Review: Buying a used car from Cars24 in Bangalore

I purchased a used Honda City CVT, replacing my 9-year-old Fiat Linea.

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So, our beloved Linea was about to complete 9 years. It had served us really well and was still doing a good job. The age was showing at times though and an itch for a new car was growing as well. We finally decided that its time for a replacement and set a budget of approx., Rs 15 lakhs.

I wanted to explore pre-worshipped cars but, convincing the family was not an easy task. So while this discussion of pre-loved vs New cars was ongoing at home, the MG Astor Initial Drive report was published on team BHP. We went for a test drive and all of us liked the car (1.3 Turbo AT). I did book the car on the 21st of Oct, though I wasn't fully certain yet (booked 1.5 Savvy CVT as Turbo was even higher than my already stretched budget, though a test drive of the 1.5 NA car was still pending). Before booking, I also made a deal with the family that if I can get a like-new pre-loved car before the Astor is ready for delivery, they will be open to considering it.

I put an ad for our Linea on Olx and also started looking for a car meeting the below requirements:

• Budget approx. 15 lakhs (bit stretchable for a good car)
• Must be automatic
• Should not feel a downgrade from the current ride (Linea)
• 1 to 2-year-old cars that are Like-New and not more than 25k on ODO
• OK with Petrol or Diesel (I stay very close to the office and drive less these days and purely from an economic perspective paying more for a diesel did not make any sense though, but I needed to be flexible in the used car market)
• Preferred cars - SUV/Crossovers (Creta / Seltos) or Sedans (Verna / City) from the C2 segment. Nothing like it if I can get a good Jeep Compass Automatic

Our primary source was Olx, but as our search continued, the economic advantages of buying a used car were not so visible in the Bengaluru used car market.

• Almost all the used cars end up with used car dealers with jacked up prices and you have to really struggle to find ads posted by owners themselves.
• As per the “Almost-New" used cars! The logic & beauty of buying 1 - 3-year-old pre-worshipped cars” thread, a new car depreciates as much as 29% in one year.
• As per my experience, this did not seem true for Bangalore used car market and the asking price for even 2-year-old Seltos seemed to be in the 80-85% of the new car OTR
• Rather than paying so much for a used Seltos, I could pay 1-2 lakhs more and just get my brand-new Astor Savvy itself (that too most likely 2022 make with price protection as MG was not able to keep up with production and my delivery was getting delayed).

In parallel to Olx, I also explored Spinny and Cars24. From Spinny, I did a test drive a couple of cars and though I liked the overall experience and quality of the cars, I did not find anything which is meeting all my requirements.

This is when I found an Oct 2020 mfd, Nov 2020 reg Honda City ZX CVT with less than 11000 km listed in Cars 24, with a clean inspection report. From my last two months of experience searching in the Bangalore used car market, found the price to be very good and booked the same immediately and scheduled a home test drive for the next day.

The car came for a test drive as scheduled. Everything looked good with respect to the car during the test drive. There was no sign of the Astor delivery, and though my family was initially reluctant with the idea of a used car, I was able to convince them of the advantages of getting a used car during this time period. The City looked almost like a brand new car and my family happily agreed to take it the moment they sat inside the car.

I requested for an inspection to be done at Honda which cars24 agreed without any fuss. Took an appointment with Honda service for the next day. The cars24 executives came promptly and Honda guys also gave a thumbs up after the inspection.

• Specifically asked to check for any signs of accidents or chassis damage and the body shop guy gave me a green signal
• The car was lifted up and no under chassis damage
• Absolutely no findings from Honda engineers apart from slightly overfilled engine oil (cars24 seems to have the policy to top up oils etc as part of their inspections and must be the reason) which they promptly drained out.
• OBD scan did not reveal any issues
• All service records in order
• 5 years extended warranty purchased by a previous owner and it's transferable (which means I have 4 years warranty left on the car)
• Comprehensive insurance renewed for next year by previous owner (another 11 months validity), with no claims in the previous year and with add on covers Zero Dep, and RTI.

