Commercial Vehicles' Dealership Experience!


Thread Starter #1
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I was in kerela & had a recent experience with few commercial vehicle dealers. i was looking to purchase two buses & one mini bus. Choice for the buses were between tata & ashok leyland. choice for the mini bus was between force traveller & tata winger.

first, i went to the force motors showroom to check the traveller. one vehicle was on display, the showroom was spartan with AC not that effective. anyways, i checked the vehicle & the salesperson left us alone & was least interested to show us the features or give details. we checked the vehicle ourselves & then met the sales manager who gave us the brochures & price list. he also answered some queries we had. overall, experience was average.

next we went to the tata showroom to check the winger & tata buses. the salesman there was good but the showroom had just 4 seats & no AC! one winger was on display, the salesman explained us all the features & was very courteous. we could peacefully check the car with AC on & later he even explained all RTO regulations.

the same guy came with us to their godown a few kms away to show us the buses. first he showed us the tata starbus which he claimed initially was a 40 seater, but the bus turned out to be a 32 seater. not his fault as he was not the in-charge of buses! the person who handles sales of buses was on leave. we had made up our mind that we wont buy these body-ready buses & would buy the chassis & then build a customised body ourselves. so we asked him to show a few chassis but he was not aware which is a bus chassis & which is a truck chassis. moreover, he was keen to sell the starbus & was consistently persuading us to buy the starbus which i found irritating. next when he was sure we would buy only the chassis, he was repeatedly asking when we would buy them, that again was irritating & sounded desperate. overall, not-so-good experience.

later, i took some reviews & found that ashok lelyland chassis are superior to tata chassis. so i visited the AL godown to have a look at the chassis. the staff there told me that their sales office is somewhere else & i''ll have to go there. but they were kind enough to show me the chassis & explain every feature in detail. not only that, the guy there explained in detail all optional fitments, all RTO regulation, even gave me opinons on good coach builders which i appreciated. they gave me the address & i went to their sales office. even there, the sales manager was extremely courteous & went out of their way to help me in everything & explain everything in detail. overall, i was very satisfied.

so, the outcome is that we are buying two AL chassis with optional radial tyres & air suspension. for the minibus, we are buying the force traveller as the seating capacity for winger is not more than 14 seats & traveller is available with 17 seats. moreover, traveller is a tried & tested product down in kerela.
 
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Great!! Very few infact would have shared dealer experience while buying a commercial vehicles across most forums. For me, this is a first interms of reading something like this.

Cheers,
Vroom
 
Thread Starter #4
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Great!! Very few infact would have shared dealer experience while buying a commercial vehicles across most forums. For me, this is a first interms of reading something like this.

Cheers,
Vroom
thanks buddy. [:)]

great review raj. but can i ask you why are you going for the buses and the mini buses?are you running a travel house or something?
yes buddy, we have our own tourism business in kerela & now we are keen to start the tours & travel operations too.
 

350Z

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yes buddy, we have our own tourism business in kerela & now we are keen to start the tours & travel operations too.
But still, You feel that at TAI no one knows about CVs.

Anyways, Really Great and interesting review Raj.
If you have some pics of those vehicles, Do share them. [:)]

Drive Safe!
350Z
 
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Good report. Force showroom had AC? Mahindra-Renault showroom here, doesn't have. I think the individual proper attention like in cars can't be expected in trucks.

Tata has niggling problems irrespective of number of wheels.
 
Thread Starter #10
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This time i am back with a review of the dealers of tata ace & the piaggio ape truk.

first i visited the tata commercial vehicle dealer to view the ace. as expected, they dint have a vehicle on display. however, they had 2 vehicles ready for delivery and i was allowed to see them. contrary to what i expected, the ace was very spacious even for a 6+ ft guy like me! even the gear shifts were really smooth for a cheap van. there was only one variant of the ACE available which is rated to carry 0.75 tonnes of load. A 1 tonner Ace is expected to hit the market soon.

the current Ace costs Rs. 2,97,935 on-road in kerela.

next we visited the piaggio dealer. quite unexpectedly, they were more friendlier than the tata dealers. when asked whether i could see the vehicle, they said i can even take it for a TD! sadly, i dint have a commercial license with me! talking about the ape, there are 2 variants- the ape truk & the ape truk plus. the plus has a 5 speed synchromesh gearbox with the ape truk still has a 5 speed constant mesh gearbox in this 21st century! the truk has a single cylinder 482cc diesel engine while the plus has a twin cylinder 870cc engine.

the ape truk costs Rs. 2,47,000 & truk plus costs Rs. 2,95,000, both on-road in kerela.

We even went to the mahindra dealer to see the gio but unfortunately, the vehicle will reach the dealers only by jan. but we have got its brochure which states it costs 1.65 lakhs & boasts of a FE of 27 kmpl.
 
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Great, so Gio is going to give good fight to ACE.[:)].
The problem with piaggio is nobody knows about their vehicle. No adv. etc. Byt piaggio is a good company otherwise.
 
Thread Starter #13
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Great, so Gio is going to give good fight to ACE.[:)].
The problem with piaggio is nobody knows about their vehicle. No adv. etc. Byt piaggio is a good company otherwise.
No, gio is strictly a 0.5 tonner whereas ace is a 0.75 tonner & Ace LX will be a 1 tonner.

I wish you post some new pics of your commercial vehicle .
my commercial vehicle? i have not bought the ace or the ape buddy!
 
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my commercial vehicle? i have not bought the ace or the ape buddy!
I was taking about the heavy vehicles. I think sometime back you had posted some pics of their raw body without the finishing.(i am sorry for not using the right words)
 

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