[isiv]

I've been doing plenty of study on t-bhp and other places on used car purchase mainly because they seem to make too much financial sense to ignore.

I'm considering only petrol for now because of my low usage - average less than 1000 km a month but we do go on long (500 - 600 km) drives about once a year and the need for space/power is felt the most during these drives. Do not care much for fuel efficiency as long as the car is safe, reliable and low maintenance. Expect to own the car for 5 years at least.

Recently came across a Chevy Optra 2006 Petrol. The current owner purchased it from the first one few years back. The car has covered an odo indicated 41Ks and though I have not test driven it yet, one of my relations has and he believes the clutch, engine, gears and interior are in good condition. I had a chance to look at it in the parking lot at night and externally, there were very few flaws I could find except that all four tyres were near end of life. The guy wants 1.5 lacs for it

There are a few questions I had on this
1. After looking at running prices for 2006 Optras on the net, I somehow got the feeling the asking price is below average. Could this be because it's already second hand or is this a cause for concern?
2. Since the optra died quite some time back, what is the service/spare parts availability scenario? I understand this will only get worse with time so would 5 years ownership be too optimistic?
3. Assuming all the paperwork is clear and I find the (self) test drive satisfactory, would this make a sensible buy?

I'm particularly concerned about point #2.

May I request the experienced & knowledgible for advice.

[Jignesh]

Originally Posted by isiv

I'm considering only petrol for now because of my low usage - Recently came across a Chevy Optra 2006 Petrol. The car has covered an odo indicated 41Ks. The guy wants 1.5 lacs for it.

Hello Isiv,

Let me first appreciate to for Petrol car because of your low monthly usage.

Now coming to the Car in question - 2006 Chervolet Optra petrol. First thing the Car is already 7 years old & currently owned by second owner.

Now, if you are looking for 5+ years ownership, then this car is definitely out of choice. Because going forward spare parts will be a issue & routine maintenance will be costly. Also during your yearly outstation trips getting spare parts for this car in remote locations will be a big problem.

If your budget for used car is on lower side (less than Rs. 2 lacs) & you are looking at 5+ years ownership, I will advice to look only for used Maruti / Honda cars.

Thanks,

[2000rpm]

I would say (from what I perceive of your usage) that you stay away from the car. Maintaining a car like Optra is a Pain because of the maintainence issues that you will face. Parts availability and mechanic willingness to touch the car will make you spend significant time on the car. Imagine getting stuck on a highway due to car breakdown, even if you find a garage, you will not find the parts.(Happened to me once )

I would suggest you go for a Toyota / Honda used car with little bit of extra money. They will serve your requirment well without too much of trouble.

[StrangeWizard]

Originally Posted by isiv

I've been doing plenty of study on t-bhp and other places on used car purchase mainly because they seem to make too much financial sense to ignore.
.

I'd say avoid the Optra. Parts availability might be a problem and you'll always have to depend on the authorised service centres because usually those small garages are not well experienced with cars like chevrolet. When my Spark broke down it took almost a week to source the required part and even after fitting it the mechanic couldn't calibrate it with the car properly.


If your looking at long term ownership go for a Corolla or a City ZX. They will offer better peace of mind. Test drive the car properly and check the condition of the clutch and suspension especially.

[drmohitg]

Hi my friend just moved to Mumbai for a year and is looking to buy a petrol car with a budget of maximum 3 - 3.5 L ( the lower the better) since he is going to sell it off in a year from now. Any member ( or there friends and family) here looking to sell a car in Mumbai currently? My friend is new to the city and without a vehicle finding it a little difficult to move around in the city looking for cars. Not very keen on buying a car from the dealer although he was offered a Fiesta petrol 2010 with odo @ 30k for 2.75 L which I felt was too good to be true.
Any help would be appreciated. I have anyways directed him to check in our classifieds.

[isiv]

Originally Posted by Jignesh

If your budget for used car is on lower side (less than Rs. 2 lacs) & you are looking at 5+ years ownership, I will advice to look only for used Maruti / Honda cars.

Originally Posted by 2000rpm

stay away from the car. Maintaining a car like Optra is a Pain because of the maintainence issues that you will face. Parts availability and mechanic willingness to touch the car will make you spend significant time on the car. I would suggest you go for a Toyota / Honda used car

Originally Posted by StrangeWizard

avoid the Optra. Parts availability might be a problem If your looking at long term ownership go for a Corolla or a City ZX.

