[.anshuman]

Last year when i decided to part with my one year old Swift VDi ABS, the first place i tried was Maruti true value, They offered 4 Lakh Rupees for this exceptionally well kept car. Later i managed to exchange the car with new Punto at Tata-Fiat dealership for close to 4.75.

All of the branded outlets undervalue the car when buying and overvalue the same car when selling.

[girishglg]

Two thing you don't want to trust a pre owned car dealership- Price and Mileage for sure.

Always try multiple dealers before selling and get the price up and the opposite while buying.

Mileage is best ignored to an certain extent and other finer details inspected to guage the car.

Buying a car at a premium with good service records does help as well.

[indianvirus]

Came across this thread today, thought I would share our experience.

My friend was looking for a pre-owned sedan, so he went to Honda pre owned cars. He was offered a 2007 city GLXi, 70000 kms, at 360000. Pretty good deal we thought. The car looked clean, well maintained. He was told the car is serviced and checked by authorized work shop prior to put on sell. The car drew well in TD so he finalized it. After a month or so he realized battery is near dead. He had to replace it. The exhaust line mountings were not ok, so silencer was hanging lower, reducing already low GC.

Recently we planned a trip to Mt. Abu in city, so we took it to my friend's car work shop (also a bhpian) to get it checked before leaving. We found out the oil level was low and needed top up. It drank about a liter of oil. We figured, recently serviced car cannot have this condition and the car was just washed and cleaned (not serviced) before putting on sell. Also this was confirmed when I drew it on highway, the car was very sluggish while accelerating in 2nd and 3rd gears.

This clearly shows how much one can or should trust branded pre-owned dealers.

[Modifiedsachin]

I always wanted to share this, though I have recently sold it to a dealer while buying my NEW FIAT LINEA & got 1L for 2002, 106000 run 3rd owner Accent.

But when I bought it (54K run @ 1.9L) from Mahindra, I tried to negotiate & finally he agreed that they will pay the Bombay taxes. I was happy and just shallow checked RC book as it was my second car (First zen was given to bro in 1 year which was bought by my dad new) I hardly knew about what info is there on RC.

Got the car home & started reading all the papers in detail & to my surprise the last owner already paid the taxes 4 years back. So I was fooled. Then just after three days the suspension started giving noise on every puddle I took it back to them & standard answer not covered.

After 1 month the ignition coil was cracked, again I took to them & again it was not covered.

After that I never thought of even the first free service done from them.

But interior was good, not warned out, but very poorly used by previous owners. I clocked more than rest two in just 2 years. The car did not gave any further trouble ..... other than
fuel pump, wiper motor, window winders, silencer (Rusting), Radiator leaked, compression gone after 90K and car started drinking oil, rims were rusted so every 1 month or two one tube used to get ruptured at the filling stub joint (tare off) there are more but I don't recollect all.

So I completely trust that one should not buy from any dealer, look for someone you know or your friend know, or in reference & still buy at your own risk & be ready that on very next day the car can give problems.

[scopriobharath]

I would not personally trust any dealership as it is the employee & dealer both to blame.

Dealership constantly "push" their employess to sell thier aeging stock. The vehicle is really in such a battered condition that a lay-man would not even wink on this vehicle, forget buying one. They also offer no discounts, offers etc. They expect a "high" price.

In USA they offer freebies and warranties and somethings like lifetime washes free etc. Here they try to reset the ODO, polish the dash, tyre & outer-body and pass it on.

I would check and double check whether I am buying from Toyota Certified shop or my best friend or a local dealer.

[esteem_lover]

None of the used car dealers are genuine. I have seen many sales and purchases through them in the last 15 years and I can say with confidence, even if you feel " Yeah this guy is genuine", he is in all probability not. It is a very different thing when you are on the inside than being on the outside, I can assure you that there is not a single genuine dealer who will buy a car for 2 L and give it to you for 2.2L. They always say that the cars are still owned by the real owner and that they are only parked here for them to sell it at the owner's price and that they work only on the commission. All that is hogwash. They buy the cars from the owners at dirt cheap prices and spend 1-2k to make the cars look good and sell them at a fat profit between 50k to 3L depending on the car and it's age. Apart from that, they charge the buyer a 2% commission out of which only half goes to your sales girl/boy who convinced you to buy it, the remaining goes to the drivers, watchman, cleaners.


