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-   -   ARTICLE: How to buy a *USED* Car in India (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buying-car/18859-article-how-buy-used-car-india-45.html)

Fair deal.
And its a good car. Reliable, cheap, and efficient. Powerfull as well, for the genre. SPend a bit sprucing up the inside, and you wont notice the age driving it.

Lots of long term owners here, I believe, who'll vouch for her.

Exactly my thoughts. I go to work almost everyday on a route with dense traffic so I dont have to worry about nicking and scratching it here and there. Any thoughts on how many more miles/kms I might be able to squeeze out of it before the car calls it a day? It has been driven very well so far.

First Question: outstanding loans and hypothication

I have not read through 45 pages! But I would have thought this situation is common: the seller needs the buyer's money to pay off the outstanding loan on the car.

The NOC can't be issued, and the Hypothication record can't be removed, unless the buyer actually pays first -- which, I gather from the first pages, is not the ideal situation, so what is the safe-to-both-sides usual way of dealing with this? Go on a tour of the banks/RTO together?

Second questions:

Car was registered at a different RTO from that local to the buyer: does the paperwork have to be lodged at that RTO, or can it be done at the buyer's local RTO?

When I sold my fabia I got the buyer to sign all the documents, give me the money and let him take the car. I foreclosed the loan and did the RTO work myself. Failsafe for both IMO.


In the same above case, it had to be done at the buyer's local RTO, which was in the same state. So I got my RTO agent to contact an agent who works at the other RTO and got him to do the paperwork. It cost me a little extra, but I think it was worth it.


I am now in a situation where I am thinking of changing cars. I own a Ritz VXI which has done 15000kms in 15 months. I bought it new and it's still on loan. The interest rate was higher than it is now when I bought it and hence end up paying an EMI which I'm not comfortable with anymore, also because of certain financial situations. We had a fiesta 1.4 Petrol (2008) model in the family earlier, which we sold off in 2012. It was lovely to drive. I was thinking of selling the Ritz, closing off the loan and buying the same fiesta back at a much lower price. Which means my financial outflow will be limited to maintaing the car plus I get to keep a little money from the sale. But this doesn't seem to be possible anymore because the current owner of fiesta is not looking to sell. But I still think it's a good idea. Is it really? Or am I just making myself believe it because I love the drive ? I don't mind spending a little to maintain the car and bring it upto scratch, internally and externally. But are they prone to some major complaints?

Fiestas from around the same time period seem to be available for less than 2.5L. Good buy? Also is it a good option to go for the company's (Ford) preowned collection at their dealerships ?

That's exactly what we did. It was no hardship, as I got to know the seller, a BHPian, quite well during the sales process, and we had a pleasant afternoon together.

As Rohit says, the hypothecation has to be handled at the same office as the car was registered. However, the big man there, the top boss, the numero uno, etc, told me to do the registration in my name at my local office.

The seller and I sat together while I did the money transfer online, and watched the confirmatory SMSs arrive at our phones. At the same time, we filled in two copies of the necessary forms and he signed the car over to me.

I'm sure he would have done that, That RTO is, of course, nearer to his place than to mine, although it is not very far away for me.

Another point for buyers is that I feel that the registration documents should be physically handed over with the car.



Not only same state, but same office! The records (at least here in TN) are not centralised. Another reason why I took on the task was I expected to do the name transfer at the same time and place. That was optimistic! As of now...

The loan removal has been applied for, and I have to go back for the registration doc next week. Two-visit job.

We have to go to our local RTO (actually, walking distance), for the name change. I expect that to be a two-visit job too, because they will probably convert the RC paper to a "smart card," and I'll have to give a couple of days for that to happen.

I'm retired. It is not a problem. Well, I wouldn't want to do that sitting around in Chennai's May/June, but I can cope with it at this time of year. It gets me out of the house, and I find it quite interesting to experience these offices. Therefore I find it a waste of money to pay somebody else to do the job. However, I might change my mind on that over the next few days!

Oh, and my wife, who accompanies me to make up for my linguistic and hearing difficulties, does not share my interest in experiencing government offices. :D

Here. It is centralized so it was relatively easier. Agree with you about getting stuff done on your own. I just found it easier to let somebody else do it. Now there are fast track counters at RTOs and you get it done in a day or so. Any opinions on the fiesta ?

It's a Polo :D

You've got me worried now: sometimes wrong things just come out of my brain, especially through keyboards and especially with names. I hope I didn't call it a Fiesta!

No, no. I asked about a fiesta. Hence. Not about the polo. Regarding the transfer, How many days have you been at it?

