Scooters in India: what you need to know before buying one

What you need to know before buying one

Do you remember the famous “Hamara Bajaj” TV commercial from the early 90s where the company was their Chetak scooter? I am sure you do. The scooter was so famous that people ended up waiting for years to get one home. Why? Because the demand exceeded supply and may be because Bajaj’s expectation was not so high from this scooter. Over the years we saw numerous scooter models from the Pune-based manufacturer and eventually the Chetak scooter was dead, credit this to manufacturers like Hero MotoCorp (which was then called Hero Honda), TVS and some more. 

But these days the scooter segment is a completely different game. Most manufacturers have jumped into this bandwagon and are trying hard to be number one in sales and market share. No one wants to miss this opportunity and why not? The segment is seeing double digit growth – much more than the single digit growth it saw in the  last fiscal. But what’s different this time? Well, for starters you don’t need to wait for years to get your hands on a scooter now. You got more than enough options but, this is where the problem arises. Some scooters look identical, some got the same displacement and some got the same price. But where there is choice, there is confusion. Which scooter to choice is the perennial confusion in the market. So, today we make things easier for you. We give you a checklist that you should consider before buying a scooter. 

Price

This is obviously your main concern area. You don’t want to see a big debit number from your bank account. You want your purchase to be a sensible and a logical one. Make sure you do enough research online by comparing various scooters through our comparison tool (link if possible). Don’t get excited when you see the price lower than what you expected. There is a high chance that you are reading the ex-showroom price and not the on-road price. Ex-showroom price is the cost of the vehicle when it is inside the showroom. Before you take it home, you need to pay the RTO charges and insurance premium that usually ranges around 10 per cent of the ex-showroom cost. Sometimes, you will also see “depot” or “handling” charges considered in the total cost, which is a way by dealers to make extra money. This is a grey area. It is the dealer’scall, if he wants to strike off that charge from your final payment he can, but legally it is not allowed.

Fuel efficiency

“Kitna deti hai”?-I call this Indian motoring’s most expensive three words because it deals with the fuel efficiency. With the ever increasing petrol prices, we need the maximum out of our scooter.  That’s why you will see manufacturers like Hero MotoCorp and Honda spending millions of rupees in R&D to get the maximum fuel-efficiency. For most of the Indian scooters, the claimed ARAI fuel efficiency revolves around 60kmpl but this figure is generally an indicative figure and not an absolute. But in the end, the fuel efficiency of your scooter will depend on your riding style and the way you maintain it. 

Cost of service

You won’t get to know the cost of servicing your scooter without owning it. But there are few ways you can find this out. Firstly, ask your friends and families who own similar vehicles , they  can advise you on this. But try to ask more than one person as multiple feedbacks will result in a good decision. Second way to get these details is online forums. There are more than enough India forum websites that will answer most of your queries. The major advantage of forums is crowd sourcing- you will have a data mine that will help in one way or the other. You can even drop us an email at contact@bikewale.com for quick response.

Accessories

There are few manufacturers who include rear view mirrors, side stand and the number plate as part of accessories and not in your ex-showroom cost. It is not legal to ride the scooter without any of these but still they manage to sell it as accessories. Make sure to check this before buying any product. You might find the pricing of a scooter quite attractive but the only reason it is that way is because, the cost of these accessories are not included in the ex-showroom. Cost difference should be around Rs 1,500  which is not so cheap. 

Service centres

When you enquire about a scooter in a showroom, do check the proximity of the nearest service centre. The reason I say this is, because dropping and picking up your scooter from the workshop will be a tremendous task if you are a working professional. Times constraints may make you skip the service interval, hampering your scooters maintenance. Depending on the size and the strength of the workshop, you might need to take a prior appointment before heading out.

Waiting period

This is where most of the disappointments happen during the entire scooter buying process. This again is because of demand exceeding supply. Few scooters like the Activa tend to have more than two-three months waiting period but let not this disappoint you. There are more than enough scooters in the market that will quench your thirst for automatic two-wheels for you and your family.