[shobhit.shri]

Originally Posted by GTO

Whoever gives me the best price in 2 - 4 weeks wins .

The problem is not as much on the seller's side as on the buyer's. A seller might have to bear with the lesser money, but the buyer has to face the ultimate risk of getting a lemon.

The new-age startups, in my humble opinion, are not making much of a difference for the buyer. Still, they are, on average, better than dealers.

[Hawk4]

Telegram/WhatsApp groups in big gated communities, colonies, are now another option to add to the list. Most of the users in these communities are locals, friends, and familiar faces. Additionally, customers will feel more secure when making purchases from a reputable forum rather than a total stranger.

[arjunsatheesh]

Came across an ad for a CB300R in OLX where the images looked familiar. I was sure I had seen it somewhere. The deal seemed too good to be true but still, I asked all the details and asked when I could get a test ride. He told me that someone dropped his superbike sometime back during a test ride and was scared of giving it to strangers. I told him that his concern is understandable but I cannot go forward without riding the bike. This scammer told me that if I could make some payment as a deposit he would be okay with the test ride. This sounded too fishy and I politely refused. I was again back to the CB300R review thread in team-bhp and then it hit me. This guy had used the same images from this particular review for the OLX ad. I immediately reported this to OLX but nothing happened. I did it again and then the ad got taken down. After a week or so I checked again and he had uploaded another ad with the same images but this time the location was different. I think it's high time we made the team-bhp watermark across the images and not just on the bottom. People can easily crop that part out and use those images for unscrupulous activities.

[F150]

Team BHP classifieds is better to some extent. One can check the forum user ID to get to real user. Downside is that some of the BHPians are trying to make a profit on their original price. I saw 2 very good listings for Skoda Octavia.
1. Purchase price was 24 lacs, listed price was 25 lakhs after using it for 2.5 years
2. Purchase price was 25 lacs, after using for 5 years, listed price is 19.5 lacs.

Despite such anamolous listings, I would still prefer Team BHP classifieds any day.

society chat groups are the best source, but the volume is very less.

[Legal_Eagle]

This thread has come at the right time. Am in the market looking for a used Honda Jazz automatic for my friend. He'll be in India till this month end, since automatic variants of hatchbacks (read Maruti) have waiting period, he zeroed in on the Jazz. Since Jazz is no longer available from the showroom, he asked me to look for used one's, preferably 2018 and later models. To my horror, from past one week I haven't been able to get through to a direct seller car. Tried TBhp Bangalore classifieds too. OLX, FB Marketplace, etc., are completely occupied by dealers. Didn't even bother to check with them, tried Toyota U Trust, Kanakapura Road, no luck with them as well. Finally went to Honda Auto Terrace opposite passport office, Koramangala. The cars there looked so shabby, stinking and horrendously overpriced that we didn't even bother to disturb the sales manager there, Mahavir Jain, he too looked quite ignorant and didn't even bother asking us anything. We just left the place. Compared to Honda Autoterrace, cars were atleast well kept at U Trust.
Now it seems like we have reached a dead end. Am still trying to understand the inflation on used car prices in the market post Covid especially in Bangalore ( is there anything else apart from people desiring for personal transport owing to the pandemic!)

On a lighter note, came across a S-Cross MT June 2021 Zeta variant listed for Rs.12,49,000/- with 11k on the odo in FB Marketplace, I bought mine in December 2021 for 11,74,000 On-road. Certainly a seller's market out there.

Meanwhile, Nobroker too has listings from brokers who do not want to be contacted by other brokers.

[anoopGTkrish]

Another issue is RC transfer post sale. Dealers generally provide a sale deed and that's pretty much it. For an informed seller, they will ensure RC transfer to be completed but there are a lot of cases where RC transfer never gets done even after these shady dealers complete the next sale.

Agree on tbhp classifieds being somewhat better but most genuine BHPians have outrageous pricing. Saw a 2016 Innova ZX for 25 Lakhs. Reason for quote is that a new one costs 33 OTR. But I do enjoy going through the Luxury and Niche sections as I often come across certain interesting cars.

[jono213]

Have been noticing this trend a lot too while hunting for used cars on olx, seems very weird to me that nobody has thought of a completely independent website like carsandbids.com or bringatrailer.com that has ads from individual owners and is decently transparent.

