A used bike buyer has a host of factors to check to ensure that the purchase is a wise financial decision. In addition to the other things, it is necessary to use a barometer to check the age of the bike. They have two options in front of them – the first one is the odometer reading and the second one is the age of the motorcycle.
What is a Better Factor in Determining Resale Value?
Usually, ads are placed for used bikes that show odometer reading as one of the highlights. This tangible number is expected to help a potential buyer to narrow down options and correlate the price with the value that can be derived from the bike.
However, odometer reading will not be a sole determinant here. The number of years of the motorbike too has considerable bearing on the sale price and its appeal to the buyer.
Now take a situation:
Seller 1 = A 2-year-old bike that has clocked 1,00,000 kilometres
Seller 2 = A 5-year-old bike that has clocked 50,000 kilometres
If you are a potential buyer which one of the two options in used bikes will you prefer (provided both are made available at the same price point)?
Let’s analyse and find out
1.Level of Care
The above two scenarios show multiple possibilities:
It may happen that seller 1 clocks a lot of kilometres in a short time due to the better level of care he uses to maintain his bike. However, this long distance covered at once would surely mean that there may be wear and tear on the bike that has happened. Hence you need to check past bike servicing reports to see if there was any major replacement done to the electronic parts or engine parts.
It may also happen that seller 2 may have used it sparingly, and has not cared well for it either. So while 50,000 kms will look like a better proposition, you will need a lot of repair work to be done after buying because of lack of timely care. Here you can ride the bike for yourself and see for anomalies like key start problems, weird noises, slow revving, or high fuel consumption.
2.Reliability
An odometer reading is historically proven to not be a very reliable model. There have been cases where mechanics have tampered the instrument to show a lesser number of kilometres than what it has driven in reality. It's usually done to bump up the resale value of the bike, and scrupulous buyers often fall into this trap.
If we talk about the years of the bike, it's hard to tamper with the manufacturing of the motorcycle. The RTO documentation can easily be verified to prove if it is genuine or fake.
If you are also confused between the two, take help of these pointers to figure out which of the two you would prefer using the most.