Are you planning to buy a used car in Pakistan? If yes then you are also going to be one of those people who go through the whole hectic process of buying a used car. The anxiety, pressure, lack of trust and fraudulent dealings are all part of this process in Pakistan.

Before we move towards the tips, it is important to tell you the basic difference in buying a used car from a dealer and buying it from an owner.

• Since you do not know how much the dealer actually paid for a certain used car, you may end up paying him much more than he deserved.
• Most dealers in Pakistan do not normally purchase the used car they are going to sell. They only display it in their showroom and pay off the owner minus their commission after the car is sold.
• Since the dealer charges both the buyer and seller with his commission, buying directly from the owner saves you that much amount of money.
• Dealers in Pakistan sell used cars daily; they have thousands of buyers and are in no hurry to sell it to you. Therefore, bargaining with them is a lot more difficult than with the owner.
• The dealer may offer you a car that has been resold many times and driven by many people. He may also offer you a car that has been used for rental purposes. Such cars are roughly driven and not taken care of. An Owner will offer you only his home used car that has been taken special care of.

Here are some important tips that you need to follow when buying a used car:

1. Check the engine of the car:

The most important part of the car is its engine. Some dealers in Pakistan are very smart to hire fraudulent mechanics who temper with the mileage. They may deceive you by rolling back the odometer to make the vehicle appear to have a lower mileage. You can’t really do much to avoid an odometer fraud but do check if the numbers in the odometer are in a disarray or not. Disarray in the odometer indicates possible mileage tampering. Mileage from 15,000 km to 20, 000 km is considered a good mileage. The engine should be clean with signs of leaking oil or other fluids.

2. Check the body of the car:

Check if the car has any rust or corrosion on its body, especially is you are buying it from Karachi. This is because the atmosphere of the city is humid and full of moisture. Make sure that there is no rust on the car because it is the most damaging thing that occurs on the body of the car.

3. Take the car on for a test drive:

Don’t go on the outer looks of the car; rather take it on for a test drive. Drive it on different road tracks i.e. fast motorway, slow urban track, twisting roads and roads with heaps. Check the reverse as well.

4. Check the interior of the car:

Another important thing to check is the interior of the car. Make sure that the seats are made of leather, the CD/DVD player is installed, Air conditioning is proper, lights and signals are working as well.

5. Verify all legal documents:

Verify the owner’s identification details with that given on the registration documents; match the registration copy with the ID card of the owner. The engine plate on the car should match with that given on the registration documents.

6. Check the price of the car:

Ask the price of the car from the owner and see what he demands; if he demands something below the market value then find out why. No owner in Pakistan would sell a car for 8 lakhs that has a market price of 10 lakhs. It only happens when there is a fault somewhere in the care, inner or outer.

Car designers have not stopped thinking about designing the weirdest cars in the world. There is no shortage of imagination and creativity in the world of car design. In this article, you will be amazed to learn about some of the weirdest car designs that you have never seen before. These cars are the best examples of forward thinking and next generation vehicles. If you are allergic to air pollution, Suzuki has got you covered and if you hate driving in reverse, Nissan’s Pivo 2 has a cabin that rotates 360 degrees.

Let’s take a look at the most strange and creative car designs in the world:

1. Suzuki PIXY + SCC:

While the air pollution is increasing everyday and the world is turning out to be a wasteland, Suzuki has unveiled its new vehicle system that allows you to drive around freely without even getting into contact with toxic and heavily polluted air.

PIXY



The Suzuki PIXY is basically a single person transport machine that is based on Suzuki’s friendly car concept. It moves at low speeds on footpaths and inside buildings and is enjoyable and easy to drive car. People who are not comfortable driving conventional cars will also enjoy the Suzuki PIXY.

SCC



The SCC is a mini car based unit that can carry up to two PIXY shells to form an automobile.

2. Nissan Pivo 2:

Nissan’s Pivo 2 is an extraordinary representation of cutting edge technology and user friendly concept. It is a three seat, electric powered, user friendly car with cabin capable of rotating 360 degrees.



The 360 rotating three seater cabin moves on a chassis of 4 wheels and eliminates the need for driving in reverse thus making parking easier. The car is powered by lithium iron battery.

