Keya Sarkar: Swift decisions on car buys

Even though it had done a little over 30,000 km and was in pretty good condition, we decided to sell our car. We do have a Maruti service centre in Bolpur-Santiniketan which is just about okay for getting your car serviced but is woefully inadequate if there is something really wrong with it. Then you have to travel 100 km either to Burdwan or Asansol to have a dealer-mechanic diagnose the problem.

Since we had had the car for eight years we thought that despite a great performance the Swift may start grumbling and it would be better for us to trade it for a new one. I remember the time I sold my car in Mumbai. We went to some second-hand car mart and approached the gentleman sitting at a desk in the middle of over a hundred cars. We had never done this before and were wary of getting a raw deal. But the man was really efficient. The negotiations took a couple of minutes, documents were verified and the cheque was in my hand even before I could say bye to the car!

In Santiniketan, of course, there is no old car mart. So, we asked Maruti's used car buying department for a price and then decided to put out an advertisement in the free news and information paper that my partner publishes for the Bolpur-Santiniketan area. Within a day we got a call from a gentleman who came over to see the car and decided to buy it on the spot. He seemed very considerate since he said he would take the delivery only after we had got our new car. He was a local businessman who knew of us. We felt really kicked. Not only had we concluded a quick sale but it was thanks to our own paper. We then immersed ourselves in the complicated process of identifying a dealer who could give us a model of our choice in the colour of our choice and in the time frame of our choice.

Meanwhile, we got a call from our considerate buyer. He said as a younger brother he was requesting a Rs 5,000 discount. Deciding that it was too measly a sum to establish a sibling relationship we said a stern no. A few days later he called to say he was unable to find the resources to pay us and would, therefore, have to call off the deal. We didn't have time to be depressed because the very same day another gentleman called (in answer to the same advertisement) and wanted to see the car.

It turned out that he was a grill maker and for some odd reason gave us his resume in terms of which houses in Santiniketan had grills installed by him. After a good 15 minutes of sundry conversation we came to the topic and within a minute we realised that he was looking for a diesel car but strangely was responding to an advertisement for a petrol variant.

By the time he left another acquaintance appeared and said that he had heard (from none other than our first potential considerate buyer) we were going to sell our car and he would be keen to buy it. He said he would get back to us in a day. Two days went by and we called him. He then said it was actually his brother who would be interested in buying it. But his brother taught at the university and since the Puja vacations were approaching he was very busy and, therefore, had no time to think about or discuss the purchase of cars!

We had clearly had enough. We decided to keep the car and transfer it to Kolkata where we could drive it once we were there. We went ahead and booked our second Swift and felt rather pleased at being given a discount by Maruti for loyalty!