| Preface
It's probably well said that wisdom is learning from others experience
and a folly not to from your own !
So keeping in tune with this, I'd
like to share what all I've learnt over the last few decades with all
of you car owners who care about their cars and would like to get the
best value of their money out of them. Basically, this 'series' will be
divided into 4-parts i.e. I) How to go about buying a new or a used car,
II) Do's and don'ts of Accessories and Customising, III) Useful tips towards
their Operation and Maintenance and IV) Some 'Tech-Talk'.
So fasten your seat belts as here we go....
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1)
Whether to buy new or a used car
If one can afford it, there's nothing to beat a new car. Besides
its sheer 'aroma', the 2+2 yrs warranty brings enough peace of mind and
cost savings - not to mention headaches of getting an old/used car fixed
most of the times.
The new cars are so well designed and manufactured these days that if
maintained and driven as they should be, they need to go to garages only
for their prescribed preventive maintenance services – ranging from
once every 6-months to 12-months, depending upon their make and model.
2)
Whether a Diesel Car
In general, diesel cars are more expensive initially to buy but to routine-service/10,000
kms coz of their shorter Service intervals and replacement fuel filters
involved - compared to Petrol ones - not to mention periodic Fuel Injection
Pumps Servicing and re-calibration which cost quite a packet. In addition,
their heavy/vibrating nature always leads to failures of some 'plumbing'
somewhere or the other.
However, 'internationally', they make up in the long run coz their average
engine life expectancy is atleast twice that of 'their' eqvt Petrol's.
Regrettably, with most diesel Cars being sold here it's not true, i.e.
for example Indica-D, being under-powered for its weight, it's engine
life expectancy is ~ half that of well-proven Petrol eqvts ! However,
it may not so with the likes of Innova, Accent-Crdi, Palio-D or Ford-Fiesta-D
now.
There are professional Road Test Reports on all such Cars posted on our
Site, which you should Surf, followed by meaningful Test Drives and then
take your own informed decision.
To sum-up, diesels and those too with a world class engine - 'break-even'
only if you do around 2000 km/pm. There's also an informative Article
titled 'Fuelling a Diesel Era' per URL below - which is worth going through
:
http://www.indiacar.com/xnewdet.asp?id=n4910
3)
Model Suffixes
There are no national or international standards in respect of such 'suffixes'
and each OEM follows it's own fancies to differentiate between its various
models having different 'trim' levels. Usually, 'L' stands for the lowest/entry
level and 'Z' for the highest spec'd model. GLS accordingly would be one
level lower by way of trims/goodies.
On the otherhand,
'GT' is a EU concept denoting 'Grand Tourer' and only high-powered cars
capable of cruising long distances effortlessly at high speeds are so
badged.
4)
Car # Plates in India
These follow dictats of the 'Central Motor Vehicles Regulations -1989'
and have the following significance - taking a typical example of 'MH04
BH 1234' as below :
i) 'MH' : Maharashtra State - like TN for Tamilnadu.
ii) '04' : RTO Zone/District of the State in question.
iii) 'B' : Sub-division of above Zone.
iv) 'H' : The 'nth' series of the 4-digit actual number; viz if it followed
the true alphabetical sequence/not necessarily, there have been A to G
i.e. 7x 9999 Cars already registered with the RTO Zone in question. Again
not all 9999 #s in each series may actually have been allotted.
v) To those locally 'tuned-in', such #s also indicate the year/quarter
in which the Car was first registered !
5)
Which ones to Buy
Regrettably,
there can be no ‘standard’ recommendation that one can blindly
follow, as the variables are many - like i) One’s Budget, ii) Daily
run in Kms, iii) Kind of terrain/traffic that one has to tackle most times,
iv) No. of passengers/baggage that one needs to carry often, v) Availability
of reliable After Sales Service close to one’s residence/office
- and the likes of them. For actual recommendations on such fronts, one
would do well to surf our Autoguru’s Answers that abound with replies
to scores of such queries. As for buying a used car, there are Articles
on the subject posted under our ‘Infobank’ that one should
surf before taking a plunge. |
