[ps_abhijith]

Disclaimer : We own a tata nano, I had encouraged my brother in law to buy a Tiago 3 years back, and I do love the tata cars. I have nothing against the brand or the products.
Oh, my wife and I, we both are tata group employees too.

Background :
Recently, we had to say good bye to our much loved and enjoyed elite i20 CRDI as I am to relocate for work, which may happen in the next 3-4 months based on how the covid scene plays out. This has left us with our nano, which was primarily used by my wife for office commute, shopping, school drops and city runs. Though nano serves us perfectly in its current role, we do understand its limitations on highway runs on the busy roads in Kerala. We do go to our hometowns on alternate weekends to visit our parents, which are 200km and 70 km away from the city. Now, my wife is happy with the nano, and she has even driven the car to her hometown 70kms away from our home.

While I am away, she would be relying on the nano completely for transportation, especially considering social distancing practices. We do understand the limitation of nano as a highway car, and felt that a small new car may be needed. We are concerned about the long term reliability of the car (6 years old now) as well as the safety of my wife and our 3 year old son. We did consider selling the nano and my wife using the i20, but she was not comfortable driving the i20 inside the city and daily to office considering its size and the traffic and narrow roads in Kochi. She has occasionally used her brothers tiago, and was comfortable with it. My plans were to exchange the nano and get a new car which will be used by us until I leave the country, and then will be continued to be used by my wife in Kochi.

The new car requirements :
1. Need to be around 5-6 lakh onroad.
2. Safe (crash tested and proven)
3. Reliable
4. Small and compact size, suited for city usage as well as occasional highway runs.
5. Petrol
6. Hold resale value, as if we were to sell the car in 2-3 years, we should not loose too much money.

Options Considered :
1. Swift : Ruled out for the poor build quality and size, no offense to be taken by anyone, its our personal feeling. (We have a 2019 swift in family)
2. Grand i10 : A bit too expensive, and aware of the above average maintenance cost of Hyundai from personal experience.
3. Tiago : We both loved the 2020 model car, loved the looks and seemed to be total VFM. Plus, "our TATA company car" emotions too.
4. Used cars of the above or Honda Brio : Reliability concerns, wife preferred something which had warranty.

The "window shopping" Experience so far :

Suzuki Showroom : Called up the showroom nearby. Call was picked up, I conveyed my interest in Swift. I was told an agent will contact me. This took less than a minute. I received the call back within 5 mins. The agent was helpful, gave me the full price break up on the call including any possible discounts, and provided me an approx exchange value for the nano. This was over in less than 5 mins. He also checked if i needed a test drive or to see the car in person.

Hyundai : Called the showroom where I used to service my i20. Call was picked up on first try. Conveyed my interest on grand i10 and the call was instantly transferred to an agent who gave me full price breakup, options, add ons, as well as an estimated value for my nano. The call took around 5 mins.

TATA : The whole point of writing this post is my experience as well as my journey in last three weeks, in trying to buy a tata tiago. The fact that I have the finance ready, and have finalized the car and model, but still has not been able to finalize my decision and book the car since the last two weeks paints the larger picture for the less patient readers.

The saga starts three weeks back when I visited the tata tiago website to download the brochure. I provided my number for a call back and received an email confirmation immediacy. I expected a call back in the next few days, but got no callback. Its covid time so delays are expected everywhere, we understood. Again posted a request for callback, but no response. I put in a third request two weeks back, and by this time, we had finalized on the tiago. So I tried to call up the showrooms in Kochi.

Showroom 1 (Newly opened by a reputed banking group, and promised great customer experience as their highlight while opening) : Call one - No answer. Call two - Engaged. Call 3 - No answer. Call 4 - I get an sms back saying "Cant talk to you right now, will call back"
Showroom 2 : This was the place where we service our nano. Call 1- Number is no longer active.
Call 2- Agent picks up, says he is not in office, gives me another number.
Call 3- Picked up. Conveys my interest on Tiago. Gave me a reply that I will get a call back. 2 hours later I get a call back from an agent. He was polite and was trying to be helpful. Told him I was interested in Tiago, gave him the model we preferred and asked him for the on road price. Also checked on any existing offers as well as offers specific for TATA employees along with possible exchange value for the nano. He told me that he will send everything over whatsapp, and then said a "Hi" and introduced himself again in whatsapp immediately.