3. Hyperion Concept Car:



The Hyperion Concept Car is an electric powered car designed by Marco Aurelio Galán Henríquez. It is a light weight, safe to drive car made up of carbon fiber reinforced plastic and is powered by lithium ion batteries. The extraordinarily light weight body of the car allows the electric engines to push the car up to 200 km/hour.

4. Suzuki Truck Designed by Luigi Colan:

Luigi Colani, a Swiss-German car designer, has been designing organic designs 1950 but his most recent truck designs are of particular interest.



These fabulous truck designs ferociously angled fronts, wind skirts over the tires and circular windscreen wipers. The design is based on a Mercedes platform and includes a turbo charging, 6-cylinder and 4-valve diesel engine with direct injection, charge air cooling and a 12.6L cylinder capacity. The engine performance is from 381 hp to 530 hp.

5. Ford Nucleon:

Ford Nucleon, also known as the atomic car, was designed as a concept car by ford in 1958.



It was powered by a nuclear reactor and included a power capsule perched between twin booms at the rear. The capsule contained a radioactive core for motive power was easily interchangeable as per the performance needs and the distances to be traveled. The Nucleon could travel 5,000 miles or more without recharging.

On the 7th of January, 2010 the big news was out when Pak Suzuki Motors announced the launch of its new Suzuki Swift. The great news that everybody in Pakistan was waiting for, came out as a New Year surprise from Pak Suzuki Motors. Suzuki Swift is a hatchback car and is yet another addition to Suzuki’s 1300cc family. It is priced a little lower than Liana, another 1300cc Suzuki car that was losing its place in the 1300cc category cars.

Pak Suzuki Motors, a leading car manufacturer in Pakistan with largest number of shares in market, describes the launching of Suzuki Swift as a milestone in its journey to the heights of innovation and mobility. After success stories from all over the world, Suzuki Swift has seized its place in the Pakistan car market. With this milestone, Suzuki has further strengthened its position as the no. 1 manufacturer in compact car industry. Apart from this, Suzuki has a record of producing cheap cars that are reliable as well. These cars suit the needs and budgets of the majority of car users in Pakistan. Suzuki Swift is yet another addition to these cars that has maintained Suzuki’s tradition of cheap and reliable cars. It has been designed and developed by Suzuki engineers in pursuit of satisfying the need of a common Pakistan customer of a cheap compact car with latest technology that meets the international standards. After winning “Car of the year” awards in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, India, Belgium, Spain, Ireland and United Kingdom, the new Suzuki Swift is on its way to write its success story in Pakistan. More than 1.5 million pieces have been sold across the world so far.

Suzuki Swift is the first hatchback car in Pakistan that has an immensely powerful 1.3L MPI engine. It comprises of a combination of the Anti-locking Brake System (ABS) and Electronic Brake-force Distributor (EBD). It has a central locking system, electronic power steering, 15 inches alloy wheels and an immobilizer. The interior of the car is luxurious and exterior is dynamic. The exterior of Suzuki Swift includes Front Fog lamps, Halogen Headlamps, Stylized Chrome front grill, Matching powered side mirrors, Rear Brake Lamp Large and Wide Rear bumpers. Whereas, the interior includes Sporty Steering 5-Speed Manual Transmission gear with Driver orientation, Quality Audio Player (CD player with MP3 playback/cassette/FM-AM tuner, 24-bit-resolution-DAC, multicolor display with remote control), Chromed Door handle, Removal Ashtray between the front two seats, Sporty and Easy to Read Instrument panel.

The new Suzuki Swift 2010 is worth Rs. 999, 000 only.

