Can we trust Maruti True Value Dealers ?

[mithun]

When I went to some Maruti True Value centers the prices of majority of the vehicles were about Rs.20000-30000 more than the usual market price. They have told that it's because they are giving the warranty, 3 free services and they have replaced all the worn out items including the tyres so that you can have peace of mind.

Is there any truth in their statements ?

OR are they of the same breed as that of the other used car dealers who take prospective buyers for a ride ?

[ajmat]

They are a cut better but you have to pay for it. They were really good in taking my old car and paying promptly

[Irwin]

Stay away from TRUE LIES (VALUE) Dont sell or buy anything from these guys. They want to buy cheap and sell it back to some gullible buyers for a fortune. Recently, just before I was finalising the deal to buy SWIFT I had the TRUE VALUE guy evaluate my car, The car in question was a M800 (95) with AC. After about 20 minutes of walking around in circles of my car. he offered to buy the car for 20,000, and the reason according to him he offered me such a fantastic deal!! was because my car was equipped with a Pioneer MP3 Player DEH-7450MP, and it has been fitted with a brand new carburettor, cross members etc, and the price he offered is inclusive of the loyalty bonus!!!. So I asked the person, what would be the price of the car without all these, he told me that it would be impossible for me to sell this car. Finally after I took the delivery of my SWIFT, I sold my car to an outside customer for 43K, offcourse without the MP3 Player.

So if you want to buy something, try to get hold of someone whom you know, who is dealing with used cars, or better still buy it from the seller directly.

[nitrous]

Irwin, urs must be a rare case.
I've heard different.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Irwin

I had the TRUE VALUE guy evaluate my car, The car in question was a M800 (95) with AC. After about 20 minutes of walking around in circles of my car. he offered to buy the car for 20,000, and the reason according to him he offered me such a fantastic deal!!

So if you want to buy something, try to get hold of someone whom you know, who is dealing with used cars, or better still buy it from the seller directly.

Irwin, you are speaking from the sellers point of view, not the buyers. The question asked in this thread is, is a true value car worth the premium price?

GTO

[Irwin]

I dont think the difference in the price, even in buyers point of view justifies the TRUE VALUE prices, First of all, as far as I understand this TRUE VALUE service/facility is not offered directly by MARUTI themselves, these guys are more or less like the accessories dealers with the car dealers, like an outsourced service, even though they are situated in the dealers premises. Off course I admit that these guys have to make a profit, but these guys have to be part of a larger picture. By offering someone a reasonable price for their old cars, encourage sale of new cars, by selling someone a car with a reasonable price, encourage ownership of cars, and by doing this the benefit to MARUTI or likes is manifold.

[raseel]

I think you digressed a bit again !!
The question here is not what their motive is, but whether it is as bad as other dealers or is it better off !!!

[Zappo]

I will give you a buyer's perspective on these guys. True Value can be worth the deal if you can find the "right" True Value outlet and are thorough in your knowledge of the market value of cars. This alongwith some idea of used cars (healthwise) and a very good negotiating skills can get you the deal you are looking for.

In Hyderabad, about six months back I was checking out the deal on used cars. I went to various used car dealers. True Value was also on the list. I found that outlets attached to the premier dealers like Varun are pretty brusque and at times even sound patronizing. And yet refuse to budge an inch. They quoted me the price of a 4+ years old M800 (5 gear MPFI) with 42000 on the clock as 2.2Lakhs and after lot of bargaining agreed to reduce it to 2,18000. I felt they were the biggest chors.

On the other hand I found that outlet attached to the Acer motors is much more reasonable. They quote a lower initial price and also come down to more reasonable levels after bargaining. So it all varies.

The trick to deal with True Value is to go to their site and pose as a seller. Then try to feed in the indicative details of the car you are looking at. That will provide you an indicative price at which they will be willing to buy it from you. Now add another 15-20k to that. You got your price for the car. Keep that in mind and negotiate from at least 5thou less than the price you arrived at. Remember if the site says for such and such conditioned car we will pay 2.2Lakhs then True Value would have bought it from the seller for a max of 2-2.05Lakhs. That is how they do their dealings. So when you add a margin of 15thou to 20thou on that and decide the buying price to be around 2.35lakhs you are actually offering him a clean profit of at least 30lakhs.

[Sush]

I have bought an 800 and esteem Lx from True Value. Here is my experience:-

Both the cars had paint work done. Infact the paint job on the esteem's bonnet was done quite shabbily and one could see dust particles stuck on it. (I didn't notice this while buying it)

Both the cars had good enjine but I seriously doubt the odometer readings.

They gave the 1998 esteem Lx for 2.5 lac onroad and after 1yr and 4 months, bought it back for 1.3 lac. The reason that I suffered this heavy depreciation was that I wanted to sell my car quickly.

