TATA Nano will soon be seen on Indian roads and if you are looking for the TATA showroom then wait, you don’t have to actually. State Bank of India (SBI) has announced that they will be the sole agency for bookings of world’s cheapest car, TATA Nano. So next time you head to bank for any work, don’t forget to ask your friendly accountant sitting there because they might give you any inside news which is not public yet.

Once again you will see huge discounts offered on various models of cars and this time it’s not because of any festival but due to December season. So what’s special this month? Before I answer this, we know that vehicle registration year matters a lot to buyers and most important to second buyer of that car if you plan to re-sell that car after some years of use. Most car owners sell their car after some years of use when the car starts giving troubles often to an old car dealer. Now if you buy in December 2008, you will get registration of year 2008 while if you wait for few more days, you can get registration of year 2009 and your car will be 2009 model instead of 2008. Due to this, car sales drop in the last few months of year and to boost up sales, car manufactures offer cash discounts or assured gifts on some models. You can get the idea behind this offer when you look at the cash discount. For a model which is very popular and sells more, the cash discount is less and for slower selling models, cash discount is more. Now my suggestion is to take benefit of this model and save a quite good amount of money, will this saved money, you can get some accessories installed in your new car like a subwoofer with amplifier for better sound, or alloy wheels if the car have regular rim. Benefit you get here is that when you sell your car after some years of use, you can tell the buyer that it was purchased in December and hence its just like 2009 model and its often seen that buyer understand the point very well. Your car will fetch more before of those extra accessories you installed with the money saved in offer!

Reigncom released its 3.5-inch portable navigation device ‘iriver NV mini’ in Korea market, which runs on Gini map software. Adopting a 3.5-inch touch screen with 320×240 resolution, the iriver NV mini supports GPS navigation, video/audio playback, photo viewer and more. On that tiny resolution, watching videos may not be a pleasing experience but its ok to have it because afterall its not the mainstream video playback device. Offering up to 2.5 hours of built-in battery life, it supports external memory capability of 8GB.

Hyundai Motor Company revealed its eco-friendly hybrid hatchback car ‘Santa Fe Blue Hybrid’ during Paris Motor Show, which is powered by a 2.4L Theta four-cylinder engine with 30kW electric motor. Featuring ISG (Idle Stop & Go) control system, the Santa Fe Blue Hybrid can accelerate from 0 to 100km/h in 10.6 seconds and reach a top speed of 170km/h. Acceleration is really slow and people driving car faster will feel it, while others cannot make out the difference. Hybrid cars are also priced much higher than their non hybrid version.

Continued from part 1

After checking the papers, you are not almost ready to buy the car. But wait, hold your excitement and for a moment think that it’s your own car and see what things you are going to change in it. Maybe an indicator glass with a fine crack which first owner did not cared to replace but you will do it. Make a total of these small costs and try to negotiate with the price. Once you have come to a point where no further negotiation can be done, note down everything on a paper like car make, model, km run, condition of the car and just anything you noticed maybe good or bad with price (+ minor repair cost if any) and tell the owner that you will contact him in few days after checking few more cars. Yes, you are going to check more cars and you should always tell the truth. In your city you will find more cars of same model for re-sale but don’t bother hunting them. Ask a broker to find a car of your preferred model and when he shows you the car, compare with that you have noted on paper. If you happen to find a better deal, go for it other wise stick with your first finding.

When you have bought the car, you need to do few things before you start driving it regularly. There are few things that you should consider changing in a used car. These are: seat covers, floor mat, and steering wheel cover (if any). These things are like clothes of the inside of your car and if you change them, car feels like new from inside. If these items are in quite good condition (say almost new) then its fine just getting them cleaned. Spend some time looking at your car closely, fall in love with it, take snaps and post it in your online community if you happen to be a member of any kind of online community website. This will give you inner satisfaction and you will not think that you wasted money.

When you dream to have a car of your own but not have enough budget then second hand car is the obvious choice. With little precautions while buying, you can get a good car which will give you fun of a new car. To clear the confusion, remember one golden rule and that is to see the overall condition of the car. Look inside, outside, under the hood, below the carpet and just anywhere you can reach and see how young the car looks. You don’t need to have any technical knowledge to do this inspection. Everyone can judge symmetry so you can easily judge the symmetry in the car body. Stand in front of the car and look carefully if both the sides of the car look of exact size or not. Check all the wheels, if they are misaligned then its not a big deal, you can get it aligned easily for few hundred rupees but if the tyres are not in center of the wheel arch, then it’s a big problem and the vehicle is in bad shape. You can either notice it by bringing the steering in center and then looking at tyres from some distance or look for scratch marks on mud flaps because if tyres are in not in correct place, they will rub against mud flap while turning. You cannot judge this by driving the car because car runs perfectly balanced even if they have this problem. So if you see this problem in a car, don’t buy it. It requires apron change which includes taking out of engine and dashboard from the car so you can estimate the mechanic bill you will be getting while not forgetting that car apron is itself a costly item.

So if you find a car in good condition then next thing is to drive it and notice clutch slag, notice if it’s slipping, how much power the car is giving out and overall handling. If you are not experienced with this stuff then take someone who drives car a lot. Now when you are satisfied with the ride, check the vehicle papers. Checking paper is important when you are buying car from someone who you don’t know.

To be continued in part 2…