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Please be aware , this might going to be a boring long thread, so please proceed at your own risk and don’t complain that this falls in your mirror blind spot.
Profiling myself
Buying Process and thoughts
Budget:
Maximum 1.70 Lakh on vehicle + max 50 K to accessorize my ride
Fuel:
Only and only petrol (CNG later if I feel the need)
Vehicle:
Pre Owned – Due to the budget and since I am going to learn driving so don't want to spoil a new tranny with mad clutch pressing
I am a Hunter
To start with I start surfing classifieds on the following portals:
( To be Continued……)
Profiling myself
I am Charul Shukla from Delhi, a big car enthusiast from my childhood, and this also the biggest irony of my life, hit an bad accident 10 years back on my first day behind the steering and it left such a deep scar that not able to touch it for next 10 years.
Now after 11 long years I have decided to throw my fear into dustbin and I think it’s time to again back on road with four wheels.
Little more about me, I have already posted in my intro there here (Medium height, Fair, Handsome Driver with reputed cast of vehicle)
Now after 11 long years I have decided to throw my fear into dustbin and I think it’s time to again back on road with four wheels.
Little more about me, I have already posted in my intro there here (Medium height, Fair, Handsome Driver with reputed cast of vehicle)
Buying Process and thoughts
As always happen in India, for a decision like buying a car (old or new does not matter), you always have too many well-wishers each claiming his/her own expertise in automotive world, and pushing you to buy their favorite cars based on their own experience with that car, even if they never driven it and only travelled in back seat as a company given cab ()
So on a good sunny day (mostly are nowadays in north), I sat down and decided few things as follows along with their reasons according to me.
Budget:
Maximum 1.70 Lakh on vehicle + max 50 K to accessorize my ride
Fuel:
Only and only petrol (CNG later if I feel the need)
Vehicle:
Pre Owned – Due to the budget and since I am going to learn driving so don't want to spoil a new tranny with mad clutch pressing
I am a Hunter
So being a IT guy, it makes sense for me to see as many as possible options in pre-owned car market available online, so I decided to spend 40 hours to this, by further splitting them in 4 hours per day for next 10 days (3 hours of searching + cataloguing in excel sheet and 1 hour for emailing and calling all prospective sellers).
To start with I start surfing classifieds on the following portals:
- Gaadi.com
- Cartrade.com
- Cardekho.com
- Zigwheels
- Olx
- Sulekha
- Quikr
- Carwale.com
Within three days I am able to select couple of hatchbacks and sedans, all of them are 2003-2006 modal due to budget and most of them are manual transmission apart from few automatic variants of old accord and santro AT, so I have mailed across everyone for next 8 days, talked to them on phone and went on few test drivers with my cousin (trust his opinion) and a mechanic (Family friend, trustworthy person). Based on test drives and seeing the cars in real (22 to be exact), I am quite disappointed due to the following reasons:
- Most of the car owners don’t have complete service records, or car is not always services by ASS
- Some also don’t have clear history of car insurance and how many claims has been taken (if any), sounds fishy to me.
- 90% of the owners are still not aware of actual working of mechanical parts such as crank shaft even after driving the car for like 8+ years and if some part has been replaced they trusted the opinion of ASS + Service guys , rather than knowing the actual problem with the vehicle
- 95% of the vehicle are dirty, looks like they have been use to carry some goods rather than human, some of major turn off are:
- At least 5 KG of dust inside the cabin and double in engine bay and to be honest I did not even bother to check the boot.
- Food leftover, shredded paper, and even upto toothpaste I have seen inside the cabin.
- Pathetic quality of paint, due to dear washing wala bhaiya comes every morning and take revenge from the vehicle for his frustrated sexual life. Car detailing sounds like NASA call sign for most of the sellers. (AB JI SAAF TOH ROJ HI HOTI HAI).
- Clear negligence for tyre not being maintained, either over or under inflation as a habit causing damage to rim most of the times.
- Beautifying the vehicle using every possible sticker, idols, cheap Chinese stuff, bumper guards and god knows what all ( WAHE GURU KI KRIPA TYPE), I am sure if some guys from I.DE.A Institute see all this stuff he will have a cardiac stroke in less than 3 seconds.
- While I do agree that some of the vehicle are good in mechanicals, but points mentioned above make me stay away from them.
On 9th day I came across a ad, which is put up by a dealer (MODS—CAN I GIVE NAME), it was 2003 HYUNDAI SONATA 2.7 V6 AUTOMATIC and he is expecting 1.75 for the same. Since it’s near my office so I decided to go and check the vehicle in next possible hour.
( To be Continued……)
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