Okay, this is a rather long-drawn and philosophical one, but if you don’t agree with me, and want to throw something at me, it’s fine. What I am saying is my humble and honest opinion, and it’s mature advice for your own good (More mature than what’s expected from my age group LOL).
India is a status driven society. People have a tendency to aspire to buy expensive things, like the latest iPhone (Pro Max it is!), the gaming laptop with the most advanced specs (RTX fanboys looking at you right now), or the latest car with the most features, or preferably a Mercedes badge on it. Indians have the tendency to, when they get rich enough, show other people that they have made it in life. I get why you want to do this, but let us grow up here. Do you really need to spend your hard-earned money, for which you have worked your entire life, just to prove a point, and get some external validation from people who probably don’t like you, or people that you don’t like? “But, bro, I can impress them!” I can hear you say. Trust me, when I say this. This might hurt, but it is the truth, and you must understand this. No one gives two hoots what car you own. No one cares if you have a Mercedes, or a Skoda, or a Toyota Fortuner. And if they like you because of your car, they are NOT your friends and they don’t like YOU. They’re just with you because you have a “cool” car. If you know such people, stay away from them because they don’t care about you. Anyway, back to cars. To sum this rant up, don’t buy a car to impress others and to try to prove a point, buy a car because you really want one (or you absolutely need one, in which case you might want something utilitarian, cheap and reliable). Also, buy a car that makes YOUR heart sing and suits YOU and YOUR family’s needs, don’t give a damn about what other people think, you have more important things to do, I presume. Moving on, I hear many people say that horsepower is everything. “This car is boring, because it just has this much horsepower, wish it had more”. To me, that’s just, honestly a stupid argument. You cannot be more foolish than this, it’s that stupid. You don’t NEED horsepower to have fun! I have said this countless times, and I will say it again. It is more fun to drive a slow car fast, than a fast car slow. Case-in-point, there are so many modern German cars that have fast-shifting automatics and unbelievably powerful engines, but would you call ALL of them fun? On the Autobahn, or the Nurburgring, a resounding yes! But in India? I don’t think so. There are so many EVs with ridiculous performance, and EVs have already won the numbers game, but would you have as much fun in an EV as you would in a combustion-engined car? Numbers are one thing, experience is another. Say, you had 550 horsepower. How much of it will you be able to use on Indian roads without getting multiple speeding tickets or crashing? On the other hand, if you look at a Tata Nano, with barely any horsepower, or a Suzuki Swift, with 80-ish horsepower, you can actually use all it’s performance without crossing the speed limit. They are such fun-to-drive cars that can put a smile on the grumpiest old-man’s face! It isn’t just horsepower that makes a car fun. There are many small things, like how easy (or comically challenging. Case-in-point Fiats because of their notchy gearbox or the Multijet diesels because of their peaky power-delivery) it is to extract performance out of it or just drive it, how it handles, how it feels from the driver’s seat, how much performance can you actually extract out of it in the real world, etc. What makes a car truly fun-to-drive is how easy it is to drive enthusiastically in the real world, and how fun it is to drive at slow speeds. Because if you truly enjoy the car, you don’t need to prove anything to anyone and you would want to carry your own sweet pace, without honking and lane-splitting. Naturally, using a high-horsepower modern SUV with an automatic gearbox (just giving an example, don’t freak out) in Mumbai will not be an enjoyable experience. But using a small hatchback with an enjoyable manual gearbox with a light clutch and smooth but satisfying shifts, like the Swift, will be more fun, and you will feel more alive and feel like laughing more often. As you dance through traffic with agility that might surprise you, you won’t be worried about a fender-bender because it’s a Maruti, so it’s cheap to fix. Meanwhile denting a BMW X5 in traffic can ruin your day, quite significantly. Ouch! To sum this one up, you don’t need an overly fast car to have fun. And it’s not the horsepower that the car makes that matters, but what matters, is how much horsepower can you extract out of it. If you need horsepower to go fast, you might want to learn how to drive first. If you won’t, then enjoy being gapped by slower cars.
Last but not the least, you don’t need to buy a brand new car from the showroom all the time! Sometimes, it is better to keep your old car for a few years, if it is in really good shape, and there is no problem in delaying a decision. Other times, it is better to go used! I can understand that for some, it is an emotional thing to buy a new car, and people prefer that because they get a warranty, so I am not being vehement on this one, but if you want to know my logic behind saying this, then here goes. First, off the car prices, let’s just admit it, are ridiculous. Cars are becoming expensive, and depreciation hits a car the moment it leaves the showroom, and it hits hard. You might not want to pay your hard-earned money for just a low-spec Maruti. You will easily get a more high-end car used. On the other hand, if you have a diesel, and it’s in good condition, then you might want to keep it, make the most of it, run it as much as you can, till diesels are discontinued, and then buy a hybrid or EV or whatever there is, because diesels, as unfortunate it is, might go out of fashion soon. By the way, whatever I said applies to motorcycles as well. And by god, if you know someone who always keeps comparing horsepower numbers and keeps bragging about his car or motorcycle having the most horsepower, then don’t even waste your time and energy trying to argue with that someone. If there is one thing more valuable than your money, it’s your time, and time must not be wasted on idiots like these. Cars, and bikes, are much more than what their spec-sheet suggests. There are so many types of experiences, and if the experience isn’t good enough, what’s the point if it has the best horsepower numbers? Besides, if you ever bought a car by looking at it’s spec-sheet, it would be better if I would send you a copy of that spec-sheet, no?
