I would think twice before taking delivery of a used car on Dhanteras. The date is lucky, no doubt, but I suspect it is also when dealers and inspection slots are most crowded, and a used car is the one purchase where a rushed handover costs you the most. The industry, of course, is delighted. It has just had a record day.
What the first day of Navratri looked like
On 11 October, the first day of Navratri, Spinny handed over 1,370 cars across 24 cities. That is up 96 percent on the same day last year and 1.7 times its earlier single-day record. Spinny says it worked out to one car every 41 seconds. Cars24 delivered 750 cars the same day, up 58 percent and five times its normal Sunday level, according to Business Standard. Spinny also told Mint that deliveries slowed during Shradh because buyers were holding their money for Navratri.
Cars24's Shivanshu Makkar says Navratri deliveries generally run 40 to 50 percent above usual, and that Dhanteras can bring three to four times the normal volume. For the October to December quarter, the used car market is expected to grow 12 to 15 percent, with organised players guessing 25 to 30 percent or more. Mint is careful to say these are industry estimates and not actual sales. The day-one numbers come from the two platforms themselves, so they tell us a lot about Spinny and Cars24 and a little less about the whole country.
The buyer is not who you might picture
Hatchbacks made up 55 percent of Spinny's deliveries that day, SUVs 26 percent and sedans 14. The five most delivered cars were the Baleno, Grand i10, Kwid, Swift and Tiago, and the Baleno alone was roughly one in every 14 cars. Petrol was 82 percent of the lot and diesel 12 percent. Spinny supplied 66 CNG cars and 10 electric ones, out of 1,370. One in three cars at both platforms had an automatic gearbox.
Cars24 says about 70 percent of its customers are first-time car buyers, and nearly 90 percent in rural markets. More than 40 percent of its sales are tied to rural RTO locations, and on day one, 28 percent of its deliveries went to pin codes where it had made no sale on the same day last year. SUVs, Makkar says, are the fastest-growing used category, at about 1.5 times the pace of hatchbacks, because used demand follows new car trends with a lag of roughly three years.
My reading, and it is only that, is that the festive used market is mostly small, petrol, first-time money. CNG and electric together were a small slice of Spinny's day. If you want to know what India actually drives, look at the Baleno and the Kwid, not the launch calendar.
Prices are flat and dealers are stocking up
Makkar says used car prices have been broadly flat ahead of the festival, with Cars24's average transaction value still between ₹5.5 lakh and ₹6 lakh. It could dip slightly, he added, as more rural and first-time buyers come in. He also said last year's GST cut on new cars had affected the pre-owned market, and that dealers have been building inventory, with Cars24 recording its highest sales to dealers in August and September.
Put those together and I see no reason to panic. Flat prices and well-stocked dealers usually mean a buyer who walks away does not lose much. That is opinion, not data, but I would rather miss an auspicious date than pay for it.
At the other end, Spinny says its luxury deliveries rose 21 percent in the first half of 2026 while the average selling price went up 25 percent. A pre-owned dealer, AutoBest Emperio, told ETAuto that its festive customers lean towards two to four year old Mercedes, BMW and Audi cars in the ₹30 to 60 lakh range, at an average ticket of ₹45 to 50 lakh. Buyers with ₹40 to 50 lakh are increasingly weighing a new premium car against a used luxury one, since the first owner has already absorbed the early depreciation. That is one dealer's view, though.
The loan is where the money quietly goes
Spinny says financing supported half of all its purchases on Navratri day, and Cars24 says over 55 percent of purchases in rural RTO markets are financed. Mint reported in June that across the pre-owned segment, financing has doubled in five years from 16 to 32 percent, citing an Autocar and Spinny study.
The rate is the part buyers underestimate. Mint's lending experts say banks typically price used car loans between 9 and 14 percent and NBFCs between 12 and 18 percent, against 7.5 to 12 percent for a new car. Axis Bank's October page lists 12.95 to 14.55 percent, a processing fee of up to 2 percent of the loan or ₹6,000, whichever is higher, a ₹750 valuation charge and a foreclosure charge of 5 percent of the principal outstanding. Dealers have a stake as well. The dealer Mint spoke to said they earn commissions for originating loans, and some lenders insist on a GPS tracker, where a ₹10,000 device can end up costing ₹15,000 or more over five years once interest is counted.
Here is my own arithmetic, so treat it as an illustration. Borrow ₹5 lakh for four years. At 9 percent the EMI is about ₹12,443 and you repay roughly ₹5.97 lakh. At 14 percent it is about ₹13,663 and you repay roughly ₹6.56 lakh. The gap is close to ₹58,600, which is more than many buyers would save by haggling hard over the car itself.
What I would do
Get a pre-approved quote from your own bank before you meet the dealer, and treat the dealer's offer as the one to beat. Mint's expert put it well: the right lender is not necessarily the one the dealer recommends. Then ask about foreclosure and part-payment charges in writing, because 5 percent of what is outstanding can wipe out the point of prepaying.
And this is just me being old-fashioned: book in the festive period, but take delivery a few days after the peak. Spend the gap on an inspection by someone who does not work for the seller. Spinny's data says 64 percent of its buyers still book at a physical hub, and I think that instinct to see the car in person is the right one. A festival is a good time to start a car purchase. It is a poor time to finish one in a hurry.
