A GREAT guide to buying 2nd hand cars

From Tata Nano to Roll Royce you will find them all in the Indian pre-owned car market.

As a matter of fact, the second-hand car market in India is booming like never before.

While it is difficult to attribute any one single reason to this, low cost, less depreciation, easier loans, and ready availability of good models are some of the reasons behind this boom.

Entry of major players like Maruti, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai, Ford and Toyota in the pre-owned car market is also a great incentive for prospective buyers.

Moreover, the one-year warranty on used cars is another major attraction.

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But before you go for a used car, do run the following checks:

Brand: Do some research about the general maintenance track of the brand.

Cost: Find the running cost, price of spare parts and the resale value of the car you've decided to purchase.

Mileage, etc: After finalising the brand, get more information about the car such as how many kilometers it has run, how many years old it is, is the model still in the market besides ensuring that the vehicle has not met with any major accident.

As far as used cars are concerned preferences over colour or variant is mostly limited. Generally, people also probe if the car was mostly driven by single person.

Next comes the bargaining. If one is good at it, he gets the best deal.

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Pre-owned popular cars from Maruti

Maruti is one of the most trusted brands among used cars.

People readily go for a used car by Maruti primarily due to its low maintenance cost, affordable spares and unbelievable resale value.

Maruti Wagon R, Swift, Alto and Maruti 800 are some of the best selling pre-owned hatchbacks in India.

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Average depreciation on new hatchback cars by Maruti is around Rs 50,000 to Rs 80, 000 in the first year and somewhat less in the following years.

Maruti has its pre-owned car dealership named Maruti True Value across the country.

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Popular pre-owned cars from Tata Motors

Safari, Indica, and Indigo are some of the most popular used cars from the Tata stable.

People opt for Tata cars for their low maintenance, easy availability of spares and in fact Tata's brandname.

Tata Safari is among the best selling used car in the SUV segment.

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Average depreciation on SUVs like Tata Safari is around Rs 70,000 to Rs 100,000 per year.

The earlier version of Tata Nano is also available for sale as used car in the market.

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Popular pre-owned cars from Hyundai

The Korean carmaker also has some of its best pre-owned cars in India including Hyundai Santro and Hyundai i10.

In the sedan segment Hyundai Accent and Hyundai Verna (old one) are also quite popular and sought after.

Hyundai Advantage is the name of it's pre-owned car outlet.

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Since the two cars are in the hatchback segment, they also have a depreciation of Rs 50,000 to Rs 80,000 in the first year.

That means if a 2nd hand Santro is one-year old and is in excellent condition and has less mileage it will be available for around Rs 50, 000 to Rs 80, 000 less than the new Santro.

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Other popular pre-owned cars in India

Some of the other popular pre-owned cars in India include Chevrolet Spark, Fiat Palio in the hatchback segment and Mahindra Scorpio in the SUV.

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Moreover, there is Mahindra Bolero and Toyota Innova in the multi-utility vehicle segment as well which are doing well and adding numbers to the used car sales in India.

Other major used car dealers in India include Honda Auto Terrace, Ford Assured, Toyota U Trust and, of course, Mahindra and Mahindra's First Choice.