After that there was total silence for the next one hour, till I asked him to provide the price breakup again on the chat. 15 mins later he sent me a photo of a piece of paper on which he had written the price breakup and total onroad price. I was also informed of the small customer offer on the tiago along with a smaller tata group employee discount. I checked for an approx value for the nano again on the chat,but he was silent. Finally I called him up and asked for an indicative value. He then wanted me to share a copy of the nano's RC and the insurance details. I did not have a copy of the RC, but I gave him the insurance details. After 4 days I shared the RC copy and called him back. He acknowledged that he has received the RC copy, and told me that he will share an approx value by the next day. It may be a standard procedure for them, but felt strange for me provided the other two agents were willing to give me an approx value, while stating I may get better value with an in person evaluation.

So the current state is that it has been two weeks since I have actively been trying to buy a Tiago, I don’t want any more convincing to buy the car. Please note that we did not visit the showroom yet as we have a 3 year old son as well as old parents with us, and are worried to be outside too much considering the Covid advisory. We felt it would be better to get an indication on the minimum value of the nano, finalize our decision and book the car directly. We already had seen the car in person at a test drive event of the car at the time it was launched, before lockdown.

We have the finances arranged already from the i20’s sale, plus the nano’s exchange. So far the agent has never called me after the very first time we spoke a week back. The website call back, I got a call from tata’s calls center few days back, 1 week after I put in the third request. The person on the call in-short advised me to visit the nearest showroom in person, and nothing more. I am still waiting for an approx value on the nano. All this while I was not offered a test drive. I was not even asked to visit the showroom at any point.

Now, I was fortunate to be involved in the buying process of atleast 6 cars among friends and family the past 10 years. None of these cars were this difficult to buy. By this time, we were almost feeling that we were asking for a donation from an organization, or even that the showrooms didn't even wanted to sell a car. Compare this to the experience I had from the other two showrooms.

I received follow up calls from the Hyundai agent atleast thrice in the last two weeks. He offered to meet in person, evaluate the nano to provide a better value and was talking about bank offers if I needed a loan on the car. Suzuki was on another level, the agent did call me back 4-5 times in the last two weeks, ended up offering me a bit more discount and freebies, and a marginally more value for my nano. All this while he was insisting on visiting my home to evaluate the nano properly. To my amazement, I even got calls from two competing Suzuki showrooms, offering to evaluate my car in person and better prices for the car.

We had a similar experience while my brother in law was buying the Tiago 3 years back, and at that time, he got the car only after visiting 3 different showrooms in person, and a series of emails to Tata customer care. I was hoping that all that was in the past for tata.

On one hand we have Tata making wonderful, affordable, safe cars, and on the other hand we have showrooms who doesn't even want to sell the cars. It makes me wonder how on earth were they able to sell around 5k+ tiagos every month and what the numbers would have been if the showrooms really wanted to sell the car. I realize I cannot blame the showrooms alone for this state, as TATA as a manufacturer should be focusing on not just making, but selling these cars too. If the other companies like Hyundai and suzuki have such competing showrooms, why cant it be done with Tata? Atleast have working phones in your showrooms and have people pick up calls!

It hurts knowing that tata is not making huge profits with there cars as of now, still it seems they are not doing much to exploit the huge potential of their cars. The new ads in newspapers are cool, but more than that what is being done to improve customer experience? How many potential buyers would have went for other options with similar experiences? I really hope many more people get the chance to enjoy these beautiful machines...

[DaptChatterjee]

In the past year or so, I have been involved in the purchase of three Tata vehicles ( 2 Nexons and 1 Tiago) and have had quite good and prompt response. Even the Test drive vehicles were arranged in couple of days. The dealership is Arya Motors, Gurgaon. They may not be as responsive or quick as Maruti Suzuki but certainly seemed to have improved a lot. Compare it to two and half years back when I had requested for a just launched Nexon AMT test drive and the response came almost six months later. By then, the friend, for whom I was asking, was happily driving an Ecosport Titanium plus AT. From your experience, it's clear that the situation hasn't improved everywhere.

