[Bibendum90949]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

Very common, especially among Maruti salesmen - "Saar ABS is not required for city driving. It works only on highways"

Today this would be " Saar, you will never need the 5 th and 6 th gear in city and hence our cars are equipped with 4 speed AT 's. They give more FE than 6 speed AT."

Can't blame the salesmen when their top management folks are speaking the same language themselves. Watch from 4:10 to know what I mean.

https://youtu.be/BQuVwiZ5oaY

[KPR]

Originally Posted by TorqueSteer

Me : Need finance options for Classic 350.
He : We don't finance Classic range. We can finance only Thunderbird.
Me : Why ?
He : Classic is bought by local leaders, rowdies and gundas who don't pay EMIs if we finance.

Do you own a financed classic 350 ? My neighbour is troubling me. Need your help please. Just kidding. Experienced RE salesman he is !

My experience:
Fiat: As usual the dealership was vacant. One man looked like in his late thirties came to me, introduced himself as manager of showroom and asked what car I'm looking for. Asked for a Linea MJD. All explanations by him were good. I said later that this 90HP engine tune in Linea doesn't have pick up as good as 75 HP. Don't know what he thought he took me to car and kept driving insanely on highway asked me to take back my words about pick up. I had no choice but to tell him yes sir it's a rocket. Ran away from the showroom. Later after few months I took a Punto 90 hp from the same showroom but that time thank God he has left that job.

[Vibhav-Van]

Some experiences which I cannot forget:

1) Maruti/Nexa, S-Cross TD, 2018 - "Maruti is the only real car brand in India." When I quoted the Ecosport, "Ford n all you leave it saar. Ecosport is nothing in front of this car." When I questioned the S-cross's inadequate performance, "actually 80 ps is enough for our roads saar, that's why Maruti cars have only that much power. Maruti has intelligently given only that much power, so you get more mileage and safety"

I felt it was futile to speak with him further. He was the team lead, btw.

2) Honda, WRV TD, 2018 - "Honda means premium car sir. The moment you buy this, you will be in premium category." I had a hearty laugh and said I don't want to be in that category.

3) Tata/Fiat, Linea TD, 2010 - "Don't go for fiat saar, we don't service them well. Go for Manza instead - we'll give you better service. Fiat n all is not for our country, so we also ignore them. That's why we parked the linea in a dark corner." Though he might have spoken the truth, I was taken aback at that partisan attitude.

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

They give more FE than 6 speed AT.

Slightly

In other news, the Corolla was offered with a 4 speed AT in 2012 in the USA. So, I'm not surprised that some cars in India have a 4 speed AT. Of course, the USA is where a 1.8L engine is small, fuel is cheap, and the fuel economy norms aren't the strict. (FE targets are being lowered as we talk)

[balenoed_]

This happened to me very recently when I was inquiring about the new Thar to a salesman at nearby showroom.

After I asked if he has any pictures of the new thar (this was before the unveil), he sent me this picture right away and it was a shocker for me . Though he mentioned "the actual one will be different", sending this out was so weird. Sending the original previous gen Thar photo would have been at least made some sense.



Or may be he just meant the "DNA" is the same.

[Ranger747]

Back in 2013 when I was looking for a used car, I visited a dealer in BTM. There were a bunch of cars squeezed together in his parking/display. I quite liked a Civic and we talked price model etc. Then I noticed a crack in the windshield and asked about it. Without any hesitation, he told me it's because it was parked in hot sun in his yard. I was like, dude! LOL.

[xjosephjacob]

Okay, the Toyota salesman says, "Glanza is so much better built than Baleno, and is substantially heavier. You know Toyota's are built tough, check out our Fortuner". This usually happens with all cross badged cars. Unassuming customers actually take it.

[VRJ]

Hahaa I love this thread. I have two funny instances to share:

1. Back in 2015, my Verna’s tyres wore out. So, I went to one of my dad’s friends multi-brand tyre shop. After I got a new set of rubber, they did a mandatory wheel alignment and balancing. I went for a quick test drive to check if the alignment was done well. The car was clearly going left. I asked them to correct it and they tried doing it again and this time they went for a test drive first and said it’s perfect. It took more than an hour to adjust it twice. So, I went for a quick test drive and it was still going left. When asked, he told me

Sir, this is Vizag, we live in a hilly region, it is natural for the car to go left. Every car in Vizag goes left. If you see, all the roads lean a bit towards the left. Your car is perfect.