Everyone who buys a car, new or used, would definitely want to maintain it on regular basis so that he could enjoy driving and is not faced with any problem. However, very few people actually manage to maintain their cars. Car maintenance is not an easy task; it varies from car to car. In this article, we will cover some of the very fundamental points that are essential in maintaining your car. We will now mention some of the basic car maintenance tips that will help to keep your up to date:

1. Maintain the body of your car: If anything that makes your car look new than it is its body. The body represents the outer look of your car and if you keep it shiny and protect it from corrosion, it will always give a new look. Here is how you can take good care of your car’s body:
   • Wash your car regularly and wax it to remove any bugs and dirt that can mount up and easily wear away the paint your car. Waxing your car also keeps it shiny and glossy.
   • In coastal areas like Karachi the atmosphere is very humid and salty; this can harm your car’s body. Proper undercoating and rust proofing can protect your car from such harms.
   • Remove any deep scratches, stone chips or paint marks left by other objects before the rust starts to mount on to the body of your car.
2. Maintain the interior of your car: The maintenance of the interior your car is as important as its exterior. A nice and clean interior gives your car a great look and also affects your health. It really is a wonderful experience to drive such a car. You can maintain the interior of your car by:
   • Vacuuming it regularly.
   • Cleaning its seats, doors and carpets.
   • Cleaning and polishing the dash board of your car regularly.
3. Maintain the engine of your car: What could be more important than the engine of your car? We know for sure that good engine keeps a car strong and durable. Here is how you can maintain the engine of your car properly:
   • Change the engine oil of your car regularly.
   • Use synthetic oil instead of usual mineral oils.
   • Check the coolant level at proper time.
4. Maintaining the transmission of your car: The most complicated and expensive part of the car is its automatic transmission system. It is also one of the less reliable parts of any car and if defected, it can cause serious safety issues to the car. You can maintain the transmission system of your car by:
   • Preventing it from overheating.
   • Fixing the leakage of transmission fluid.
   • Proper and suitable use of overdrive
   • Servicing the transmission from car make dealers.
   • Using original pars only.

In order to make it easier for you to sell your used car in quick time, Apnigari has decided to provide you with some valuable car selling tips. These tips are available to all our customers in Pakistan so that they can sell their used cars at high rates without any hassle. By following these tips you can meet or even exceed your expectations in selling a used car. So follow these tips and get the most out of your used car:

1. Fix the Price Competitively: The first thing you should do is to fix the right price for your used car. It should not be too high but at the same time it should earn you a good value. Always study the market thoroughly until you sure about what would be a good price for your used car. Also, see what other sellers demand for the likes of your car on ApniGari.com.
2. Advertise Your Car Properly: The next thing is to describe your car properly when placing an ad at Apnigari.com. Remember, you advertise your to attract the buyers, therefore, it must include everything that the buyers need to know before purchasing it. Start with the basic information like year, model, and engine size then list the manufacturer, date of registration, body style, color and total mileage. Be honest in describing your car as it leaves a positive impression on the buyer’s mind. Mention if your car is accidental or if the book is duplicate. Also mention if car tokens are not up to date.
3. Take the Best Picture of Your Car: A picture plays great role in pulling buyers to your car. Take the best picture of your to display at Apnigari.com. You can place maximum three pictures at Apnigari.com, so shoot from the most important angles.
4. Answer Any Queries Posed: Once you have posted the ad get ready to answer any question or query posed to you about your car. Buyers always ask a number of questions but you will quickly come to know who’s interested and who’s not, therefore, answer them very patiently and honestly.
5. Give Them A Test Drive: No one would want to test drive your used car if he is not interested, only a potential buyer would ask for that. So, make your car available for a test drive or just take it to a mechanic so that buyer can make his satisfaction.
6. Negotiate the Price: The buyer may be completely satisfied with your car’s condition and everything but he may want you to lower the price a bit so that he could afford it easily. You will have to be flexible enough to negotiate the price with the buyer. You are not required to give up the value of your car but you can lower it to some extent.
7. Transfer the Title Carefully: You will have to be very careful when transferring the title, get to know the correct procedure to do that. Once it is done properly, you are free from any liability in future.
8. Complete the Financial Transactions Properly: Be very careful when making financial transactions; do not accept any personal checks, always ask for cash or a certified check. You can also make an electronic transfer.

