[Emvi]

Prelude

Dr.GK, a 72 year-old retired doctor residing in Bangalore, who is my close relative, was on the look out for a car to replace his 2007 Maruti Wagon R which had run just a shade above 1 lakh kilometres. Dr.GK's annual car usage is generally not too high and it had come down considerably post his retirement about 2 years ago. Being a relatively tall individual, he always found the Wagon R quite comfortable and the car's ease of driving was to his liking. The initial plan was to replace the old car with the new 'big' Wagon R. Given his low usage, which now is at around 2000 - 2500 kilometres a year at most, I suggested considering a low run used car. Seeing the practical side of things, he subscribed to my idea. I and Mr.AK(another relative residing in Bangalore) collaborated to find a good pre-owned car. Now the hunt / story begins -

The Story

I began searching pre-owned cars rigorously on online platforms mainly Spinny, OLX and CarDekho. It did not take me long to realise that the car hunting job was a lot tougher than I initially thought it would be. A few days of intense googling and filtering out available options, I came across a October 2021 registered Wagon R Vxi(O) on CarDekho(Bangalore), which had run just about 4100 kms. Going by the pictures the car looked great and I immediately notified Dr.GK and AK, who booked the car online without further ado. The next day the car was brought to Dr.GK's doorstep for a test drive. A short test drive was enough to seal the deal. The purchase decision was conveyed to the sales executive Mr.Anand who had brought the car and the documentation was planned for the next day. The colour of the car was listed as Magma Grey on the seller's website, whereas it actually turned out to be a Silver car! We weren't too concerned about this though. The next day Mr.Anand visited Dr.GK's residence to collect all the required documents. What left everyone surprised and a bit enraged was that the executive had come to collect the documents in the same car which we had booked. When questioned about this, Anand just brushed it aside and none of us were too keen to escalate the matter further. The quoted amount was wire transferred the following day and the executive had promised to deliver the car by afternoon which it was not to be. We were was made to wait for 2-3 hrs before the car was delivered in the late afternoon on 15th June 2022. It was delivered alright, but the executive did not handover the vehicle documents(payment invoice, delivery note) and the second key. When asked, the executive promised to hand them over personally in a "couple of days" time. Forget a "couple of days", the promise wasn't fulfilled even after a month. By this time the executive had started avoiding phone calls from us. All this while the car was hardly used, running barely about 75-100 kms. The RC transfer too was taking longer than usual and RTO server / procedures were blamed for the delay by Mr.Anand when he attended calls on rare occasions.

In the meantime, AK sold his car(6 year-old Ertiga) and purchased another car for himself from Spinny. Within a couple of weeks post delivery, Spinny got the ownership transferred to his name and he received the RC. This firmly made us believe that CarDekho was at fault for the delay in transferring vehicle ownership. So, AK contacted Mr.Stefan Raj, a senior executive at CarDekho and raised a complaint regarding the matter.

A week or so later, Dr.GK's immediate relatives landed in Bangalore from abroad and they all had planned to travel to their native place (which btw is my hometown) about 350 kms from Bangalore. Repeated requests for RC transfer and pending documents fell on deaf ears and they had no other option but to travel without the vehicle RC. Frustrated by the turn of events, AK contacted Mr. Stefan Raj by phone first and later shot an email holding no words back. Now, things started to move and it came to light at this stage that the RC transfer was kept pending because the vehicle was still under hypothecation to the bank which the first owner had availed loan from! A couple of stern follow up emails ensured that the hypothecation was cancelled and the RC was transferred within 3-4 days which had been kept in cold storage for months citing problems at the RTO end.

If this is a story in itself, there's an even bigger one to follow!

While Dr.GK and family were on the way to their native place, about 50 - 60 kms from Bangalore, they noticed the engine check warning light glowing. He first intimated about this to Mr. Anand and then called me to find out if it was alright to travel with the warning light glowing. I immediately contacted the Maruti Authorised Service Station(MASS) at my place and the SA suggested to carry on driving if the AC is working fine and if the engine is not overheating and so they did. Although the warning light was glowing all the time, they did not face any other issues and reached their destination safe and sound. The next day when I checked out the car, I immediately felt the exhaust fumes to be abnormal, it smelt very much like that of a 2-stroke engine! Also, while driving I felt the engine to be a wee bit unresponsive.