Thank you Jignesh, 2000rpm and StrangeWizard for your inputs. Parts and service was my biggest concern and your comments have sealed it for me. Guess I did not make it clear that I have not really fixed my budget. The only thing I'm sure about is I would like to avoid spending the 10~12 lacs on a new car of similar size/spec. It was just happenstance that I learned about an Optra for sale in my neighbourhood coinciding with my research on used cars. At that price, it was cheaper than many bikes and I was almost ready to run to the owner with my cheque book!

To be frank, we've never owned a used vehicle (two or four wheeler) in my family until now - probably because horror stories about used vehicles spread more rapidly than good ones. But as they say - everything is worth experiencing at least once in a lifetime, so why not a used car?? But of course, I want tread carefully and take all measures against getting my fingers burnt. Will post again if I find any more interesting stuff.

[supremeBaleno]

Our 1999 M800-DX will complete it's Govt. mandated 15-year life in another 7-months (Feb-2014). We had initially planned to re-certify it and use for another 5 years since it is more or less trouble-free, except for some issues that are normal for the age. But now, a thought is to sell it off and instead get a new Alto as a local runabout.

So need inputs from the used-car experts on the forum : How much can be expected in Kerala for this single-owner car that has run 90K kms ?
Exterior is in good shape. Last week the 90K service was done along with which the timing belt, radiator, coolant reservoir & radiator fan etc were changed.

[powertrain]

Originally Posted by isiv

Recently came across a Chevy Optra 2006 Petrol.

Hello isiv,
As everyone suggested, skip this car & go in for a Japanese car. It'll give a lot less headache's to you. How abou a 2004-05 Honda City??!!

Regards,
Varun

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Our 1999 M800-DX will complete it's Govt. mandated 15-year life in another 7-months (Feb-2014).
So need inputs from the used-car experts on the forum : How much can be expected in Kerala for this single-owner car that has run 90K kms ?

Hello SB,
I'm not too aware of Kerala prices,but in Mumbai the price for this car would be around 0.50-0.60L. So I guess you can expect around 0.75L in Kerala.

Do you really want to sell the iconic 800? Think again?!

Regards,
Varun

[ACM]

Originally Posted by isiv

Expect to own the car for 5 years at least.

Recently came across a Chevy Optra 2006 Petrol. The current owner purchased it from the first one few years back. The car has covered an odo indicated 41Ks and though I have not test driven it yet, one of my relations has and he believes the clutch, engine, gears and interior are in good condition. I had a chance to look at it in the parking lot at night and externally, there were very few flaws I could find except that all four tyres were near end of life. The guy wants 1.5 lacs for it

There are a few questions I had on this
1. After looking at running prices for 2006 Optras on the net, I somehow got the feeling the asking price is below average. Could this be because it's already second hand or is this a cause for concern?
2. Since the optra died quite some time back, what is the service/spare parts availability scenario? I understand this will only get worse with time so would 5 years ownership be too optimistic?

I think that 1.5L is a good price. The Kms are also reasonable for this age vehicle.

Yes there can be better options as suggested by others but they will cost you more and are also likely to have been used for higher no of kms.

The Optra is a good vehicle. Parts should be just about available for 4-5 years and by then you should be prepared to sell it off for about 30K.

The price is lower due to the second owner aspect as well as the fact that Optra petrol were not too fuel efficient due to a combination of factors including the wt of the car (which when viewed separately is a good aspect). I guess lifting the bonnet will give you an idea about this aspect.

The Optra came in multiple versions the LT / Royal being the top end and they had better interiors. LS was I guess the entry model. Does this one have a sun roof for example.

The Suspension overhaul of an Optra at the authorized centre is expensive But this work when done outside will cost half as much. You would need to factor in that some of the savings that you get with a great deal on a car that is out of favour vs say a Honda city will have to be used in maintaining the vehicle and yet I would suggest that you can go ahead with this vehicle and factor in about Rs. 1L towards maintenance over the next 4-5 years - besides servicing (km based) which will cost about the same as any other vehicle.

You would need to figure out a mix of servicing at the authorized centre and at a local garage.

[Sudhindra]

Hi Folks,

My friend has seen a used good condition 2006 Cedia and is interested in it. Would like to know for how much he can pick this up for. Its MH registered and need to pay for road tax and registration charges, yet to obtain NOC from MH

Mitsubishi Cedia Sport 2.0
2006 Model
43k on odo

Also, would like to know on the service aspect in Bangalore now.

