Re: ARTICLE: How to buy a *USED* Car in India Hello All,
I just wanted to share my experience of buying a pre-worshipped Rapid in Bangalore hope it helps.
This pandemic has been a boon and a curse for a used car buyer.
Let’s get to the curse first, I was on the lookout for a pre-worshipped Rapid or Vento (petrol) in the same order of preference as mentioned. I took my time and the hunt lasted for 6 months.
Below given are my observations:
1) As the lock-down extended supply of pre-worshipped cars were on the decline.
2) Most sellers were dealers or dealers disguised as average Joe.
3) Lot of sellers pulled out their ads as they paused their plans of upgrading their existing ride.
Now to the boon's:
1) Cars with not so good reputation when it comes to maintenance (Read Rapid and Vento in my case) were not flying of the shelf anymore. To be honest let’s say they were moving even more slowly thanks to the pandemic.
2) Most dealers were ready to bring their car to customer preferred location.
3) End to End solution providers like Spinny looked attractive (Though a bit costlier than direct approach they literally take care of all things from test drive to paper works. Note I am not associated to Spinny in anyway nor did I end up buying a car from them. Just that I liked the idea, one place solution for all needs related to pre-worshipped car buying).
My Approach to things:
1) I fixed on my budget and my choice of car (Rapid(first preference), Vento(second preference), manual, petrol and after Sept 2016 because this meant I will get a car which is under 4 year warranty and I also have an option to extend it by another 2 years if I pick a Rapid).
2) I was ready to wait as I would not be doing a lot of travel thanks to the pandemic.
3) Short listed four options and contacted them (OLX, Spinny & Car24 were my go-to sites). Made it crystal clear about my expectation, budget range and also conveyed my intention to visit only sellers where there is a high possibility of a deal conversion. This saved me a lot of time and unnecessary travel (but for a dealer visit more on that)
4) Checked if the car had some traffic fines.
5) Decided to use the services of GetPitstop to get the car inspected whenever I went to check out a car.
6) Inspection of cars was strictly restricted to morning hours and at a place on my convenience (better visibility and safer when meeting strangers).
6) Deal clauses:
6.1) Token amount of 10k INR only (an amount I am fine with losing).
6.2) Final price, date of delivery and items to be handed over (read: invoice, spare key and so on) to be confirmed as an e-mail.
6.3) No hard cash (digital trail could come in handy if things go south).
6.4) Two copies of all documents+ insurance. A complete set of Form 29, Form 30, Sale Receipt, Delivery of Vehicle acknowledgement is available at any BDA complex for an amount of 40 INR. (Note: I keep this additional copy of Sale Receipt, Delivery of Vehicle acknowledgement, Form 29, Form 30 and Insurance in the car as my RC transfer is in progress)
6.5) Gaadilicense.com folks were preferred for the RC transfer process mainly because they had a pickup and drop of documents facility and were charging a bit lesser than local agents who were trying to take me for a ride. I will update this thread on my experience with them currently I am in week two post submission of documents.
6.6) Transfer of insurance- yet to reach this stage.
I religiously went through the items mentioned above and ended up picking a Skoda Rapid (2017).
Trivia:
1) Stay away from dealers as much as possible: A dealer tried to sell me a Vento which had Jugaad fix for its broken radiator, ECU was fixed horizontally in the engine bay rather than the expected vertical fix. I was a noob but was saved thanks to the mechanical inspection.
2) Offer your price and keep calm: I was confident that not many would invest on a pre-worshipped car at this movement that too in my price range hence played the waiting game. A vento owner was ready to reduce close to 80K inr in a span of three weeks time.
3) From identifying a seller to transfer of RC everything can be outsourced to experts if you are ready to pay a bit. Though all the paperwork can be done without additional help I chose not to as the risk involved in being exposed to a lot of folks was not worth it.
Notes:
1) This is my first post in team-bhp please do pardon me for my mistakes.
2) I do not promote or advertise the agencies mentioned in my post. Just that I either liked their business offering or used their service to make my life easier. |