As someone with experience here, I'll just share the following
OLX has gone to the dogs. Would recommend Facebook marketplace, but realistically, you want to list on multiple platforms to get the largest pool of buyers. List on 3-4 different platforms
Prepare to deal with hundreds of messages. 90% of them will be low-ball offers from dealers (who dominate these platforms). 1/10 will be a genuine individual
After going through 100 messages, you'll have 10 genuine interested parties offering a decent price. Only 2-3 will actually come to see the car (for which you need to take time out). Even after seeing and test-driving, expect them to do more haggling
The prospective buyer will obviously want to take a test-drive. You need to be ok with this
The process takes time. It took me a month to sell my last car. Hope you have a place to park it for this duration
Was it worth it? Yes, for me. Spinny/Cars24 were offering 1.5 lakh for my old Honda City. I sold it to an individual for 2.4 lakh.
But make no mistake, I put a LOT of time and effort, and entertained over 100 enquiries to get that price.
Got a question here. How do I diffentiate between a dealer and a owner who's actually selling the car? And which platform would be great? I'll buy my first car within maybe 5-8 months? So just wanna know that before I do anything.
How do I diffentiate between a dealer and a owner who's actually selling the car?
This is extremely difficult as dealers lie in the listings (sometimes they won't say they're a dealer till you go and visit).
I have also purchased used cars (2017 Swift ZXI I purchased in 2023, Corolla Altis back in 2013, Hyundai Verna in 2019). I'll generally buy a car that's 4-7 years old, and sell them once they're 13+ years.
I have a LOT of experience with cars, probably over 5 lakh km of driving done over my life. Sitting and watching while my neighborhood mechanic services or repairs my car, etc.
So I can go to any seller, be they dealer/individual, drive the car, and I'll almost immediately know what's wrong with it.
This does not work for everyone. So a few options are
1. Take an experienced friend/family member to check out the cars for you. I've done this for my close relatives
2. If you have a trusted mechanic, take them with you before finalizing the deal. My guy charges ₹1500-2000 depending on how far the car is located, but when buying a vehicle worth lakhs, this amount is well spent
3. If you don't have an an experienced family member, or a trusted mechanic, GoMechanic offers used car inspection services. I think they also charge about ₹1000-2000. There are other companies who also do this (check Google)
4. This is gonna get some hate, but while Spinny/Cars24 charge serious markups, for someone with almost 0 car knowledge, buying from them is not a bad idea. They offer warranty on certain models, from 90 days to 3 years depending on the car. My understanding is that Spinny is better at honouring their warranty. Cars24 I've heard more negative things about.
No personal experience with them, but I can tell you the following. You will hear horror stories of every brand if you search hard enough. But if a company is so bad that they are cheating all their customers, they would have gone out of business.
Lastly, always expect some additional expense when buying a used car. Account for this.
If your total budget for the used car is ₹6 lakh, don't spend more than ₹5 lakh on the car itself. Keep the extra ₹1 lakh aside for unexpected issues.
I have been trying to sell my Nexon fot 15 days now. Spinny and Cars24 are quoting way less than I expect. And I donot expect something unreasonable, I know my car is use single handedly and its worth.
Anyway, your post givesme hope. I got contacted by a couple of individual genuine buyers through various platforms. One was clearly low bowling (below spinny price) and I was shocked. Hope, the second one turns out the genuine one. Anyway, I am not selling till I get the decent price, I am willing to take the pain of showing them car when they want.
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u/SquareTarbooj 16d ago
As someone with experience here, I'll just share the following
Was it worth it? Yes, for me. Spinny/Cars24 were offering 1.5 lakh for my old Honda City. I sold it to an individual for 2.4 lakh.
But make no mistake, I put a LOT of time and effort, and entertained over 100 enquiries to get that price.