***** I'm writing this post only thinking about the people who are not professionals in "buying vehicles" and share my knowledge and avoid innocent people loosing their money.******************
I did a little research about car sales in Sri Lanka. Do you believe if I say "They are earning more than five lacks from Each vehicle they sell". The key fact to this issue is people are not aware about the vehicle they are going to buy. Let's assume that you are going to buy a Toyota Belta Car.
.......How do you measure the quality of the Car you are looking at..............
99.9% of unregistered Japanese cars in Sri Lanka are bought by auctions in Japan. People in Japan hand over their vehicle to a auction to get them sell. In every auction in Japan their are one or more examiners who works independently. When a Japanese hand over his car to the auction, the examiner examine the car and he issue a document called "Auction Sheet". For a day thousands of cars are auction in each auction online. Before two days they publish photos of the cars to be auction and their above mentioned "Auction Sheet". So every person who by a car from Japanese auction receive the auction paper with his car. That means 99.9% of Sri Lankan Japanese car dealers should bear the auction sheet for each car.
THIS AUCTION SHEET MEASURE THE QUALITY OF YOUR VEHICLE!!!!!!!
...........How to use a auction sheet to measure the quality................................
here I have added a sample auction sheet. Unfortunately auction sheets are in Japanese language but fortunately there is a standard sign system.
The most important factors are Auction Grade and the Mileage of the car.Now if you are going to buy a Japanese car from anywhere first ask for the auction sheet. If the car is in good condition seller will surely give it, otherwise he will act like a baby as never herd of such a thing.
In my sample sheet look at cage 1. cage 1 is overall quality of the car. This car is 4.5 and 4.5 is a good condition.If you are buying a car buy a car which has a auction grade 4 or higher. I have mention useful Auction Grades and their meanings below.
Auction Grade - Quality
3.5 - many damages(not recommend)
4 - good quality
4.5 - very good quality, usually low mileage
5 - top condition. very low mileage
6 - more likely to the brand new condition.
7 or 8 or 9 or S - these are brand new condition grades.
R - this car has replaced parts
A,RA - this car has met with an accident and parts have been replaced
Auction R is not recommended.If you saw a auction sheet with auction grade R, then look at the picture of the car in the lower of right hand side of the auction sheet. The examiner marks the replaced parts using "XX". So you can decide what has happen.
Cage 2: this is the interior auction grade of the car. Every auction sheet follow the same template, but in some auction sheets you may see there are two cages instead of single cage2. That is because some examiners give a exterior grade also. So if there are two cages one is for interior grade, other one is for exterior grade. This Toyota Belta has a interior grade of "B". It is better if you can buy a car with interior grade B or A.
Interior/Exterior Grade Meaning
A - Above the average condition considering with the mileage of the car
B - Average condition considering with the mileage of the car
C - Below the average condition considering with the mileage of the car
When it is a interior grade "C" car, we can find some cigarette burns in sheets or/and some scratches in the dashboard...etc
Cage3: Mileage of the Car in thousands. This Toyota Belta has a 27.285 in cage3 and that means it bears a 27285km mileage. Actually that is a very good mileage.
Cage4: Car owners comment.This field is always in Japanese language and usually contents the boasting of the car owner.Ex; reverse camera,TV,Navigation system,Alloy wheels ...
Cage5: Examiners comment.In most of the auction sheets this field is empty because examiner points everything using symbols and he has nothing to write further. But sometime he write some important facts about the car that he can't express using the symbols.If you can translate and read this field it's better.
We know when we use a car it get scratched, little dents..etc. Auction sheet reveals everything. In our Toyota Belta's auction sheet there are some places pointed as A1. Those are little scratches, and they are visible if we get a very very close observation.
If this car was an Auction Grade "R", then there should be pointed "XX" parts(those are the replaced parts).
A-very very very little sratch
A4- long scratch than a A3.
Now you got the idea. Other signs used for various reasons are listed below.
A1 Small Scratch
A2 Scratch
A3 Big Scratch
E1 Few Dimples
E2 Several Dimples
E3 Many Dimples
U1 Small Dent
U2 Dent
U3 Big Dent
W1 Repair Mark/Wave (hardly detectable)
W2 Repair Mark/Wave
W3 Obvious Repair Mark/Wave (needs to be repainted)
S1 Rust
S2 Heavy Rust
C1 Corrosion
C2 Heavy Corrosion X Need to be replaced
XX Replaced
B1 Distortion on (radiator) core support or back panel (approximately size of a thumb)
B2 Big Distortion on (radiator) core support or back panel
Y1 Small Hole or Crack
Y2 Hole or Crack
Y3 Big Hole or Crack
X1 Small Crack on Windshield (approximately 1cm)
R Repaired Crack on Windshield
RX Repaired Crack on Windshield (needs to be replaced)
X Crack on Windshield (needs to be replaced)
************ Don't depend on price in Sri Lanka****************************
If you are not buying the car through a leasing, but using cash, or using a bank loan ,then individually import your vehicle by your own. It'll save you more than 4 lacks. But if you are not interested in those kind of things, buy it from Sri Lanka, but buy the best car. Don't be a fool in-front of cunning car sellers.
If you are going to buy it from Sri Lanka, then you have to buy that car for the value in Sri Lankan market(4-10 lacks more than actual cost). So at least try to get the best vehicle.
I have real life examples myself:
I was looking for a car, I didn't go for car sales, instead I go for people who personally imported vehicles, because their cars are 2 or 3 lacks cheaper than the cars in the sales. Now you know why they are cheaper.(some people don't need earn 4-10 lacks from a single car, instead they earn 2 or 3 lacks. that's the reason)
Oh! I forgot to mention that their are two car market prices in Sri Lanka. Prices in car sales and prices in individual importers.As I mentioned there is a huge gap between these prices also. Personally imported vehicles are not vat claimed and if some one is going to buy a personally imported vehicle through a leasing facility then he/she should pay vat claim(about 1-2 lacks).
I went to a car owner and asked for the auction sheet, but he said he didn't have it and he gave me a bank document. For his bad luck in a side of that document was only a car sketch which is very similar to the sketches in the auction sheets. In that sketch trunk was pointed as "XX" and I said him that trunk of this car has replaced and he was stuck and he said this is an unregistered vehicle and how could that happen. I go to the back of the car and had a close look and found both back doors and trunk are not shining as front doors. YES Repainted. So that car is auction GRADE "R" and in Japan auctions, auction Grade "R" vehicles are normally 1-2 lack JPY cheaper than others. When it comes to Sri Lanka it is cheaper than 2.5-5 (because of VAT)lacks. Did you see that.... People are not innocent as they seems to be.
If a person who knows nothing about these things go and visit that car, he will surely buy it. We can go with a mechanist and examine the vehicle but auction sheets reveal everything and even the things that the mechanist doesn't imagine that could be happen.
Anyway check your engine by a mechanist.
DON'T BE A FOOL IN-FRONT OF CAR SELLERS. BE A PERSON WHO KNOWS MORE THAN THEM.
THIS ARTICLE IS SPECIALLY FOR INNOCENT CAR BUYERS IN SRI LANKA.
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