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Automall - experience?

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  1. #1

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    Automall - experience?

    Have come across a few cars listed on Automall that are of interest. Since we can't travel I'm now tempted to get a car for a bit of fun on weekends to drive around. Would be curious to know if anyone has bought from here and the sort of caveat emptor principles to apply and bear in mind, e.g. I've heard that a lot of second hand dealers here fiddle with odometers and provide crap warranty support (if any), or they sell damaged cars from overseas.

    Initial questions:

    1) Who would be the best person to obtain inspections from - HKAA? Can this be done before submitting an offer / signing any paperwork?

    2) Can the inspection detect any tampering with the odometer?

    3) How do I tell if this has accident/damage history - e.g. I heard there is a document you can ask for to check whether the year of manufacture matches the registration year, so if it was a MY2010 car but not registered in HK until 2012 or 2013 that might be suspicious?

    4) What are the financing options like or is it generally better to just pay cash?


  2. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by Paxbritannia:
    Have come across a few cars listed on Automall that are of interest. Since we can't travel I'm now tempted to get a car for a bit of fun on weekends to drive around. Would be curious to know if anyone has bought from here and the sort of caveat emptor principles to apply and bear in mind, e.g. I've heard that a lot of second hand dealers here fiddle with odometers and provide crap warranty support (if any), or they sell damaged cars from overseas.

    Initial questions:

    1) Who would be the best person to obtain inspections from - HKAA? Can this be done before submitting an offer / signing any paperwork?

    2) Can the inspection detect any tampering with the odometer?

    3) How do I tell if this has accident/damage history - e.g. I heard there is a document you can ask for to check whether the year of manufacture matches the registration year, so if it was a MY2010 car but not registered in HK until 2012 or 2013 that might be suspicious?

    4) What are the financing options like or is it generally better to just pay cash?
    1) HKAA or HKMI
    2) No, but I can tell you from here that the cars in the Automall have been clocked. And pretty much every other used car for sale elsewhere.
    3) You can't. There is no central register of repairs, but the HKMI check measures paint density and will report if the car has been repainted on any panels. The manufacturing and import dates are written on the registration document which the dealer should have.
    4) no idea, never financed a car.

  3. #3

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    How about 28car, everycar.hk, 9000cc.com?


  4. #4

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    Dealers like you to buy cars from them on Finance, usually cash price will be higher than finance price as they get commision from the bank as well as taking profit off the car sale, it sounds strange but that is how it worked for all 5 Cars i've bought through dealers. You can ask them to find a financing company while you find one yourself, see which one is better for you, either way the dealer will still get their commission.

    Date of manufacture and Date of 1st registration can be easily seen on the car registration stuck on the windscreen, if there is a gap between them in years then its usually an imported car and not through the local representative.

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  5. #5

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    The rule of thumb is, the more owners the car has had, the more times it has been clocked, as locals clock their car before they sell it. It’s not just the dealers doing it, for $500hkd a mobile van will come to where your car is and remove the instrument cluster and replace the eprom with a freshly programmed one with whatever mileage you desire. It explains why low mileage cars in HK feel like 200,000km+ cars, because most of them are.


    try and find a zero owner ie the first original owner example, which usually have some main agent service history.

    But, clocking is absolutely rife in HK and you’ll even find mechanical checks a bit vague as some of the bigger used car yards have been known to lean on honest workshops that gave their car a bad report. Not always reliable unfortunately.




    So, try to stick with 0-1 owner cars as listed on the registration document under how many owners. Also avoid anything older than 5 years old and you should be ok in my experience.

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  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Skyhook:
    The rule of thumb is, the more owners the car has had, the more times it has been clocked, as locals clock their car before they sell it. It’s not just the dealers doing it, for $500hkd a mobile van will come to where your car is and remove the instrument cluster and replace the eprom with a freshly programmed one with whatever mileage you desire. It explains why low mileage cars in HK feel like 200,000km+ cars, because most of them are.


    try and find a zero owner ie the first original owner example, which usually have some main agent service history.

    But, clocking is absolutely rife in HK and you’ll even find mechanical checks a bit vague as some of the bigger used car yards have been known to lean on honest workshops that gave their car a bad report. Not always reliable unfortunately.




    So, try to stick with 0-1 owner cars as listed on the registration document under how many owners. Also avoid anything older than 5 years old and you should be ok in my experience.
    Not all automotive brands allow you to easily "manipulate" the mileage though without some tell-tale giveaways. A check with an honest mechanic (or the official dealer) and he can usually tell whether some dirty tricks have been done to it. It depends a lot on whether the buyer can find a good mechanic to do so of course.

    And a dose of common sense always help. If you are buying an 8 year old car which only shows 10,000 km logged, then you know something doesn't add-up. Granted, in most cases devious dealers aren't that blatant and obvious, but the logic is valid. If the mileage seems too low for the age of the car, then you need to have it checked.
    Last edited by Coolboy; 18-12-2020 at 08:58 AM.

  7. #7

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    Maybe some cars are clocked.....but i don't think this is a generality in HK. As example its not because a HK car has a small mileage for 10 years that this one is clocked. Don't forget that we are living in HK so the territory and the possibility to do thousand of kilometers a month is very reduced. Its not like in western countries that people are using their cars everyday to go to work but also the go in week end to the country side, sea, mountains and even in summer vacations so the kilometers go fast. Here in HK a car is used to go to work...sometimes...or just during the week end for very limited kilometers.

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  8. #8

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    Original Post Deleted
    No, that's wrong. Not all cars are clocked. Nor will official dealers all refuse to help. I doubt you have actually bought a second-hand car in HK before.
    Last edited by Coolboy; 18-12-2020 at 10:34 AM.
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  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by etienne43:
    the possibility to do thousand of kilometers a month is very reduced.
    I still managed to do 30,000 a year and now well over 250,000

    For the real milage you can ask for proof, and if they don't have any means it's fake. This said, I would worry more about a car that just does 3000Km a year. A car need to be driven to stay in shape, although short distance drives are problematic too.

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by Coolboy:
    Not all automotive brands allow you to easily "manipulate" the mileage though without some tell-tale giveaways. A check with an honest mechanic (or the official dealer) and he can usually tell whether some dirty tricks have been done to it. It depends a lot on whether the buyer can find a good mechanic to do so of course.

    And a dose of common sense always help. If you are buying an 8 year old car which only shows 10,000 km logged, then you know something doesn't add-up. Granted, in most cases devious dealers aren't that blatant and obvious, but the logic is valid. If the mileage seems too low for the age of the car, then you need to have it checked.
    please don’t argue with me on this considering one of my company’s in HK was in the car trade for over 20 years.

    Ive forgotten more than you will ever know, in regards to this subject. And you aren’t talking from any professional experience either. So please put your sausage fingers away from the keyboard.

    that’s a good boy :-)
    Coolboy likes this.

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