An "adopted" blue eyed boy | Pre-owned Maruti WagonR | EDIT: 13 years, 96000 km and SOLD! The story unfolds....
7th October 2011, I left home to join my first job. Our ’98 M800 had served us for 82k kms. My dad sold the car and had booked the new Swift VDi in white with a delivery promise in Feb ‘12. His plan was to give me the car to use as he has his office ride always at his disposal. We get a call in mid-Nov that a Swift of our choice is available as a person is facing loan problems. Since we had said we won’t be taking any finance, we were given the first choice to take the car. But right then I was sceptical about keeping a car with me. I was in training and my posting location wasn’t yet decided. Finally we cancelled our booking in Jan and I took my old Pulsar for my daily commute in Bangalore where I was posted.
Come April ’12, I got a call from dad saying that one of his friend’s son was selling (moving abroad) his i20 Magna CRDi for 3.5L and should we buy. I had some conflicting thoughts about a powerful diesel hatch which was high on maintenance. After 2 days I made up mind to buy it and called the person only to know that the car had been sold in 12 hrs straight.
Come July ’12 and I was still facing problem in getting a NOC for my bike and hadn’t been able to pay the road-tax in the highly corrupt Bangalore (I have had a few very poor experience with the Traffic cops, RTO and some other Govt. Offices). Dad again suggested that I buy a car for primary use and keep the bike as backup. I was unwilling but he had convinced me for an Estilo (as it had some good discounts). But after some thinking, I stuck to my first love and sensible choice – a new bike, Pulsar 180.
Come May ’13, I was leaving my job for higher studies. Making a sensible choice, I wanted to sell off my bike but never got a decent price and was happy to take it along. My institute is in my home town and so I was back at home. Buying a car now made some sense now and yet it didn’t. We had a new Activa and a Pulsar and no one but me to ride it. My use had trickled down a couple of hundred km a month.
Come Dec ’13 and my dad’s friend was exchanging his July ’11 WagonR VXi for a Renault Scala XV. The Renault dealer is a friend of dad’s and had given him some very good discounts. He was being offered 2.3L for his old car and he was happy. I got to know of the deal and suddenly got an idea. Why not buy that car and use it as a beater? After all it doesn’t pain much to keep an old car lying idle until you find a use for it and not much of an investment anyway. Tall and well equipped, it was going to be comfortable for my parents (they are aging slowly) and me (6ft with occasional sore neck/back). Having sat in the car on a couple of occasions, dad had found it comfortable and so he liked the idea. He talked to both his friends and asked for a price without any test drive or further seeing the car. He was offered the same 2.3L tag and he readily agreed without any negotiation.
Finally 26th Dec ’13, a blue WagonR was delivered at our home. It was then that I found the car to have run only 14650 kms, a couple of thousand more than my similar vintage Pulsar. |