Their practice of handwritten sheet of price break-up is out of place in this day and age. Experienced the same in each of those purchases. How much would it cost to make an excel sheet and provide a printout?

[vikred]

Back in 2014, a colleague was in the market for a petrol hatchback or compact sedan. Dzire and Grand i10 were in his shortlist. That was the time when Tata had just released their turbo-petrol Zest. So, I wanted him to test drive this new car.

We went to a Tata dealership in the posh Banjara Hills neighborhood of Hyderabad. To our shock, there were hardly any sales personnel. No one to greet us, no one to show us the vehicle and explain its features. We "applied for" a test drive with the receptionist, only to be told that the test drive vehicle ran out of fuel. Seriously?! We gave our phone number and left the place with a promise that we'll get a call back from them. Needless to say, this colleague lost interest in the vehicle even before test driving it and ended up buying a Grand i10. Expectedly, we never got a call back. Well, almost. We did get a call after 8 months. 8 damn months!

In contrast, go to a Maruti Suzuki or a Hyundai showroom. And try coming out of the store without paying a booking fees. It's very difficult! That's how interested they are in selling their vehicles.

[Dieselritzer]

Today i got a quote for Glanza. The onroad price breakup was given on a hand written paper sent via whatsapp as the sales guy was working from home and could not print or send a pdf version. Could that be the case here?

Just before lockdown i called for thr Nexon AMTs test drive and the folks here in Mumbai were extremely prompt. In that period i visited the showrooms of Maruti, Hyundai, Toyota and Tata. According to me, the thing that is usually missing in the Tata showrooms is the energy level. I work for an FMCG company and our sales guys only do B2B sale and still their energy levels, body language etc is so sharp and vibrant. In a B2C sale it matters even more as your enthusiasm, knowledge and persuasion skills can have a huge impact in what the customer decides. This is one area which I feel Tata folks should work on. Gone are the days when a person would buy his first car in his 30s. The avg age of first time car buyers have drastically come down and you cannot have the same ambience that you'd have in the olden days. Today's young buyer wants to be greeted, well informed and wants that little extra premium treatment when he's buying any asset. You're making brilliant cars Tata and people want it. Pull up your socks and sell them !

[jothishX]

While shopping for a Seltos few months back, I decided to checkout the new Harrier and Nexon in the Tata showroom right oppposite to Kia. To my surprise, the salesman offered me a testdrive then and there and I was driving a petrol turbo nexon within minutes even when it was evening and they were almost closing the showroom. But after the drive, he took my feedback and promised to call me, but never took my number. Was strange.

[GBX]

It could just be that the dealers are having difficulty operating during these times. Or it could be the talk of Concorde Motors shutting down which maybe affecting the morale of all Tata dealers.

Regardless, consider yourself lucky you're not shopping for a JTP, OP. You'd be fuming!

[John316_WRC]

With Tata showrooms it depends on luck. Back in 2009 we had picked up the Punto & the showroom in Chennai, was shared with Tata. The whole experience was bad including the after sales. Now in 2020 before the lockdown, took a test drive of the Altroz in Bhubaneswar & it was a pleasant affair. The sales exec explained the car in detail to us over a cup of coffee, and allowed us to take an extensive test drive. Duly took down my details, and I have got a courtesy call about once every month. So maybe you could try a different Tata showroom in your city and hopefully you have a smooth experience.

[GTO]

The Tata dealer experience can be S-A-D, but it doesn't matter to me. If you really love the car, buy it irrespective of the sales experience - here is my detailed thread on the same. You could give me the worst possible pre-sales experience, but if I'm crazy about the car, I will buy it . Reason = I have to live with the car, not the salesperson or sales team.

The product + engineering + design + engine + quality + features + safety + suspension + gearbox are WAY more important to me than the mood / attitude of the sales dude (who could next month be selling washing machines).

