Dussera today - Was expecting delivery of my Punto 1.3 MJD.. instead ....

[aarenes]

Hey Folks

So I had booked my Fiat Punto 1.3 MJD E+ with Concorde Motors Mumbai on 13th September. Was supposed to receive delivery of the vehicle today on the auspicious occasion of Dussera. However, the day ended quite tragically..

Here's the choronology of events
13/9 - booking amount given after test driving the car for the 3rd time at Concorde. Prior to that, test drove it at Wasan and Fortune as well.
Concorde gave me the best deal so decided to go with them. Concorde was also the most spacious and the sales guy experience the best amongst the three.

16/9 - Received the chasis number, engine number. Yipee!!!
21/9 - Car arrived at stock yard in the outskirts of Mumbai. Armed with the PDI checklist spreadsheet, I went all the way to Bhiwandi and performed my PDI. Did not find anything wrong with the car. Called up the sales guy - asked him to register the car in my name.
23/9 - Loan disbursement did not reach the dealership. Sales guy tells me per policy, they donot register cars until payments are received.
24/9 - Loan disbursement reached the dealership. However, registration window was missed and RTO was going to be shut from Saturday through Monday, hence he said that we ought to go ahead with temporary registration and still should be possible to deliver the car by Dussera. Perfect.
25/9 - The sales guy who has been excellent in following up is now down with Malaria (geniunely). File is not being handled by another agent. No worries. All still good and pro-actively done.
27/9 - Receive the call to come in by noon and collect the car.

28/9 - Wife, Kid, Sweets, PDI Checklist, some cash etc - all loaded we arrive at dealership.
Delivery manager takes over. Shows me the car papers, manuals etc and I start signing them. Told them I would do a PDI before I sign off on the final document. Take out my checklist, insurance cover note and am in a small rude shock.

The chasis # did not match vehicle I had inspected. So I tell her that. She looks at the records. Realises the goof up and admits. Now she wears the sales hat and tries to tell me that this car is same month/year manufacturing and it will be as good. Offers me to redo my PDI. I discuss with my wife. The car is indeed manufactured in August 2009, same as my earlier vehicle.

THANK GOD the vehicle was not registered in my name else this would have been a lost cause.

I get the green eyed monster and we decide I will redo my PDI again and if ok, pick up the car and forget anything ever happend.

So my kid sits on the driver seat honking away (that was her part of the PDI). I start moving my hand across the body to notice any blemishes, painting flaws. Wife is looking at the windsheild and notices a lot of bubbles on the right hand side edge of the front windsheild glass.

Wooaaahhh ... I said this does not look good. I quickly stride over to two other emotion packs scheduled for delivery. The flaw was not there. I report this to the delivery woman. Now she panics and calls the dealership manager.

Now I continue with the PDI. Find the black plastic between the hood and the wiper assembly is a tad bit looser when compared to rest of the lot. I report this as well and practically call off the rest of the PDI.

Totally irritated, completely dejected. Due to the calousness of some one - my beautiful Punto was assigned to some other lucky guy and I had to leave home empty handed :-(

Anyway, I decided not to let the incident affect the rest of the day. I finally leave the place at 3:00pm

The chassis # of the second Punto I inspected is MCA118A5507004625HPZ. I am hoping no one else on this forum ends up with that vehicle.

[wildon]

MCA= Asia/FIAT INDIA
118A550= 1.3 16V E3 75CV/55KW EMOTION PACK
7004625= Vehicle serial Number
H= August (MONTH)
P= 16 (DATE)
Z= 2009 (YEAR)

I think we have almost solved the FIAT VIN Puzzle.

Sorry to hear your story. Especially on festive season this normally happens. forgot the past and hope for the best.

[balajeshi]

I feel for you buddy ,i can understand how hard it would be for you .

I had a similar experience with my car delivery ,in my case it is yet to be delivered as my vehicle was allocated to someone else due to festive season.

Hope you get your car as soon as possible

[aarenes]

@baleshji - good to know i am not alone. I am still waiting for the car as well. At this point, I have been told it would be available for a PDI by this weekend and RTO registration process will add another 2-3 days. So I am looking at middle to end of next week now!

Best of luck for your Punto!!!

[KRRaj]

Sad to hear that. I can really understand your disappointment. Pretty lame stuff from the dealership I say. Thank Goodness for the PDI .

[Latheesh]

aarenes sorry to hear that, but we should not break our head because of someone else mistake. Hope you get your brand new Punto soon, all the best!!

[pmbabu]

Somethings never change

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. Good thing is you were alert and the PDI saved you.

[zipzapzoom]

aarenes
look at teh brighter side, you might have landed with a lemon, everything happens for god. wishing you all the best with your upcoming punto..
what color?
regards

[AbhiJ]

Bubbles in Windshield Glass?? Ouch ... that is BAD.

Loose plastics can be fixed and are no big deal, but Fiat is fitting their cars with defective windshields now!

A defective windshield is a serious safety issue.

[aarenes]

@abhij - bubbles or something similar. Perhaps even circular chipped edges. Certainly flawed. I think what I should have taken a picture but in that state of mind, could not think logically.

@all - yeah. Its like a bad dream. A nasty experience and certainly dejected. But as all are pointing, thanks to the PDI, i figured it out and did not get stuck with a lemon.

I have purchsed two other cars before in my life and the concept of checking them out so thoroughly would not have occured to me.

[AbhiJ]

Originally Posted by aarenes

@abhij - bubbles or something similar. Perhaps even circular chipped edges. Certainly flawed. I think what I should have taken a picture but in that state of mind, could not think logically.

I just hope they were not bubbles, and possibly some damage which was done after the car left the Fiat factory. Because if not, then Fiat QC needs a serious rethink.

Lapses in QC in plastic fittings etc are irritating but bearable. If the windscreen indeed had bubbles and passed QC, what is the gaurantee that a cracked brake disc or faulty ABS will not be fit on the car.

[EssYouWe]

Very true. It is extremely disturbing indeed.

Goof ups on the part of Fiat QC are becoming too common now. Hope someones writes to them about it.

A few pictures would have been good. I sincerely hope they don't push it in for some other unsuspecting person.

Frankly aarenes be glad you were not passed on a lemon!
I have heard a lot of not-so-good stuff about Concorde here.
Anyway, hope the rest of your experience is better. Congrats on the buy!

[BenedictPentony]

hey even i noticed that loose plastic bit by the windsheild here in chennai.. guess that is a FIAT QC issue man.. i hope i dont find that on my car wen its ready...