I was just shocked and perplexed. I couldn’t make a scene as it was a friends place and I took a deep breath and went to meet the owner. The owner was sitting inside his office along with my dad and I went in and told him the explanation his staff were giving. You should’ve seen the embarrassment on his face. He quickly went out and shouted at them saying stop embarrassing me in front of my friends and got the work done.

2. I went to get my Baleno servicing done. My over enthusiastic service advisor couldn’t stop talking about the Vitara Breeza that was scheduled to launch. He kept saying,

Sir, we went for a training session, same Range Rover Evoque sir. Same ditto. We were all shocked when we saw this car. We could not believe it sir. When you see it on road, everyone will mistake it for an Evoque. SUV sir, full height. Range Rover sir. Tbh, I got excited to see the car after i listened to his explanation. Sadly, this service advisor was transferred when I went in for my next service, I wanted to ask him about the Range Rover look alike Brezza. Lol.

Excitement and optimism are surely contagious.

Cheers!

[Chinmay]

Dealer Bloopers!
1. I go to Nexa for S-cross TD. They don't have a TD vehicle it seems. So they push for Baleno. I say I am not comfortable with the seating in Baleno. The lady says a TD in Baleno will change my thinking. I take the TD and tell her I didn't like it. She still says the ride quality is better, it is more fuel efficient, and the works. Then she tells me I can save a few lakhs by not going for S-cross/Brezza. I tell her I want a higher seating position and the DDIS engine. She tells me diesel engines are not good for me, and I will start liking my Baleno as I started liking my job/wife after sometime
I came back and picked up a Brezza later.
2. I go to MS Arena and ask for a small car with decent GC. The salesman reccomends an S-presso and tells me its a scaled-down Brezza. Post my TD, I ask him that it feels worse than my old Zen Estilo in terms of ride quality. He tells me SUVs within 5 lakhs are like this only, and I can offroad in an S-presso.
I came back.

[shrinandiyer]

Originally Posted by Stribog

Fire away with your most ludicrous auto sa stories

Two incidents one after the another in Jeep Showroom - Hyderabad - 2018

Pretext -
My father had ambitious plans when upgrading from the humble 25 year old Maruti 800. My mother had "frozen shoulder" and experienced pain while changing gears. Fully treated now but left arm is weak. My sister used to change the gear and ma used to operate the clutch.

Thus AT was mandatory in the new car. After hunting AT (and no AMT) the list stood thus -

Ford Ecosport
and Jeep Compass.

Since I was in Hyderabad and Parents were in Coimbatore - I opted to TD both in Hyderabad and contacted dealers in Coimbatore for respective TD at my parents place.

Jeep Showroom -
1.
Salesman with pleasing attitude and grins all along -
"This is the compass, Stunning looks, killer performance, AT as you asked ..."
Proceeded to entertain my friends with his pre-recorded speech. Then the salesman dragged me to the front and asks
"Sir, do you go to the gym?"
I am 2cm shy of 6' and weighed a decent 85kg at that time. I was into endurance bicycling and sorts of adventures which our salesman wouldn't understand. I decided to spare him from lecturing about all my activities and said "No. Why?" I wanted to see what he intended to achieve by asking about the gym.

He then said "Open the Hood". I was aghast. My friends started laughing at the confused expression on my face. I did open it. It was not a Herculean task. The metal had good weight into it and it was a prominent feature of the build of the car.
Proceeded with the TD regardless.

2.
TD was completed. I checked the turning ease, ingress, egress and hill start assist among other things. I asked about headlamp setup for the Compass and if it was tweakable by the service guys after purchase. Our bow-tie starts explaining and after a very confusing 5 minutes, his concluding statement -

"I would not recommend HID lamps"

The Jeep Compass Brochure lists Bi-Xenon High Intensity Discharge Lamps for the Longitude Plus Variant which was under consideration.
I thanked him for the time and (myself for) patience.


Ford on the other hand was a breeze.