Regards,
Sudhindra

[rowhun]

Originally Posted by Sudhindra

Hi Folks,

My friend has seen a used good condition 2006 Cedia and is interested in it. Would like to know for how much he can pick this up for. Its MH registered and need to pay for road tax and registration charges, yet to obtain NOC from MH

Mitsubishi Cedia Sport 2.0
2006 Model
43k on odo

Also, would like to know on the service aspect in Bangalore now.

Regards,
Sudhindra

I don't have a good idea on the service aspect of Mitsubishi in Bangalore, but I am guessing that a good car garage should be able to service it okay if Mitsubishi cannot be counted on.

As for the price, 1.75lacs should be a good price if the vehicle is in a well maintained condition with the service history documented.
The owner might expect close to 2.0L, but bargaining should bring him to this price, hopefully.
On top of this your friend will be paying the road tax and registration charges. So, it might work out close to 2.25L total I guess.

[Sudhindra]

Originally Posted by rowhun

I don't have a good idea on the service aspect of Mitsubishi in Bangalore, but I am guessing that a good car garage should be able to service it okay if Mitsubishi cannot be counted on.

As for the price, 1.75lacs should be a good price if the vehicle is in a well maintained condition with the service history documented.
The owner might expect close to 2.0L, but bargaining should bring him to this price, hopefully.
On top of this your friend will be paying the road tax and registration charges. So, it might work out close to 2.25L total I guess.

Thanks for the reply. My Friend says the car is in excellent condition and owner is asking for 3.3 lacs. Plus there is approx 80k - 90k expenditure towards tax part.
will inform him to ask for 1.75 to 1.9L and nothing beyond that.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by powertrain

Hello SB, I'm not too aware of Kerala prices,but in Mumbai the price for this car would be around 0.50-0.60L. So I guess you can expect around 0.75L in Kerala. Do you really want to sell the iconic 800? Think again?!

Thanks. And you seem to be pretty good at this because when we talked to an MSIL dealer to exchange this car for a new car, they first quoted 50K and then said they can give 65K if exchanged against the A-Star. So, selling to an individual buyer should give in the ballpark of 75K as you said.

I really don't want to sell it and if I were the one using it, I would not have sold it - would have spruced her up aesthetically and mechanically and used for another 5 years. But this will be used by Dad/wife/sister and so reliability is a major factor and they don't feel very comfy retaining this. :(

EDIT : Just checked the value on carwale.com and looks like they have changed their pricing logic. Earlier they used to be more optimistic in their pricing compared to the market, but looks like now they lean to the other extreme. Their prices for individual-buyers are : Rs31000 (Fair), Rs37300 (Good) and Rs46500 (Excellent).

[blackstallion76]

Friends,

Need help is deciding on selling current 2011 Scorpio SLE.
Has posted the ad from last 3-4 months and I hardly get any decent buyer.
Most of them are dealers and one direct buyer.

Both of them are asking 7.5L for Sep 2011 Scorpio SLE model (bangalore). Not even nearing to 8L. A dealer 2months back asked for 8.5L is now asking for 7.5L.
Seems like a slowdown is used car market. Or something else?

I can still wait for another 2-3 months. Please advice.

[evoque]

Originally Posted by blackstallion76

Friends,

Need help is deciding on selling current 2011 Scorpio SLE.
Has posted the ad from last 3-4 months and I hardly get any decent buyer.
Most of them are dealers and one direct buyer.

Both of them are asking 7.5L for Sep 2011 Scorpio SLE model (bangalore). Not even nearing to 8L. A dealer 2months back asked for 8.5L is now asking for 7.5L.
Seems like a slowdown is used car market. Or something else?

I can still wait for another 2-3 months. Please advice.

Hi blackstallion,

I am currently looking at buying a used car and Scorpio is one of the models that I am considering. Pls let me know if you already have a classified active here or any other site so I could take a look at the pictures. Also, can you pls help me understand the differences between the vlx and SLE. I have almost finalized a vlx recently but held back considering the advise of our dear t-bhpians a few posts ago on the same thread.

On that note, dear Team-BHPians,
What is your take on an Octavia 1.9 TDI (Rider) from 2006. I haven't test driven it nor considered it seriously yet but do you think it is worth a shot? And what should be a decent price for it?