I don’t want a sedan or a hatchback, but I’m good with any small-mid-large SUV / MUV type of vehicle for 2-3 years.
BHPian kamalgaur recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
I’m in a bit of a quandary and needed advice.
I sold my Honda City in Feb 2023 after a long 13 years, and so far, I’ve been renting bikes for my daily commute (and loving the experience).
My heart has been set on getting an EV as my next car for years now, and I would love to buy an EV I’m in love with, but haven’t found one within my budget yet. Haven’t tried the Tata Tiago or Tigor, but I found the Nexon okay-ish at best. The same goes for the XUV400 – okay at best.
The MG ZS is nice, but feels very bland – and I refuse to pay 28L for a car with such a bad reverse camera. I also test drove the BYD Atto 3, and even though I kinda liked it, 36L is too much for a car that doesn’t spark joy – and I thought the audio system was flat and I hated it. My budget for the perfect EV will be 35-ish, but want to avoid crossing 40L.
That said, patience is not a problem, and I would happily wait for the perfect EV, but life has now changed in a way that I will need a car handy (especially on weekends). The car will be used mostly for city driving with 2 ppl (< 200 km/month) and maybe a weekend trip (~500-700 km/month) once a month.
I don’t want a sedan or a hatchback, but I’m good with any small-mid-large SUV/MUV type of car.
Objective is to not spend too much on it now (10-15L?) but also something which will give me decent-to-good value when I sell it in the next 2-3 years to upgrade to the ideal EV.
Happy to be guided by experts here in terms of what I should consider vs not…
Here’s what BHPian Axe77 had to say about the matter:
Personally, I think the MG ZS EV is a great bet if you combine the price and offering it’s available at. Perhaps you can even consider if the reverse camera can be improved with some after-market solution. You really might want to give it another consideration. But assuming you are sure this is not something you want to go for, here are two diametrically opposite suggestions.
Nexon EV:
Buy this now as a stop-gap, it will be really nice to drive and hopefully is now established and popular enough as well to have some takers when you want to sell it a few years down the line assuming your dream EV is launched by then. No point in breaking the bank and spending too much if this is a stop-gap so you minimize what you lose by depreciation and resale.
Ioniq EV:
I know you mentioned a max budget of 40L. But perhaps you can give this car a test drive and see if this fits that dream EV description. In my mind, it’s one of the best VFM EVs available in the market today which genuinely has an extremely high desirability quotient. It’s very peppy, a ground-up EV, has great interiors, and looks like nothing else on the market (including its platform-shared sibling). It might just be that perfect EV that you’re looking for.
Advantage Ioniq:
You bust your budget a bit today but you’re driving an EV you love (assuming it appeals to you) from the word go, without losing any money in flipping a stop-gap EV for that perfect EV on the horizon. There is nothing specific in your mind perhaps that you’re waiting for. This is available here and now. Give it a shot and if it really appeals to you, consider biting the bullet today itself rather than wait.
Here’s what BHPian Shreyans_Jain had to say about the matter:
Refresh model ZS EVs are available for 22-25L here in Delhi, about 1-year-old and absolutely clean cars. Should be similar in other metro cities as well. That, I think, is a reasonable price for the car on merit without an unusually high EV premium.
Otherwise, the ideal EV to be had is the Hyundai Ioniq 5. Costs close to 50L, but it is the one to have.
Here’s what BHPian bijims had to say about the matter:
15 lakhs give you plenty of options in the Compact SUV space, Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet, Tata Nexon, and Maruti Brezza are available in their mid to top trims, also the base manual variants of the VW Taigun, Skoda Kushaq, MS Grand Vitara, Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos and Toyota Hyryder are also available.
Considering the fact that you are looking for good resale in 2-3 years, the recently updated and top-selling SUVs would be your best bet, so with Nexon, Creta, Seltos and Sonet due a facelift within a year, they are best avoided for better resale.
Moreover, Taigun and Kushaq aren’t known for good resale either, so that leaves you with the Hyundai Venue and Maruti Brezza in the sub-4 metre category and the MS Grand Vitara and Toyota Hyryder in the above 4 metre SUV category.
So, any option among these four would definitely provide good resale and would be a good buy at the moment.
Keyword: Car under Rs 15 lakh with a good resale value until I buy my dream EV