Advaith Hyundai loses my Hyundai i10! Cops find it, car lying at Police Station

[sandeepmohan]

Gentlemen

Posting on behalf and with permission from my HR Manager. His car went missing and this is the story of what has happened so far.

Originally Posted by HR Manager

I had dropped my Hyundai i10 at Advaith Hyundai, JP Nagar, Bangalore on April 9th for a body repair job, not service. The service advisor took note of the repairs to be done. I was told it could take a week for the repairs to be complete. I was able to follow up till April 14th with the service advisor on the status of the car. April 16th had come and I could no longer reach my service advisor. His phone was unreachable. I called up Advaith directly and the car could not be traced but they asked me to wait a while as the car may have left for another service center due to body repair work. By evening, they confirmed that the car is missing as there is no trace of it even in their service records. Advaith filed a case with the cops. I did not feel I should file a case myself against Advaith as they have already done it and it would be for the same car making it a duplicate case. Reaching Hyundai officials directly seems impossible so my only communication is with senior people at Advaith and the useless Hyundai call center. The call center needs 48 hours for every query.

My car was found a few days later by the cops and I have identified it at the JP Nagar police station. It is still there. I could not check the odometer reading. Everything appears alright but I am not very keen on owning the same car as there is no clue on what the car may have been used for. The cops have assured me that the car is clean and no illegal activity has been carried out using my car. How much do I believe them? To my surprise, they have acted promptly to all my queries. There are some legal issues to be carried out before the car is released to Advaith.

Insider information says that my car was sold by the service advisor to some gangster and the gangster was now demanding his money in return for the car. I do not know what the cops have done to retrieve my car but I am glad it has been found. I was told that the service advisor has been traced. God knows how true this is.

The part where I need your advice is this. As it is impossible to reach Hyundai directly, all my discussions and dealings have been only with Advaith. I asked them for a new replacement car as I no longer wish to own it. Besides; they are fully accountable for what has happened. My car is less than a year old. They refused for a replacement. All they offered is 4 lacs for my car and I would have to put in the rest of the money for a new one. When I said that I would now have to involve someone legal from my side to get a replacement car, Advaith said that they would also proceed in a similar manner in dealing with my case. Is it worth filing a case with Advaith and Hyundai for a new replacement car? They have the money and probably enough power in their hands to trash my case and shut me up. What do I do?

I do not wish to own this car anymore. It may appear alright on the face of it and maybe, it is perfect and has not been abused. It should be easy for anyone to understand what I am going through. I have had sleepless nights during the phase of my car being untraceable and even though it has been found, I am just not interested in driving this car anymore.

[carwatcher]

If you talk reasonable and as per law, No way you can get more than the current market price of the car and some meagre amount as compensation towards mental harassment (say 10K to 25K).
So judge the correct current market price of the car and take the money. Buy a different brand car and after everything is over write to Hyundai to keep them informed.
That is what exactly I would do considering the situation of law and order, influential dealer, non responsive company, etc.
PS: For any other alternate option other than what mentioned above, involve some cost. So think rationally and value your car's CMP correctly.

[download2live]

This is a curious case.
But since the car was owned by a gangster for a small amount of time I will stay away from this car.
Curse your bad luck, take a hit in terms of the price you get from Advaith and move on.

[aadithsince1980]

+1 To the above, I suggest you take the money you have been offered, cut your losses and move on. Besides 4 lacs is a decent offer.
Better to stay away from legal issues, as you stated, Hundai has the money power and taking them to court only means that you'll land up shelling out money from your own pocket. At the end of the day it will be a loss for you
No point, just take the whole episode as a bad dream and move on.

[rajeev k]

Is the SA who took the car for the work traceable subsequently? What is curious is how a car entrusted with an A.S.S can be sold by a SA that too to a gangster.
My advice to your HR Manager is to accept the Rs 4L offered and buy a new car. Btb, which variant is the subject i10.