A couple of days later we took the car to the nearest MASS. Upon inspection, the SA initially suspected that the O2 sensor was malfunctioning. But soon after, he noticed that the spark plugs had worn out. Strange for a relatively new car. The spark plugs were replaced, the car was connected to on-board diagnostics(OBD) and the error code was deleted and the warning light disappeared. We were all relieved that the issue got resolved. Unfortunately, it was not to be. After about 50kms of driving the warning light appeared again and it was immediately informed to the SA. This time the SA was pretty sure that the O2 sensor was the culprit. He requested the car to be brought again to the service centre. He ran the OBD, verified the part number of the sensor and promised to get it changed under warranty once the part is available. In about 3 days' time, he called to inform that the sensor was available and the car was again taken to the service centre.

Now, time for the biggest shock of all! The 'faulty' sensor was removed and inspecting closely further, they found the catalytic converter assembly to be hollow, meaning the all important honeycomb resembling substrate of the unit was missing! Whoa! Now this explains everything- warning light, exhaust fumes smelling reminiscent of a 2-stroke engine and probably low fuel efficiency(which wasn't calculated).

We requested the SA at MASS to give a report on this and he obliged without a second thought. The folks at MASS were really co-operative, despite having their service bays busy all day long, they were always ready to help no matter what time of the day during the working hours. Commendable! We were also informed that the "business of cat-con theft" is quite rampant among a few "local" used car dealers in Bangalore. Apparently, the platinum group metals in a catalytic converter fetches good value in the scrap market! The catalytic converter assembly and the pertaining sensors of Wagon R cost about INR 25000 we were told.



We immediately notified CarDekho team about the latest development and what followed next was barrage of emails from our end and their bots responding to them in the most unprofessional way one could imagine. What was supposed to be a happy vacation for Dr. GK and his family had transpired into an unforgettable saga.

After returning to Bangalore, we all went to CarDekho office at Garuda Mall, McGrath Road. Tracing their office in the premises was quite a task. We happened to meet Mr. Rohith, Team Leader at CarDekho. Although he was patient enough to hear us out, he seemed more interested in handing over the car's second key, RC and invoice copy which were still in their custody. During our conversation, he claimed that never before have they had to deal with an issue of this sort in CarDekho Bangalore Division, whereas they have had such "Cat-con missing issues" in their Delhi branch. Interesting, huh!? Finally, he agreed that he will do his best to resolve the issue and asked us to give him "some" time. This was on August 30th.

Now, unsurprisingly, this gentleman too has stopped responding and the CarDekho bots are back in business doing what they are best at- copy and paste replies which pretend to apologise while shrugging off any responsibility saying it doesn't fall under the purview of warranty conditions! We will be meeting our lawyer and plan to sue them for cheating and scamming us. A long battle ahead for sure, but we are ready for it.

So, the next time any of you think of buying a used car from CarDekho, please take note and beware.

Your suggestions / opinions are most welcome. Thanks for reading.

[GTO]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

Cardekho is too big to bother with such petty thefts, so it's not intentional. That being said, Cardekho's execution, systems & quality checks definitely have lots of room for improvement.

[TejasKinger]

This is a really eye-opening thread. I was just watching a Donut Media YouTube video about Catalytic Converter thefts in the US, didn't know it was a thing in India too.

https://youtu.be/n643Zizjdng

[rjainv]

Spark plugs swapped, catcon missing.

Don't be surprised if more parts have been swapped as it seems car paid a visit to a shady workshop in partswap business during change of hands between original owner and you.

Should get it thoroughly inspected to see what else might have been changed/missing.

[SmartCat]

Catalytic converters have precious metals like Platinum, Palladium etc that are worth around $100 on average.

Here's How Much Precious Metal Thieves Can Take From Your Catalytic Converter
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cul...ecious-metals/

[shancz]

Sorry for your experience and precisely the reason I stay away from used cars, lack of trust.

When some new car dealers try to pass off repaired cars as new when they're under the lens of the manufacturer what's stopping these guys from doing acts like the one mentioned or worse.

Once a car is sold its up to the ethics of the provider or even the salesman to remove/steal whatever they can out of the car which isn't noticeable or do an honest job.
Like it or not, this post and the thread sheds light on what could've tranpired / transpires post a deal :
Credits to : asit.kulkarni93 | vgaquarius (Online used car aggregators and their illusion of transparency)

Thanks for sharing the unfortunate experience, will alert and help a lot of people.
Hope CarDekho gets its act together and reimburses the cost.
Keep us posted.


