The shift from Pune to Gurgaon was difficult in a lot of ways. However the most significant change was with regards to mobility. In Pune a two wheeler would suffice most of you requirements and for th rest you had you trusty three wheelers.
In Gurgaon, riding two wheelers was proving to be a hassle with the weather, the traffic, the distance and last but not the least, the restricted entry on the NH8. So a car was needed given the non existent public transport.
I needed a sedan since my parents would be visiting and would need the boot space and also since our family car was a Tata Indigo I wanted something that would be fun to drive. Talked to people researched on the net and came down to Maruti Baleno and OHC.
Looked up for some Private Party sellers and also some authorized dealers.:
Maruti True Value had some Balenos listed and I saw a couple of them and kept them in my list of "maybes".
OHC overall was a difficult car to lay my hands on. Some of the private party sellers from carwale had either sold of their cars or were expecting a very high price for their 1.5(2.4-2.8l). Also when I was in school our neighbor had a Black OHC VTEC with the gold lettering and it was absolutely stunning. I had dreams of owning one for quite a few years and now those were rekindled. Hence decided to try for a VTEC if I could get one within 2.6L.
So now called up Honda Auto Terrace of the individual dealers within NCR . They all said that they have a Honda Mella in Delhi over the weekend (24th-25th Oct) and also that they had some OHC VTEC with them. Checked out the place on 24th. Saw a 2002 VTEC (H.Mist) which had 62K on its odometer. Took a test drive of the car, and it was very very smooth. No jerks and very smooth acceleration. All the interior motors were working(window and mirror) and it still had its original seat fabrics. There were a few blemishes within the car but they could be ignored given that this is a 2002 model. The exteriors were flawless and when quizzed about this the Auto Terrace representative clearly said that they had touched up the car. I did other checks which were mentioned in the Second Hand Car segment and threads about OHC VTEC. It checked out fine though missed probably the most crucial check of them all(more on this later).
Now they quoted 2.95l which as per my research showed was a lot for a delhi car. Also they mentioned that they did not have the service record for this car but as per their 150 point check list they said all was fine. We gave them a quote of 2.7L from our side given that most of the touching up and part replacement was being done by them which otherwise we would have had to do. And then we waited for their call which alas never happened.
We come back the next day expecting the car to be sold but to SURPRISE!! , it was still there. Now we really did not care why no body else wanted the car cause we liked it and for my limited running it will serve me very well. We started the negotiation and we sealed the deal at 2.75L(it has insurance till March 2010) including transfer fees. We also asked them to fix a whole list of niggling issues like changing wiper blades and giving us boot mat and all. The tyres should last another 15-20k, hence not too concerned with that. Paid a token of 10k and they offered to have the car ready for delivery by Wednesday. It worked for us and we were on our way.
I had dreams of driving that car all night long and also was pretty ecstatic that the car was much better than the ones that I had test driven before. No rust, no rattles and most importantly awesome interiors and exterior.
Came to office today and have done nothing but ogle at VTECs online and decide on the budget for the ICE. In the middle decided to check out the Used car buying guide from Team-BHP.
Came up with the following points
1. Check with Authorized dealers about service history.
2. Even Authorized dealers can sometime play with the odo reading.
This got me thinking, we were not convinced whether a 7 year old car would have run only 62k but had no other way to prove it then. However I got on the phone and started calling up dealers in NCR. No luck for a lot of them and then I decided to call up the dealership from whose Auto Terrace I am getting the car.
Viola service record going back till Feb 2005. The odo was reading 50k back then. And according to them the last service was in Jan 2009. The odometer then was 88k. According to the Lady on the other line the car had not required any major work but it was also not serviced regularly(every 3 months according to her since the car did not cover 5000kms within that period) and had a break of a year in the middle between 2 services. This floored me. It meant that the Auto Terrace Manager had lied to us and was in the know how all along.
I was and am really upset. The token money is not much and I would not have any issue backing out now. However the issue is that I still found the car to be in very good condition and dont foresee any problems in near future. Also its nearer to the mileage I had expected for a 7 year old car. I still feel cheated but dont want to confront the Auto Terrace with this lest they not do all the work we had asked them to. As of now I dont have anything in written with regards to the service record and I doubt if they will give me any copy of the same. I am totally confused on what to do. I also checked with the insurance company and its been accident free for 2 years and a 20000Rs job done about three years back which is nothing major i suspect. This has just added to the confusion.
OT: I really would like to thank the users here who helped me out by making very comprehensive check lists, which I should have read better.