Have you ever been spoilt by choices and felt that having too many choices is confusing rather than thrilling . Take the case of a car . Back in 1980 when the choice was limited decision making was simple in choosing a car . We had the beautiful ambassador and the fiat . There were not the more than 50 -100 different types of cars to choose from in the good old days . And to the best of my knowledge there was no choice whether you needed powersteering , whether you wanted lxi,vxi,zxi , whether you wanted powerwindows and so forth .
These days the choices are so much that the process can be daunting unless you take the whole process in a positive sense . The answer to choosing anything even if there are a million choices is to make a self assessment . The point is "Ask yourself what do you want ?" . Its a simple question but we often fail to ask and answer this simple question to ourselves . Most often instead we either get confused by the choices or "go with the herd " (choose what majority chooses ) . If everyone is choosing diesel car go for diesel , if everyone is choosing bmw choose bmw .
I dont claim that my decision is wise but for me inspite of so many cars available in indian market from tata nano to mercedes s class , choices were very limited and decision was rather easy . My most important criteria was the car i should choose should be a drivers car . No , a drivers car doesnt mean that the car is designed for a hired driver , but in automobile slang they are cars designed primarily for the driver owner who enjoys driving . Now even a non enthusiast knows tata nano is not a drivers car .. So just by putting for yourself a criteria that the car should be a drivers car the worldfamous tata nano is out from your list . This is the key point . Even if 12 of your neighbours buy yellow colored nano car you can think differently and buy differently . Provided you are one like me and my dad who are driving enthusiasts . So tata nano is out .
What about maruti 800 / ford figo / maruti gypsy /mitsubishi evo . Confusing or thrilling decision making ? Have you ever tried to floor the accelerator pedal of a maruti 800 . Did it go from 0-100 kmph in 12.5 seconds ? Have you tried cornering it in hilly roads . ? There is no confusion in this .. Maruti 800 is not designed for this .. Then why it has become another iconic best selling car . I told you , the key in choosing a car is "asking yourself the question of what you want from a car " . If you want a car which takes you and your family with reasonable comfort from point A to point B with great value for money Maruti 800 is one of the greatest cars for that .
So coming back to me again ....i have eliminated 2 cars from my list of 100 +cars . No, actually i have eliminated more than 80 cars by putting the criteria of a drivers car . Who told decision making is complicated ? And i forgot to add one more thing ... My car should have a great aftersales service and it should be a value for money too . Quoting from car enthusiast sites like www.team-bhp.com
the list of drivers cars are : the old zen , swift , ford fiesta , bmw ...and a few more cars . Ford fiesta is a nice car known for its great handling but their aftersales service is known to be a problem . BMW is one of the greatest drivers cars and for me the biggest problem is at that price i should be able to drive nonstop in it at 160-200 kmph at least . In a crowded state like kerala even achieving 100 kmph is difficult except on occasion on highways .
That brings me to the two cars ... which are drivers cars and value for money . The one is the old maruti zen (out of production for last 6 years ) and the new maruti swift which is a cult in its own as a drivers car.
So out of the 100 cars i choose Maruti Swift and can you guess the last car i owned ....as expected the old zen ..
Again i conclude that though an average decision maker the key in choosing anything is not looking outside but asking yourself : what does YOU want . Then YOUwill not be confused when all the neighbours buy tata nanos or even arabian horses for commute :)
These days the choices are so much that the process can be daunting unless you take the whole process in a positive sense . The answer to choosing anything even if there are a million choices is to make a self assessment . The point is "Ask yourself what do you want ?" . Its a simple question but we often fail to ask and answer this simple question to ourselves . Most often instead we either get confused by the choices or "go with the herd " (choose what majority chooses ) . If everyone is choosing diesel car go for diesel , if everyone is choosing bmw choose bmw .
I dont claim that my decision is wise but for me inspite of so many cars available in indian market from tata nano to mercedes s class , choices were very limited and decision was rather easy . My most important criteria was the car i should choose should be a drivers car . No , a drivers car doesnt mean that the car is designed for a hired driver , but in automobile slang they are cars designed primarily for the driver owner who enjoys driving . Now even a non enthusiast knows tata nano is not a drivers car .. So just by putting for yourself a criteria that the car should be a drivers car the worldfamous tata nano is out from your list . This is the key point . Even if 12 of your neighbours buy yellow colored nano car you can think differently and buy differently . Provided you are one like me and my dad who are driving enthusiasts . So tata nano is out .
