No Swifts on display at Maruti dealers in Jalandhar

[Punzabi]

After countless debates on selection of car make, model and size; parents finally settled for Maruti swift Zxi. I live in Australia,So all dekho and prepurchase visits at dealership had to be done by dad and mum (as I have planned a holiday in india during diwali and will be driving new car home,bearing that in mind booking has to be done somewhere now as dealer told over the phone there is around 2-3 months wait). With heart full of joy for buying first car in the family, mum and dad visited Lovely autos Jalandhar. To their surprise, there was not even a single car available at the dealership for them to inspect (believe me guys non of the varients available, not even on display). Slightly disappointed my folks headed to another very-old-in-game Swani motors showroom. Here again they encountered a very well established maruti showroom with no swift in sight. Now the joy in heart turned into utter disappointment. sometime later (after learning that parents are actually interested in buying a car and not mere want to look at the car) the sales lady took my parents to their service station which was at the back of show-room to show them the car which was actually there to get serviced. During this visit, parents also learnt from the dealorships that there is neither any ongoing discount on the car nor they are offering any goodies with the car. Price offered by both the showrooms was exactly the same i.e 5.21 lakhs for Zxi.

Does all this sound normal to you guys? After learning this from folks both the showrooms felt like way below Paan-ki-dukan grade to me? The sales staff at both the locations were very unfriendly. The wise lady at earlier showroom even suggested parents that they can book the car (Then and There, am not kidding guys) and can later inspect & have a dekho during predelivery........ Seriosly I never knew there is such a lack of experienced (and even common sensed) sale staff in Jalandhar. Is there any one from Jalandhar or around the city faced the same? All inputs would be really appreciated.

regards
Punzabi

[finneyp]

Why you want to stick to Maruti?

There are other brands in the market - Hyundai, GM, Fiat, Tata etc.

[gpa]

Sounds like a one off case, but MUL does need to sit up and take notice. You could probably try for another dealer outside Jalandhar.

[amit]

If you want to buy a Swift then wait for Maruti to launch it with the Ritz's petrol motor. The current engine in the Swift has been discontinued.

The expereince is simply pathetic. Worse then GM, Ford, Tata, Fiat and heck even Skoda!

[typeOnegative]

Sorry to hear about your experience mate!

I think this is a one off case. I would have expected Maruti to be better, but it could be a coincidence that the dealers your parents visited really sucked. There is also a thread that states that the production of the Swift may be off because of the Ritz. Look around for another dealer. The Swift is a good car in general.

[MileCruncher]

punzabi, any particular reasons for going with the Swift. If its only because of the Maruti brand name and their service network, then I feel you need to reevaluate your options and look at other brands as well.

Cheers

[Punzabi]

The reason I am inclined towards Maruti swift is a story that goes like, As I mentioned above I live abroad and wanted a nice car for the family. Believe me guys this was the most challenging part of the whole story (If you are thinking about choosing a car, you are 50% right. It was actually convincing mum and dad that we need a car). I initially wanted a nice sedan. My old man rejected even the thought of a sedan. Reason? My beloved dad doesn't drive at all. I some how pushed him to learn driving but he said "puttar mere to traffic ch wadhi gaddi ni chalni" (Son, It'd be hard for me to handle a big car in traffic) he is ready to take driving lessons only If I buy a hatch . More over my folks believe I'd be away from home for like 11 months a year and will spend only one month (may be two) in India & spending lakhs on a car that's gonna sit in garage gathering dust is a no brainer (which is some how true but 'keeda' (crazy bug) somewhere in me is not ready to listen to them at all).This completely left me in state of mind where I was thinking "I should've bought car as a surprise". Anyhow I started looking for premium hatches like skoda fabia, i20, honda Jazz but again Money-spent-in-lakhs-will-gather-dust-in-garage debate started. 'Keeda' in me is once more not ready to accept that I thought of a sedan & going for a hatch now and not ready to settle for something lesser than that looks like BMW-hatch. honestly I've been searching over the net for good looking hatch with really catchy interiors (read it dashbord).But none took my fancy. Parents are saying "why don't you go for i10 or similar" but they are actually . I somehow liked swift zxi for its nice cabin setup. So this is why Maruti is the one am after.Its not brand name or goodwill that made me consider MUL product.