[HighRevving]

Originally Posted by GTO

2. Have all the venture-funded startups evaluate the car at my residence.

3. Check what dealer is giving me the best trade-in value against my next car.

What I have been noticing off-late is that the dealers have been piggybacking on these startups' lowballing customers. They know that independent dealers to whom they eventually sell, offer lower price than the startups - so they throw a funnily low quote and when you mention to them how you've got a valuation from XYZ startup, they immediately match it. There are even instances where they ask you to get evaluation done by these startups and give them the highest quote to match.

So effectively -

• Seller will not be bothered with waiting for an end-user to turn up at his doorstep.
• So offer a low quote, if they take the bait, pay ridiculously low price and make a good margin.
• Even otherwise, pay only what any of these startups pay and nothing more.

Either way, these guys end up making a lot of money; which I am not against, but not offering a fair value to a prospective customer who wants to own and drive your brand for years to come, is disappointing.

[Chandler Bing]

I have been looking for a used car here in Bangalore since last 4 months and I could not find one good deal. Everything feels so over priced. The competition within Spinny , Cars24 etc is pushing the prices high. When I spoke to a dealer for a deal on a Skoda Rapid he told me to go checkout what Spinny is listing for a similar car. I think these Spinny , Cars24 is kinda setting up those threshold prices and dealers just use it as a refernce.

[Gennex]

Isn't it always like this from beginning? Who makes more money- the middlemen, Be it the second hand car market, agriculture, dairy etc. end users will always be at loss..

[Tom.Koshy]

There could not have been a better timing for this thread. I was on the verge of asking the same question in one of the active car ownership threads owing to the ordeal that I went through, and am still going through to get hold of a pre-owned car from an individual seller.

I was in the market for a premium pre-owned car. I started my search in OLX but couldn't find any cars from individual owners. All the cars listed were held by dealers/brokers. In most cases the same car is being listed by multiple dealers/brokers. Consequently I came to the conclusion that being a premium car brand this should be how the used car market works and there was no other option to go about with closing the deal. Therefore I started checking out cars that were with dealers and was shocked by the prices that they were asking. The prices that were being quoted completely took out the logic behind buying such pre-owned cars. The dealer would often try to convince me by saying that used car prices have shot up on account of constant price increase in new cars, which I believed to a certain extent. Further, every time you check out a new car with the dealer, he tells you that the previous car you saw was sold for the dealer quoted price , trying to convince me that there exists high demand and prices for the model. In most cases the same car would be still available for sale in OLX.

All this while I was under the belief that dealers were only asking for nominal margins on the cars that were being sold. One day I came across an ad by a dealer quoting a reasonable price (28L) and started negotiating with him, however I was told by the dealer the very next day that the car was sold. After about 2 weeks the same car popped up again for sale by a different dealer now quoting 32L. This was a red flag for me and I started wondering what the original owner would have got from the deal. So I rung up a friend of mine who had sold the same model a year back just to know the market price. The experience narrated by him of selling his car totally flabbergasted me. He had sold his car to a dealer for 22L which was later sold by the dealer for 30L. That is a whopping 36% margin on a car which I believe is too much. His experience made me realize that majority of the used car market is controlled by dealers and the demand and prices that they claim are superficially created for their own benefit.

The only way to get hold of a good deal is by waiting for an individual seller patiently and vigilantly, thereafter closing the deal quickly. Pre-owned market is no longer a buyers or sellers market but a dealers market. It should also be added that there are a handful of dealers that work ethically and only charge a nominal commission on the sale price, which I find to be very reasonable.

[JoaTMoN]

Originally Posted by Gennex

Isn't it always like this from beginning? Who makes more money- the middlemen, Be it the second hand car market, agriculture, dairy etc. end users will always be at loss..

You're spot on. These middlemen are the ones who have the last laugh.

[RRM]

Originally Posted by Guna

How does nobroker.com manages to keep brokers away?

They cannot keep middlemen away. When you list the property, the middlemen are continuously searching through all the sites and contact the seller or owner taking details shared.

NoBroker - avail only free listing

[Guna]

Another trend I have seen is: They steal all the professionally taken photographs from Cars24, Spinny etc and post on other sites.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by padmrajravi

Points 2 and 3 are risks in terms of ownership transfer. Unless there is a personal relationship with the franchise contact or dealer, it is tough to enforce ownership transfer. That can get done in 1 month or 1 year based on luck and till that time, you are answerable for accidents caused by the car. Those affidavits that dealers give as them being responsible while the car is in their custody, does not mean anything legally.

Actually, it is the exact opposite. A lawyer friend advised me to sell the car to a dealer (exchange) or a company like Cars 24 over an unknown individual. Their delivery note is enough to prove that you were not in possession of the vehicle.