Team-BHP - Year of Manufacture vs Year of registration

Hi all,

Am planning on buying a new car in Jan next year.

The dealer salesperson was asking me to book the vehicle rightaway in December itself. He says he will be able to give good discounts on a vehicle that's manufactured in 2007, and since I'm buying the vehicle in 2008, it will be registered as a 2008 vehicle only. Basically, he seems to imply that while I'll get a good discount upfront, even resale value will be higher.

Sounds too good to be true, so wanted to check with folks who may know about it. Please help.

/A

Well, i guess it is part truth and part lie :D . Where as you would get some amount of discounts on making a purchase during december,Registering the vehicle in 2008 is hardly going to help. Not if the buyer is auto-literate (Auto-literate!clap: now,I guess thats a new word, or is it not?) .

If you have any doubt, check any RC Book, it will mention clearly the Make and Model of the vehicle, which will be Dec-2007 anyhow.

And may be if you get the same salesman, and some unsuspecting customer at time of selling it off, you may be lucky!

@Aravind - You are right. Till March 2008 there is no chance of getting a "Made in 2008" vehicle. I have personally checked with Maruti / Tata / Mahindra. Did that for a friend who just sold off his 2003 Santro and wanted to buy another vehicle.

He bought a new Indigo but is waiting for 2008 to come to register it. He says the same thing. Jab bechenge agar unpadh mil jaye .......

Look at it this way..
Lets say the discount available now is Rs.30000/-
Lets say you will sell the car after 4 years.

Lets say you invest the discount amount today in a Mutual fund which will fetch you compounded interest rate of 25% pa. After 4 years, the amount will be worth Rs.81000/-.
After 4 years will the difference in resale value of your car be as High as 81000/-? I dont think so.
You should enjoy the discount today and let resale take care of itself.

And another thing, why think of the resale even before the purchase????:eek:

First of all car resale depends on manufacturing year and not on year of registration.

Just go to Maruti truevalue website and check 2 cars of same model with same km run and same condition, one of dec06 and one of jan07. You would find the difference.

But two points to be considered here:

1. Time value of money and the opportunity cost of investing the money you get as discount in other places as mentioned in earlier post. I think if you can invest the differential (which is bigger this year as car manufactureres already announced a price hike in 2008) cost of buying a 2007 and 2008 car, you would get a better return than what your 2008 car would be able to fetch at the time of resale.

2. If your prospective buyer is more keen on owning the vehicle than reselling it quickly, I am sure he would understand the fact that a car registered in 2008 is equivalent to a car mfd in 2008 if the condition and odometer reading are in similar range. So if your car is properly maintained I think it won't make much difference in resale value.

My opinion is go for a good deal in 2007.

@snaronikar, am planning to buy an Innova G4 or V.

@hrman, agree with the philosophy in general, except that what the salesman tried to sell doesn't seem a very right thing to do, and also I read elsewhere on the forums that there may be a 2008 G4 with ABS :)

Anyway, if I get to talk to a decent loan salesperson tomorrow, may be I'll go ahead and book it now itself.

[COLOR=black]Just like to share my view:[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]I booked SX4 ZXi last week and payment will be done before 31/12/2007. I asked the sales guy to register on 02/01/2008 and he agreed. The reason behind the scene is I got good offers 10K Corporate Discount + 5K Special Discount + Sun Film + 4 Pod Reverse Parking Sensors + Floor and Diggy Mats. So, I felt this would be good scheme and booked the car. I plan to keep the car at least 6 to 7 Years. So, I don’t worry on re-sale value and year. Of course I will have a proof that the car is registered on 02/01/2008 and the buyer will know the facts. So, finally if you get good deal buy the car before the price hike!! Not sure how much truth. Most of the sales guys says there will be price hike during 2008. Let’s see.[/COLOR]

Just like to share my view:
I booked SX4 ZXi last week and payment will be done before 31/12/2007. I asked the sales guy to register on 02/01/2008. The reason behind the scene is I got good offers 10K Corporate Discount + 5K Special Discount + Sun Film + 4 Pod Reverse Parking Sensors + Floor and Diggy Mats (Totally ~ 20K for SX4). So, I felt this would be good scheme and booked the car. I plan to keep the car at least 6 to 7 Years. So, I don’t worry on re-sale value and year. Of course I will have a proof that the car is registered on 02/01/2008 and the buyer will know the facts. So, finally if you get good deal buy the car before the price hike. Not sure how much truth. Most of the sales guys says there will be price hike during 2008. Let’s see.

@yousivakutti

It's not a sales talk, but reality that car prices are going up from Jan-08. Maruti Suzuki , Hyundai and GM already announced approx 2-3% hike in all models. Maruti gone to the extent of saying the hike could be upto Rs.12000 across all models. In this forum, there is a separate thread with details of this price hike.

So IMO, you have done the right thing to book SX4 now.

All the best for your "Men are Back"

@yousivakutti

What a great news!! A great start to a great year. Wish you all the best for registration and final delivery. I am going for PDI on 7th and would update you same. Update us when you finally get the delivery.