Not MUDAH for used car

It has now been almost 2 months since we had a replacement for our Myvi. We have promised ourselves to no longer get bogged down with paying car installments, so we set a cash budget that we can go with (on top of the ciput difference the insurance company paid us last year) and went searching for one within that budget. 

Initially we were looking for another KELISA, since we were using my mom's KELISA for almost 3 months by then. We searched through all the ads portal, like MUDAH, Motor Trader and went around some used car shops around Seremban and near Kajang. In the end, we found our car by pure serendipity :-) 

At first we were relying on MUDAH to show us what's available on the market. We jot down addresses and contact numbers, we went to the places, we made calls to some of these sellers including the private ones and we made further inquiries. Mama had warned us against buying from used car dealers, because some of them in her experience were unscrupulous. So I was cautious. But there are pros and con's, of course. Used car dealers will usually totally assist in getting the car 'on the road', including the basic maintenance of the car, PUSPAKOM inspection done quickly, insurance applied and the right forms filled. In other words, less hassle for you. You only need to get yourself to the assigned JPJ on the day you planned on registering the car in your name. 

As for private sellers, their timing to meet you could be only after office hours or the weekend, and of course, similarly, timing could be an issue when all the relevant requirements as I mentioned above needs to be completed. So eventually, we had to fall back to these dealers, after a couple of preliminary communications with some private sellers did not go through.

Anyway, in dealing with used car dealers, there are two main tips you should adhere to if you are no car expert:

1) Ask them a lot of questions - about the car, especially its history, until you are satisfied with their explanation or until you sense something suspicious, which should raise the alarm for you to avoid any dealings with these dealers. 

2) The second main tip is to actually test drive the car! Once you have driven the car, you'd somewhat knew immediately whether the car is actually for you or not. Some cars look so shiny on the outside, and some, even shinier inside, but when you start the engine, you have already sense or hear something wrong with it. Avoid buying that car like the plague! 

Actually, MUDAH (or any other related website) as an 'ads portal' in looking for a used car is only great for you to get some basic idea of the price range of certain models of cars. In fact, even for giving that information, i.e. the price, some dealers were being manipulative. For example, as you can see the screenshot below. The price shown was RM14,800 for a 2006 Kenari 1.0 Auto EZ. I gave the dealer a call to confirm whether the car is still available and how much would be the final price. He confirmed the availability and assured me there would be some discounts, but I had to come view the car first. 

Price shown on the ads in MUDAH

The car at the dealer's garage

Price shown at the car itself  in the Used Car garage differs

So I did. I went in one afternoon all the way from Seremban to Kajang and once I saw the car, I am so sure that the car in the garage was the same car on the ads, but guess what? The price and the year make model differs, as can be seen on the tag shown above. Vast difference! When I told the salesman about the ads on MUDAH, he feigned ignorance. There goes my trust with that particular car dealer. Anyway, on two other occasions we went to these car dealers based on their ads, but when we enquired about the ads at their dealership, they told us either the car is not available or it had been sold off to someone else - when the ads, based on the timestamp had just been uploaded online, sometimes just by a few hours. Amazing salesman, I would say! Probably they are using paid ads that keeps 'upgrading' their ads to the top of the pile, but still they should manage them and ensure that they provide accurate information. So it seems, they are using MUDAH and the likes, to drew in customers based on these 'false' or 'misrepresented' ads. Unscrupulous indeed!! So after a couple of these annoying encounters, we decided to forget about the ads on MUDAH.

Our KENARI was found when WAZE got us to the wrong car dealer. It was supposed to be the dealership from one of the ads on MUDAH. But WAZE totally lost it and send us somewhere else. In other words, the dealership "FRIENDLY SELECTION AUTO" was not even on our 'to go to' list. We had just drop by to visit Haziq (Arwah Haziq) at Hospital Ampang on a Saturday evening and decided to check on another used car address before heading home. So there we were, checking out the place anyway, since when we browsed from the outside we can see a couple of KELISAs hanging around. Actually 3 of them to be exact.

As I said earlier, I was keen on getting another KELISA, one major reason is so that it could be parked alongside our ALZA in the garage because of its compact size. Behind these 3 KELISAs was a KENARI of 2004 year make model. It had look rather 'prim' for its age in comparison to the other 3 KELISAs. All the interior parts are still in their original (working) condition, and the exterior is well taken care off. Probably the previous owner had it repainted, but nothing had looked out of place.

The salesman had insisted that a KENARI car had the same width as a KELISA, so that means I would have no problem parking both cars in the garage. That actually heightened our interest in getting the KENARI instead. When we test drove it, it handles itself pretty smooth for its age. We also test drove a younger VIVA, which feels rather 'choked' during acceleration. Clearly then, we have thought that the KENARI was already a better car to have. However, we told the salesman we want to think about it and will get back to him by Monday. Despite that, I actually leave him with a copy of my IC, so that once we agreed and paid the booking fees, he could proceed with the transfer procedures.

In the meantime actually, I was still looking around for other KELISA or KENARI that could be of better value on MUDAH. We dropped by two to three more car dealerships in Seremban, one in Kajang, and by Monday evening decided (after dah tertipu with all the ads) that we will stick with the KENARI from FRIENDLY SELECTION AUTO. Hafiz the salesman was cooperative enough to entertain all of our request regarding the pre-sale maintenance of the car. We paid our booking fees of RM1K on Tuesday, and once the date of the registration date had been fixed, I transferred the balance payment through MB2U earlier on the day of the registration itself. 

JPK KL has now the view of high end condos.
Anyway it was a wonderful, bright blue sky day to register a car that carries no loan ...yehaaa

We waited for the dealership's runner at JPJ Setapak, KL mid morning, and settled the registration in less than hour. (I was told, only JPJ KL, being the HQ could process registration transfers with such minimum fuss) It could have been sooner had it not been due to some issues with past summons under my name. Long story, there!! Ngamuk jap kat situ hahaha...But since you'd have to settle them before registration of transfer is allowed, so I had no choice but to clear them anyway. Luckily we had enough cash. Yes, you have to pay cash to the PDRM traffic fella huhuhu...

Then we drove to the car dealership to get our car and signed off the invoice and get our sale receipt. Alhamdulillah, the car looked clean and shiny, waiting for us to bring it home. The drive from Ampang to Seremban was the main test actually, and it succeeded with flying colours. Yeayyy!! In Sya Allah, the KENARI will remain a great second car with care and maintenance for a few more years to come. The main point is, to get to point A to point B within the 1 hour radius of Seremban with not much problem. And the best part is - the children love the car because of its high ceiling and bigger space (in comparison to the KELISA). Further, it now has a fussy cum OCD tuan, so it will go a long way :-)

Ada escort cum inspector tagging along...:-)

Have never seen a car so old but so well taken care off - exterior and interior