I recently sold my Ecosport on OLX to a private buyer and got a very good price. It was not that easy, with dealers joining up to give me low-ball offers every single day, trying to get me to lose my nerve and sell the car to one of them at the best of the low-ball offers. It was only through perseverance that I was able to hang on till I started getting real offers from genuine private buyers.
Afterwards, I went through a phase where I was confused between buying a new vehicle, or getting a low usage, fairly recent car for a supposed 30-40% discount compared to a new car. I had booked a ScorpioN and at one point, Mahindra was postponing deliveries of several variants, and I was sure that I wouldn't be getting the car for at least several more months, if not a year.
I once again took to online marketplaces, and found that they were still infested by dealers, who seemed to have all the cars actually worth considering and were selling them for about the same price as they were when new. For an example, a three-year-old XUV500 which was out of warranty, out of production for more thana year and had suspiciously badly worn tyres for only 24K kms on the odo was being listed at 18 lacs by a dealer! When I asked him what the last price would be, he offered 17.9 lacs with a straight face, and then 17.5 lacs after about 2-3 days of haggling. I should have steered clear of them right then, but I was enticed by another big SUV, this time a Tata Hexa AT with 50K and 5 years to its name. And the price? 13.6 lacs, but he was willing to go down as far as 13.3!
In the end, the decision was made for me, as the ScorpioN I had booked was billed earlier than I expected. Considering that I have 3 years of warranty, and a brand new, newly launched model that will be a rare sight for at least a year, I feel that the "premium" I have to pay for the new car is well worth it.
For the time being, it doesn't seem that online classifieds are worth looking for unless you're willing to pay cut-throat prices to dealers for even reasonably good cars, and almost the same price as new for a recent car. Blame it on the supposed chip shortage and the long waiting periods.
If you go to OLX and look through the listings, you'll find the same car listed in all major cities in your state, with the same pics and contact details. You'll also likely find the same car being listed for multiple prices by multiple sellers, who have all contacted the same owner and have same/similar pics.
Then there are the listings of almost-new cars at mouth-watering prices, which turn out to be ads for new cars, put by the showroom SAs to get leads. If you give them a call by accident, be prepared to be assaulted over phone, text and whatsapp for the next few months at least from the SAs, and their successors, and whoever they have shared your number with.
Here are some funny things that I had heard from dealers while selling and buying.
When you're selling an out of production BS4 diesel car, it is always in low demand, and no one really wants it, but when you're buying, BS4 is better since it is less complicated and cheaper to service, and actually even worth paying a premium for.
When you're selling a Ford, spare parts availability and service is a concern, but when you're buying one, service and parts are a non-issue, and the driving experience makes it all worthwhile anyway.
Also, when you're selling a car, the variant and the low mileage and excellent service history are left at the wayside when evaluating, and only the year is important. However, when you go to buy a car, all these factors drive up the price.
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