Add to this the Maruti True Value and other company outlets, they are even worse than these dealers. They do the same thing on a larger scale.

[scopriobharath]

I really wish there is at least "one" dealer like Mike Brewer of Wheeler dealers.

I regret to say but in everything, before providing a service, it is always though of how to cheat the customer.

I really want to start something dealership / Workshop / car sales etc but unfortunately i dont have that kind of money and influence to do

[girishglg]

Branded dealerships do offer peace of mind with the multi point checks they offer though one has to take their listed price with a pinch of salt. Some of the dealerships do have a age barrier and would sell only vehicles upto a certain age say 5 years.

However the question is still at large if these branded ones have succeeded and garnered some big marketshare in the huge second hand market in our country.

[kailashnj]

None of the dealerships are trustworthy. Be it the Mahindra First Choice or the local road side dealer. There is not much of a difference between both. In fact Mahindra first choice is nothing but the local road side dealer with a Mahindra Board. Would not like to name but the few of the new dealerships that Mahindra have in Thane are the proof to it. I was looking to buy a second hand car for myself in particularly the Cruze due to its power and features. Visited many of these dealers and the experience was really pathetic. One such dealer had a 2011 cruze with 42k kms on board. Price quoted and other things were really high for the car and then I got to know that the car can be bought for more than 1.2 lacs less than what I was quoted. When I was trying to bargain with the dealer, he was not even ready to come down by few thousands, so i was really happy that I did not buy it at the price that the dealer quoted me.

Next time any of you go to a dealership for a pre owned car - Do research before giving any offers for the cars that they have. dealers give exorbitant prices for their cars but are really ready to bargain.

This is one of the difficult question, which no one could ever answer correctly.

There are rules for all Pre-owned shops. Maruti has its own conditions before taking any car. It all depends on the employees, who are working over there.

I have seen an idiot, who takes a car[he checks and handpicks some of them based on some criteria] offline, with high mileage and reduce the odo and then give it to maruti. What could the company do when employees are cheating? They try to brush it up more and again sell it at a premium. I dont complain of maruti in such case. Its the employee who is cheating Maruti, and inturn Maruti pre owned shop has no choice left rather than selling it at a premium.

People are very bad, so the leaders are.

[Rajeevraj]

I guess it depends on the particular dealer also. I am a big fan of pre owned cars and the 3 cars I have bought (an 800, Zen and my current SX4) have all been from Maruti True Value and I have had absolutely no cause to complain nor have had any issues. Incidently, all were through the same sales person, so I did build up some trust with him which helped.

Of course, I do know that branded Pre Owned dealership charge premiums over buying individually. But that is something I was ok to accept.

[salunkhe.vizz]

I feel there is nothing called as a "genuine dealer", as at the end of the day it is a businessman who we are dealing with. Instead what one needs to look at is a "genuine car". The dealers that I know of (and there are so many around my area), make sure that they do not buy 'short term' lemons / those with incomplete paper work like uncancelled NOC's - but at the same time they do not care whether the car is accidental, damaged in flood, or will be in need of major part replacements within 5k kms - as long as it runs and looks ok in the short term (when displayed/test driven in their shops).

It is a buyers responsibility to make sure that each section mentioned in the Used Car Buyers section in T-Bhp (as I think it is exhaustive & perfect), to make sure that they do not end up with higher expenses than budgeted.

I have been at both ends, selling and buying used vehicles - so there can be genuine individuals selling a car, but never a dealer (who has sold 100% genuine vehicles only). So it is in the end a mix of your pre-checks and luck factor that you land up with a genuine vehicle !