quality. But any SUV/crossover will fail miserably in stability when compared to sedans. And stability is very crucial in highway runs (Moose test). Also in places like Kerala, where we still have single lane highway without divider, we have to dart by sudden acceleration and need to have lane cutting stability to move forward. I have seen Karnataka & Kerala highways - off-late, all of them are well asphalted and does not have large craters in highways. SUVs will help in the long distance touring, if it has 4x4, which can help in some tricky situations.

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).

[gkveda]

My considerations were very simple. One for long journey and another for city driving.

Consideration for long journey car
The one for long journey should be mile muncher. Should never get tired. Reliability should be at its peak. Should have ability to cruise at 3 digit speeds all day long and next day morning, it should have enthusiasm to run same distance as previous day without hesitation. Should never get tired or show tiring face while we end the day. Of course, safety in terms of airbags, ABS are considered to be given.

Consideration for city car
The one for city drive should be able to maneavour easily on any small road within my city, enough power, good mileage, good space to accommodate 5 people (Reason for this requirement is, we are 4+2 children in our family. If we have to go together, we need a car that accomodates 5 easily and 4+2 can be adjusted)
Ofcourse, reliability is of high importance even for city drive. Safety took a slightly lower priority compared to reliability since car was planned for city driving only.

[GTO]

From what I have seen in 2-car homes, the 2nd car is either:

- A cheaper or smaller car (usually sub-4 meter) for the spouse. Used primarily by the spouse in the city only.

- Or the 2nd car was earlier the primary car, and is now used as the 'rough use' beater because the owner bought a superior primary car.

- Of course, I know of some enthusiasts who keep a passionate 2nd car. Most common is a 4x4.

[Jeroen]

Apart from my classic cars, my wife and I have always had two cars. Each of us a daily runner. Her car and my car. She gets what she likes, I get what I like.

If the second car is primarily for somebody else than yourself I think you should not get involved and let the other person decide what he or she wants. As my wife and I have vastly different preference when it comes to cars, we tend to end up with very different cars. Mine tend to be big and fast, hers small and cute.

We rarely drive each other car. She needs to go to Frankfurt, Germany a 600km journey, she takes her tiny cute car. I need to pop into town, 6km, I take my big and fast car.

Jeroen

[Kosfactor]

We have a utility vehicle. This is my wife's daily drive and in her current job she needs something that can haul materials and people around.

When it came to buying a second car, which was for me, I can buy whatever that has 3 pedals, no specific utility was considered at all, it was going to be a personal vehicle.

[07CR]

We have had only one single car in our family of 4-5 till now. But now that I have started working post my education, we will soon need a second car. This is what I have planned-

One small car for city use. Our current steed, Ecosport S TDCI can do this job very well. Compact, easy to manouver, light clutch and great GB and frugal.

One large car for highway use/ or used by me- Now this is currently a predicament. Reason is family's priority remains the comfort on long highway journey's. So preferrably something like a Hector should suit such requirements. A used Endeavour (if budget permits), can be a great alternative, with it's ability to offer, Fun and Comfort at the same time! If we finalize on something like Hector (read car focussed towards comfort), I can always take the Ecosport on the highways, incase I am in some mood for fun, and someone who is equally excited for the same. (read- future wife )

[binand]

We have had 2 cars for 10+ years now. Our usage pattern is strictly functional, though - no strict person-car mapping. But in general, I take the smaller car to office (traffic & parking considerations[*]) and my wife uses the big car for all the things she has to do. For outstation drives it is usually the big car irrespective of which of us is going.

[*] Parking considerations:

1. At one office I worked, the car had to be driven into a tight-fitting elevator and lowered into the basement parking area. My Civic wouldn't fit into this lift so invariably I ended up taking the I10 while my wife kept the Civic for herself.

2. At another, basement parking had that mechanical contraption installed that enables stacking of parked cars, here I didn't trust the bigger car to be safe when parked.

3. At a third I had only a roadside perpendicular parking spot so my longer car would protrude into the road and I considered it to be exposed to capricious bouncers.

[Axe77]

If I were to discount my mum’s Grand i10 (which is only with us half the time given she spends extended periods of time in Pune at our second home - so we don’t count it as reliably available to us all the time), our current second car (first being the 3GT) is in fact a scooter - a brand new N Torq we picked up earlier this year.

That’s not to say we don’t need a second car outright. But we can do without it and with the ongoing pandemic, limited use of our existing cars anyway, hardly any meetings, I really don’t see much of a need to add cars to our garage.

I realised that in any event, we rarely really need two cars and I’ve taken a slightly alternate approach to our vehicles for the moment. Covid aside, Ubers actually meet my wife’s needs of commuting pretty well. If it is a really short distance where Uber is a waste of money, we now have the scooter to bridge that gap. If I want to go anywhere, depending on the need I have the option of the 3GT, my Tiger, the scooter and finally, also (if I’m alone) the 3GT with the Brompton in the boot (think going into Bandra, parking at a safe place and then cycling around last mile.

