As I was new to car driving I decided to buy an old car as my first car just to make myself comfortable with driving a car.My search began with looking an advt.in local newspaper, Vising car dealers and surfing web site like bazee and carmart etc.
Very soon I realised that buying a car on net was not a wise thing for me as I reside at nagpur and most of the sellers were from mumbai or delhi.
Buying car by going through paper advt.was another nightmare.The sellers quote too high a price , usually the content in advt.does not match with actual condition.It usually so happens that a really good car does not wait for a long .Before I could decide to finally buy it .It was already sold.Here I would like to add one more thing .
In most of the advices aired on net it is said you check all details , papers , km reading , brake condition etc etc before you buy.But what I found is the owner gets offended if you start probing deep.Unless you pay an advance the owner(if he is a stranger to you) does not really respond.
(Most of the time I used to take an expert driver with me)
So like this I spent almost two months and then decided to follow the last option that is going to dealer.
I must say given a chance again I will not follow that path.The dealers generally feel that the buyer is very rich and is meant only for being fooled.They will show a vehicle (i was first trying for zen) which is either not being used for a very long time, or the owner is not there(the vehicle is registered at mumbai or pune and one has to believe that owner is interested in selling it a distance place like nagpur) or the papers are not guanine.
And yes if you go to many numbers of dealers you may find the same vehicle is being shown at different places with different price tag.That makes you really shaky.One dealer’s servant also told me that the pune and mumbai vehicles are first purchased by the dealers and with little mending are sold at high premium.Also the prices are almost rigid and decided by cartel.But there are some exceptions to this.So when choosing a dealer the first thing you have to choose is reference for the dealer.If he has sold a vehicle to your friend or colleague and they are happy then chances of getting a good vehicle are more.
There is maruti true value outlet at nagpur but my experince is not worth commenting.
Luckily I met a dealer who happened to have sold a vehicle to my one of old friend and was good.The vehicle finally I brought is maruti 800 std. 99 model with carburettor with 43000 km reading.
I found the vehicle good.Is good for the 2+2 family .It is really a city car.Does not gulp fuel.In the span of 6 months needed 800 Rs.on mtce.Can be repaired (minor) by ordinary mechanic, spares are not very costly.
It gave me the required confidence and till date has not left me stranded on road due to breakdown.