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-   -   Experience: Selling my car to Cars24.com (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-dealerships/175400-experience-selling-my-car-cars24-com.html)

Mods: Not sure if this is the correct place for this, please move it if necessary.

Recently, I sold my old Ford Figo 1.2 Titanium (petrol), 2010 model, to cars24.com. Here is how it went.

A branch of this outfit is located in the lane behind my house (in a building owned by the family of a school friend), and that is how I heard of them.

First, I had a firm quote of 2 lakhs from Maruti True Value, and a commitment to buy my car at that price a few days before the delivery of my new car. Armed with this, and the Indian Blue Book valuation that my car could fetch anywhere between 1.9-2.2 lakhs if sold to a dealer, I went to the cars24 website (https://www.cars24.com) for a quote.

I put in my vehicle details. Good thing is, they don't ask for personal details apart from email ID before giving you a "quote". Right next to the quote, they ask you to book an appointment to get your car in for an evaluation. So, if you are thinking that the "quote" they give is to tempt you in, you are half right. I got a quote of 2.15 lakhs. Dropped the matter for a few days. Cars24.com did continue to send emails asking me to book the appointment. Standard follow-up.

One morning, since the branch was so close to home, I dropped in unannounced. I said I wanted to sell, and the executive (lets just call him NK) came across to me as both abrasive and abrupt. He kept insisting that he cannot evaluate my car without an appointment, and the whole place was devoid of customers. That did not make sense, so I told NK to stop throwing bureaucracy in my face and that I will take my car elsewhere so goodbye. NK backed off and offered to make an appointment on my behalf because their process does not allow them to process a car without one.

10 minutes later, I had a mechanic type checking my car out in great detail, and taking photos with his cell phone. He took it for a short test drive, and gave a verbal report to NK. NK then asked me if I was willing to sell, and could he put the car details into his system? I gave the go-ahead. This whole process took 30 minutes.

NK then told me that a quote will take a further 30 minutes because of their internal auction process to get to a quote. Since my house was so close by, I went home. NK promised to call me with the best quote.

So, their grand claim of "we buy any car in 30 minutes" is basically a load of horse manure. It takes an hour.

As promised, half an hour later, NK called me back with a quote that bettered Maruti True Value by 10K. BUT, he wanted the car right then and there. With delivery of my new car not yet confirmed, I was reluctant. So, I negotiated and bought myself 5 days time.

I gave NK the original RC card, and he gave me a 10K token advance. The token advance was transferred to my account via IMPS. He also looked up my car details on the RTO and Traffic Police portals and told me that I had an unpaid parking ticket from 7 months back :Frustrati. Yes, I paid the parking fine the next day.

Six days later, with the delivery date of my new car confirmed, I took my Figo back to them to deliver. Upon delivery, they needed:

• The car (obviously!)
• Insurance papers
• Both keys
• Owners handbook
• Service bills
• Photocopy of PAN card
• Photocopy of Address proof (gave Aadhar card)
• 2 passport photos
• NoC from bank, if under hypothecation

They inspected the car again to confirm that the condition was the same as before, and that mileage increase in the intervening 6 days was reasonable.

Good thing is that they have all paperwork kept together as a neat set, so I get a big bundle to sign in a gazillion places. I got a delivery note and a sale agreement as proof of sale.

Balance amount was transferred to my account directly via IMPS within 15 minutes of all paperwork being completed.

All in all, it was a smooth and hassle free process. It was a whole lot better than going to a local dealer - my only point of reference.

Cars24.com business model
Disclaimer: This is as told to me by NK. I have no business interests in this organization whatsoever.
Their back-end system consists of an auction portal, open to all manner of second-hand car buyers. So, in a way, they operate as a broker. However, they keep cars in escrow, and they don't charge a commission from the car seller. Instead, they apparently charge a monthly/quarterly subscription from buyers to give them access to the auction portal, and commit to present to them a certain number of cars per month that is of their interest. They also charge fees to keep cars in escrow. Cars will be held by cars24.com until the buyer completes RTO transfer formalities and pays them. So, NK gave me some reassurance that in the period of time that a dealer holds a car still technically registered to me but being used by the dealer, has reduced risk. Not sure how this works.
NK claims that cars24.com is now the No.1 car buyer in India. And since they operate pan-India, they can buy any car anywhere, so a DL registered car can be purchased by them in Chennai.

They did not buy my WB registered Maruti Zen in Bangalore.

They will but you would have to get them the NOC from your RTO, gazillions of outside number cars are bought by the local cars24.com guy here but with NOC

Just looked up their website for locations - they don't have operations in Kolkata. So, it would appear that they will buy out-of-state registered vehicles only of they have set up operations in that state?

Just speculating ...

Always love reading experiences about these new companies. Thanks for sharing, KiloAlpha :thumbs up.

