Buying a used car: legal requirements/paperwork

AEROBATICHIGH

Hello all

I have been lucky enough to have travelled many times to India and on numerious occasions have hired cars (self drive).

My wife and I are considering spending upto a year on our next visit.

It would seem perfect sence to buy a used car for the purpose. Please could anyone with an understanding of whats involved with regard to new owner registration,all states permits,insurance,licencing etc please advise.

Thanks

Nick-H

Its tough to do if you don't have a resident's permit, and you won't get one of those on a tourist visa --- but then, if you are staying for more than a year, you must have some other sort of visa.

Licensing: get an International Driver's Permit in UK; that's good for a year.

Indian driving licence? Go through a driving school, one month Learner's Licence then 'test'.

Insurance; will come with the car, you get it transferred to your name.

State permits are for commercial vehicles. If you move out of one state and into another, I believe you should re-register the car in the new state. Visiting is permitted, though, country wide, although it gives police a chance to make a fuss that your car is registered in the 'wrong' state.

Second-hand cars are, in my small experience, both poor in condition and high as a percentage of the when-new price compared to the British second-hand market.

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AEROBATICHIGH

Thanks Nick
Yes we will be on the 6 mnth tourist visa but intend to re enter with a fresh new visa.
With regard to interstate travel do you think it is a problem if we are just visiting different states for a undisclosed period?

Nick-H

I think you may have a job legally registering and driving a vehicle on a tourist visa, but certainly people seem to do it with bikes, perhaps with cars too.

One of the things you'd need when you go to register your vehicle is proof of address, so residence is sort-of assumed.

People drive unregistered cars. That's fine until some policeman wants to see your papers, or you get into some trouble and it gets laid at the door of the previous (still registered) owner.

How about the self-drive rental scene? How did that go before, and how much did it cost you?

AEROBATICHIGH

I guess a little baksheesh will oil the wheels as it were.
Afer all this is India anything is possible.

As for car hire I have always booked locally with Budget in Delhi.
The first time was about 14 yrs ago and I got the number out of the Indian yellow pages(pre-internet).
The costs then was £7/day including insurance for a Maruti 800 the rental period was 3-4 weeks.
All that was reqiured was an IDP and a credit card.
On one trip we managed to get to Leh and back, that was a story in its self!
Having said that, the freedom it gave us was worth every penny.
BUT

NEVER EVER DRIVE AT NIGHT!

Nick-H

Bribery will be more likely to get you into trouble, to be honest.

The amount of traffic on the roads, as well as prices, has risen hugely in the past couple of years, let alone fourteen. But you do say that was the first time so you must have been back since.

AEROBATICHIGH

The last time was three yrs ago and yes costs have risen hense my interest in buying a vehicle.

The baksheesh is an intergral part of Indian society from the highest caste to the lowest.

Aishah

Aero - this may well be the case but for a foreigner on a tourist visa, or an NRI, it is inadvisable as Nick has previously mentioned. I have lived here as a foreigner for 8 years and in all that time, in any dealings with form filling etc. in government departments have never offered baksheesh. Have always done these things the 'correct' way.

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Lakshmi66

Just back from a 50-odd day self-drive trip to South India. I asked about renting cars for self-drive in this forum late last year: will cross-post this reply there.

So anyway, we found someone who knew someone who knew someone in Bombay, a guy who deals in used cars. We were initially planning to buy a used car and sell it back to him after our trip, but he told us the paperwork etc might be too much hassle for such a short trip. So he took us to a garage on Charni Road to rent a car. We rented a 2002 Toyota Qualis which turned out to be the perfect car for an Indian road trip. Paid Rs 50,000 up front (Rs 25,000 per month, which works out to about Rs 840 or so per day) and a deposit of Rs 20,000.

We got back the deposit, plus about Rs 3,000 we'd paid to get the steering yoke replaced at the Toyota dealership in Hubli after it started making worrying knocking noises. But since we didn't use the car the full two months, we had about Rs 8,000 owing to us from the Rs 50,000 we'd paid in advance, except that the garage owner didn't want to give it back. We should have dug our heels in but we were exhausted after our trip and it was very hot and we'd already spent 3 hours at the garage waiting for the money back so...we let it go. We'll be a lot more careful next time about insisting beforehand on the exact amount of money due back to us: and most of all we won't pay in advance for more days than we plan to actually use!

Toyota don't make the Qualis anymore, they've replaced it with the Innova, which seemed to us to be a big mistake (we were told Toyota didn't like the image of the Qualis as a taxi: but who cares about image when the bottomline's good? Apparently you can still get two-thirds of the original retail price for a beat-up secondhand Qualis).

It proved very popular in India, as it's very roomy; any roadside mechanic knows how to fix it and parts are still available everywhere. The car looked like it'd been through some rough times, the spare tyre was in worse shape than the ones on the car and hubby, who was driving, doubted the oil had ever been changed, but he was very reassured by the fact of it being a Toyota engine. If we had to do another trip in India we'd definitely get a Qualis again.

Lakshmi

capt_mahajan

Small comment:

Not always. A seller has the option of keeping the insurance and transferring it to his new/other car. I have done this sometimes too.

Reason? An annual no claim bonus (can be upto 60% of the premium) gets transferred to my next car. Which can mean a bit when you talk about comprehensive insurance on a new car (vs an old one)

puchoo

Nope....not in this regard , plus being a non indian buying it, its risky to work around it..

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Nick-H

Captain, thank you for the information on the insurance. I'm sure Ill need it one day.

Does that mean that if you take the insurance transferred with the car you get the previous owner's NCB?

capt_mahajan

Yes, you will, for that year.

Aishah

I bought my Alto with the insurance included for 12 months - the original owner had 24 months insurance and it passed onto me when he sold the car 12 months later. Worth looking out for if buying second hand, because the car and 'package' can be a good deal in this way.

puchoo

And at the same discount that the previous owner would have been eligible for given his past record..