If you’re a first-time buyer who is looking to buy a used car for learning purposes or a used car as your first car, models by Maruti Suzuki like Alto and Wagon R will be your best bet. You can get these models at a relatively lower cost and these cars are fairly reliable. Alternatively, you can also get a used Kwid which will be relatively less reliable and more prone to a breakdown but still cheap to maintain.
If you have kept a few cars in past and looking for an upgrade, you have plenty of options in the used car market but we will suggest you to stick Japanese brands like Suzuki, Honda, Toyota as these are cars come with low cost of ownership and are less prone to breakdowns. Alternatively, you can also go with Korean brand Hyundai, these are also cheaper to maintain and come with reliable engines.
But if you’re looking to upgrade to a used German brand like Volkswagon or Skoda, we will suggest you not to as these cars could be money pits with very expensive parts and the engines are less reliable as they are overengineered. Still if you want to buy these cars, we will suggest you to get one with proper service history available from authorized service centres.
Here are a few things to check while buying a used car –
Body lining of the cars – You can do a 360 inspection of your car and check for the uneven body gaps. If there are very big uneven gaps in the body of the cars it most probably means that car has met an accident and has been repaired. Bonnet lining of the car should look fresh and should not have any rust marks. As represented in photo attached above you can see an example of fresh bonnet lining with original marking from the manufacturer present. Also, headlight brackets are in factory condition and non-repaired. By observing all these points, you can identify if car has been involved in a major front accident or not. Please avoid buying cars which are involved in a major front collision as these collisions effect structural strength of the car and might create some issues with the engine as well.
Impact on side body – You can remove the biddings present above the doors and look for the welding dots, these dots are made by robotic arms in the factory and are very difficult to replicate while doing a repair work. If these dots are not present above any of the doors this means the car has been side impacted and repaired. Please avoid buying these cars as structural strength and body alignment is compromised in such situations.
Impact on rear end – You can open the boot of the car and then also remove the rubber bidding present in the lining. You can look for any rust or uneven lining. If these are present that means the car is rear ended and has been repaired. You can still buy these cars and rear collision information could be a bargaining point for your purchase.
CNG cars sold as pure petrol cars by removing previously installed CNG kits – CNG in long term can decrease the life of the engine and decreases the value of the car as well. Some car dealers remove the CNG kits from these cars, decrease the odo meter readings and label these cars as less driven pure petrol cars in the second-hand market. You should at all cost avoid buying such cars. You can lift the mat of the boot and look for 4 screw holes. If these are present that means car previously had CNG installed which is now removed.
Engine condition of the Car – We recommend you to take along an experienced mechanic with you as the issues related engine department are quite complex and can be identified by an experienced mechanic only. But if you want to inspect the engine by yourself then you should check for the pickup of the car, gear shifts, there should be no additional cranking sound coming from the engine, engine should start in short self and you can check for back compression. For back compression you can remove the oil dipstick on the engine and ask the other person to push accelerator pedal. During this activity if the oil spills out of the chamber that means there are some serious issues with the engine and that car should be avoided.
Electricals of the car – Thoroughly check all the electronic components and ensure they all are working properly. Make sure the AC is working correctly and not decreasing too much performance of the engine.
Check if the odo meter reading is telling you the true story – Most of the car dealers reverse the reading of the odo meters to squeeze more money out of the customers. You can check if condition of the tyres and ABC pedals are also telling the same story.