So my friend is currently considering purchasing a Lexus in Mumbai. After a lot of back and forth with the seller he described the situation about the car to me. Since I have never purchased an used car ever before, I am not well versed with the situation, but from the patchy story that he told me, this to me sounds like a Stolen Car being sold.

The seller is giving him a lot of iffy answers saying he is moving back to Dubai soon and hence is looking for a quick sell. However, in spite of numerous attempts, he has only managed to get a visual inspection of the car from the outside so far.

1) The car is being sold by some person who is not the owner aka all the papers aren't in his name. He says that he bought the car from the current title holder but didnt register it in his name as he is barely in India. So since the paperworks arent in his name, I am pretty sure the paperwork must require the owners signature while submitting the change of ownership to the RTO ?

2) The car apparently is on some complicated registrations. It is on a Tardeo Number Plate (MH 01) but the guy has told him that the car also is registered with Andheri RTO (MH 02) and there was an Andheri plate kept on the dash of the car. As I stated, since he has only had a visual inspection and hasnt had an opportunity to open the car and also see the documents. I dont know how this works that the car is on a MH 01 Plate but has documents and another plate in MH 02.

3) He is constantly repeating the same story. Quick sell. Looking to move to Dubai, visa could come any time and will have to leave. My friend asked him how to go ahead with the transaction if he is not going to be here, to which the seller replied saying he has his guy who will handle things on his behalf.

4) The car isnt on a valid insurance atm. This rang alarm bells for me, as tomorrow if my friend makes him a part payment and submits the documents to the RTO for change of ownership, if stolen then the insurance wont be covering my friend for his loss as I have read about similar issues on FB in the past.

5) The so called seller says that he has all the paperworks: Form 28 /29 /30

From little knowledge that I have about this, I get a feeling this is a stolen car. However just to clarify and back my doubts, I thought it would be great to share this here to seek any opinions. Also, how I can cross check whether a car is stolen or not, is this doable ? Any suggestions will help :)

No idea about how to determine if this is a stolen car or not since many police stations are not connected with networked computers for getting FIR info on a common platform.

Also the issue of number plate seems VERY suspicious.

This car screams NO very loud. Better to look out for more options in my opinion than to regret later. Who knows, he might land into more trouble than just financial?

Is this a special car, something that just HAS to be HAD?
If not, just ask your friend to walk away. It stinks all sorts. The plates seem to confirm some sort of undisclosable background.

AFAIK a car can't be registered at two RTOs at the same time. One has to get an NOC (if applicable) from the old RTO to reregister at a new RTO, at which point it ceases to be registered at the old RTO. Does MH have an online registery of sorts to cross check with the license plate number?

First instinct, walk away.

Writing a new post as time to edit my post is over.

If I remember correctly, there was a system called VAHAN where you can send a SMS with registration number and it gives the owner name and few other details relating to make and model of car and its validity. You can ask your friend to send SMSes with the two registration numbers and check what they return back. Details can be found in a thread on this forum itself.

This, only if he is fixated on this car. Else, best to look away.

Yes, no, sort of.

My current experience:

I am buying a car that was originally registered at RTO "A." It bears the registration number and plates from that office. I live within the jurisdiction of RTO "B." both RTOs are same-state-same-city, just different districts.

I had to deal with hypothecation removal at RTO "A." But they sent me to RTO "B" to register the ownership change.

The documents have now been accepted by RTO "B" for the change of owner name. The car will still bear the same registration: that from RTO "A."

I suppose that this could be described as "registered at more than one RTO."

No NOC has been needed. I think that applies only to vehicles from a different state.

Walk away from any used-car deal that has even the slightest whiff of anything strange, whether it's a special car or not.

Lessons from experience

Remember: the buyer needs two copies of form 29, and they must both be original. It says so at the top of the form itself, and, no doubt, it is explained in GTO's buying/selling articles. Even when following a checklist, one can leave stuff out or get things wrong. If buyer and seller have tabs on each other, this is not a problem, and things can be corrected. If one party appears on a street corner, and then disappears... what then?

I believe that the registration number remains the same but the vehicle is registered at the new RTO. The old RTO will not have the vehicle in their registered records even though the registration number suggests that the vehicle is registered there.

For example:
I bought a vehicle which had the number KL-34 , which is the RTO number assigned to Kanjirappilly SRTO (KL). But that was where the vehicle was originally registered and tax paid. But the second owner was from Palakkad. So they registered it at their local RTO, Palakkad RTO (KL). A new vehicle registered at Palakkad RTO would have had the number KL-9. Instead this vehicle retained the number KL-34 but the RTO was Palakkad. In Kerala, this website keralamvd.gov.in gives the details for the vehicle. This includes the previous registration history as well.