Buying a new car is an exciting and big decision for first-time car buyers. But there are countless options in the market, making it difficult to choose the best car for our needs. To make it easier, we have done extensive research and prepared a guide to help you buy the best car for your lifestyle, family, usage, budget, and preferences.

1. First, ask yourself what purpose you are buying this car for? 

These questions will answer 50% of your car buying questions, narrow down your options and save you from excessive research costs.

2. Here are some ideas:

1. Daily usage: Daily use: This means how much you will drive the car in a day or month and where you will drive it, on the highway, long-distance drives, within the city or off-road or hilly areas.

2. Seating Capacity: How many seats do you need? Do you want it for daily commute, office, family travel or business purposes?

3. Storage capacity: Are you going to transport goods, luggage or any special equipment?

4. Any special requirements: Do you need any special features like wheelchair accessibility, child seats, ADAS, sunroof, etc?

3. If you are planning to buy this car for a specific purpose, here are some key details to consider before making the decision.

a. Do you need a car for your family?

If you are planning to buy a car for the family, you must know how many seats and space you will need. Generally, family cars require 4 to 7 seats and more boot space to accommodate passengers' luggage.

b. Do you need a car for off-roading and adventure?

Do you like camping, traveling in hilly areas, and going to rugged terrains where the car has to deal with challenging paths and extreme weather conditions? If so, then you should get an off-road car. An off-road vehicle can also be suitable for places where there are uneven roads and rough paths, such as villages and towns where roads are not available.

4. Now, think about the environment in which you will drive your car.

1. City Driving: If you plan to drive your car in the city and heavy traffic, you should look for a car with a compact size, easy handling, easy to park, fuel efficiency and auto gear shift automatic transmission to avoid frequent gear changes in heavy traffic.

2. Highway Driving: For highways, you need comfortable driving, strong stability at speeds of 80-110 kmph and above, a quiet cabin to prevent wind noise at high speeds, ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) that helps you stay in the lane, blind spot monitoring that reduces driver fatigue and keeps you safe on highways even at high speeds are all essential.

3. Rural Area/Rough Terrain Driving: When driving on rough surfaces, durability is of utmost importance to handle the bumps, potholes. You also need more ground clearance, which will prevent your car from rubbing against rough roads, rocks, or deep ruts and keep your car safe from any kind of damage.

4. Heavy Snow Area Driving: Snowy terrain requires better grip and stability to prevent your car from sliding and reduce the chances of getting stuck or skidding. This problem is solved by all-wheel drive (AWD) or four-wheel drive (4WD), TCS (Traction Control System and Electronic Stability Control (ESC) prevent the wheels from spinning during acceleration on slippery surfaces, and ESC prevents skidding by selectively applying brakes to each wheel and reducing engine power. You can also consider features like heated seats, heater, good Headlights, and Foglights for better visibility during snow for comfortable driving.

5. Hot Weather Driving: Driving in hot weather requires powerful and efficient air conditioning (AC), ventilated seats, and UV filtering window glass to keep the temperature in your car cool. Remote start enables you to run your AC before you get in the car and cool down the temperature inside the car in extreme heat weather. Your car also needs a TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) to monitor the heat increase in tire pressure, which can help you avoid flat tires and prevent blowouts during over- and under-inflation.

6. Mileage and Performance: Do you travel long distances daily, say 50-100 km, and want a fuel-efficient car for your commute, such as office, city traffic and daily use? Then consider a fuel-efficient car like a CNG or EV. The cost of running a mid-sized EV can be as low as ₹1 to ₹1.5, while CNG cars cost ₹2.5 to ₹4.5 per km, petrol cars cost ₹5 to ₹7 and diesel costs ₹4 to ₹5.5 per km, depending on the price of CNG and petrol. Then, if you travel up to 100 km daily, your costs will be as follows:-

5. Now, let's decide on your budget.

 You can consider the following points:

To buy a new or used car, you need to decide your budget and also decide how much money you can spend every month for the EMI for up to 5 years (if you take a loan), fuel cost for running the car and maintenance.

1. On Road price: Ask the car dealer for down payments, State RTO fees in which state you want to register your vehicle, Insurance and other charges like accessories that you want to add to the vehicle. On-road price includes the following details:

On-Road Price = Ex-Showroom Price + RTO Charges (Road Tax + Registration Fee) + Insurance Premium + TCS (Tax Collected at Source) + Optional Costs (Accessories, Extended Warranty, Handling Charges etc.)

You should also ask what the average annual maintenance cost of running a car is. Generally, it's something like this:

Hatchback: ₹7000- ₹15000 (Comprehensive)

Sedan: ₹10,000 - ₹20,000 (Comprehensive)

SUV: ₹15,000 - ₹30,000 (Comprehensive)

Luxury Cars: ₹10,000 - ₹25,000 to ₹40,000 - ₹60,000+ (Comprehensive, depending on model).

6. Let’s talk about warranty.

1. Affordable cars warranty (Rs 4-7 lakh range): Most affordable cars like the Alto K10, Renault Kwid and Hyundai Santro come with a 2-year/40,000-50,000 km warranty, and manufacturers also offer options up to 5 years or 1 lakh km at an additional cost.