Recently I accompanied some of my friends to the True Value outlets in Noida and Bangalore and found that there is quite some degradation in the quality of cars that they are selling.

[directinjection]

I recently saw an Esteem Baleno year 2000 model at Maruti True Value "Mela" jointly organised by two local Maruti dealers at Faridabad. The price quoted was Rs. 2.65 lacs, all inclusive (including insurance, VAT, registration transfer). The car had done (as per their claim and the odo reading 80,000 KMs). The offer looked attractive to me but when I sat to discuss the details I was told that on this particular car, they would not give any warranty or free services since it was too old and had also done lot of milage. I immediately dropped the idea of buying the car.
I would say that the concept of True value is good from the buyer's point of view in that one gets a certain peace of mind (because of the warranty and free services) not associated with open market sellers. Of course there is a premium that one has to pay.

[adit1329]

Originally Posted by directinjection

I recently saw an Esteem Baleno year 2000 model at Maruti .

Esteem Baleno?? can you please explain?

my personal experience, though i have not bought a car from true value is...
i gave away my esteem as there was a gear box problem which maruti could not rectify, whitefield bimal bought the car for 3.80 lakhs and have put it up for sale as is condition for 4.2 lakhs..so the unlucky buyer who happens to buy it will have to go through the same problems if he can identify the issue..

and, no i will not pay a premium to buy a car from true value

[ritik123]

I would NOT buy from true value.

Howver, from a sellers point of view, these are the advantages:

1. Immediate full payment for your old car. No haggling with individual buyers on part payments / advance payments / check/ cash etc.

2. No hassles of transferring registration etc...true value does it for you.

Of course they pay very little for your car...

[Xtreme Torque]

Originally Posted by Zappo

I will give you a buyer's perspective on these guys. True Value can be worth the deal if you can find the "right" True Value outlet and are thorough in your knowledge of the market value of cars. This alongwith some idea of used cars (healthwise) and a very good negotiating skills can get you the deal you are looking for.

In Hyderabad, about six months back I was checking out the deal on used cars. I went to various used car dealers. True Value was also on the list. I found that outlets attached to the premier dealers like Varun are pretty brusque and at times even sound patronizing. And yet refuse to budge an inch. They quoted me the price of a 4+ years old M800 (5 gear MPFI) with 42000 on the clock as 2.2Lakhs and after lot of bargaining agreed to reduce it to 2,18000. I felt they were the biggest chors.

On the other hand I found that outlet attached to the Acer motors is much more reasonable. They quote a lower initial price and also come down to more reasonable levels after bargaining. So it all varies.

The trick to deal with True Value is to go to their site and pose as a seller. Then try to feed in the indicative details of the car you are looking at. That will provide you an indicative price at which they will be willing to buy it from you. Now add another 15-20k to that. You got your price for the car. Keep that in mind and negotiate from at least 5thou less than the price you arrived at. Remember if the site says for such and such conditioned car we will pay 2.2Lakhs then True Value would have bought it from the seller for a max of 2-2.05Lakhs. That is how they do their dealings. So when you add a margin of 15thou to 20thou on that and decide the buying price to be around 2.35lakhs you are actually offering him a clean profit of at least 30lakhs.

30lakh......?? lol u probably meant 30 thousand.

[sansjunk]

Hi

My first post here so here goes:

I recently booked a 2001 Zen VXI at a TrueValue dealer in Bangalore. The odometer reading on the vehicle was about 52000. The car is being refurbished and I need to pick it up soon. However today I had gone to the dealer and they were showing me the emission certificate (taken by the previous owner in Dec 2005). I noticed that the odometer reading recorded on it was about 78000 !!

The dealer told me that it was a printing mistake (or a human error) and they have means of roughly verifying how much the vehicle may have driven and according to their tests it checks out OK.

Now I am not sure if I should believe the dealer! Is there anyway to independently verify this? The car is in good condition and I feel like taking it the way it is. However the reason I had decided to shell out extra cash was for the peace of mind of TrueValue certification! If the odometer was tampered with and TrueValue failed to detect it then what is the point??

Please advise on what I should do!

Thanks,
San
PS: Sorry if I posted this in the wrong forum!

[b]Note from the Support Staff: Thread merged with existing. Please continue discussion here.[b]

[ritik123]

Any odometer can be tampered with, its no big deal. Thats always a risk when buying a second hand car. You can do this check:

1. See the date of Manufacture on the tyres. If they are near the model of the year (ex. the car model is 2001 and the tyres are also 2001) then the odometer is correct @ 58K. However if the tyres are like say 2005 and it has considerable wear....it means the car is driven a lot....and 78K wud be more like it.

2. Demand to see the service history. If the car has been properly serviced (and i am sure you wish it was), the invoice's will have the odo readings.