Buying used cars now days makes a lot of sense. You could get very good cars for great prices.
If you are buying your first car and have less than a hundred thousand rupees, you can easily find a good 800 with air conditioning. If you have a little more money, you can even pick up a Santro with power steering for a lakh & a half.
An Esteem can be had for two lakhs and an Accent for two & a half. Sedans from other manufacturers come much cheaper.
The bargains are in Fiats and Opels. Palios, Seanas, Astras & Corsas can be found at dead cheap rates. It’s a shame since Fiats & Opels make good cars but they have not worked on building a strong dealer & service backup network and subsequently depreciated their own products.
Value for cars drop either because it is old or it has changed a few hands or it has run too many kilometers. This is actually fine, but the price could also drop if the car has had an accident or it could be a stolen car or been used for anti social activity or the vehicle has been brought in from another state or it does not have proper papers like a tampered registration certificate or just a plain duplicate one. Change of paint will also bring down the price.
A car which is old, has changed a few hands but has not actually been used a lot is a good car to bet on. Here one has to be sure that the meter has not been tampered with! The trick is to look at the tires. A set of tires should last between 40 to 50,000 kms. And tires have the date of manufacturer on them too. This should match with the model of the car and its state should correspond to the meter reading. If you find a car where the meter reads only 25,000 kms but the tires are either worn out or have been replaced, then the meter has definitely been tampered with. A car should normally run about 12,000 kms a year. Less than that is good and more than that is bad.
2 year old D segment models can be had for 50% of their value. Top end cars lose the maximum the moment they are out of a showroom.
The car market, especially the used car market is just about starting to explode in this country. I have been given an assignment to set up a used car dealership and am now working on that.