These days, there is a lot of talk about “Green Cars” or Environmentally Friendly Cars. Newspapers are full of praise and admiration for these green cars but much of it is exaggerated. When we analyze the green cars, which include the electric, cell-powered, hybrid or solar cars, we discover the following myths about them:

1. Most Green Cars Are Way Too Expensive: While some electric cars cost as much as average gasoline cars, most of the green cars are way too expensive and are out of an ordinary man’s reach. Therefore, not everybody can buy these cars.
2. Green Have High Maintenance Expenses: Many people wrongly think that green cars do not have high maintenance charges. As for the electric cars, we know that they run on batteries that need to be recharged too often. This could be quiet costly considering the price of electricity these days. Other than this, the rechargeable batteries will have to be replaced some day with the new ones which are also very expensive.
3. Green Cars Are Not That Environment Friendly: While green cars do help in reducing pollution, they are not that environmentally friendly. Most of the hybrid cars use a lot of gas at higher speeds and do pollute the atmosphere. In fact, to some experts a small economy car is more environmentally friendly than a powerful hybrid car.
4. Green Cars Are Not The Best Selling Cars: Due to the big talks forceful debates about green cars many people have drawn a conclusion that these cars are the best selling in the market and they are wide spread in the U.S. On the contrary, we find that the production of green cars makes only 1.8 percent of the whole U.S car market.
5. Green Cars Can Be Very Dangerous: Some of the green cars such as the cell powered cars and hybrid cars can be dangerous on the road. Since hybrid cars have hydrogen engines, a collusion can result in an explosion of hydrogen accompanied by oxygen covering vast areas.
6. Electric Cars Can Not Be Driven For Long Hours: Most of the electric cars with rechargeable batteries can be driven only up to 35 miles, after that the batteries need to be recharged. Therefore, electric cars are not suitable for long distances.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Motor Trend magazine named the Ford Fusion mid-sized sedan as its 2010 Car of the Year on Tuesday. The award includes both the gas-only and hybrid versions of the Fusion.

This year’s Car of the Year was selected from among a field of 22 different cars all of which were newly introduced or, like the Fusion, substantially redesigned for the 2010 model year.

The Fusion was first introduced in 2006 but has been substantially upgraded and redesigned for the 2010 model year. “It’s a credit to the [Ford] team to deliver a car in the hottest selling segment in the market and to make it absolutely competitive with the benchmarks,” said Motor Trend editor-in-chief Angus McKenzie at an award presentation ceremony.

The benchmark cars in the mid-sized segment are generally considered to be the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, which have been the two top-selling cars in America for years.

McKenzie praised the Fusion for the excellence of all versions of the car including the 4-cylinder, V6 and hybrid models.

“Another thing that impressed us was the attention to detail,” McKenzie said.

While the 2010 Fusion shares much of its engineering with the previous version, the car looked and felt like a completely new car, McKenzie said. 

Motor Trend, one of the most influential automotive enthusiast magazines in the United States, also gives out SUV of the Year and Truck of the Year awards. The SUV of the Year was announced earlier with the award going to the 2010 Subaru Outback. The Truck of the Year will be announced in December. Vehicles were judged on six different criteria: design, engineering, efficiency, safety, value and how well the vehicle fulfills its intended function.

The cars were put through track tests by Motor Trends editors. Then cars that were not eliminated in the track testing process were put through additional road tests. Derrick Kuzak, Ford Motor Co. group vice president for product development credited the Fusion with “getting Ford back into the car market” in 2006 after the carmaker had become competitive only in large trucks and SUVs.

This posting source is: http://money.cnn.com/

There was a time when people used to think that they would soon travel around the world on jet packs and hover cars but that hasn’t happened as yet. However, what certainly did happen was the introduction of Green cars in the market. Green cars were launched as a part of the green initiative program in order to make earth a better place to live in. Green cars have proven to be very effective in cutting down the amount of air pollution that is caused by exhaust fumes of cars. Other names for Green cars are electric cars and hybrid cars. These cars run on an electric rechargeable energy storage system (RESS) or an internal combustion engine. However, cars are not the only vehicle that are using hybrid power, trains, busses and even trolleys have switched to hybrid power. This is being done to preserve natural resources as well as to reduce air pollution.

Hybrid cars are certainly the future cars of 21st century and it also the next big thing in the automobile industry. Hybrid cars are very popular these days and are known as smart cars in the market. These smart cars have become so popular in the market that people have to wait for over a year long to buy one. The hybrid car is called the “Smart fortwo” in the market; it can seat only two persons. The Smart fortwo is an extraordinarily small and compact car, looks something like a box.

