Used car deals can save you a hell load of money if tackled carefully. Here is the list of the things you should consider and be careful while buying a second hand /used car. Being an automobile enthusiastic I thought I will put my two cent words to help someone to not to get cheated and make a right decision. of course I would he giving you few specifics and references of Pune.

lets come to the point now

first question you should ask your self is what type of used Car are you looking for, let me give you few hints here.

Basic Qualifiers:

1)Make this thing very clear in your head- one day or the other you too are going to sell this car so here is what you should take care while buying. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you are not planning to sell it anytime soon or you will run it for 10 years. Its a car the maintenance costs goes up with the age.

2) 1 Human year= 10 Car years. Never Buy a second hand car which is more than 5 years old in age because when you are out there in market to sell it it would then be around 7 years old and NOBODY will be ready to buy a car which has almost eroded its 70% value(yes; the standard car deprecation is 10% per year).

3) Never Buy a Car which has already completed 80,000 Km, the maintenance cost of car goes up Drastically with such a high running.

4) Never Buy a defunct model(out of production car).

Which Fuel Type-

Petrol: if your monthly running is not more than 450 Km and you are just planning to use it as a small weekend or family car, its a good idea to go for petrol as engine simplicity makes it durable and and car will start in single starter even if you give it a starter only once a week. Service costs are low(compared to diesel variant). The car will approx run at around 5Rs/Km

Diesel: If you are planning to take the car to your office daily and your running is more than 450Km a month. you can save on fuel a lot here as due to engine design you will get at least and millage of 20km/Liter. Diesel is easily available everywhere. Dont buy a diesel car which has already touched 50,000 Km. This will cost you around 3Rs/Km.

CNG+Petrol= this will be a real hard to find in second hand market, if you do.don't damn miss it but mind the conditions I have mentioned below. Note - I am only referring to company fitted CNG kits not add on kits. This will cost you around 2/Km(when it runs on CNG)

Which Brand to go for-

Now recall the 1st basic rule here(one day or the other you too are going to sell this car)

The easiest one to maintain, run and sell would be Maruti Suzuki and Hundai ones. Strict no no would be Tata ones just because its tough to find its next customer and they have a terrible customer service. Honda has a big used car market too but its heavy on maintenance just because spare parts are a bit costly, Honda cars are of awesome quality.

Which Model to buy:

Now this is the biggest and most important question. First decide which model you want then you start searching for it.

My recommendation for models would be

Swift/ Swift Dezire(Any Variant)- Reason is simple, easy to run and maintain and damn easy to sell at very good price. Car is surely a winner, this will be a tough car to find in used car market as it sells like hot cakes(yes, it is that good)

Wagon R(Any Variant)- you can get it at a very good price and car is okay to run, very easy to maintain. Millage is awesome There is only one place where you have to make a compromise is its looks(I personally don't like the way it looks)

Alto K10- With this one you would have to be a bit careful because you have to buy it at correct price if you buy it a premium it would be a set back when you sell it. Car runs okay, Maintenance is very cheap. The catch here is that in a second hand market this car is generally available at some premium because it sells like hot cakes(not that is so good, no its not)

Ritz(Any Variant)- Again a very good car, the reason for it being on the list is same as swift. Just a bit less popular than swift.

i10(Manual Transmission any variant)- Its an Awesome Car to drive however; in a used car market it is available at a substantially high premium, would be very easy to sell when you want to. Good Millage excellent handling. whistle Spares are certainly costlier then Maruti Suzuki.

Honorary mention would be Brio(Manual Transmission version)

For Mauti suzuki cars try to find one which as a manufacturing of post 2011 as the engine type changed after it, a new kind of engine was developed by maruti(k series) which are very much fuel efficient then the previous ones. Remember that there are some very good cars out there other then above mentioned(e.g. Hundai santa fe) but then the market segment for them is quite different so I have suggested you based on the major customer base and my experience. From where to buy it:

Another very important question, you majorly have two choices here one is that you buy from a used car dealer and another is that you buy it from individual.

Now buying strategy changes with the option you chose. Basically none of them is bad but both has there own pros and cons.

Dealer: - The catch here is that you shell out some additional money in return for the peace of mind. I will explain; most of the reputed dealer will offer warranty and free services. This is a real peace of mind believe me. If later on you find that something is not working fine with car you can always go back to dealer which you cannot do in case of buying it from individual. Also when the dealer buys the car he makes sure that is clean in terms of paper work. Dealer has approx margin of 20% -25% which can be brought down to 15% if properly negotiated. This much margin is fair. If you are in Pune go for Wagoli Sai service(True Value Shop), they offer quite fair prices on deals. Avoid Carwale and zigwheels, their prices are extremely high. Sanjay Hundai is another good one but offers very less option. Carnation is another very good option, negotiate hard here.

Negotiate hard with all dealers, they will at-least reduce 20,000 on the car quoted around 2.8Lac

Individual - you can catch individuals form online classified portals like olx.in .Buying it from individual can save you good sum of bucks but will certainly put you in a very risky position. While buying it form individual to make sure that the car is okay you have to play a little trick here. Take the owner with you to a Maruti authorized service station, now tell the station guy that you are planning to give the car for service please do the inspection and give me the estimates. Here the guy will take a ride do some inspections and will tell you every small fault of the car(as he makes more money with every fault). Now you know if car has any major problem, none the less use this estimate form the service guy as an excuse to bring down the price by some margin.

most important things to check in the car:

Suspension- Check it carefully, get the car lifted and see if there are any oil leaks. It generally starts wearing out at 50,000 Km. If all the four shock-absorbers have weard out you can tell that it was used roughly. Replacing all for shock-absorbers would cost you around 11,000(Maruti Genuine parts of-course).

Clutch Plates- to check, see if the clutch is quite hard to press. This can wear out very easily if car is not driven properly, it generally wears out at 45000Km. This will cost you around 6000 to get it replaced. This is a common problem with used cars.

Steering Assembly- This is another problem with the Swift versions specially, this one is tough to identify too. the way to identify is by trying to hear a knock sound when steering is completely twisted. this is a Major Problem it can even cost you 28,000! if the steering assembly has to be replaced.

Engine condition- ask some one to Race the petrol Engine on neutral and see the color of smoke coming out from rear if its lot of white smoke, its burning up oil that means the engine is screwed up. This is a deal breaker, Run away don't buy.

Gearbox Condition- check the smoothness of the gear shift, see if it makes any knocking noises. this one better be checked by an expert as it can be hard to identify. its a deal breaker too.