I didnt see a topic for SELLING second hand cars so apologies if I’ve jumped topics
Please note - I have never bought a car from a car dealer. I
have never sold a car to a dealer. So far I have bought only ONE car and that
too from a friend. So those of you who nod their heads after reading this and
say "I could have told you that..."... well you should have!
This experience happened when I was trying to buy a Tata
indigo from Concorde motors(review posted) and had to palm off my fiat
palio(gotta love the car...fuel efficiency be damned!). The car salesman
introduced me to Mr. Bansal (Name changed ;) ) of "Car Bhandar"
(Remember the name...I have his numbers in case anyone wants to lose some
money!). Whenever you read "Mr. Bansal" I would like the reader to
conjure up images of Agent Smith of "The Matrix" fame - nowhere
NEARLY as stylish but just as cunning and that much more fun to annihilate.
This guy called me and asked me the details of the car which
I said were 2002 model 2003 registered Fiat palio 1.2 ELX fully loaded.
After much haggling about the location to show the car and
couple of misses, he finally called and said he’s coming to my apartment to see
the car at 6pm. Well he landed at around 10pm quoting bad traffic (I stay on
hosur road and am used to that). Straight out, he saw the documents and said
"...but you said 2003 model". At 10pm in the night. I was slightly
irritated. After all the customary checks he quoted 1.5L. Sacrilege. I told him
I would discuss with the salesman.
Some days later - a Sunday if I’m not wrong - Mr. Bansal
called me to say that he wanted a "detailed "look at the car with the
salesman to give a FINAL quote. Ok. He came in sauntered around my car and
(again) looked at all documents and said 1.5L. After much cajoling (and a
better accessory package) I agreed. I said I would hand over the car only after
I get the Indigo delivered which was supposed to be around 14th July (Ya
right!).
No calls from Mr. Bansal after that.
Around 10th Mr. Bansal calls me saying he is bringing a
"customer" to see the car - again at 9pm. As soon as the customer and
Mr. Bansal see the car Mr. Bansal exclaims "1.2 ELX?? I thought
1.6!!". That didn’t exactly put me in a jubilant mood. Anyway.
The "customer" said he is looking specifically for
a 1.6 vehicle but is willing to "adjust" with a 1.2 because it’s a
gift so can I drop the price to 1.3L? !!!!??!!! After a lot of (futile)
discussion we agreed to disagree and I promptly called the salesman who
indignantly said "He can’t do that! I will speak to him". Great. Keep
me posted.
The next day the salesman called me and said Mr. Bansal
cannot match his earlier quoted price and he would instead "take the loss
upon" himself and add some more accessories.
Fortunately for me I had placed an ad in Carwale.com (trust
me the Rs. 500 is worth it) and had already received lots of enquiries for 1.7L
and had already fixed a deal with a buyer.
To be noted - the so called "customer" also called
to buy the Palio. I had his number stored and he introduced himself as a CAR
DEALER from koramangala. Turns out he is our dealers BROTHER. When I confronted
him on the phone he blabbered and said that he’d got the number from a Palio
dealer. Right!
What I cannot understand is how did my salesman ask me to
STILL go with this guy even after he knew this guy was cheating? The other
question is - my salesman was REALLY reluctant to let me sell the car to
someone else other than this guy. Why’s that? You need the money to be paid at
the time of delivery... why do you care where it comes from?
I guess the lessons learnt from this episode are - Listen to
the dealer the car salesman brings in and negotiate with the salesman for a
better deal based on the pittance offered by the dealer. THEN go and sell your
car in the outside market to END BUYERS. Trust me - its not difficult AT ALL.
Mail me if you want to know how.