@gpa, buddy there are only three Maruti showrooms in Jalandhar and parents have been to two already and third one is really far away from home as its on national highway. Yesterday dad rang the third showroom and showroom guy said "Sir aap showroom ajayiye hum baith kar baat karte hain" (Sir why don't you drop-in, will sit and discuss). They didn't reveal if they had any swift in stock with them or not.I rang showrooms in ludhiana and they said I can get swift in 45 days but problem is they cant sell it to someone from neighbouring city (its against maruti norms). They said if I know someone in ludhiana the car can be billed to them but It'll get register in Ludhiana not in Jalandhar. Are there any adverse effects of car registered to a different city?

Parents' experience with maruti guys that day could be one odd case/bad day to go there/real picture of showroom but honestly I dont know. To me the thought of buying a car this diwali seems like a shattered dream. I am visiting only for 28 days and was wondering If we could book a car that can be driven home by me the next day I land (5th oct) would be awesome. But no dealer in Jalandhar promissing anything before three months and by then I'd have finished half of my holidays.Honestly I feel like a two year old kid and crying.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by amit

The expereince is simply pathetic. Worse then GM, Ford, Tata, Fiat and heck even Skoda!

Huh? How is the experience so pathetic that it's worse than Skoda? Not having a display / test car is taken that seriously?

[hemanthisgreat]

Punzabi, actually your parents are right. i10 has much better interiors than swift ZXI, and also swift zxi hardly sells and there will be no stock, and usually when someone demands a car which is not much in stock, they end up with a test mule.

Edit: when you say there were no swifts in the showroom, do you mean there was no swift ZXI, or any other swift ie vxi, vdi etc.

[RX135]

I guess, there are several threads on Swift production being stopped. May be MODS can bring them all together under on umbrella?

Having no display vehicle is not that big deal (I have heard about it for almost every car manufacturer), but looks like the thread initiator is pissed off with the attitude of "take it or leave it".

[bhp1]

Hi Punzabi, you are right the customer dealings of both Lovely & Swani suck, Swani more so & the out of City Stan autos is not far behind.
Part of the problem is because of huge demand for Swift & long waiting periods. This car sells hand to hand so there's no real need for it to be kept/displayed in the showrooms. While slow moving models are displayed in the showrooms to attract customers to them.
Also, these Maruti showrooms are pretty old & smaller in size, packing in models for display is diff.
There are excellent cars/choice in this segment these days & you can choose from a wide variety. There's no need to stick to one particular car about which you feel dealings before the purchase aren't satisfactory.

Still if you feel the need for a Maruti only, PM me I know someone in Swani, maybe he can help.

[Furious55]

I think your dad is right. Since he's not used to driving, he'd be better off in an i10. Beleive me, to a new driver the Swift is a big car.

[Gurpartap Singh]

Easy option is to goto "Hoshiarpur Automobiles". Very unlikely they won't have a Swift TD car. Just 40 minutes drive from Jalandhar(you probably knew ), and on the first road of Hoshiarpur when you enter it. (You don't actually even need to enter the city.) All this if you are so inclined for a Swift.

i10 is a good option imo, but might be too much of a family car for your liking? Hyundai service in Jalandhar is excellent as per my experience.

[Punzabi]

Thanks guys for all the input but the thing is all those hatches like i10, getz, chevvy's u-va lack in eye catching factor (Its just a person openion guys, not meant to offend anyone) may be they look good in flesh but I am not in a situation to personally check them out. More over their smaller dimensions make me feel claustrophobic. Swift is not too big though but some how I find it matching my taste.

@Gurpartap thanks for that Info buddy but if I buy it from hoshrpr, wouldn't the car be registered in hoshrpr? Is it feasible to buy it from there? the reason I am asking this question is I asked to a couple of dealers in Ludhiana but they said the car will be billed to someone living in Ludhiana and will de registered in ludhiana as well.

[dhrishikesh]

Not only in Jalandhar, here in Mumbai also there are only few Swifts on the display, but all those are booked.
I think to increase the sale of ritz, Maruti Suzuku has stopped selling Swift.