PS : We have a 2004 wagonR in family with an even lower usage, on its first renewal and probably the second as well before its scrapped.
We intend to do the same with our 6+ year old wagonR once the usage drops to the levels you mentioned in 2 years time.
Logic being that the cars had been bought new, no surprises so would make better sense to keep a reliable/known car when the usage is miniscule. If the usage was higher/regular a new car even in the base trim could be bought to reduce dependency on battery powered features as that would be the first casualty of low usage.

[ranjitnair77]

There were cases of silencer thefts in Pune a couple of months back. The purpose was to steal metal from the cat con.

https://indianexpress.com/article/ci...ested-7954436/

[Emvi]

Originally Posted by GTO

Cardekho is too big to bother with such petty thefts, so it's not intentional.

True!
That's the very reason we avoided dealing with local dealers and chose a reputed company such as CarDekho. Please take note that we are not claiming the company has direct involvement in the matter, however it cannot be ruled out that some individuals associated with the company might have committed the misdeed. For a company as big as CarDekho, the least they could have done was inspect the car and investigate the incident, rather than brushing it under the carpet.

When such incidents are not completely alien to the company, its absolutely their responsibility-

1. To take precautions and prevent such things from happening.

2. To value a customer's time, money and resolve at the earliest, when such an incident is reported or brought to the company's notice.

[NG_EV]

Can't a consumer forum complaint be made in this matter?

[Emvi]

Originally Posted by NG_EV

Can't a consumer forum complaint be made in this matter?

It can be done and will be done in all likelihood.

[lsjey]

Getting a used car from a dealer/broker is always a fraught affair. When my Manza’s engine seized and I wanted to sell it in exchange for booking a 5th gen honda city, experienced the crookedness first hand. The used car person in the dealership told me that they will repair the engine based on scavenged parts to keep the costs lower and then sell.

Scavenged parts business is big I learnt during this time. The blatant dishonesty that exists in used car sales, is the reason I never even attempt to buy a used car. Protecting against cheating while buying a new car is in itself a daunting prospect for me.

Buying a used car is to be considered only when one is very knowledgeable in this area.

Regards,
Lsjey

[.HEM]

A friend of mine introduced me as a dealer to all the Used car aggregators. What was once my passion has now bloomed to become a line of business. I have become a "pre-worshipped car seller" I have bought many cars from Cardekho, Cars24 and Olx autos in the last 6 months. So far, I never had any trouble.

If you directly buy a car from Cardekho website, there are chances that the cars are from local dealers. I can advertise my cars in Cardekho website and if someone buys online, it can be collected by Cardekho and handed over to the customer.

The buck has stopped at Cardekho's desk, but the culprit can be anyone who touched the car. The aggregator can easily wash their hands off saying you bought the car after test drive and inspection and they sold the car as is and where is basis and they never gave any guarantee on the car internals.

Keeping my fingers crossed to see how things get sorted.

.Hem

[Ton Ami]

Originally Posted by Emvi

Prelude

Now, time for the biggest shock of all! The 'faulty' sensor was removed and inspecting closely further, they found the catalytic converter assembly to be hollow, meaning the all important honeycomb resembling substrate of the unit was missing! Whoa! Now this explains everything- warning light, exhaust fumes smelling reminiscent of a 2-stroke engine and probably low fuel efficiency(which wasn't calculated).

The first indication of such theft is unnatural sound from the exhaust centre pipe (this could be observed while test driving/ high revving the car at idle). Any hoarseness or free-flow exhaust type sound in a stock system shouldn't be ignored.

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

Catalytic converters have precious metals like Platinum, Palladium etc that are worth around $100 on average.

Out of curiosity I checked the price in India.
Boodmo is offering WagonR Catalytic converter for 849/-
What am I missing here?

https://boodmo.com/catalog/part-cata...rter-58146615/

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Out of curiosity I checked the price in India.
Boodmo is offering WagonR Catalytic converter for 849/-
What am I missing here?

That's probably just the external casing:



From OPs post:

they found the catalytic converter assembly to be hollow, meaning the all important honeycomb resembling substrate of the unit was missing!