The Smart fortwo is available in both manual and automatic modes with a 5 speed transmission. Other optional things include air conditioner, power windows and alloy wheels. It is important here to understand the concept of smart car; it is not associated with the outlook of the car only, rather it is a car the keeps the environment healthy and accommodates the drivers get to and from their destinations. Its compact size also makes it look smart; it occupies very little space and can be easily parked.

Besides the “Smart fortwo”, smart cars have other models as well; these include the forfour, the formore, the crossblade, the crosstown, the smart ev and the roadster. The smart ev is available for only a trial period right now and is being planned on a launch in the United Kingdom sometime in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Smart cars employed in United States only, Canada, Mexico, Taiwan and Japan are other countries that are employing these cars. It certainly seems that in a short period of time smart cars will be seen on the roads more often than today.

While advertising through news papers and auto trader magazines has caused sellers many problems, they are now turning to the internet. With the emergence of internet as the world’s cheapest and most efficient means of communication, millions of businesses have come online. Sale and purchase of new and used cars is another business that is available online. More and more sellers in Pakistan are leaving the magazine and switching to internet instead. They find it much easier, cheaper and productive. In this part of the essay, we will discuss the top 7 advantages of advertising your car on the internet that distinguish it from the traditional method of advertising through magazines:

1. Advertising your car on internet is much cheaper than advertising in a magazine. The cost of disk space and bandwidth much less than that of ink, papers and distribution of magazine. So, you save a lot by advertising your car on internet. These savings mean a lot to the sellers.
2. In online advertising you have so much space to put all the information about your car, a lot more than the magazines normally give. At Apnigari.com, you can describe your car in more than 2000 words and this description is going to be absolutely free. Magazines give you some thing around 200 characters to describe your car.
3. On the internet you can upload multiple pictures of your car. Apnigari.com allows you three pictures to upload and this is the normal limit every where.
4. Another advantage of advertising your car on the internet is that you can update, modify or change your advert any time, even when the advert is running live. Again, this facility is not available in magazines and news papers.
5. An advertisement on the internet is not limited to your city or country; the whole world can see it. Any one with an internet connection any where in the world can view your advert and make the purchase online. You will have all the information about your car, its images and your contact details available online to everybody in the world. This means that those who are interested to buy your car will compete for it and you will ultimately sell it to the one who offers you the highest price.
6. Once you complete everything required to place an advert online, your advert will go live immediately. The time it takes between submitting your advert and activating it is a lot shorter than what the magazines take.
7. There are many car websites that do not remove you advert until your car is sold, unlike the auto trader magazines. So, you are not pressurized to accept a low price in order to avoid more time.

These benefits definitely make online advertising easily the best way to sell your car. So what are you waiting for, logon to Apnigari.com and sell your car quick and free.

Are you planning to sell your car? You will definitely be asking yourselves these questions; will I be able to get a good price? How long will it take to find a good buyer? Then you will contact an auto trader who will advertise your car in a news paper or auto magazine which is an old traditional way. Advertising in print media is quiet an old method with many limitations:

1. When advertising in a news paper or a magazine you are allowed to describe your car with only a limited number of words. The limit that has been set makes it absolutely impossible for you to describe everything about your car. After all, it’s your car and you have the right to sell it for the best price offered. This certainly requires complete information of the car, images from every angle and other necessary elements of selling or up selling. Due to these factors news papers and auto trader magazines have come under serious criticism of the sellers.
2. Another drawback of advertising through news papers and auto trader magazines is that they allow you to post only one picture of your car. The size of that picture is so small that even you, as a buyer, would not buy that car. Apart from that only one picture is not enough to impress or satisfy the buyer. After all, you are selling it for millions of Rupees and no buyer would just buy it after looking at one small picture.
3. News papers and magazines run your add for just a few weeks say 2 – 3 weeks. Since you are need of money or what ever, you may be pressurized to accept a lower price in order to avoid any more time. This is a great disadvantage of advertising through news papers and auto trade magazines because they get you so much less than what your car was worth of.

•In the next part, we will unveil the most productive, easy and cheapest way of advertising your car.