2. Medium Range Cars Warranty (₹7–12 lakh range):

Cars like Tata Nexon, Maruti Suzuki Swift, Maruti Dzire offer a standard warranty of 3 years/1,00,000 km along with an extended warranty of up to 5-6 years/1.5 lakh km.

3. Luxury Brand Cars Warranty (BMW, Mercedes-Benz,  Audi):

Luxury brands offer longer/unlimited kilometer warranties, which can include a 3-year/unlimited kilometer warranty and can extend up to 7 to 8 years/unlimited kilometer warranty.

4. Check Dealer Warranty Offers:

You should check for promotional offers like warranty plans, extended warranties and additional free services, such as annual maintenance service and exchange bonus warranty.

7. Ask about the ongoing offers, and you should check out the following offers:

1. Cash Discount: The manufacturer offers cash discounts, which can range from ₹10,000 to ₹1,00,000 or more, depending on the model.

2. What is the exchange bonus for a car?

3. Exchange bonus:

   You can get an additional discount on your old car if you buy a new car from the same dealer. It can range from ₹15,000 to ₹50,000.

8. What is the Loyalty Bonus for a Car?

Loyalty Bonus: If you already have a car from Maruti, Hyundai, Honda, etc., and you are buying another car from the same company, then you may be eligible for Loyalty Bonus.

 9. What is the corporate discount on a car?

If you are working in a government organization, PSU and are involved in a profession like a doctor, CA, teacher, architect, then you can be eligible for a corporate discount ranging from ₹2,000 to ₹15,000. Even some luxury brands offer corporate discounts up to lakhs.

10. What is the scrapping/exchange program for cars?

If your old vehicle is scrapped and you have received the scrapping certificate, you will be eligible for a scrapping bonus, as many car manufacturers offer scraping benefits.

11. EV (Electric Vehicle) Buying Offers: 

To promote electric vehicles, the government offers subsidies, cash discounts and may include charging solutions and warranty benefits for batteries.

12. What are model year discounts on cars?

In 2025, if you buy a car manufactured in 2024 or the previous year, car dealers offer higher discounts to clear old car inventory.

13. Check free accessories:

While taking car delivery, you should check complimentary accessories like seat covers, floor mats, essential kits (perfume cleaning, cloth, puncture kit), mud flaps, etc. 

14. After-sales and service offered by car manufacturers:

The car manufacturers that have a wide range of service centers and dealers can provide you with better service for your car maintenance, such as Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, and Hyundai. Always check if the car you are buying has a service center near you. If your vehicle needs maintenance, always contact them and help with the pick-up and drop-off of your car after service and maintenance. 

15. After finalizing the above points, it is the right time to search online to get a perfect car.

1. Online Research: After keeping the above points in mind, you should now start researching online. You can also take help from the CarSalahakar.com website. Use various filters like price, seating capacity filter and filter to narrow down your requirements, which will provide you with a list.

2. Reading Reviews: While researching online, you should also look at user and expert reviews so that you know what car users and experts recommend about the advantages and disadvantages of the car. It can help you make the right decision. 

3. Compare cars: After narrowing down your options, compare multiple cars side by side. Consider the different variants of your choice based on their price, mileage, safety ratings, reviews, and other features. Keep at least 3 to 5 cars in your buying basket.

4. Test Driving: After selecting 3 to 4 cars, it's time to test drive your selected cars. The real-time test drive and experience of the car may vary in various aspects, like looks, features, comfort, driving experience, cabin view, car engine noise, etc. If you are not satisfied with the first test drive, ask for a second test drive or visit another showroom for a second test drive.

16. While Test Driving, you should observe the following:

1. Seats

Is the seat height adjustable, are the pedals, steering wheel and gears accessible according to your height and is the space between the thigh support and the knee good?

     b. Cabin Quality & Layout:

When you get in the car, check if it is easy to get in and out, the quality of the seats and fabrics, the infotainment system and its Bluetooth, USB, Android/Apple CarPlay feature, touch screen response, sound quality of the speakers (play any music), and steering-mounted controls. While driving, check how much noise comes into the car (especially wind and tire noise).

     c. Boot Space

Check the boot space and luggage space before and after folding/unfolding the seats. Especially if you are buying a family car or want to carry some special equipment.  

      d. Engine

When starting and accelerating the car, pay attention to the sound of the engine, the smoothness of gear shifting, and the transmission (automatic/manual).

Make sure the car you are test driving is meeting all your requirements like how easy it is to drive on your daily terrain like off-road, heavy-traffic and rough roads (check the suspension), drive on narrow and open roads, rear seat leg and head space is comfortable or not, boot-space, check all the features- seating capacity, sunroof, special equipment and other features you want. Do not hesitate to ask your questions. If the car you are driving meets all your requirements, do not be confused and bring that car home without any regrets.

17. After test driving, it's time to negotiate the price

Once you have chosen the right car, negotiate on the price. You should ask for multiple quotations from different showrooms and compare at least 2-3 quotations for the same car. Keep a track of which quotations include RTO, insurance, warranty or extended warranty (battery warranty in case of EVs), accessories, discounts and additional charges. Doing so will help you negotiate the car price confidently and save money.

The above factors assure you before finalizing the decision to buy a perfect car for your requirements without any second thoughts and regrets.