Step-by-step car buying guides for Indian buyers. Budget planning, loan tips, negotiation tactics, registration process, insurance advice, and everything you need to buy your first or next car in India.
Why does Karnataka have the highest road tax? For the cars most of us actually buy, anything from ₹5 to ₹20 lakh, the answer is yes. And the reason catches people out: it isn’t the headline rate. Karnataka bolts an 11% cess onto the tax itself, and that drags your effective rate up to somewhere …
How much tax on a 10 lakh car? On a ₹10 lakh petrol car you’ll pay roughly ₹70,000 in Delhi to ₹1,56,400 in Karnataka as road tax on top of the price, and another ₹1,52,542 to ₹2,85,714 is already baked into that price as GST. So the total tax lands somewhere around ₹2.23 lakh to …
Are handling charges by car dealers illegal? Not flatly, no. No law or Supreme Court judgment bans handling charges across India. But consumer commissions have repeatedly ordered dealers to refund charges that were never disclosed upfront, never explained or not backed by any real service, and charging separately for registration work beyond the notified fees …
What is the biggest mistake that first time car buyers make? It’s budgeting on the ex-showroom price instead of the on road price. The ex-showroom number is the one splashed across every ad and brochure, but it’s not what leaves your bank account. The price you actually pay adds road tax, registration and insurance on …
Can I buy a car with a 20,000 salary? Yes, but only just. A safe car EMI at that income is ₹2,000–3,000 a month, which repays a loan of ₹1–1.45 lakh over five years. The cheapest new cars cost about ₹4 lakh on the road, so you’d need roughly ₹2.5 lakh in cash first. Short …
Five years ago, this was a two-minute decision. Petrol for city cars, diesel for highway SUVs. Move on. But 2026? The fuel choice has gotten genuinely complicated. CNG went from auto-rickshaw fuel to a legitimate mainstream contender. Diesel is fighting regulatory pressure from every direction. And petrol now runs on E20 ethanol-blended fuel that quietly …
Bought a new car? The registration process in 2026 is mostly digital now. Dealers handle most of it, and you probably won’t need to step inside an RTO office at all. Here’s how it works, start to finish: That’s the quick version. Below is everything you actually need to know, whether the dealer is doing …
Buying a car at the wrong time can cost you ₹50,000 to ₹2 lakh more than it should. That’s real money, gone because you didn’t wait two months. Or because you waited too long. Start by checking the current on-road price in your city so you know your baseline. Car prices in India follow predictable …
Buying a new car is one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll make. Start by checking the on-road price in your city to know what you’ll actually pay. And yet, most buyers walk into a dealership focused entirely on the model and colour, only to miss critical checks that cost them lakhs in the long …
Most Indian car buyers walk into a dealership, hear the on-road price, and pay it. That’s a mistake worth lakhs. The on-road quotation you receive isn’t a final price. It’s a starting position, carefully engineered to maximise dealer profit on every possible line item. Nearly everything beyond the ex-showroom price has room for negotiation if …
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