Ambiguous Practices by Indian Car Dealers
Friends,
Buying a new car is a dream for every individual and a moment of sheer happiness for the entire family. With our hard earned money, we go to available brand's showroom to book the dream car.
Over there we always come across their "ambiguous" policies. I recently faced this so would like to share and know your views over the same.
I am looking for a D-Segment premium sedan with a budget of 15 Lacs. Hence, Foremost I approached Toyota Dealers here in Noida apart from others like Honda et al.
Me and my dad went to check the 2014 Corolla Altis and there the ordeal began. The unjustified policies of the dealers here that I could not digest were:
1) INR 51000/- as the booking amount. They were not ready to accept anything less than this as their "system" won't generate an order number.
2) INR 1500/- for temporary registration in Noida itself since they did not have the car in stock and would arrange from their Delhi outlet. For their lack of stocking why are the customers made to pay the extra charges. The SA did not have any reply for this.
3) They are providing a bill for logistic charges but not ready to give an itemized statement for this. As it is this is illegal for dealers to charge the logistic charges. They are not ready to cancel those charges.
4) The car is delivered and billed to customer as per the price on delivery day which is ok. But Toyota dealer here in Noida did not give us even slightest of the info about the forthcoming price rise. They did not even tell that prices might increase during booking.
5) Yesterday after test drive of Corolla, the SA informed that it is costly now by INR 20,000 (G Variant). I spoke to higher management of the dealership and they said we did not inform our sales team since we were not aware of the amount of price rise. Can't the Sales team simply inform that prices might rise soon too? I made the booking on 1st and on 4th I am told the price is increased, they said the decision of price rise was done on 01st October 2014. I did not understand the logic of this. Even after lot of efforts of coming to a mutual agreement the deal did not go through as they were adamant for INR 51,000/- My dad assured them of paying it by 10th of this month since banks shall open on 7th and 2 days it will take for financing yet they did not agree. We were even ready to take delivery of the car on 12th October i.e Sunday as we don't buy new stuff on a Saturday.
6) Once the DD for the car is made as per invoice by authorized dealer then if on delivery the price changes, who is going to pay for the DD Cancellation and new DD charges? Again the customer is going to be penalized.
7) Went to Honda Dealership, I asked the SA where is it written that Honda has told you to charge a booking amount of INR 51000/= ? He could not reply to it and showed me his dealership booking slip of 51000 which they charged. It is not a policy of the OEM rather it is a fancy idea of the dealership only. The SA said "Humari agency mei 51000/- se booking hogi" (In our dealership the booking is from 51,000 only).
8) By paying 51,000 are they trying to establish the authenticity of the customer? What is the guaranty that the person who is paying 51,000 is genuine and the person paying 10,000 is fake? I bought my earlier cars with a booking amount of INR 10,000.
9) The Toyota dealer was not keen on taking booking amount and simply said we will generate your order. I found this fishy since no where the dealers are so kind to book a car without any advance. Later, I came to know there is one Pearl White Corolla in the Delhi showroom that is left. So they were trying to get rid of it. Though my choice was never the White color but due to waiting period I agreed. However, after knowing this hidden story I simply refused to deal with them.
10) I booked an Ertiga ZXi in June 2014, paid INR 5000 as booking amount but the ASC were reluctant in giving VIN which we eventually tried to get. AS my uncle is there in with ASC so after refusal of VIN by showroom I cancelled the booking of Ertiga recently for Corolla since my parents did not agree for it and I wanted a car on Diwali.
I finally have postponed my purchase from Noida and would be buying the car from Delhi.
What are your views on the above points? Please share your experiences and views.
Regards
Akash