CAR PURCHASE

 CAR PURCHASE

Why suddenly a seemingly unfamiliar domain like ‘buying car’?  It was so, a few years ago; but now most mid-income families desire buying a car for domestic use. Even now some may not be convinced of the ‘need’ for the same.  Thus, among the mid-income families one may recognize two different attitudes on possessing a car.  There are reasons behind the progressive ‘accommodation’ of an idea which was held ‘Luxury’ or extravagant a few years ago.  Among those reasons, two are important. Children who have entered some ‘paying’ professions’ keep pestering their parents to ‘change’ the house and move into a new well furnished house. Often the parents have ‘deep etched’ sentiments to their places of living and seldom desire moving to a new quarter. Too often the parents would have had their house built from hard-earned money some 25 years ago or so; also, how they toiled through those harsh days of early family life carries both sentiment and extra bondage –not easy to disown. Such intimacy or bondage does not interest the son, who imagines that his parents are too conservative to give up discomfort for comfort.

So, as a second option he throws up the idea of Why not we keep a car at home?   True to their long –associated penury or parsimony, they resist the idea saying” What is the urgency now?” The son quickly convinces them saying ‘such investments can help in tax remission’ for such professionals as me. Yet another stimulant for middle class persons to favourably consider ‘car purchase’ an attractive proposition stems from advertisements in display at many bank branches. Human minds slowly yield to pressure though they do not succumb to it. Now, more than the son, the father is delighted to go round looking for cars.

The father a ‘true novice’ in this hunt, sheepishly elicits opinion from cab drivers who generally park their taxi in front of this house under the tree shade. Each driver suggests something and the old man is nervous about taking a decision. When at leisure, the father raises his doubts on choice of car based on cab derivers’ pet notions, the son frets that his father does not even know whom to seek advice from and reveals displeasure. The disturbed father asks in whisper ‘shall I talk to Mr. XXXX, Manager –TVS?’ “Appa, we are not buying any bus” shouts the son. The lady of the house emerges from kitchen and cautions her husband not to any more go about enquiring about cars. The father now comes under regimented regulation. The son now says ‘we will find out from Car show rooms ‘the coming Saturday / Sunday by 11. 00 am. The old man is angrily silent.  Yet, he opens the ‘ALMANAC’ [‘PANCHANGAM’] if the ensuing Saturday / Sunday are auspicious for new ventures. He does not reveal what he found out.

Showroom visits happened as scheduled. Each show room catered to a definite brand and this made the search more elaborate and time-consuming than anyone ever thought. There was some clarity in mind before visiting the show houses. One thing became clear; there were more models , within each there were variants by size, features like air bags , park sensors, reverse parking cameras , safety belt reminder only for driver, for both the front seaters, for all the travelers and so on . Some had ambient lighting, some had bottle holders on all the doors, some had it one each on front and back doors; all had A/C ; BUT SOME HAVE MUSIC SYSTEMS; some have INFOTAINMENT SCREENS , Power windows in the front , rear power windows. Some had only manually operated windows. Some models had wiper in both the rear and in front. Some had a single wiper for the whole car. Some show rooms were only rooms since they were waiting for the models to arrive. Some had engines -8OOcc, some 1.0 L, some 1.2 L, some were Turbo and so on; the angry father at one place said every car has an Engine –so good. There were also permutations / combinations of the above features forcing the buyer into a state of fatigue –having to decide the best option. Model, Brand, Size, ENGINE, Fuel, COLOUR, VARIANTS – Oh God – how to choose?  Can we consult the show room manager?

Show room managers are not so easy to reach by visitors. But, when sought, they would emerge and entrust us to someone’s care to clarify our doubts. Quite often the sellers are interested to know if we choose to buy   a vehicle on some ‘financial support’ [euphemism for loan / installments”]. If you prefer to go for outright purchase [personal funds] they have dampened spirits; but, the sales representative handling that version or model is happy that a product under his care finds its way out by sales.  Obviously, installment business seems to offer lot of perks by way of incentives. But, installments for major products like Car or housing facilities [or both together] have the potential to render us insolvent if something like ‘corona- threat lockdown’ hampers our earnings. Installment scheme is an inviting bait unless one is determined not to get trapped.  The claims of 0% interest is a tacit declaration about the fate of the customer after the sale.  

The pricing of vehicles is another ‘confusing’ strategy. The price starts at Rs 3.8 lakhs is the publicized amount. But, when all steps are completed, it would have touched Rs 5 lakhs, the contributory segments being road tax, insurance, RTO + OTHER TAXES besides the base price. The sellers can as well alert the buyer of the final cost, since they are mandatory components [Instead of mere base price]. That would not destabilize the buyer enthusiasm. Somehow, they refrain from truth as much as possible.  The sellers add  some frills to the bill like ‘car care scheme ‘, with special species there in like “Silver care “ or “Golden care” or” Platinum care “ just to add one or two service facilities more to justify the name Platinum, Gold or Silver. For each category fee is collected upon purchase itself   Thank God there is no bronze, Aluminium and Tin  services which would respectively offer ‘washing and inflating’, only washing and only ‘inflating’ the tyres twice a year as per agreement.

Another important information is, the sellers can provide several structural components like mud guard flaps, floor mat, foot rubber, cosmetic items like fragrance spray, cleaning tissue, cleaning brush and a few other sundry items at no extra cost , as several of them are received from manufacturers in the name of brand marketing. Unless the buyer demands these, they do not offer them so readily. If the buyer insists on their providing those, they try to accommodate to a large extent though they will try to wriggle out of providing some items –saying that right now they are not available with them. But , as if you are on an overseas trip, you have to hand over your Aadhar, PAN, Ration card copies and about 5 or 6 Passport size photos, and sign some 15 places even for ‘payment through your bank account’ . Imagine for how many days you may have to sign papers, if you were to seek some financial assistance! So, Car purchase is a somewhat ‘demanding exercise’; demanding –patience, perseverance, determination and perhaps a ‘fight to finish’ attitude.  

Prof. K. Raman