Vizagites logging on to buy, sell vehicles

VISAKHAPATNAM: Thirty-year-old Satish Reddy of Pedawaltair recently wanted to sell his 2007 model motorcycle as he was planning to purchase a car. First he spread the word among his friends but failed to get much of a response.
Subsequently, he visited a second hand two-wheeler dealer to sell his bike. Unhappy with the price quoted by the dealer, Reddy started looking at other options when his friend suggested that he put up his bike along with pictures on one of the several online classifieds portals.Within a couple of hours, Reddy received nearly eight enquiries for his motorbike and managed to sell it within two days.
Like Reddy, many Vizagites are now taking to online classified portals such as Quikr, Olx, Cartrade, among others, to sell or purchase second hand scooters, motorbikes and even cars. According to industry sources, Vizag sees at least 200-plus postings every day with people wanting to bypass traditional middlemen to get more value for their products.
"I was planning to buy a car and my budget was around Rs 1 to 1.5 lakh. When I approached the dealer, he told me that we would have to give him a 1% commission. Also, the car he showed was not worth the price he was quoting. So when I logged onto these portals, I saw multiple options and eventually settled on a single-owner car," said KR Ramkumar of Yendada, pointing out that in some instances brokers quote inflated prices so that they can command a hefty commission.
Arjun Rao, who recently purchased a motorcycle online, said, "When we directly talk to the owner of the vehicle, we can also judge how the person would have maintained the vehicle. If there is any problem too we can directly ask them and sort out the issues. But in the case of dealers, we really can't do anything after we purchase the vehicle. There are a variety of options available online, which also offers better choice according to one's budget."
Incidentally, not only are customers taking to websites, but even some dealers are using these portals to rake in faster sales. A used car dealer from Maddilapalem admitted to resorting to online portals to sell vehicles at times. "It gives us a wider reach and we don't need to waste much time. If a person sees a car, he calls us and enquires about the price. If he is interested, he will drop by and we can close the transaction soon. But in other cases, they come and haggle but sometimes they don't buy. Getting online is actually better for business."