Shop online for a pre-owned car anywhere in India

Gone are the days when people call them 'used cars'; the correct term is 'pre-owned car'. No one is hesitant to buy a pre-owned car if it suits their budget and other requirements and one gets a good bargain. But where would one buy or sell such pre-owned cars?

In earlier days, the cars are usually serviced in a local car care center. The one who understands about the health of a car is the mechanic, who handles the car regularly. He also doubles as a broker who can give hints and pointers - how much would the car sell for at any given point in time? who are the potential buyers? He can bring the sellers and buyers to the table for a discussion and negotiation.

With people moving to authorized service centers, at least two channels were possible to sell or buy pre-owned cars. One is the authorized service centers opening their own pre-owned car exchanges. The other model is for a 3rd party to open an exchange to support pre-owned cars from any vendor. While both the models are adopted in the market, the latter has become popular and come online too. Check out these sites for the concept.

1	http://carazoo.com
2	http://gaadi.com
3	http://motorexchange.in
4	http://carsingh.com
5	http://carnation.in
6	http://carwale.com
7	http://cartrade.com
8	http://preownedcars.in
9	http://cardekho.com

The passenger car brands are not far behind. Companies like Tata Motors and Mahindra have their own sites - http://tatamotorsassured.com and http://mahindrafirstchoice.com - which offer pre-owned cars purchase online.

Many of these sites also provide information about new cars, prices, reviews, insurance and dealers information.

I guess there are different models again in this domain. The retailers can  directly post their car-for-sale online in some of the sites. In a few sites, only the dealers are required to register and post the vehicles on their behalf. There are sites like cartradeexchange.com, where the cars are auctioned online.

Even if the car information is posted online for browsing by others, the buyer would need to physically see the vehicle before confirming the purchase. Obviously, this part of the transaction can only happen offline.

What next after shopping for cars online? How about setting up an online shop to buy autos, buses or even trucks? I bet those vehicles also would be sold online by 2020 if not earlier !

E-Commerce India : Book a Cab or Car for rent online

In 90's the mode of travel for a common man is train or bus for long-distance; flights are only for rich few and government servants. After getting down at the destination, a bus or auto-rickshaw is a common last mile connectivity option. For those going on pilgrimage or for people touring other places for pleasure (rare though), the options for comfortable travel were less and a few were expensive. Travel in the new millennium has become so common that even going abroad is not a big deal anymore. In the entire travel experience, leaving aside the mass transport like flights, train or bus, rental car has become the most important aspect.

With airports becoming large and international, they are inevitably transferred to the outskirts. Transferring self from residence to the airport is itself a challenge.

With travel to nearby places out of interest and passion becoming commonplace, week-end getaways turned into routine. Most of the times, a rented car is preferred over the personal for convenience and comfort.

Going around in the city for shopping, sight-seeing or even to social meetings is not uncommon these days. Given the chaos and madness of traffic in Indian cities, a chauffer driven car is considered a better option, if possible.

Thousands of 'Tours & Travels', who operated rental cabs locally have done so to win the loyalty of the local customers and get repeat business. Talk to anyone who travelled by a rental cabs, the chances of hearing about their awful experiences is highly probable. International players like Hertz and Avis have entered India pretty early but were catering mainly to corporates. Local city taxi services were preferred by public but there was no cross-country brand with reputation that has won the hearts of people. EasyCabs and Meru partnered with Airports in offering better services, but there are enough unhappy customers. If one looks for local travel agencies and private car operators there are thousands of them all over the country.

There are umpteen business models existing within this car rental business and the cab driver is yet to see many incentives apart from a 'job' in this service. Just like in any other industry, they are the important cogs in the wheel and their significance can only be realized when the wheel stops. This industry is quite fragmented and in spite of presence of numerous e-commerce companies in this space, there is no brand which has an across-the-country image yet.

With this background, there are a few companies which are setting-up operations across the country. They seem to build a nation-wide brand with reputation. Two such companies are OlaCabs and Savaari. One can go to their sites, search for a required car rental package and make online payment for the service. While OlaCabs is operating primarily in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, Savaari service seems to be available for 10s of cities in India.

Interestingly, 'cheap', 'low-cost', 'driver' are not the words present in these e-commerce sites, rather they seem to use the words 'chauffer' and 'quality'. Hopefully, the 'chauffeur' does not get a raw deal while the branded company makes its millions !

Can people expect a clean car, timely service and a no-nonsense chauffeur from these companies?