Choosing a car is an art The car driver asks Autíčkář.cz

My friend, who is not interested in cars at all, wanted a "worker" car for 100,000 (it's been about 10 years ago). I talked to him about it a few times, but it wasn't easy. It occurred to me that his requirements were a little different each time. Only the budget was probably clear. In the end, I chose a Ford Fusion - small on the outside, big on the inside, without any service problems, cheap to maintain. He agreed and he liked the car. I thought that then maybe I would find him a car in the ads and we would go buy it. Error. One day he calls me that he is standing in a second-hand car shop and he likes the Hyundai Accent there. What? I told him why Ford would be better. He hung up and called in an hour that he was home. And he bought a Peugeot 307. When I asked him why, he said he had a really nice blue color, so he took it. Do you understand that? In his defense - Peugeot hit the blue metallic on three hundred sevens really nice, but still…

On the one hand, I understand that. He just doesn't care about cars, he just needs to get somewhere. If he chooses any normal car and it will not be anything exotic or complicated, then all cars will serve him well enough. He drove with Peugeot for a few years and solved the problems of the piece rather than the type of car. So actually good.

I will add another story from my surroundings - the former owner of a successful road transport company wanted to buy the last new car to retire. The year is about 2005 and the budget is slightly over a million. In the end, he chose the VW Passat, but drove off with a Peugeot 607. How is that possible? When he arrived at the VW dealership, he expected someone to take him. He allegedly walked there for 15 minutes, and when the seller contacted himself, he asked him to be patient. He couldn't stand it mentally anymore. The closest was a Peugeot dealer, where the dealer began to take care of him at the entrance. I understand that buying a car also includes some pre-purchase service, but buying another car just to make me feel better when choosing a few hours, and then drive a car for a few years that I didn't actually choose?

Perhaps we are all here (or at least most of them) in the car, and with this article I would rather start a discussion about how a real car driver chooses a car - YOU?

I'll start - I'm a bit of a problem that I want a different car almost every day :). In fact, I always choose only the less common cars and I deliberately omit the best-selling cars, simply because I don't want to have the same car in the parking lot as half my neighbors. It's not that I don't like the Skoda, on the contrary, I'm surprised how good the latest models (especially the last Superb or the three-wheeler Octavia) are at given prices, but due to their prevalence, I have them more in reserve. In fact, my choice excludes the most proven ones irrationally.

When it is finally decided that the car will actually be bought, there is usually the narrowest selection of candidates left, say 4-5 models. I go through the internet a bit, evaluate the details and I always have two cars left, between which I can't decide for a few days and weeks (or worse, even longer). I annoy my wife, friends, parents, neighbors, former classmates, today more colleagues at work. Every time they decide, I argue - but the other one has this and that. It always ends when I buy something and don't bother me. At least our turtle in the aquarium can keep me listening for hours. Sometimes she even seems interested in her, and I take my head as a sensible nod.

When I finally decide on one model, there is a second dilemma - is it better to choose an older model from the last years of production? High equipment and sophisticated "children's" diseases are a plus, moral obsolescence and missing new gadgets minus. Or rather one of the first years of the new model with more modern production methods, but with a higher ramp and a weaker engine?

After a huge internal struggle and the final decision for a particular model, it is time to choose the engine, equipment, color, condition, etc. God, such variables. Usually it ends up wanting everything - the best engine, the highest equipment ideally with all the pressures, custom colors and as if it came off the production line, on the last day of production of the model. Yeah, my dream 15-year-old used car, for which I'm able to spend about 15% of its original value. This is the dream car.

Coming with reality is coming - advertising. I find that my dream car doesn't even exist, let alone buy it for the right number of zeros. The most beautiful pieces are classically out of the budget and I like to have at least the middle of the offer, sometimes not even that. I usually have at least dozens (or hundreds) of ads here. The filters offered by the website (sauto, tipcars, etc.) are suitable here. I will check the most necessary equipment and the selection is halfway through. Most second-hand car dealers can make sure that they list all the equipment (they make a living from it). But it is often different for private individuals. Ads incomplete, sometimes with typos… You just need to go through one photo after another and estimate what equipment may be there according to the omitted buttons. There are no filters on the popular bazaar, and sometimes even the search by basic words is not correct, so you can click for a few days.

Ideally, there are 5 ads left. But each of the cars is always different - one has cruise control but no heated seats, the other exactly the opposite. The third is without equipment, but with a lower ramp. The fourth has excellent equipment and condition, but the price is a few (tens) of thousands over the budget. And the fifth has great equipment, I wish the condition, but it is photographed somewhere near the housing estate in Chanov. Well, the fifth probably wouldn't make it. And again comes the inner struggle, the annoyance of all within reach and sleepless nights.

The next chapter is to look at the remaining two or three candidates. The law of approval works here and I, as a resident of České Budějovice, will probably only look for a car in Ostrava, Náchod and Karlovy Vary. But of course I want to see them all…

And that's how it goes on. In every step that comes close to buying a car, there are always more options. Usually, this does not mean that one of them is worse than the other, it is just another and a person who is going to spend a large part of the hard-earned savings simply does not want to make a mistake, with which he will live for a few years.

I used to buy cheap cars and be around ten to fifteen years old. At that point, most of the serious defects have been resolved and I have almost never been interested in service, just as I have never calculated a TCO. But as one begins to make money and reaches for more expensive and complex cars, it has been confirmed to me that at least the most common problems of the model would be good to know.

I may have described it as a drama, but it is one of my favorite activities, at the end of which there is usually great joy in the newly acquired ideal car.

And how are you? Do you involve more reason and a calculator in your selection or do you buy your beloved car no matter what? Do you have a fixed budget and you choose the best possible option within the given limit or do you have your favorite car and you simply save on it? And how much do prejudices affect your choice? Everyone has it a little different and I'm curious about your stories.