India being the fourth largest automotive market in the world, there was a huge increase in used car sales last year which was almost proportionate to sales of new vehicles. The average ownership period of vehicles has reduced to around four years and, till about a decade ago, in the absence of organized players, more than 60 per cent of used car sales used to happen on a C2C basis with the remaining sales managed by unorganized local dealers.
It was in 2001 when the international automakers ventured into the used car market in India, and today there are multiple international players in the space, including in the luxury segment, with their own used car division. The present scenario of one-click technical accessibility and consumers’ higher comprehending capacity has ignited the Indian consumers to equate a positive value towards pre-owned cars, and rightfully so. A multitude of quality brand choices, coupled with other benefits such as lower rate of depreciation, easy finance options and hassle-free documentation, are having a pull effect on consumers towards this segment.
Though used car purchase offers a lot of scope for monetary benefit, it also comes with a certain risk. When an excited buyer gets emotionally caught up in the purchase process, he often goes blind to mechanical, cosmetic and safety issues. A visual inspection, normal test drive and not even a personal mechanical savvy can replace a true mechanical pre-purchase inspection. A stem-to-stern inspection, if done right, can tell consumers whether they are about to buy a great used car or step into a troublesome set of problems.
A pre-purchase inspection is a detailed assessment by a qualified individual or an organized used car dealer to determine the cosmetic, mechanical, and safety condition of a vehicle before completion of the purchase. The aim is to uncover existing conditions and reveal maintenance shortcomings that may pose potential safety or financial issues for the buyer in the future.
It is in such situations that MAHA India Automotive Testing Equipment Pvt. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of MAHA Maschinenbau Haldenwang GmbH & Co. KG., a premium automotive testing equipment manufacturer, comes into play with its state-of-the-art safety and performance testing products to evaluate the vehicles. The safety parameters such as braking efficiency, suspension effectiveness, quick check of wheel alignment, headlight testing and performance evaluation by simulating road conditions, power measurement at wheel & at engine to determine the transmission loss, torque, finally emission under load are performed on technologically advanced equipment which extend exact value against each defined parameter, helping consumers with an objective and not subjective evaluation of vehicles.
