Used Automatics in Delhi: How cheap do they come, CarToq’s True Price Finder tells you
It’s only in the last two years or so that car makers have begun to launch automatic variants across their model range. Consequently, they are hard to find, or expensive, on the used car market. So, are there in any good deals on Automatics on the used car market? At what price band do automatics start making sense? We put this question to Cartoq TRUE PRICE. We used the tool to identify top deals in price bands of Rs. 1 lakh—so from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh, Rs 2 lakh to Rs. 3 lakh and so on. We did this exercise for Delhi.
Just in case you are new to Cartoq TRUE PRICE, here is a brief intro: The Cartoq Data Science team has built a Machine Learning model that estimates the TRUE PRICE of a used car, after accounting for all sorts of variables – brand, model, age, mileage, car type. With all factors accounted for, it predicts the TRUE PRICE, which then becomes the basis of comparing across cars. The best deals are those where listed price is lower than the TRUE PRICE.
So the list of cars generated using the Cartoq TRUE PRICE, has, amongst other details, a Ranking—this tells you where the car stood in terms of deal attractiveness in its price bracket. The analysis was done on May 22, 2019—by the time you read this, the specific cars might not be available. But the list provides a useful pointer: you’ll have to shell out over Rs. 5.5 lakh if you want an automatic with reasonably long trouble-free ownership.
Price Range: Rs. 2 to Rs. 3 lakh
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Price Range: Rs. 2 to Rs. 3 lakh
Honda City V AT DEAL RANK: 3
Year: 2011 / Mileage: 98,071 km / Used Car List Price: Rs. 290,000 /Ex-showroom Price: Rs. 10,25,000
SHOULD YOU BUY IT: The only automatic entry on the list is eight years old and has done nearly 1 lakh kilometres. It likely will require some outflow on maintenance sooner than later which means you are better off looking at options in the next price bracket before exploring this further. Not surprisingly, it ranked a lowly 8th on deal attractiveness on the listing of all cars between Rs. 2 and Rs. 3 lakh. By comparison, if you were to settle for a manual Honda City, you’ll find one with 30,000 fewer kilometres for the same price—the latter is ranked 4th on the list.
Check out the auto and manual here and here, respectively.
Price Range: Rs. 3 to Rs. 4 lakh
Honda City 1.5 V AT DEAL RANK: 1
Year: 2012 / Mileage: 75,625 km / Used Car List Price: Rs. 350,000 /Ex-showroom Price: Rs. 10,25,000
SHOULD YOU BUY IT: Things change dramatically when you move up one price-bracket—the number 1 ranked entry on the list is automatic and it has done about 25,000 km fewer than the first listing. In fact, the number 2 and number 4 entries on the list too are automatics: Both Honda Citys and both with over 50,000 kms under their belt.
Check out two options here, and here.
Price Range: Rs. 4 to Rs. 5 lakh
The deals in this bracket are very similar to those in the above two brackets—you get slightly newer but still thoroughly used cars.
Price Range: Rs. 5 to Rs. 6 lakh
Honda Jazz V AT DEAL RANK: 2
Year: 2015 / Mileage: 43,481 km / Used Car List Price: Rs. 560,000 /Ex-showroom Price: Rs. 855,000
SHOULD YOU BUY IT: Now is when things get interesting—you now have a very spacious premium sedan that is 3-4 years newer—2015 make—and with well under 50,000 km on odo. This means you have a good 4-5 years of hassle-free ownership ahead of you. No wonder, this entry is ranked number 2 in its price class. Besides this, there are two more entries in Top 10 deals with under 50,000 km and in the similar price range as Jazz. Both are Hyundai Vernas. So if you think a sedan holds more prestige, then you have two good options here. Mind you Jazz if far more fuel efficient.
Check out the three options here, here and here.
In Summary
Good used automatics are expensive—not surprising considering that even the new ones cost upwards of Rs 4.5 lakh and we are talking entry level models such as Maruti Suzuki Alto K10 and Renault Kwid AMTs—AMT is cheapest of all automatic technologies. They are rare too—just how rare? Well, a Ford EcoSport automatic that appeared initially on our list in the Rs 5 lakh bracket got sold out while we were writing the story!