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Brought home a used Maruti A-Star done 70,000 km for 2.5 lacs

24th February 2023, 12:34 by Ananth Iyer

Except very minor paint issues, there was nothing wrong with the vehicle.

BHPian shresan23 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

So, this might seem a bit pretentious, but it is not.

The existing Nissan Kicks was huge. It gave very poor FE, it moved around like a mammoth. My mom was not happy. She couldn't persuade my dad to take her to tight places. The existing Nissan Kicks was new. It was white in colour. I had just received my Driving License. I wasn't happy. I couldn't persuade my dad to let me drive it in the city.

Despite being a family of three, there was an undying requirement for a small car. Now you can call this thread pretentious

This car is primarily to let me understand the process of Driving a car. Like my dad says,

"There is driving and then there is D-R-I-V-I-N-G"

The second kind of driving needs a bare bones car. So, whenever i threw a fit for not letting me drive, this was his usual reaction, "i'll get you a pre owned car, you learn to drive on that, and then, and then only will i let you even touch the Kicks inside the city."

Just like how you guys are running out of patience right now, I too was running out of it, big time. The process of getting a second hand car started about a year ago and it moved at crawling speed, until last week. We shifted our place of residence. The security deposit was back and dad had some money saved up. He initiated the process one thursday. By Sunday, the car was home.

The Process

My first turn was towards the Team Bhp forum. I would like to thank all of you for the reply and the support you gave. While there were many options in front of me, i decided to stick with maruti, due to its reliability and sheer no nonsense maintanance. I contacted TrueValue first.

They sent us pics of various used cars like WagonR, Alto, Zen Estillo etc.

Out of all this, one of the guys from TrueValue, sent a Zen Estillo home, for us to test drive.

That Zen Estillo was expressly declined. The very first thing i noticed was that the clutch was worn out beyond recognition. There was no bite. Well, I don't know much of the mechanics, but a car is supposed to have a clutch bite. That one didn't have that.

The second part was that, the engine shook like an earthquake in the middle of a thunderstorm. The odo said 40k kms, my gut said 1 lakh+ kms for sure.

The vehicle had minor damage and patch up work on the left side of the car. The pistons in the boot was damaged, the windows on the left were damaged, there was some patch work and dents on the rear bumper and fender and some scratches on the door. This suggested that the vehicle was in a T-Bone accident and was repaired. Now, this is not with absolute certainity but just a suggestion.

Rejected due to:

Possible Odo Tampering
The damage
The Engine vibrations
The clutch
The prospect of incurring extra costs in the car due to the car not being certified by TrueValue.

That was that. TrueValue itself was rejected. I then browsed the web for cars and came across something called Truebil. This TrueBil is a budget man's spinny. They are sister concerns of Spinny and are directly affiliated to them.

Under our budget of 2.5 lakhs, there were four cars.

Hyundai i10 era @ 70k kms
Suzuki A-Star
Suzuki Alto @ 40k kms
Ford Figo

Now, all these cars were 11 years to 13 years old on an average. There was a rising concern for getting the FC in a couple of years, therefore the oldest of the bunch, Hyundai, was rejected.

The Ford Figo was a diesel vehicle and had run i think, more than 90k kms. There was also the whole issue with Ford. Therefore it was also rejected.

The Suzuki siblings were shortlisted and we went down to test drive the cars.

We went to the Alto first. The alto was NOT a Truebil certified car, which meant that we had to take the car as it was, no repairs before delivery, no guarantees etc. Besides, the car had damages in the front and the headlamps suggested that the car was possibly submerged during the '15 floods in Chennai. This car was rejected.

Then we went to the A-Star. Except very minor paint issues, there was nothing wrong with the vehicle. The engine showed its age. However, at 70k kms, it held up very well. The vehicle jerked forward and moved comfortably thereafter. My dad read its service history, I looked for any forensic evidence of the car being in an accident. We came across one point which pushed us home. We booked the vehicle, Paid the advance and came home.

The next day, the vehicle was ready after all pre delivery checks, oil changes, repairs, cleaning, polishing etc. We paid the amount and drove it home.

For the very first time, i drove the car home. It was a 25km drive from Truebil to our place. My dad came alone in the Kicks while my mom and I came in the A-Star.

That was the process of me, a 19 year old, getting his first ever car. I will drive her for a few days, take her to the nearest Maruti Service center, have her checked out and then give you guys a detailed report on the Price, Mileage and all the other things.