So I bought a car!
I love cars and I’ve never bought a brand new vehicle in my life. The car I just sold off was a 21-year-old BMW e46. I got the car back in 2013 and have been using it as my daily drive.
The reason I had to let go of the car was the cost of maintenance. I had been consistently spending thousands of ringgit a year for part changes and enough was enough. This is why you shouldn’t ever keep an old continental car as your daily drive.
The options available to me were to sell the BMW and get another newer car or sell the BMW and use Grab. I decided on getting another vehicle as I actually like driving and after doing some simple calculations, owning my own car made more sense.
Selling my Car
I had been getting ads on Instagram from both Carsome and myTukar regularly by this time. Went car-browsing on both sites and spent hours sifting through.
Some stuff to take note of, myTukar doesn’t accept cars over 20 years old. Carsome does.
Also, both of them gave me much higher prices compared to the local dealers you can find on Mudah. I predict a swift and timely death to 2nd hand car dealers all over Malaysia soon. They just can’t compete anymore.
So, took the plunge, sold my car to Carsome and got the best possible price (it was still a really shit price) and went browsing for my next car at Carsome.
Buying my Secondhand Car.
For years now, I already knew the brand and car model I wanted (it is a hatchback). And that’s about as much as I’d like to disclose about my vehicle for now.
All I had to do was look out for one that had low mileage and was in good condition. I had already done my research on the car with all the known issues and what to look out for. There were only two real choices for me. The hatchback or the very compact and fuel-efficient Perodua Axia. Also a low mileage and good condition one of course.
I was in no rush to sell the car so I think I spent about a month or two just sifting through and browsing cars on Carsome and myTukar. I had about 6 tabs open on my browser every day on cars. The car I wanted came on sale in January on Carsome. It was the model I wanted and it had done about 50k in mileage. Same models were at 80-100k mileage and priced the same on sites like Mudah.
Made the call, went through the process and paid a refundable deposit of RM1,000 for the car. I had the salesperson bring the car over to KL all the way from Johor for a viewing.
Steps to Buying a Secondhand Car
Now I’m sure there are plenty of resources on buying secondhand cars online you can go through. Heck, some of you here may even be veterans and are better at it than I am. But here is what I did.
1. Inspection
One of the reasons I chose Carsome was for its inspection and checking system. There is a detailed report on the problems found on each car listed on their website.
Despite this, the very first thing I did was bring the car to a friend’s workshop and garage for a full inspection. Did an Onboard diagnostic (OBD) to make sure the car wasn’t tampered with. Paid RM150 for the inspection.
We checked for rust at the bottom and made sure no rust was found on the car’s mainframe. We noticed significant rust on the car’s front right absorber and mounting.
The salesperson from Carsome was a really good one and a friend of a friend. He agreed to have the car sent back to their workshop and to change the parts if there were issues found.
2. Test Driving
After waiting for about a week for the car parts to be fitted, I brought along a very kind friend who was a mechanic for the first viewing and test drive. Let him take the wheel and right off the bat we heard weird sounds coming from the front whenever the car went over a speed bump.
And guess what? It was back to the workshop again! In total, I think I went for 3 test drives because of the sound from the front. Carsome changed: Absorbers, Mounting, Dust Covers, Bearing and even did the alignment for the wheels. At the end of like 4 test drives over the span of a month, there was still some sound coming from the front over speed bumps but it was significantly less, I was already feeling really embarrassed for the back and forth and decided to just go ahead with the purchase. I decided that I will refit the parts on my own time later.
I think only companies like Carsome and myTukar will do this for you. If you’re purchasing from a secondhand car dealer, forget it.
3. Loan Application and Payment
I got the salesperson to submit my hire purchase application to a few different banks, and settled on CIMB as they offered me the lowest rate at 3.1% for a 7-year loan. The loan came with a few conditions.
- Open a savings account with CIMB;
- Take the first year’s motor insurance with them; and
- Snatch Medz for one year.
Snatch Medz is a sort of life insurance where if I were to die or suffer a total disability, the loan would be paid off. This one cost me RM430 for the first year.
Used my credit card for the deposit, had a problem increasing my credit limit with Maybank so I had to delay the purchase for another few days. Managed to get it settled eventually so a tip here is to get a hold of your bank earlier if you’ve already decided on the car. Get your points from the deposit! It is worth it.
Additional Stuff I Asked For
If you’re going to get a vehicle from Carsome or myTukar, don’t forget to ask for additional freebies!
You can check out Carsome hERE.
Change all faulty parts!
Change in parts that were broken. As mentioned earlier, I got a lot of parts replaced. If you’re getting your car from a dealer like Carsome, you should do your inspection and ask for a change in faulty parts. Ask for everything!
Car plate number interchange
I got a discount for the exchange of my car plate number. I bought my own number through JPJ’s auction and had Carsome replace it at a discount. I think it was around RM200 cheaper to do it through their agent.
Promotions
Always remember to check what promos the dealer is having. It so happened Carsome was having a TnG wallet promo and I asked for that.
They were also giving a RM1K discount if you sell your car to them and subsequently buy from them after. I qualified for that and got RM1K off as well.
Petrol vouchers
And after getting everything sorted, I got my guy at Carsome to get me petrol vouchers! I got about RM300 worth of it.
End.
So I’ll most likely be using this car for at least another 10 years. Will be keeping it in good condition. I have still yet to buy a new car for myself. This article has taken a pretty sharp turn away from investing, but hey, buying a car costs money and making a good decision here is vital to investing too.
If you’re looking to sell or buy a car, head over to Carsome’s website. I’ve had a good experience with them. I can even get my salesperson to give you a call so drop me an email or a DM on Instagram.
Aaaaand, if you’ve been following me on Instagram, you would’ve noticed me posting pics of another vehicle occasionally. I invested in an old classic car and I’ll be posting much more about it soon!
