The time and again, for this week we had the used (2002) Santro on our used car review section. One would remember the last time we had reviewed used Maruti 800 for my cousin who has just learnt driving and is willing to get the cuts sharpen on his own new car. But before going to the brand new pack of metal from those prestigious automaker’s showrooms it is always advisable to own a pre-owned vehicle, which is usually followed. So for the same common thinking and also taking some cues from learning of middle class mentality, we did more of the calls to dealers and free lance advisors, after the previous attempt, to see as many (but good) cars as possible. Though we even tried some of the old school sedans, quite raunchy hatchback, and many amazing machines, but what set our mind to draw the good sort of conclusion was Hyundai Santro of 2002 make. The car this was held at some of the restricted area of the city where only military personnel can only go. But to avail the benefit of the power, that owner made some of the arrangement and then we were invited to his house in the cantonment.
Finally there he was standing upright and sharp on time, where he used to be military officer of high rank. It is a different fact that he was retired now, but one knows one can take the man out the military service, but the not its discipline from that personnel. So hopefully, he started with the point directly i.e. his car. It was of the 2002 make and was gifted to him by his wife on one of his service achievement. Hopefully, the car was very rare driven, clocked only 50,000 kms in that past eleven years, which turned out to be a strange notch for us. When foolishly asking about the reason behind it, the owner answered as most of the time he was made available the official vehicle to travel ion any part of the city, the Santro tend to be standing there in the garage for most of the time. As was one of the most good looking vehicle of its times, his wife had adored it a lot and bought a one for his husband, as what the ex-military officer said to us. Finally after a cup o tea in his garden we i.e. myself, my cousin, and the broker through whom we came to know about this car, were finally handed the keys for a test drive. As he is a military officer, he too sat in the car with us for the drive.
Cranking up the engine, it sounded like almost “new”. To mention you in advance, we hadn’t seen the car very minutely from the exteriors before the ride, hence the outer crisps are concluded at the latter stage. Back to the firing of engine, we felt only one thing from it; this vehicle was sparely used through the years, and is also fed with the proper feed of maintenance from time-to-time. All of the other manifesto also fallen on the right spot of our expectations, for example the braking trivia, straight line leniency, and many more accidental findings. We hadn’t felt that this car may have been rammed into someone before, because old Santros always possess a chance of being fallen prey to some or the other sort of accidents. This wasn’t a one of that accident. Everything so perfect, tempting and allure, best in any of the form given on driving pleasure. Well, finally after covering a whole lot of 10 kms in it, we then came back to the start point again i.e. the Major’s house.
Now it was the turn of interiors and other cosmetics to show up their ailments how they had been kept for this so long tenure. As all of us were seating whole jam-packed during the test, it didn’t became possible for us to check the inside rips. All of the seats were covered in leather type of material, which is done from the outside, while rest was looking normal, in good condition. Even AC was also in the running condition, while in most of 2002 Santro model which we had seen previously were of not in the proper working condition. No doubt that the car perfume which was there in it was of very strong stigma, where we also found that music player was of the latest edition too. When enquire about it, he answered, it was son who had been driving it for the last couple of years, but after taking up the service in the same organization (i.e. military) of his father he too left driving it for the same reason. After inspecting the whole vehicle minutely we came to a spot where we found a chunk of some mismatching paint on the side panels. It was looking like of the bruises caused to it, and by chance it turned out to be of the same as well. The owner too echoed that it was caused while his son was learning to drive on it. Despite this damage, the overall paint of the car was in new like shining condition. Even the fresh aura of luster was also felt at the time. Apart from that there weren’t any of the nagging to conclude about it. We then tick right the box of cosmetic and then moved to the technical extravaganza i.e. hoods.
However, the vehicle was sounding and tempting like that if the whole new one, we were not in the mood if finding the lacking under the hood as well. And yes, it happened that same way yet. There weren’t any of the black dot on the engine nor on any of the other spare.
Paperwork was also clear, but let us tell you, the car was transferred to three owners for the past eleven years. We were shocked to see this sort of the experience from this man, and not so disappointingly they were all the relatives of the present car owner, who is the first owner of this car too. it was being with them due to the zero-usage of car by this family. Hence, they had also maintained it very well. Service book was proving it all. And now finally there came the pricing where we all stared losing the hangover of buying that one. It was all stated with the quarter lakh and wasn’t attempting to lower down a bit also. As it was his wife’s gift he said not much of the compromise could be made. Actually, the couple was going to shift at some of the hill station for their rest of their life. They were looking to buy a Mahindra Thar so that any of the terrain and difficulty can be terrain very easily. However, we left the deal open ended at that point of time, but after a couple days we received a call from the broker again, stating us the ex-military personnel is now willing to step some of the chaps down, but it will not some of the big difference to the whole amount. Finally we agreed to meet him again, and managed to close the deal for 7 grinds at its best.
Though, the scenario wasn’t like the owner wasn’t getting any of the other deals, but it was that patch of the unconvincing paint job that was done to hide the ill side of the bruise. Hopefully, to the scenario, we were knowing how to treat such sort of uneasiness. We took the car first to the paint shop after buying it and asked the attendant there to buff it nicely before spraying the paint on it. And even after doing paint job buff it once again nicely. One maybe thinking it is usual process, then what’s the difference it would make to that patch. Well, to answer the question, we asked the attendant to do this process for ‘three times’. Expectedly, after being surfed with this much amount of buff, it is but obvious for a car to lose many of its bruises for a large extent. Hence, the car was now ours and finally we drove it for a couple of years too.
