Small background: My labs are located at about 20 kms from home (Labs are about 12 kms away from the city border) but the public transport system is non-existent near my lab area. (As such, public transport is almost non-existent in Indore city itself. According to some Govt. statistics, private vehicle ownership is about 80% in Indore). Most employees stay within the campus. Some, who stay in the city, manage with their own vehicles. A very small fraction of those staying outside have employed a chartered bus which does its last trip at 5:30 P.M. everyday.
December 2010,
Finished lab work at about 6 pm. Started for home, reached home at 10 pm (had to walk 5 kms to the nearest metre guage line railway station. Wait for about an hour for the train. Train takes about an hour to reach Indore Main station, from there about 30 - 45 minutes to home) Like so many days, again, no energy left for studying (At that time I was studying part time for my M.Tech along with work - M.Tech program being jointly conducted by my labs along with IIT Bombay). With quaterly review date fast approaching, I decided I have to solve my commuting problem if I wish to continue with my course.
With no history of car ownership at home (Dad uses an office provided Innova). I had absolutely no idea about cars. All of them used to look as same. As with all newbies, had this idea ingrained into mind that Marutis are fuel efficient and cheap to service and maintain (Trust me - I used to ask people about what is the difference between service and maintenance). Went to a few Maruti and Hyundai showrooms to enquire about their entry level models.
January 2011,
When you are a total newbie, you don't even know what exactly are your requirements and needs. Dad suggested to go for a used car, so as to learn and get some experience and then later on go for a new car that will be suitable. Liked the idea and visited some used car dealerships. It was a more baffling experience w.r.t. selecting a new car. Contacted my uncle who runs few petrol pumps in other districts of M.P. and is a local politico - he said to find good used cars for me. He was adamant that I get a diesel - citing rising petrol costs. Within a week, he found a 2007 Verna CRDi in khandwa city which had done about 40,000 kms for an asking price of Rs. 5 lakhs. He got the car checked by one of his trusted mechanics who gave a clean chit to car. With some of my own savings and a little monetary help from Dad, purchased that car and completed all transfer related formalities in next 10 days.
February 2011 - May 2011,
Pure bliss. Uncle sent me his driver for about 15 days to get my hands clear on this car. The car drastically cut down my commute time - now I could focus on my lab work as well as M.Tech studies. At this time around I got intoduced to Team-BHP and read many ownership reports regarding Verna and Accent Diesel (I thought they had the same 1.5 CRDi engine). The car ran perfectly and completed 6000 kms with me. It was time for its first service with me.
June 2011, Shock of my life. During service, I asked the SA to provide me previous records of service of this car. What followed was a list of shocks:
- The last service was done at about 73000 kms in August 2010. This translated to car being at about 80,000 kms when I purchased it in January 2011.
- The car had met with accidents - not one but three, at 500 kms, 10,000 kms and 27000 kms.
- No record for about service history for about 20,000 kms from 50,000 kms to 73,000 kms.
Contacted the owner but he flatly refused any tampering with the meter and put down the phone.
Received a lot of scolds from elders for choosing a used car and ridicules from others. Many recommended me to sell the car right away and get a new one.
However I decided not to panic and contacted the SA for doing a quick evaluation of the car and informing me about the current codition of the vehicle and expected life before any critical failure (By now I had read many reports on T-BHP about Accent CRDi failures at about 1 Lakh kms - with my running I was fast nearing that count. SA told me that it is difficult to say (basically not bothered at all).
It was a difficult decision then - to sell the car right now or continue with it. Finally, I decided to continue with it since due to my studies I couldn't spare the time required to sell the car and get a new car (with possible wait times involved) and subsequent loss of mobility.
LESSON: A lot of lessons. I will summarise them by recommending everybody to
read T-BHP articles on buying used and new cars thoroughly. July 2011 - Feb 2012,
Car continued to soldier on. I used to get only those services done which were strictly required. I completed requirements of my M.Tech by end of Feb. 2012 and immediately after faced the first main failure in car.
March 2012,
Car had developed crunching sounds while releasing clutch. I decided to get it checked. However, as I was on my way to service centre, the clutch pedal gave way completely (it remained pressed), there were grinding and gnashing sound accomanied with a burning metallic smell. I switched of the engine and was stranded on the road.
Fearing huge bill, I contacted a nearby small garage whose mechanic (correctly) identified as clutch release bearing failure. He offered to source parts and get it corrected within 2 days with approx. bill of Rs 5000. I told him to go ahead.
After two days, I went to him and found my car in totally opened condition and the mechanic expressed his inability to help me.
LESSON: Donot trust Road Side Mechanics for critical Jobs.
Contacted Hyundai RSA which was extremely frustating since they only made me call one number after another with each one telling me to call the next number. The person on the final number told me that he is in Chennai and told me to call the dealership directly.
Then I called my politico uncle and he used some of his contacts to arrange a towing vehicle from the dealership which came eventually and towed away my car.
Now, I opened up a big job cart with the dealership in which following jobs were performed along with their bills:
- Clutch overhaul - Clutch plate, pressure plate and release bearing and associated labour- Rs. 12,000
- Suspension overhaul - parts and labour - Rs. 16,000
- Paid service - Engine oil; Oil, air and fuel filter with labour - Rs. 4000
- New bumpers - Rs. 5500
- A/C service - level 4 - Rs 3000
I decided to get all these jobs done since I had decided to keep this car with me.
April 2012 - June 2012,
Car went smoothly. I thought all is over now. However, I was wrong.
July 2012,
Car began to smoke heavily with no boost at all. Mileage dropped drastically from previous levels of about 17 - 18 kmpl to 11 - 12 kmpl. By now had read enough articles on Team-BHP to deduce it to be a Turbo failure. Diagnosed at service centre as a Turbo failure (they connected some device and found that there was almost no boost). Cost for a new Turbo - about Rs. 65,000.
Decided to sell the car.
August 2012,
Got it evaluated at few places - all of them immediately recoganised signs of accidents and me being second owner quoted prices in range of 2 lakhs to 3.11 lakhs max. Decided against selling it to a private buyer since I won't be able to milk any unsuspecting buyer by not telling him all the issues, like I got milked.
Sold it to a dealer for 3.11 lakhs.
For my next car, I have finalised Honda City - After all this fiasco, I wish to have complete peace of mind. I hope I have made the right choice.
Thanks for reading
Mods: Even though I have kept the car only for 20 months, but I am placing this car in long term ownership section since the car has done near about 1 Lakh kms.