[alias]

Hi Team,

I would like to pen down the experience of recent purchase of a Hyundai I10 Elite ASTA DSL.

Back in 2014, I wanted a car badly for my daily commute. Hence, I started searching for a used car in the budget of 3-4 lakhs. Searched high and low, but did not find anything satisfying, which could fulfill my need without compromising on mileage and power both.

After searching for a few months, I found a 2009 Honda City i-Vtec E at a dealers place. The car seemed in a nice nick and had done around 45k kms. This was from my wife’s native, hence I called up my brother in law and asked him to investigate the car's history and the previous owner. Got a good review from him and turned out that previous owner was his distant relative. Settled with the dealer for a fair price and bought the car home.

This is where things went awkward. My younger brother, upon seeing the car, started eyeing it and started pestering me to sell it to him. Though I denied initially, on my mother instance, gave in to his request. And here I was car-less again.

I started my search again - this time on OLX and my efforts paid off. I found a pristine condition Skoda Octavia VRS 2005 in black. At first I was apprehensiveas it was a 9-10 year old car and I had heard horror stories of Skoda, but then thought, “dekhney mai kya jaata hai”. And that's when I got hooked.

The car was scratchless, a with complete service record. I took it to ASS and got a good review. Fixed the price and I was a proud owner of Skoda Octavia VRS. This time again, my brother tried to play spoilsport, but I put my foot down and decided to keep the VRS for life, but fate had something else in store for me. With rising petrol prices and the VRS being my only stead, pressure started mounting on me to part with it and buy a diesel. My better half was not happy at all about me spending 12-15 K on fuel every month as well as other miscellaneous expenses in upkeep of the car. So after 3 months, I sold the VRS to a fellow enthusiast for a profit. I always thought that I would face a heavy loss on it, but then that didn’t happen.

After this a Hyundai Getz CRDI joined me as my travel companion, but was sold later the same year due to rumours of banning of 10 year old diesel cars in major cities (though the rule never came into existence, and I am still kicking myself for selling off the car).

After the Getz, I changed my preferences and decided to jump to the two-wheeler category and the list of considerations is as follows:
-Thunderbird 350 -too heavy and above 75kmph , shivers like hell.
-Duke 390 - awesome MC, loved the free revving motor (again brother eyed it and took it from me).

After giving up the Duke, I decided it’s time for a bigger motorcycle, but the Home Minister had other plans. She straight away started pestering me to buy a brand new car - this time with a budget of up to 10 lakhs. Well, you can’t do anything if the HM has made her decision.

The search started and this time I straight away went to the nearest car showroom (which happened to be Lakshmi Hyundai) and asked about their cars within my budget. The sales rep assigned to me was really helpful and courteous. The price breakup was given with a discount of around 40 K, but I sat and negotiated further. The sales rep - Mr. Madhu actually negotiated on my behalf with the CEO and the sales manager. Finally the car worth 10.58 lakhs came down to around 9 lakhs for the Asta Dsl version (white). But, when they demanded an advance towards the car, I flatly denied and asked them to show me the car if they wanted me to show them the money.

The sales rep again came to my rescue. The showroom I was dealing with is in Kalyan Nagar. However, the car was stationed in their Hebbal showroom. The sales rep picked me and my wife from our home in the test drive i20, explained all the features and even let her drive the car. Later he drove us to their Hebbal facility and showed us the car.

I was carrying the soft copy of the Team-BHP PDI list and inspected the car thoroughly, paid the advance of 5 K and started the loan procedure. I submitted the docs in the afternoon and the next day got a call from Mr. Madhu, "Sir, Loan Approved.” I was shocked, they did not come to my house to called me for verification.

Anyway, I thanked him and due to time constraints requested him if he could bring the documentation part to my home for completion. He obliged and thousands of signatures were required. This was the most painful step of the whole process.

Next, the insurance. I had searched the internet and found quote for new i20 Asta Dsl for as low as 18 K, but the showroom was charging me 35 K without zero dep insurance.

Called Mr. Madhu again and explained it to him, he said he will talk to the SM and get back to me. Next I got a call directly from the SM and he explained to me that he cannot let me buy the insurance from outside as they has commission attached to the insurance done in-house and that it will not affect me as it will be included in the discount that they have offered. "Fair enough", I said to myself and agreed to his condition.

I paid them half of what I owed them and waited for the next day due to daily ATM withdrawal limit. That’s when the loan guy called and wanted my approval to disburse the loan amount to the dealer. While talking to him, he casually informed me that the 1st EMI will start from the same month and I had not even taken the delivery of the vehicle yet. I straight away declined and asked him to make sure the EMI starts from next month. His reply was “Sir, this is our bank's policy and if you want the EMI to start from July, we will disburse the loan amount only the 1st June.”

It was 28th of May, so I contacted Mr. Madhu and explained to him the situation to which he said he will talk to his SM and get back to me. Sure enough, the next day he called me and asked me to come down to the showroom to have a discussion with the SM. Due to work commitments I could not make it the next day but landed there on 30th May. Loaded with the balance, I spoke to the SM. He explained that without the loan disbursal, he cannot deliver the vehicle but I was adamant. After having a 20 mins discussion he agreed to deliver the car the same day in a few hours.

I paid the rest of the amount, went back home and landed back at the showroom with the whole family. Waited for 20 mins while the final touch ups were happening and then they called us to the delivery bay. A big key was handed over to my mom with a box of sweets followed by a customary picture. I handed over a few hundred to Mr. Madhu for sweets for the showroom staff and the technician for washing and adding the extra fittings on car.

The key was handed over to me and off we went in our new stead. Overall, the experience with the showroom was very nice and I was treated like a king.

I had initially declined to pay the additional 5-6 K for the extra fittings, but to my surprise when the car was delivered, Mr. Madhu had made sure all the accessories and extra fittings were fitted. I even sent an appreciation email to their CEO telling them how lucky they were to have Mr. Madhu as their employee. He really made me feel special during the whole purchase process. He answered my multiple calls always with a smile and answered all my queries with utmost importance.

So over all I will recommend Lakshmi Hyundai - Kalyan Nagar, Bangalore (specially Mr. Madhu) to anyone wanting to purchase a Hyundai car.

Thank you Team for bearing with me and my long post.