Resolved New Car purchase - Diesel or Petrol in NCR

Hi Gagan Modi Ji,

First of all, I really appreciate your videos and like the way you provide information. These have been very helpful till now to me. Also, please note that I have also recently started my Youtube channel named “Financial Gurukul” in which I provide suggestions and guidance on financial investment or planning.

I am planning to buy new car and taken test drive of many cars. Firstly, I will inform you about my requirements:
1) This will be my own first new car (but had secondhand Wagon R for 6 months) so looking to have it for at least next 5-6 years.
2) We are a family of 3 with my wife and 2 year kid. My parents live in hometown and so they will hardly travel with us. Hence, looking more for compact SUV.
3) I live in Gurugram and my office is around 10 km from home. As of now, working from home and doesn’t expect to go to office in 2021 atleast. Also, mostly it won’t be full 5 days office in the future as well (mostly 3 days).
4) I will travel to my parents or in-laws place once in a month which will around 400 km return journey.
5) In total, I am not expecting my travel to reach more than 1000-1200 km in a month when the offices will open. It will be much lesser before that.
6) My preference is more towards automatic due to heavy traffic in Gurgaon and expressways/highways are in construction so that will also lead to traffic jam.
7) My budget is around 10-12 lakhs, so I want to use it wisely.
8) After taking the test drive, I loved Kia Sonet and Maruti Baleno. As of now, I have booked Kia Sonet HTX IMT petrol in Delhi and HTX Diesel Manual in Gurugram. I don’t want to waste time and increase the waiting period. Kia has full refund policy so there is no issue with it.

Sonet HTX IMT: We loved this car and it has all the features and is under budget. It has everything which we wanted. However, the main concern is its mileage. As per our knowledge from Sonet group on Facebook, the city mileage is around 11-12 km and highway mileage is around 14-15 km. We don’t want in the future to think twice before planning a trip due to higher cost.

Sonet HTX Diesel Manual: Therefore, we have also booked Diesel Manual which has better average and the cost difference is only 34,000 INR. However, there are 2 concerns with this trim as well:
1) It is complete manual, but our preference was automatic. Although IMT is not complete manual but it gives better comfort due to non-availability of clutch. My wife is new to car and automatic will help her too.
2) As per my knowledge, Diesel cars are valid for 10 years in NCR. Hence, if I will need to sale the car in 5-6 years, I won’t get that resale value due to less tenure.

Maruti Baleno: This was a fantastic car until I tried Sonet. Also, its Zeta CVT is costing around 9.5 lakhs which doesn’t seem worth when we can get Sonet IMT with much more features in extra 1.5 lakhs. If I will choose this car, only due to higher mileage and I can install CNG in it after 1 year of purchasing date. However, the build quality is one big concern.

Since, I am a financial guy, I have done some calculation. As per my understanding based on current petrol and diesel rates, the difference will be around 3,000 per month if my monthly running is 1200 km with equal run in city and highway.

But is it worth buying diesel car when the time period of registration is 10 years in comparison to 15 years for petrol? There will surely be less resale value for diesel car. Further, I can book Diesel car in UP (my hometown) but firstly, the difference is around 60k and then I have noticed that traffic police trouble UP cars much more in NCR. Lastly, it’s not easy to sale UP number cars as well. I can’t go to Sonet Diesel AT because I don’t want to stretch my budget.
I am not open for XUV300 due to its boot size, Brezza was my dream car 2 years back but not now due to its lack of features. Don’t’ want to go to VW or Toyoto due to higher maintenance cost. I never liked i10 or i20 and i20 seems to be very overpriced to me.

Therefore, I need your suggestion on this dilemma. Should I buy Sonet Diesel without worrying about registration period or should I buy Sonet IMT and bear extra 3000-5000 Rupees every month.

Separately, I have noticed that you suggest “Headlight Bulb from Philips Xtreme Vision Plus / Osram night breaker unlimited”. Should I also buy this for Kia Sonet HTX model and will it void warranty if installed aftermarket? And what would be your choice of brand for “Tyre Pressure Monitoring System”?

Thanks
Ankush Goyal