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-   -   ARTICLE: Buying a New car with an Older manufacturing date (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buying-car/146123-article-buying-new-car-older-manufacturing-date-5.html)

Not giving any answers here - but just one question.

Did you get to know that it's a 4-month old car only during PDI (that is, by yourself) or did the dealer inform you beforehand?

If it's the former, that would be real bad from the dealer's side and the dealer might be trying to push a lemon.

Ask for dealer discount as well along with new battery, else go to another dealer I am sure they will not leave you, and anyways WagonR is not a hot model for them now, so take advantage and play smart.

My view, there's probably nothing wrong with the car laying there and gathering dust for the last 4 months. Yes, battery is 5 months old, but that should not matter much if you take care of it - regularly top up with battery water, and otherwise take good care by not leaving the car with lights on etc.

But, I agree, if you can wait, then do so - and you will probably be able to get a newer car , and take advantage of festival discounts as well.

Relax Car-go-man. Answering your queries serially.
1. No harm in going for a 4 month old car as long as the manufacturer provides warranty from the invoice date.
2. Ensure that you have the warranty card for the battery. Generally the battery wont be affected if in sleep mode. Wake it up and it will start working as usual.
3. Worth trying if the dealer is willing to. But bargaining on older car and older battery wont be admissable IMO.

Stay Away!

4 months is nothing when compared to the total life span of any car and if this were a VW or a Fiat etc one need not have bothered. However, for a Suzuki product to be standing around unsold for 4 months it is not all creams & peaches. It still may not be anything but why would you want to be the one to find out & that too at your cost. Let this one be and move on to another example.

As someone mentioned, if the dealer told you that this is a 4 months old car, then I think you can still go for it, provided there are additional discounts. If he did not, I would not even consider buying the car if he gave whatever I asked for.

There are dozens of Maruti dealers in Bangalore and I do not see a reason why you have to stick with this guy if the second scenario I mentioned is true. Move over to someone else and tell them about the quote you already have and how the car is already ready and you would decide based on the best offer.

Either ways, wait for Diwali period.

It is not correct to judge the car's manufacturing date by the manufacturing date of it battery or tyres. All three can have different manufacturing dates.

Ask for the VIN number of the car and decode it. It will tell you the year and month of manufacturing.

If you have the option of going for a more recently manufactured car at the same cost, please choose the car which is more recently manufactured.

Like others have suggested, there is something fishy about a good selling model standing in the stockyard for 4 months.

Rohan

Is it possible to ensure that this particular car was not a display car. By display car I did not mean a demo car. Many or rather majority of dealers dealers take new cars to prospective locations, with the speed sensor detached, with the aim of displying the car. Trey may not be offering these cars for test drives though. This is also a form of abusing a new car. We can come across such display points at many smaller towns.
Therefore accept this car only if you are so particular about the colour and the dealer doesn't have other beige colour cars.
Accept the car only with additional discounts; or more freebies additional to the tyres and battery.

Thanks folks for your advice- feel a lot relieved now :).

I spoke to the dealer this morning and he assured the warranty (including for the battery) would be from the date of sale.

However he did give me another option- to choose a different shade amongst the newer ones he has in his stockyard. I think I'll probably go with this option- simply for the peace of mind. Will decide after a discussion with the home ministry!

Yes, I did find this out myself during the PDI (thanks to Sir Wildon). It appears that they procured this car from a different branch as they didn't have this one in their own stockyard. Otherwise, my experience with this dealership so far has been good, so hoping to seal the deal here itself

The dealer offering warranty for the battery is no big thing, because these batteries will definitely last more than five years So do some hard bargaining.

Ask for the good solid reason and justification to pick 4 months old car instead of fresh car for the same price, I am sure he will offer you good discount.

Not a hot model? The WagonR is a consistent top 10 best-seller in India, regularly clocking in 5 digit sales each month. It is indeed a very, very hot model.

@ Car-go-man: It's a no brainer. If the dealer isn't giving you any additional discounts for a 4 month old car, why even bother? Why put in the effort of fact finding? There's a lot that a car could go through in the dealer's yard. Just go out and buy a piece with a recent manufacturing date.

agree:
Had a discussion with the dealer and he has agreed to find me a newer one. :)

So I'll have to wait a little more- that's OK.

Got a call from the Renault dealership in Kochi today. They have a 2012 Fluence E2 , 2013 E4 & E2 models in stock. The fluence has always been a great car and a blockbuster market dud. I havn't been quoted any price yet. Head says not to go for a car that's almost 3 years old, but I wouldn't mind checking out the car in flesh. At what price point do you think the 2012 E2 will be a good buy, if at all the car is in awesome condition! stupid:

Kochi & Renault put together raise a lot of RED flags in my mind's eye. IIRC there were snaps of the local Renault dealership & stockyard completely submerged in water and the vehicles looking like little islands all over the place. This was earlier in these monsoons or last year and the 2012 would have endured them both and then some.