Originally Posted by GTO

On Team-BHP & elsewhere, I'm seeing too many mentions of ditching a car model from the consideration list because:

• The salesman was disinterested / rude / unavailable
• A test-drive wasn't offered promptly
• No one returned calls or responded to a web query
• Other similarly negative sales experiences

My advice = If you really like the car, please do NOT drop it just because of the sales experience. Reason? You have to live with the car, not the salesperson. Don't let the 15 - 30 minutes of a bad experience with that salesperson affect the MANY YEARS that you'll spend with a car. It is the actual product & driving experience that will keep you smiling in the years to come, not the dealer. I mean, seriously, think about it = an exceptional sales experience + average car OR an average sales experience + exceptional car. Which one would you really pick? We all know the answer to that.

Again, you have to live WITH THE CAR, not the salesman. And you never know, the after-sales & reliability could be good. My point is, don't let one ill-trained person on the showroom floor decide YOUR choice of car. If you love a car, be adamant about it.

As an example, VW's pre-sales experience pretty much sucks. But if I really liked the Passat, I would go ahead and buy it. Similarly with Tata. Many of their showrooms are relics from the stone-age, and the sales experience can leave a lot to be desired, yet if I really loved the Tiago JTP, I'd buy it. Irrespective of the car, you can have a good or bad experience at ANY brand. Do NOT let that influence how you're going to drive for the next 5 - 10 years. Pick another salesman, talk to the management, go to another dealer, escalate the issue to the manufacturer, be more aggressive with your followups...just get in the driver's seat of the damn car you love!

I mostly buy pre-owned, so don't care much about the sales experience anyway. But even when I'm shopping new, the product always matters 10X more than the person selling it. Even if he's a sleazeball. What I'm saying in a nutshell is, the build + quality + engine + suspension + comfort + driving pleasure are far, far more important than the salesman's attitude (or someone who's just having a bad day).

P.S. Believe it or not, Ferrari was known to have the worst dealers in India. If you had the moolah, would that stop you from owning one ?

P.P.S. All manufacturers have a few / some / most dealerships run by scumbags. Or thugs. Or both. No one has a dealer list full of well-meaning saints. What are you going to do now?

[Mik]

I have walked into a Tata Showroom three times during 3 car buying sojourns and was only successful once to snatch their precious cars from them.

2012: walked in to the tata-fiat showroom while being besotted by the Punto. The lazy folks there were first not interested in telling me anything about the car. Then they wanted me to buy the Vista. When I said only Punto, what followed was one of the most lackadaisical approaches by the sales guys to push it with some discounts. Eventually bought the Figo.

2016: Wifey wanted an automatic. Alto and Nano were the two contenders left. While the Maruti guys did almost everything for the sale (Sunday office open, home test rides twice, relentless pursuit) the two tata dealers were content to give me space and time to ponder. Even getting a test ride at home was a difficult task. Finally, I pushed, cajoled and threatened them enough to part with their precious Nano. The after sales complaints about the pre sales exp were never taken seriously by Tata.

2019: I was eyeing the Compass but felt it logical to atleast evaluate the Harrier. So I called the showroom guys to send me the TD vehicle. They were clear that they wouldn't be able to and I could TD it at the busy road they were situated in. My concern was the high speed handling so I reasoned with them that I couldn't buy the car without testing it on the highway. They said, ok sir let me see. Well, two weeks later the guy called me and asked "Sir what have you decided". Heck even the Seltos guy who was flooded with leads had more interest in selling his car.


Would I ever go back to a tata. A big yes! I love what they are doing with the brand. Tata sales attitude is symptomatic of our famous Chalta Hai attitude. So yeah, I will look past it to buy the car if I need to.

[Thanos-VV]

Sorry to hear about the lethargic attitude of the sales team but as pointed by others, you are almost certain about the next car you are gonna buy. So if I were you, I would just ignore them because I liked the car and I don’t give a damn about sales team.
Having said that, I would be concerned about A.S.S team and their commitment. For that you have your Brother in law who can give you first hand feedbacks. Since it is your wife who will be the one who will be dealing with Service Center, this point is important.
All the very best and hoping that you end up with what your heart wants!!

[TROOPER]

Not one bit surprised with your experience.

Our experience was not 5 star either. From start till day of delivery. Tata's salesmen really know which buttons to press to piss anyone off. Then our 2 week old Hexa spent 10 days in the workshop to get an issue sorted and there's been no follow up call from Tata/dealer till date either.

