Automotive Blog

While the world economies have been under recession - Indian economy is still going strong with close to 6% GDP growth. It is a big downswing from last year’s 9% plus, but still it is heartening to see a good positive growth.

as a matter of fact, Indian economy has been booming for the last 10 years or more. Reultantly, the central government and most state governments have hiked salaries of government employees. Our state government too hiked our salaries by 25%. Now, I can think of buying a car! But what type of cars to buy? Which brand? Brand new or second hand?

As I don’t want to go too deep into debt, I have been pondering about owning a second hand SUV. In this case my first choice is the Maruti Gypsy - a 4 cylinder, 1298 CC all terrain vehicle. The problem is that this vehicle is hardly used by the public due to its fuel inefficiency. Hence, it is very difficult to find a second hand one - except from government held auctions.

Here it is to be noted that the second hand car market segment is not very well organized in India. I have my brother (a naturalized British) in London and a friend in Edinburg, Scotland. My friend says second hand or used cars in Edinburg are very easily available through well organized dealership. So is in London. I wish the same was available here.

So now I have two options open - buy a car which is easily available as many people use them. On the other hand if I want to have my choice - I’ll have to wait for some auction to be held by one of the government departments selling the Gypsy.

As I mentioned earlier - I don’t want to get into too much debt now - I am not thinking of a new car for net few months. But if I don’t get the SUV of my choice, I will rather go for a new car than buy a used car.