Can new cars have their odometer reset by the dealer? Hi Folks,
So here’s the entire piece on what happened pertaining to my XUV300 booking.
I booked an XUV3OO W8(O) much before launch of the vehicle. On the day of the launch, NBS (Mumbai) allocated a vehicle that was ready with them in stock. I went for the PDI and observed a couple of things with this ready stock car.
1. KMS on the ODO was around 113
2. The car was not kept at the stockyard but was at the workshop
3. Found a testing paper in the car that highlighted that the car had some suspension noise issue, etc.
I raised the issue with NBS and rejected this car. In fact, I even sent an email to their customer care and Mr. Anand Mahindra's official ID that they were trying to sell me a defective car. NBS told me that allocating a new car it’ll roughly take 3-4 weeks. I told them I don’t mind waiting but I want to see the car as soon as it lands in the stockyard and in whatever condition it lands. After the long wait, on 20th March a car got allocated to me (manufacturing was of March only) and reached the stockyard in Mumbra. Since I was out of the country, my parents went to do the PDI at the stockyard on 22nd March.
During the PDI, it was observed that the car had done 81kms on the odo. Dad raised a concern about why is is that a car that has just landed has done 81kms. We received an email from the plant incharge that there was internal testing performed and as per standard anything less than 100 is acceptable. I was following the XUV 300 thread and thought maybe they could be testing the suspension issue etc so I accepted this car and told them to prepare for delivery and accessories fitment.
For accessories fitment and some minor sunroof alignment, the car was sent to the Sewri workshop. In my head, I had prepared myself to receive the car somewhere around 80+30+25 = 145 odd kms.
Delivery day (27th March)- was a pleasant day and we visited the showroom. We did all the pooja etc and everyone was all smiles. I signed the paper etc and when I was just about to remove the car from the showroom I observed something absolutely astonishing- the ODO reading showed 20kms!! I clicked a picture of this.
We raised a big issue on this as to how, why, and by whose authority had the odometer been tampered with. The reason We went all the way to Mumbra was to ensure that we have a view on how many kms the car actually does before reaching me. That evidence has been wiped clean. They had absolutely no answer to this and were caught zapped. First they told me it could’ve happened accidentally while setting the radio and stuff. I absolutely lost my cool at such a response and told them is it that simple to reset a car's odometer?
What follows is even more shocking to me- they told me that the car has a feature that one can reset the odometer twice in its lifetime by simply pressing some buttons and doing a minor activity alongside. In fact since I couldn’t believe this, I asked them to show me a demo on some other XUV 300. And to my horror, it indeed was that simple- they reset a car in the showroom that had done 120kms to 0. I’m not sure if I should post the exact method here as in my opinion, this is a dangerous feature. I mean I don’t even know how can this be termed as a feature.
Now that I had seen the process of how it’s done, I debated with them that this could not be a case of accidental resetting but instead an intentional one. They told me that they had given no such instruction to the workshop and would need a day to figure out why exactly had the technician performed this activity. I told them that this is a clear case of odometer tampering and is not acceptable. However I took the car home as it was registered etc. The funniest bit is - my service book shows 81kms on PDI and 20kms on delivery ��
I received an email from them on 28th stating that the technician intentionally resettled the odometer. Here is the exact excerpt from the email:
“One of our technicians of the PDI team, who was present during your visit to NBS, Sewri for inspection of XUV300 allotted to you previously, reset the odo reading without any prior discussion or approval from any senior staff. He explained to us now that the only intention he had was to create delight to you as you were very specific about taking delivery of vehicle with least possible odo reading.”
I mean wow, this is really an incredible response!
Some of the major questions I have are:
1. How can a dealer reset the odometer of the car and try and fool the customer
2. Why would a car have a “feature” of this sort? (Is this a common feature cause I honestly had no clue that it’s so simple to reset the odometer)
3. What is the guarantee that dealers of M&M will not sell their old stock or demo vehicles to unsuspecting customers who don’t really check VIN numbers etc.
4. A big big question on the trust factor for the brand
5. How do I know that my car had actually done 81kms/20kms or xyz kms.
Happy to get some expert views, opinions and suggestions so that I can decide my next course of action.
Last edited by Axe77 : 27th December 2023 at 18:21.
Reason: Capital letters
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