The guys behind Cars24 were earlier leading fabfurnish.com.

Must say that is indeed hassle-free. If you would have sold it yourself, you might have gotten a better price. But for those who value convenience and are looking at a quick sale, options like these are welcome. After all, time is money.

Sounds a lot like cartrade.com. CarTrade is king of B2B car selling - related thread.

@kiloalpha - did cars24 share details of the buyer? Asking as i would personally be interested in knowing who finally picks up my vehicle.
Regards
Ronald

Thanks for sharing your experience.
Except "Pizza in 30 minutes" claim, hardly any such claim has worked / will ever work (including Ambulances)! At the same time, I would say despite them taking an hour, and showing some attitude (or process limitation, i guess), they saved you a lot of trouble, and offered a nice value for your car.

Posting an Ad on Olx hardly takes 5 minutes, but you really need to deal with some nuts on their weird negotiations - you had none here.

I would say that was a hassle free experience. Just curious, had you sold your car directly to a customer would you have fetched 2.4 -2.5 lac? What I know is the dealers buy the cars for at least 30 to 40 k less depending on the car. Does the bluebook give different prices for the sale to customer and the dealer? No doubt, there is a lot of hassle.

Thanks for the post - I was contemplating selling my Ertiga through them as am relocating abroad. Will book appointment with the HSR center and see how it goes.

Oh wow!

Sounds like a splendid experience in comparison to chasing several dealers for quotes.
We had to sell our Toyota Liva recently, and several dealers did not even bother following up.
Heck, had to chase the Toyota people several times for an inspection, followed by a low quote from their end.

Finally ended up selling to TrueValue, but even then - there is a lot of following up that has to be done to get all the paperwork in place.

Will give Cars24 a shot next time.

EDIT: They have a branch 10 minutes away from my office. Will definitely give them a call next time around.

I also tried our cars24.com a few days back when i had to sell my Honda City ZX 2007 model.

Basically the same process:-

1. Get a quote by entering model name and year etc.
2. Book an appointment as per you time and location.
3. Be present at the specified time and let them do the needful.

Unfortunately the price quoted by them was less than what i expected so deal did not happen. Ultimately sold the vehicle at much better price myself.

Although their prices will be always less than what you can get by selling it yourself but the convenience of hassle free-quick selling option may be useful for many.

Good to see a thread on Cars24. I interacted with them a month back when I had to sell off my Alto. I booked an appointment online and went there. The service advisor noted down all the details of the car while another guy checked the car for defects, scratches etc. Since I was in a hurry I left for the day and the service advisor told me he will confirm the quote over phone. However the quote was lower than Maruti true value by 15k and hence I refused to sell it to them. But the person kept pestering me for the next 2 days asking me to sell the car. I refused saying that I have got a better quote but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. I lost my patience the third time he called and said if he can equal the Maruti true value quote then I am fine to sell or else he should not call me again. Finally I sold the car to Maruti true value.

Also I should mention that I did get the car listed on Carwale.com with several pictures of the car including latest ODO reading, but all the callers seemed to be unaware of the details and asked me about the ODO reading, colour of the vehicle,year of manufacture etc which were already mentioned in the ad. Ultimately pulled off the carwale ad.

Sorry if this is a question from an ignorant reader. Does cars24.com give you documentary proof that the car has been re-registered in the new buyers name? That is the one closing loop I have always struggled with when selling my used cars. Some buyers simply don't co-operate out of poor attitude. Thank you for sharing this experience. Would be worth a try. Thanks - Narayan

Read this thread yesterday, nice writeup and the process from a users perspective. Good work writing it down for us. I have been seeing their ads a lot on different portals. Marketing spends are huge for them as of now.

Just like you interacted with a lot of buyers, they also interact with a lot of sellers, who post old pics of odo reading, representative picture of the car, incorrect year of manufacture etc. Hence buyers do ask when they talk to you. A lot of the buyers see your ad and donot call you as it doesnt suit them. But people who are interested only take the effort in calling. And for confirmation the buyers ask these questions.

Its a transaction and one generally needs to be ready to answer queries to the buyer, as their interaction is unique (for every buyer and seller in this case.)

Your experience seems to be very good.

My personal opinion on such services:

Pros:

• Quick / Hassle Free Process of inspection
• No headaches with regards to receipt of money from Buyers (You often end up following for closing of deals with direct buyers)
• For Enthusiasts like us, it feels good that our car won't be ripped apart in the context of Test Drives by multiple people while selling by ourself or through some other online portals or Used Car Showrooms

Cons

• The price being received will always be lower than what you would get if you put in more efforts
• If not researched elsewhere, you could end up accepting real low price

Well somebody like me, who values time much more than money and also would not like my car to be ripped off by multiple people before finalizing on a buyer, these services will certainly be a Boon.