BHPians share how their impulse car buying decisions went

Have you bought a car by impulse only to regret later that you have a huge liability? Or, did you hit the bulls eye and the car still meets your needs in the long run?

BHPian wheelspinner recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The habit of Impulse Buying

I'm sure many here would relate. I'm an impulse buyer and often regret my purchase decisions. I've impulse bought gadgets and regret the decision years later when I realise that it is now a burden for me that has no use in my small apartment with very little space. As such, I decided to purposefully delay my car purchase.

My decision about a car purchase

I live in a small city with empty roads and fairly decent transport modes. In short, there was no immediate need for a car except from a dream/aspirational perspective. So I started looking for used cars so as to fulfill this dream as the prices of new ones were eye watering.

Eventually, it turned into a longer delay as I wanted to buy a well kept used car. Unfortunately, every car I found was overpriced and was in need of major repairs. The seemingly perfect car I occassionally found got sold by the time I could reach the owner/dealer.

The other option was to impulse buy a new car out of the showroom. However, each time I walked by car showrooms I held my horses. For me, a car isn't really a need of the hour as I can avail cheaper modes of transport. It's more of a fancy and I didn't want to impulse buy something only to regret later.

I've mostly seen that people in my city (a tier 2 city in India) tend to impulse buy cars only to leave them standing in their garages. Thereafter, they use their bikes or public transport more often due to increasing fuel prices. What about your locality/city?

What about you?

Have you bought a car by impulse only to regret later that you have a huge liability?

Or, did you hit the bulls eye and the car still meets your needs in the long run?

Here's what GTO had to say on the matter:

I am a quick decision maker and usually decide on the car I'd like to buy in advance (sometimes, years in advance). I was very sure about the 1st-gen City Vtec, Civic, 530d etc. long before I actually bought them.

So in that sense, most car purchases have been planned.

On the other hand, the Thar was definitely an impulsive buy. I always loved the Thar, but had another Jeep, so there was no hurry. Late last year though, it went from merely thinking about the Thar to paying for it in a week. Total impulse buy and no regrets at all. It has given us more smiles per mile than any other car I've owned.

Here's what BHPian heydj had to say on the matter:

My current car purchase is a mix of need / impulse and sheer stupidity.

I needed to buy a car as I love going for drives so thought of buying Thar Petrol AT, this would have been a perfect buy for my limited weekend needs.

However I fell into the trap of asking too many people their views and before long my own view got trampled by myself and I ended up buying Tucson Diesel AT.

Now there again I would have been perfectly fine with Tucson Petrol AT but again fell into the trap of asking people for views and ended up with Tucson Diesel AT.

However silver lining in all this is that I have fantastic car i.e. Tucson Diesel AT. Every time I drive it I end up with a smile. Its just that I would have been perfectly happy with Thar Petrol AT and every time I sit in friends Thar I am filled with regret.

So my limited need turned into impulse buy purely because of my own stupidity of not sticking to my first decision. Hopefully will get to buy Thar soon and put this matter to rest.

Here's what BHPian S.MJet had to say on the matter:

Looking at my last two cars I fall in impulse buyer category.

Fiat Punto in 2012 and the current ride Seltos 2019. In both cases I fell for the design, test drove both, found nothing off and got them home. In both cases there was no immediate need of a new car.

Had/have some disappointments with both them, Service availably of Punto and poor/harsh ride & safety rating of Seltos.

Here's what BHPian Sahil had to say on the matter:

This may sound like an oxymoron but I am ONLY impulsive when it's a steal deal. Whether new or used.

• If I have to quantify "steal deal":
• For new car it needs to be 20% + off ex-showroom price.
• For used car it has to be sparingly used less than 3 years old and available at half it's current new car price. Could also be looked at as getting a used higher segment model for the price of a lower segment model when new. For example: Getting a 7 series used for the price of a brand new 5Here' series.

My value side (head) does not let my impulsive side (heart) cross its line. But if the head’s criteria are met then the heart will follow promptly and impulsively.

Here's what BHPian YashodhanGuru had to say on the matter:

One fine rainy day (8th August) 2023 while I was seeing a youtube video of the Tiago EV, my father peeked at the screen and asked me a question - " Gaadi chaan ahe! Kiti chi aahe?" Which for those who don't understand Marathi means - The car looks good! How much does it cost?

I casually give him the answer and the next thing I remember is him asking me to arrange for a test drive.

I kid you not, the sales person was at our door within 15 minutes and after the test drive my father handed over the cheque to the sales person who was stunned.

All this happened in a space of 45 minutes. Took delivery of the car on 31st August

Here's what BHPian MotorDev had to say on the matter:

Interesting thread . My dad did it way back in 2014. I vividly remember that we were passing by a Honda showroom in our Ford Ikon, and my dad, without even sitting inside the 4th-gen City, decided to book it! He didn't even take a test drive. He loved the Red City and booked it by paying 50,000 rupees at that time. He never regretted his decision and took care of the car like it was his baby

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