I had not visited the Coimbatore branch until 1 day before picking up the car to inspect using the PDI checklist.
Everything was coordinated over phone and WhatsApp.
Paperwork was done from papa's side and they even visited his factory about 25km away deep in the remote villages to collect everything.
Got VIN and ODO over photos and verified them.
All RTO work was done and we even had a number from RTO ready by the time of delivery.

No false advertising, No extra enthusiasm. No hesitation when I refused extra accessories. I asked them to give me a time frame for the complete process and they had everything ready before hand.

[Bibendum90949]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

Slightly
In other news, the Corolla was offered with a 4 speed AT in 2012 in the USA. So, I'm not surprised that some cars in India have a 4 speed AT.

Isn't 2012 a long way back when it comes to advancement in automotive technologies. Here we're talking about a market leader who offers 4 speed AT even in their supposedly flagship model too

[KPR]

We BHP-ians are spoilt prospective customers for a dealer. We have more knowledge about a car/bike than them. Hereafter I'm going to wear T-Bhp tshirt while visiting dealerships. Sane staff will think again before explaining us.

[R4m4kr15hn4n]

Nice thread.

This happened at a Honda 2 Wheeler showroom back in 2011. Had gone to book Unicorn and was admiring the newly launched CBR250. The SA, seeing my interest in the bike, asked if I would like to cancel my Unicorn booking and upgrade to CBR? I enquired about the prices for CBR and was given the quote for both ABS and non-ABS variant.

Just out of curiosity asked the SA why there was a price difference in the 2 variants? The conversation went something like below:

SA - Sir, this is Honda saar. They are very good in innovation. They have introduced new technologies for this bike called ABS and MPFI.

Me - Can you please explain further?

SA - Yes sir. ABS is a new technology which Honda has invented sir. It helps in giving higher performance and mileage saar. And MPFI is also a new technology sir. It comes together with ABS sir. Hence the price difference for the 2 variants.


Was left scratching my head as the SA then went to another customer admiring the CBR.

[theflyingguy]

Good thread.

M dad was looking at buying Honda Mobilio. He liked the car and was looking at best deals amongst 2 dealers present in city. The SA in closest showroom was not really willing to provide anything apart from customary mats, polish and idol. So my dad took me along for his next visit.

I checked with SA for readily available cars and one Mobilio in blue was sitting in the yard for about 5 months. I asked the SA to give a better deal and we were willing to buy this car.

The response from SA was exactly this "Sir, these are special cars which are inspected by our experts. We do not sell these to any random customer but only to special customers. Hence, these cars wait to find the right customer which takes time. You look like a good family who can take care of special cars so I will sell this to you. But on this car, don't ask for any discounts since this car in itself is special".

Needless to say that the discussion did not go a word beyond this statement. We excused ourselves and went to other dealer to finalize the deal.

[PrasannaDhana]

I happened to be in a weird situation where my family wanted to get rid of our 2016 Kwid 1.0 and wanted to buy a Spresso instead. They were adamant and I really was not into it.

I know all the superior higher-ups in the local Maruti dealer (25 years & 8 Maruti purchases from the same dealer). The Branch GM is the same guy who was a sales executive when he sold me my wagon r in 2002.

I was in no mood to call them and registered my interest on carwale website. Naturally, one sales rep from the same dealer contacted me. He must be new because I don't remember hearing his name before.

He reached my locality, and I drove the Spresso (AMT). The ride was pretty harsh and I conveyed that to him and asked him if they had over filled the tyres. He just told me Sir, this is SUV type car sir

That was it. I didn't talk another word.
It's pathetic how Maruti management trains sales guys to call Spresso as a SUV. Blasphemy!

Next example was when I went to test drive duster. I drove to the showroom in my ciaz. The Renault guy asked me what other cars I was considering and I told him, I was looking at Storme and duster for now.

He spontaneously told me, " Sir, safari engine will not last beyond 50000 km sir, don't buy Tata sir"
Little did he know, I already had a 1,40,000 km run safari Dicor in pristine condition, in my garage that time.

Either they vomit some illogical thing about their product, or they badmouth other company cars without even knowing what they are talking about.

Both instances, they lost one customer.