And so that time comes when yet another car ownership story comes to an end.
As many of you know, I bought a new VW Tiguan Allspace to replace this car. I decided on the new car in early February, and simultaneously started to examine selling this car. Of course, a 8+ year old Petrol Automatic (with a now discontinued 1.6 l MPI engine) which has run nearly 76,000 kms is not the most attractive bride in the used car market. Both VW Mumbai North (from whom I bought the Tiguan), and VW Downtown (from whom I bought the Vento, and who have maintained it for the last 8+ years) made desultory offers.
Hence decided to look at the online complex for selling this car. Cars 24 inspected the car in February, and made what in retrospect was a fantastic offer. However, the offer was valid for only 3 days - and my company was nowhere near ready to complete processing of payments for the Tiguan. I thought about whether to take that offer, and live with just one car for the next month - but since I had just restarted working from office, we decided to let the offer pass.
It was mid March by the time we got our Tiguan, and Covid case counts were rising rapidly. We also went out of town for a few days after getting the Tiguan, and hence restarted the sale process for this car in early April. Cars 24 wanted the car reinspected - but ended cancelling the inspection appointment a few times. Car Dekho came up with something which was better than the VW dealers but very materially below what Cars 24 had offered initially. The lockdown in Bombay was announced a few days later, and we put this on hold.
With Covid counts easing in Bombay in June, we restarted the sale process - CARS24 was more responsive this time, and while the offer was almost 20% lower than what they quoted in February, the offer was better than the others I got and materially higher than what the dealers had offered or what Car Dekho offered in April.
A few last pics of the Vento - it was indeed a joy to own, despite the odd problems it gave us which I have described in this thread.
Felt good that the guy who came to pick it up said that the car looks like a 3 or 4 year old car, not an 8.5 year old one - even if I personally thought my driver had messed it up with the odd nick from time to time.
8.5 years, 76,000 kms - by a small margin, the longest I have retained a car, and the most we have driven a single car under our ownership.