[Added_flavor]

This is something new, unheard of and scary! I just can't imagine my car going missing at a Hyundai A.S.S. I can empathize with your colleague's fear/unwillingness to drive the car anymore.

Also, I think after what happened, Advaith has done a decent job in handling this case. I don't know if 4L is a good deal since you haven't mentioned the details of the car. But why don't you try to get the car released legally and sell it outside if you can get a better deal?

[noopster]

Sandeep, your HR manager needs to hear a few bitter facts.

Agreed that he has been through an ordeal but there are some things he could have done better:

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

By evening, they confirmed that the car is missing as there is no trace of it even in their service records. Advaith filed a case with the cops. I did not feel I should file a case myself against Advaith as they have already done it and it would be for the same car making it a duplicate case.

This doesn't sound quite right. To employ a crude analogy that is like saying a child is kidnapped from a school and the parents don't file a complaint because the school authorities already have. Fine time to be be thinking of duplicate case and the lot. At the very least, your manager should have been at the forefront of the investigation and interacted directly with the police officers on the case.

Reaching Hyundai officials directly seems impossible so my only communication is with senior people at Advaith and the useless Hyundai call center. The call center needs 48 hours for every query.

Did it not occur to your manager to ask the service center manager for a direct contact at Hyundai? Assuming they have nothing to hide, why would they refuse a direct request? These are the days of twitter and Facebook where MD's and CEO's respond directly to any complaint of lack of responsiveness from their teams. He really should have tried harder.

My car was found a few days later by the cops and I have identified it at the JP Nagar police station. It is still there. I could not check the odometer reading.

Errr...why not? Does he not remember te odo reading at the time of the theft? The job sheet should mention this.

Everything appears alright but I am not very keen on owning the same car as there is no clue on what the car may have been used for. The cops have assured me that the car is clean and no illegal activity has been carried out using my car. How much do I believe them? To my surprise, they have acted promptly to all my queries.

OK- this is a valid fear. But even if the car *was* used for illegal activity, you surely cannot be held accountable for that since you have ironclad proof (backed by the cops themselves) that your car was stolen then. So what are you worried about?

Insider information says that my car was sold by the service advisor to some gangster and the gangster was now demanding his money in return for the car. I do not know what the cops have done to retrieve my car but I am glad it has been found. I was told that the service advisor has been traced. God knows how true this is.

This is unfortunate. But why would the gangster have a beef with you? The service advisor is the one who needs to worry.

I asked them for a new replacement car as I no longer wish to own it. Besides; they are fully accountable for what has happened.

They have a responsibility to keep your car secure since it is in their custody, but since the car is now recovered and presumably the dealership was not involved in any conspiracy to steal it, I don't see why they should provide you a replacement car. You have completely lost me there. If there is any damage to the vehicle, your manager needs to claim insurance. If there is a case for compensation from Advaith, your manager needs to sue them. But requesting a replacement car is not reasonable.

My car is less than a year old. They refused for a replacement. All they offered is 4 lacs for my car and I would have to put in the rest of the money for a new one. When I said that I would now have to involve someone legal from my side to get a replacement car, Advaith said that they would also proceed in a similar manner in dealing with my case. Is it worth filing a case with Advaith and Hyundai for a new replacement car? They have the money and probably enough power in their hands to trash my case and shut me up. What do I do?

I would suggest: ensure you get the car's possession from the police, file a case against Advaith/Hyundai for negligence/claiming damages/whatever (contact a lawyer, please!) and then worry about a replacement. You should probably put the car on the market right away and get what you can for it.

I do not wish to own this car anymore. It may appear alright on the face of it and maybe, it is perfect and has not been abused. It should be easy for anyone to understand what I am going through. I have had sleepless nights during the phase of my car being untraceable and even though it has been found, I am just not interested in driving this car anymore.

