[ntvdl]

Hello,

I was looking at purchasing a used car in Bangalore and found a car which I liked on ola cars. I wanted to know if anyone have done a purchase through them and if yes, then how was the experience? Anything to keep in mind?

Thanks in advance for your help.

P.S.: Had posted this by mistake in some thread. Making a new post to get more visibility.

[abhishek46]

Buying from Platforms like Ola Cars, Cars24, Spinny will give you peace of mind, over regular dealers and private sellers.

Naturally, the prices will be higher than individual sellers/dealers.

However, what you get in return for the extra money paid, is hassle free RTO transfer & Comprehensive Evaluation Report which is genuine in most cases.

Spinny, in particular provides 1 year warranty too on any car purchased from them. Not sure about Ola Cars.

If you are getting the right vehicle at the right price, in any of these platforms, just go for it.

[ntvdl]

Originally Posted by abhishek46

Buying from Platforms like Ola Cars, Cars24, Spinny will give you peace of mind, over regular dealers and private sellers.

Naturally, the prices will be higher than individual sellers/dealers.

However, what you get in return for the extra money paid, is hassle free RTO transfer & Comprehensive Evaluation Report which is genuine in most cases.

Spinny, in particular provides 1 year warranty too on any car purchased from them. Not sure about Ola Cars.

If you are getting the right vehicle at the right price, in any of these platforms, just go for it.

Thanks for the reply. Any good thumb rule to arrive at the right price for the vehicle? I know it varies a lot with location and the car and everything but any number that gives a ballpark number may be beneficial.

[atsphenomenon]

Originally Posted by ntvdl

Thanks for the reply. Any good thumb rule to arrive at the right price for the vehicle? I know it varies a lot with location and the car and everything but any number that gives a ballpark number may be beneficial.

You could simply browser OLX and other such portals for similar spec vehicles and get a price. I found that helpful when I needed to benchmark my car's valuation before putting it up for sale

[vivek_k_p]

Originally Posted by ntvdl

Hello,

I was looking at purchasing a used car in Bangalore and found a car which I liked on ola cars. I wanted to know if anyone have done a purchase through them and if yes, then how was the experience? Anything to keep in mind?

Thanks in advance for your help.

P.S.: Had posted this by mistake in some thread. Making a new post to get more visibility.

Did you buy from OLA cars?
I am also planning to buy from OLA cars, Bangalore.
I did a test drive of Renault Duster Diesel RXZ AMT and took it for inspection at nearest Renault service center. They gave good feedback.
Now OLA is asking me to make full payment a day before delivery. Hope that is fine!

[androdev]

The best place to buy a used car in the open market is from the used-car division of their respective authorised dealers. True Value for Maruti, H Promise for Hyundai, U Trust for Toyota, Auto Terrace for Honda and so on. Remember you should only buy their own branded cars. Buying a Hyundai from Toyota U Trust has no advantage. Let me share why this is a good idea:

1. Nearly 100% of the time, the cars in their inventory are the ones serviced at their dealership from day 1. The sales associate can login to their system and show you the complete service history of the car including warranty/bodyshop/accidental repairs. If you want any clarification, the service/technical staff can provide the same.

2. They offer warranty on used cars which will actually be honoured because they know how to service their cars and they are reputed with credibility to honour the warranty. A third party dealer is not going to honour complicated warranty claims.

3. They are experts at evaluating their own cars. Outsiders can do very generic evaluation - where as authorised dealers would have specific knowledge about their cars. They also tend to refurbish the cars before putting them on for sale.

4. Their prices are reasonable if you take the above factors into account. The previous owner may have been incentivised to sell for less as part of an exchange deal.

The only drawback is that their inventory is limited and gets sold very quickly. It is best to visit the sales office and ask the sales staff to inform you if a well maintained car of a particular model comes up for sale.

A note on the aggregators like OLX Auto, Cars24, etc. They are trying to scale rapidly and in order to build the inventory, they usually buy at a higher price after very superficial checks. I sold a car to OLX Autos and I had a file containing all the paperwork of the car including full service history - they didn't even bother to look at it. They did their own physical inspection and offered me a good price. It is a total "garbage in garbage out" model. Great for sellers and not so good for buyers.

If there is any warranty claim, you are very much bound to bang your head against the wall dealing with their call centre and some random garage will try to repair. Unlike True Value, U Trust, etc. these guys are not car people. They are just an aggregator platform. A seller has no risk in dealing with a platform as his money is credited on day one. A buyer is taking a big risk by buying something expensive from a platform who are not in the business of servicing cars.

Here is my order of preference when it comes to buying cars:

1. Cars from known people
2. Same brand cars with exceptional service history from True Value, U Trust, etc. (due to warranty)
3. Cars from genuine individual buyers with good service history (OLX ads, Team-bhp classifieds etc.)
4. Same brand cars with above avg service history from True Value, U Trust, etc.
5. Aggregators (OLX auto, Spinny, etc.) - there is some hope of recourse if things go wrong
6. All others depending on miscellaneous factors.

There will be exceptions and outliers but I hope my assessment makes sense.