What about maruti 800 / ford figo / maruti gypsy /mitsubishi evo . Confusing or thrilling decision making ? Have you ever tried to floor the accelerator pedal of a maruti 800 . Did it go from 0-100 kmph in 12.5 seconds ? Have you tried cornering it in hilly roads . ? There is no confusion in this .. Maruti 800 is not designed for this .. Then why it has become another iconic best selling car . I told you , the key in choosing a car is "asking yourself the question of what you want from a car " . If you want a car which takes you and your family with reasonable comfort from point A to point B with great value for money Maruti 800 is one of the greatest cars for that .
So coming back to me again ....i have eliminated 2 cars from my list of 100 +cars . No, actually i have eliminated more than 80 cars by putting the criteria of a drivers car . Who told decision making is complicated ? And i forgot to add one more thing ... My car should have a great aftersales service and it should be a value for money too . Quoting from car enthusiast sites like www.team-bhp.com
the list of drivers cars are : the old zen , swift , ford fiesta , bmw ...and a few more cars . Ford fiesta is a nice car known for its great handling but their aftersales service is known to be a problem . BMW is one of the greatest drivers cars and for me the biggest problem is at that price i should be able to drive nonstop in it at 160-200 kmph at least . In a crowded state like kerala even achieving 100 kmph is difficult except on occasion on highways .
That brings me to the two cars ... which are drivers cars and value for money . The one is the old maruti zen (out of production for last 6 years ) and the new maruti swift which is a cult in its own as a drivers car.
So out of the 100 cars i choose Maruti Swift and can you guess the last car i owned ....as expected the old zen ..
Again i conclude that though an average decision maker the key in choosing anything is not looking outside but asking yourself : what does YOU want . Then YOUwill not be confused when all the neighbours buy tata nanos or even arabian horses for commute :)
SIR,
ReplyDeleteEACH OF US WILL HAVE DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW, YOUR THOUGHT REGARDING BUYING A CAR CAME FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVES , FINANCIAL AND SOCIAL STATUS ... IF I NEED TO BUY ANYTHING THE CRITERIA WILL CHANGE ... AS YOU SAID ... MOST OF US FAIL TO ASK OURSELF ...
AS A COMMON MAN MY FIRST CRITERIA WILL BE
1. HOW MUCH I CAN AFFORD TO FULLFILL MY NEED (WITH 5-10 LAKH I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BUY S CLASS)
2. HOW OFTEN I HAVE TO USE THE CAR / THING DAILY , HOW MUCH I CAN EXPEND DAILY FOR THAT(MILEAGE, INCOME Vs EXPENCE)
3. AVAILABLE SPACE ( MULTIPURPOSE) AS A FAMILY CAR AND FOR PERSONNAL USE
4. COMFORT... (HERE I LIKE YOUR SENTANCE IT SHOULD BE A DRIVERS CAR)
5. SAFETY WHILE USING... (STRENGTH OF BODY TO PROTECT US FROM SMALL ACCIDENTS)
6. AFTERSALE SERVICE (AS YOU SAID THIS ALSO A GOOD CRITERIA TO CHOOSE ... I HAVE A KODAK CAMERA , BOUGHT IT FOR A CHEAPER PRICE, PHOTO QUALITY WAS VERY GOOD BUT NOW SEARCHING FOR A SERVICE CENTRE TO SOLVE SOME SOFTWARE PROBLEMS)
7. BEST RESALE VALUE, HOWEVER AFTER A LONG/SHORT TERM DEPENDING ON OUR CHANGE IN ATTITUDE WE WILL SELL IT
BUT WHATEVER MAY BE I LIKE YOUR DECISION IN BUYING A CAR AND THE BEST WAY OF PRESENTING A GOOD SUBJECT "SELF ASSESSMENT" WITHOUT MAKING ANY BOREDOM. THANK YOU
@Pratheekshapradeep... Thanks for the nice and thoughtful comment . Yes the key point in anything is first assessing our needs without looking at others . I often feel these days many people look at others around them and take decisions not suitable for them . Coming to car Even if you or me has the money an S class may not be best buy for a crowded place like kerala especially if you are using the car for small daily travels ..
ReplyDeleteOnce again thanks for the long comment .