Felt everything well with the car and decided to go ahead. As an additional check, managed to get the previous owner's number and talked to him to understand if there was an issue with the car/reason for sale etc. and did not see any reason to be concerned about it.

Overall Delivery Experience was smooth. We went straight from Honda ASS to Cars24 yard and while I completed the payment formalities, they took the car for a quick wash and prepared it for delivery (You can make payments in multiple batches. I paid partly through my credit card, partly through net banking and debit card payments from different accounts).

The only small hiccup in the whole delivery experience was that the second key was not available with the executive. He promised to give it in the next couple of days and after some follow-up, I collected the key after 3-4 days (also signed RTO transfer papers on that day).

Cars 24 started the document transfer process exactly on the 8th day (after the 7 day return period) and sent me the soft copy of Form-29/Form-30 that they submitted to the RTO. Currently, the transfer is yet to be completed and the Vaahan portal still shows the previous owner name.

Overall, I had a pleasant experience with Cars24 while buying this car. A few points which I would like to highlight about their procedure are (many of them are very similar to Spinny, though I am not sure if all the cars24 cars meet the Spinny standard):

1. Fixed Price (same as Spinny). I kind of find the fixed price approach more user friendly. With the dealers (or owners themselves), you don’t know the actual price they are really looking for and end up wasting a lot of time with people having unreasonable expectations.
2. Book the car paying a token amount, which is fully refundable if you don’t like the car (Rs. 3000/- in Cars24 and Rs. 10,000/- in Spinny). Note: In Spinny, you can also test drive cars without paying the token advance, but the car won't be reserved for you in that case.
3. After booking, the car is reserved for you for 5 days (it's 3 days in Spinny). You can take a test drive, make up your mind and make full payment within this time. If you don’t, the amount is fully refunded (as per their policy, not sure how smooth the refund procedure is)
4. No additional charge for RC transfer and taken care of by Cars24 (Insurance transfer needs to be done by yourself)
5. For cars with a list price of more than 10 lakhs, the price is inclusive of TCS (can confirm for cars24. I expect the same for Spinny as well, but would be good to re-confirm as I have no personal experience). So the actual price of the car you pay is slightly lower than the list price as TCS is adjusted against your tax outgo.
6. They also have a return policy after you purchase the car. If you don’t like the car, you can return (of course in the same condition as you bought it) it within 7days / 500kms (it's 5 days / 300kms for Spinny).

Till now, I have done more than 1000 km and everything looks good, except for the two minor issues below:

• The brakes are squeaking sometimes when I start from a standstill (feels this happens after parking for long and moves first in reverse gear). Need to get this checked with Honda ASS.
• The front windshield is not getting cleaned properly and visibility during rains and at night is not to my liking. There is also some noise from the windshield while the wiper is operating. Need to see if wipers need replacement.

Also a couple of smaller updates:

• I found a buyer for my Linea (2011 mfd, 2012 registered Emotion Pack Diesel). I did not go through the dealer route and found a direct buyer through Olx and the RC transfer has been completed (had sold the Linea about a month before I got to my City and I was without a car for this short period).
• Cancelled my Astor booking a couple of days ago and waiting for a refund (In any case, there was no communication from MG after Nov last week when they promised that I will get my car in 1-2 weeks).

I would also like to add a few additional points:

• I am not very clear how cars24 decide to list a car for individual purchase vs for their dealer partners. I was told by cars24 executives that they keep good cars with them to sell to individuals. However, I am not sure if dealer rejects also gets listed and you end up with a bad car. Please do thorough due diligence while buying (I hope I have done my homework, but you never know)
• By no means, I am trying to say cars24 offers better value across their range. I have seen overprized cars across Spinny / Cars24 / Individuals and local dealers. So keep all your options open if you are looking for a used car.

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