At some point though, purely because the GT would be beyond a certain age, I will get a second newer car (perhaps when the 3GT is 7 - 8 years old) which is reasonably priced, comfortable enough to be chauffeur driven as well as drive yourself, small enough for the city and big enough segment wise even if I want to drive it to all the way to Goa.

What that car would be is very difficult to predict. The long drive consideration aside, it could range from anything like a Nexon EV; a 5 door Thar, (each outlier options); a Creta / Alcazar (front runner options); or if I’m willing to break the bank a bit, perhaps even a next gen Tucson (although that may downward impact the budget and choice of my ultimate changeover of the GT).

[condor]

Smaller & Cheaper to buy, use and maintain.
Good for city use.
Reliability - since mostly used by wife.
Automatic - used by wife + city usage
Can be a used car too.

In future, we can see electric being an option

[Hayek]

We have been a two car home since 2004. Started with my wife inheriting my 1995 Zen when we bought a Honda City - the Zen was then replaced by a Getz. Our next second car was the Vento Highline Petrol AT - we did consider the Jazz but it’s under powered nature and lack of an AT caused us to move over to the sedan segment. We just picked up a Tiguan Allspace to replace the Vento - so now we have 2 SUVs with identical peak power (one petrol, one diesel). We could have bought a smaller vehicle and would have picked the Seltos but for its terrible GNCAP results, combined with the long wait times for the car and the discounts we got on the Allspace. I suspect our next second car could be electric - we toyed with the idea of the ZS EV briefly but I decided I would rather wait for the next generation of products come rather than subsidising others by becoming an early adopter.

[dhanushs]

I live in a comparatively less crowded place. So my ideal two car Garage would be:

1. Fun-to-drive fast sedan.
2. One 4x4 SUV.

[jkrishnakj]

For me, the second car came in during my Tata Sagar Days. The wife wasn’t too comfortable to drive inside the City roads.
Given my extensive business travel then, the need for my wife was
1. School drop and pick up duties
2. Errands
3. Monthly grocery, weekly veggie shopping
4. Available at home for some urgent situations in my absence

So, the criteria was more on a) city driving comfort b) Decent passenger space c) Automatic

It was a Honda Brio followed by a Baleno
(company lease schemes and could manage the luxury to change once in 3 years).

Both are sold and she now happily & gleefully drives the Thar mostly, else, the Innova Crysta is there too.

[lamborghini]

It all depends if the second car will be driven primarily by a driver, or if it'll be self driven.

In the case of the former, we've chosen sturdy, comfortable vehicles. Priorities have been safety (for the odd highway run / higher speed run), rear seat comfort, good AC, tough build, good reliability, etc.
We were willing to sacrifice aesthetics, performance, features if need be : Liva Gd, Etios VXD are examples of what we had in the past.
Pre-owned Corolla, S-Cross, etc. are good options too depending on budget.

Self-Driven : safety, compact, easy to drive, nimble, automatic, with good features for the driver would be what I would want. Examples would be the Polo / Rapid TSi; Venue, etc.

Alternately, depending on the budget, the second car could also be that special yet impractical car that you've been eyeing where there is just no logic that can change the way you feel. In this case the primary car would be the daily, with this something reserved for Sunday mornings / special off-road trails / trackdays (depending on type of car)

[V.Narayan]

I experimented with both cars being of equal stature, horsepower as well as with one being the bigger number one and the other the cheaper number two. For this argument I'll ignore car number 3, and for some years car nos 4, and stay with the two main guys.

The two equal stature combinations were three at different points in time - Premier Psdmini x 2; Opel Astra Superb x 2; Skoda Superb & Skoda Laura; and today Lexus ES300h and Volvo XC60 AWD.

For the other combination I tried for some time Astra and Corsa, Superb & Jazz and much earlier Cielo and Premier Padmini. In the end I concluded better to have two cars of comparable stature - so Lexus is for madame and the Volvo is for me most of the time at least. This works only because we have an Amaze for chores and narrow gullies duty.

Buying considerations - my wife's career is up there with mine and her need to be driven around in a car of stature was probably greater than mine. So when we did have one big and one small venhicle the smaller car was always my commuter.

[TrackDay]

Plenty of factors come into play here :

1. Space for parking, both at residence as well as the work place. Restrictions in space might see folks take up 2 or even 3 hatchbacks within the same family.

2. Who is going to use the car. If it is just one member of the family that is driving, the 2nd one can tend to be a lifestyle product like the Thar or V cross. However, if there are multiple members in the family who are going to drive (Husband / Wife / Kids who got their license/ Aged parents etc.), there can even be identical vehicles within the same garage such as a Creta & a Seltos.

3. Budget. Obviously this comes into play on deciding how much one can splurge on the second car.

4. Like GTO said in our context, we retain the older car as the second car while the newer car takes over the primary duties.