But every time we sit in the Hexa, we don't regret our decision one bit. We were convinced of our choice and stuck with it even though the buying experience was nothing to rave about. I had even given my dad a head's up to not expect the Kia/MG like grand gestures on delivery day, even though we were buying a marginally expensive product.

I stuck with GTO's advice and would recommend you to do the same. Just take a test drive (with all safety precautions in place) and see to it your decision to buy the Tiago goes from 100 to 101%. Then every time your dealer does unsavoury (unless something is a real dealbreaker) things you can just think about the sweet ride you'd be riding in a matter of time.

Look at it this way. Would it be better to tolerate an idiot for a couple of days to buy a 4 star safety rated product or drive around in a tin can for years with no guarantee of safety?

Would be preferable if you purchase the Tiago from where you get the Nano serviced. Will help you navigate through the service experience since you must be aware of their practices.

[Reinhard]

Have patience. Its a good and SAFE car. So to choose an alternative you didn't like as much simply because you didn't like the dealer wouldn't be the best thing in long run.

I suggest this - go to carwale.com and check on-road quote. There is a link for "Get offers from dealers" right below the OTR quote (which is quite accurate also). These requests are directly routed to specific dealer teams that are professionally trained & refreshed in car sales by CarWale (including regular day long refresher workshops for the teams). You'll get a totally different experience than what you got.

I can confirm this 1st hand because I had a pretty similar dealership experience like yours but literally purchased my car online via whatsapp and phone from a dealership that I didn't even know. Thanks to Carwale.com's facility. It connected me with a really good sales team that helped me buy a car from my living room. I visited only twice. Once for a PDI (This is when I actually saw the dealership for the first time & then the yard). And second time for the delivery (which they were ready to do at my home, but I declined).

I can't guarantee it of course since we are in different cities. But high possibility that you'll think this experience ended up far better than MSIL sales at showroom.
Good luck.

[karan0009]

That's a very strange behavior from TATA folks considering today's situation. They need to convert every possible customer as it's not going to be a flawless ride until this pandemic is over.
On a side note, register your interest in Acko Drive. They are very responsive & provide good deals as well. Infact, they can provide you better deal if you negotiate a bit hard.

[professor.march]

I was shopping for a car in April of this year. Evaluating cars and prices for a purchase soon after lockdown ended. (i20, polo and altroz). I called up the nearest dealers of Hyundai, TATA and Volkswagen based on the numbers I found on Google maps. Hyundai and VW responded promptly and they shared brochure and price list. Hyundai never replied after I asked for approximate EMI.

I had to chase the Tata dealer. Tata dealer 1 said he'll send brochure on Monday. And never did. I spoke to Tata dealer 2 who got back with brochure and price list but when I asked for approximate EMI amount, I never got the reply. And finally dealer 3, I went to the showroom and saw Altroz. Salesperson said he'll tell when the test drives start. So I messaged a few days after the day that he said he expected the test drive to start. There was that read receipt on WhatsApp but still no reply. All this was a month ago.

I messaged Ford using the contact us option on the dealer website. Someone called me a few days back. I asked her if we can talk in English. She said few minutes and that's it. No further calls.

Why am I finding it so difficult to get a proper follow-up from dealers here. All the conversations are happening over WhatsApp. And the only information I need is price list and approximate EMI amount and an approximate timeline for test drive. I can read the reviews here, I can download brochure from the manufacturer website.

A special mention to the Volkswagen dealer here. I contacted them and I got a call within an hour with brochure and price list. I got EMI details within within 2-3 hours and the salesman called me exactly at the time that I said I'd be free. He answered all my questions. There was enough follow up after that. And finally, he got the car to my place for test drive which is nearly 30km from the showroom.

[lazy]

Friend

If you like the car, then don't let a dealer or salesperson stop you from getting it. Irrespective of whether its a Tata or a Skoda.

I have purchased 2 from them, 2017 and 2019, former from Concorde, latter from KHT.
No complaints at all.

Tolerate the dealer behavior for a few days; the car will stay with you for many years.

cheers
lazy