Just check this link for used toyota cars in New delhi http://www.gaadi.com/usedcars/TOYOYA–New+Delhi and you will understand my frustration.

I have spent the last 12 hours with the basic assumption that my code must have the error. The problem was I used the maruti in new delhi section as the test page and it was working fine. Sometimes being modest can be so frustrating…. Anyways will have to resume work tomorrow morning.

The only positive development in the day has been the fact that my used bikes section has started to get some user entries and it made its debut in google serp at #170 for the keyword second hand bikes That is not exactly great but anyways the great G has considered my site worthy of inclusion is worth celebration.

Before you start searching for used bikes

Different people have different needs for a bike. You need a bike that fits your requirements even if you are buying a used one. Hence you need to decide the following parameters before you start searching for a second hand bike. The parameters to decide are

• Budget : It is just too easy to get lured by a great bargain and pay more than what you can afford to buy something more than what you need. If you are buying a bike for short usage there is no point in buying a karizma just because the seller is giving it for a huge discount.
  
• Basic requirements: There are some requirements that are quite basic to the purchase. Like if your wife is going to use the bike as well then do not even think about that pulsar. Decide upon all the important requirements and constraints for your used bike and make sure that you do not miss out on them in the process of deal hunting.
• Your expected usage pattern: The way you will use your bike has a huge impact on the suitability of bikes. A bike that is fit for drive on the highway is not so great for taking you to office. How important is the mileage also depends upon your usage pattern. If you are going to be traveling on your bike throughout the day as in case of salesmen then better go for a fuel efficient one.

The quality of a used bikes is impacted by

• Age: There is a reason why that 10 year old used bike is available at scrap value. You must be aware that the maintainance requirement of a bike goes up with time. However what you may not be aware is that beyond a certain age the maintainance requirement goes up sharply. The money that you save by going for a second hand bike, might be spent in maintainance
• Usage: 2 bikes with the same age might have had different level of usage. A bike that used to be with a sales person would  have been used far more in 1 year than a 5 year old bike used by a software engineer.
• Handling: The quality of the bike depends on the handling by the previous owner. A well maintained bike will be in a much better condition compared to a motorcycle used carelessly by its previous owner

Select used bikes dealers

Now that you have come to this site for used bikes website, there is no need of any used bikes dealer. A second hand motorcycles dealer takes a huge cut from the sales price. If you have not realized you are paying his profit and hence you are better off without any used bikes dealers. There is no dearth of used bikes dealers. Some thumb rules for selecting a good bikes dealer

• Never settle for one. Let them know that you are talking to other dealers as well. They will be too eager to tell you why the other deal is not so great. You can use that information to negotiate better with the first dealer.
• Read some automobile related blogs/magazine and start asking technical questions to the dealer. If your second hand bikes dealer knows that you know what you are buying, he is less likely to take you for a ride.

How to shortlist used bikes from all that available

Hopefully you have already made a list of your requirements and your constraints. Based on those identify all the vehicles that meet your criteria. From this list eliminate all the bikes that do not have proper paperwork, have changed hand too many time. Next thing to do is to take the bike for a test drive. Typically a test drive will give you a good sense about which bike is not right for you. Eliminate those as well. It is advisable to use an experienced mechanic at this stage.

Read up the reviews on bike review sites. If the original vehicle is having engineering trouble then most probably the used version will have issues as well.

Close the deal

After shortlisting the bikes, start talking to the owners of the bikes directly. Ask them for original paper, registration details, insurance details etc. Verify the information for yourself. Look up records to see if the bike has been mortgaged to any banks, has ever been involved in any accident etc.

At this stage try to get a sense of urgency on the part of the seller. Someone who is going out of country in the next 15 days will settle for a lower price to ensure that the bike is sold. Similarly for people who need the money for buying a home for example as he runs the risk of loosing the other deal in case of delay.

Hope the above will be helpful in getting you a good deal.

Issues faced and resolved

1. The same model is referred to as differently on carwale and cartradeindia. E.g ‘Maruti’ in Cartradeindia while ‘Maruti Suzuki’ in carwale
2. Prices and KMs run are in text format in cartradeindia. Made use of simple text replace function to get rid of the commas. Making use of number_format function to display those beautiful numbers on search results page.
3. Original date of registration was too difficult to get on cartradeindia. It was going to consume too much of resources. Dropped from the frontend for now. Will add later if there is enough demand.

What next

I have to add the next 7-8 used cars site to the search engine.

Till now the search is happening through form posts. I shall need to replicate the functionality through get function as well. This will enable those city specific pages like used cars in Mumbai to start working.

I got several new listing on my used bikes website. I am excited about taking on the existing competition. Will need to spend some time cleaning up the confusing title structure.

• More and more people will buy and sell second hand goods
• More of those trades will start to happen on the internet.

That is the belief on which contacthello.com was started. In the last 1 year I have made considerable progress in the second hand mobiles market with contacthello ranking among the top 10 results in Google for most of the terms. The traffic is still negligible but I am confident that it will improve dramatically over the next 12-18 months. There are many additional feature that needs to be added but not now. I am going to let the mobile section sustain on its own for the next 4 months and will look at adding any new feature after that only.

The other 2 goods with a significant market for used good are bikes and cars. The second hand bikes section was added to the site at the beginning of this month. The code and UI is an exact copy of what was used for the mobiles section. While not much action is required on the development front, I need to do the initial bit of promotion to start getting bikes listed on the site. The section needs a sitemap badly.

The used cars section is a work in progress. Unlike the other 2 sections, it is not going to be a classified site. Rather I intend to develop it as a vertical search engine. I have already written the code to crawl carwale.com and the data is live on the site. Over this weekend I shall add code to crawl 5-6 more used cars sites. This is the first time I am creating a technically complex project. Hope I succeed and people like what they see.

The immediate task for october are

1. Complete the development of the used cars and used bikes sections
2. Integrate the 3 sections more closely
3. Make the creation of sitemaps completely automated

November is reserved for reaching out to bloggers interested in cars/bikes and/or mobiles. I have been pathetic on this front. Hopefully I will do better this time as there is no other alternative.