I guess Sandeep- your manager is reacting emotionally rather than rationally- he needs to sleep over this a bit and think about it calmly. It wasn't the poor car's fault that it got stolen. If there is indeed no damage done to it then your manager should be happy to have it back. Of course it is completely his choice and he can sell it off too. But right now it just looks like he is unwilling to accept the reality and trying to place blame where it doesn't belong.

Sorry if I sound harsh and yes- this is just a layman opinion- your manager would be much better off hiring counsel to give him the correct legal advice in this situation. Wish him the very best.

[MileCruncher]

Technically speaking, there is no ground for demanding a fresh car. Even if the owner approaches a lawyer, they'll also say the same thing. Since the concerned person doesn't want to own the car anymore, he will have to take a hit in terms of price and move on.

Cheers

[llamrei]

When the police tells you the car is clean, it only means : so far there are no adverse reports". No guarantee nothing will come up in future especially when the SA and the gangster are interrogated. Some surprises are bound to spring up.
As an ex-cop, my advice also would be to collect the best possible offer and move on. It will not be wise or cost effective to get involved in a legal battle with Advaith or Hyundai.

[nithin_86]

I actually feel the same thing as mentioned above and feel there is no reason any court would favor your manager in getting a replacement car because the car was stolen. As mentioned above there is absolutely no reason to sell the car and get a new one but once the human mind gets that *BAD FEELING* I guess there is no point in arguing with it and feel sad every time you look at the car. The offer from Advaith seems pretty decent for a i10 Magna which is 1 year old. I am not sure of the selling rates in Bangalore. He should keep in mind that he would be shelling out a couple of lakhs for this feeling.

[parsh]

The dealership's responsibility is certainly substantiated as the car is received for any service/work and a job card is created, the record of that job card has to be available even if the service record is not. However, the dealership has acted and car has found it with the police help. Unless there is anything gone horribly wrong with the car after detailed inspection, there does not become a case for replacement by dealership. However as friends suggested above, certainly you could appeal for reasonable compensation by mutual discussions. Otherwise, legally going it is going to be a big hassle considering all the happenings and quite a mental and monetary loss, more with monetary and legal prowess of the dealership. As Noopster suggests, sleep over it a while and take cool headed decision. Better chuck it out in the market or take mutual agreeable total compensation from dealer and forget it and move on.

[coloneljasi]

I think the unanimous advise on this forum is for you to take the offer and sell the car off. Going legal will not get you the desired result.

There are numerous ways for a service centre to get away

[sandeepmohan]

Just so you all know, Advaith have lost about half a dozen cars in this manner. Mine was part of a two car nick plan. Another car disappeared along with mine. The cops have managed to recover most of them. According to Advaith, my service advisor has been with them for 8 years and they are really shocked by what he has done.

5.6lac on road was the cost for my Hyundai i10 Sports Option variant.

I would like to Thank you all for the advice. It has helped tremendously.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by coloneljasi

I think the unanimous advise on this forum is for you to take the offer and sell the car off. Going legal will not get you the desired result.

There are numerous ways for a service centre to get away

If you look at the experience of the bad Skoda which is now a cause celebre here, you will be lucky if you get justice in even a decade! So takwe your money and swear of Hyundai forever.

[esteem_lover]

Sandeep, this is a tough situation, I can empathise with your friend here. I would not want to have anything to do with that car either. I cannot understand how the cops are assuring him that no illegal activities were committed with/in that car. It is as if they were following the car from the moment it was stolen.

Best bet would be to take the market value of that car and get a new one. Concurrently pursue the case in court with a good lawyer. Advaith are entitled to pay for mental stress and also cover your legal charges. If they can settle out of court, even better.

Originally Posted by noopster

This doesn't sound quite right. To employ a crude analogy that is like saying a child is kidnapped from a school and the parents don't file a complaint because the school authorities already have.

I really do not see an analogy there. As a parent, you are responsible for your child at all times and your heart will cry out much more than it will for a car.