[superchamp]

This is my personal experience and is not generalizing. I am in Bangalore and my friend was looking for a new car and I have been helping him with the search. We had done a test drive for Maruti Ignis and was finalizing the price etc.. The SA was pressurizing my friend to book the car citing the usual reasons like price hike, offer available only this month and the usual cribbing.

We waited for couple of days since we were actively checking other cars as well. The SA called him up and offered a flat 50K discount on Ignis if he books it then and there. This looked suspicious as we had enquired in multiple Nexa showrooms for the offers and none were offering this On further probing, he said its an employee offer and thought of passing it to us. A good gesture for sure

We left it at that as we were sure there as something wrong. We went to the showroom today and discussed with the SA. On further discussion, we were shocked to know that it was a new car that was damaged in the recent Bangalore flood and they were disposing it !!!.

This info slipped out accidently from the SA and would have sold it to an unsuspecting customer if they were not vigilant.
Again, am not saying that the SA wouldn't have told us eventually, but was pissed that we were not informed about this before we questioned him.

I want everyone to be extra careful if you are purchasing a new car here in Bangalore and this can happen in any new/used car showroom so please be careful.

[Mustang_Boss]

The new cars have shipping and transit insurance. As long as they are not sold, they are covered under insurance. Either the dealer is not getting full insurance for the cars until sold or he just wants to mint more.

Now, if you are buying a new car in Benguluru, please look for the cars with VIN made on or after September 2022. [Assuming Transit takes ~12+ days..]

I wonder why a dealer is resorting to such malpractices. In case of any complaint,
- Maruti will for sure terminate their dealership unless politically connected or ... ill leave it to your assumptions.
- This would be seen as Fraud in the court of law, as one party is intentionally selling damaged goods, by concealing the reality.

[Drkalgaonkar]

How on earth a damaged vehicle is being offered? Did you confront any superior.

And what does it mean by damaged? Fully submerged with flooding of engine and everything? How can such a vehicle be roadworthy?

Something is missing here. I don't have high regards for MS dealers in general but this is unheard of for a new vehicle, used car dealers are notorious for concealing these things.

[Rahul Rao]

Transit and stock insurance companies pay only book value less offered salvage or 75% of book value whatever is less. None of the car manufacturers help dealers in case of natural calamities.

After exiting the dealership game, I can say that all dealerships especially those of popular companies are loss making, but commission from insurance, accessories and handling make it barely break even.

Dealers have to resort to gimmicks to survive, most dealers themselves put an offer of 25% for cars in their stock, and claim 75 % from insurance, then dismantle the cars for spare parts.

Rahul

[superchamp]

Originally Posted by Drkalgaonkar

How on earth a damaged vehicle is being offered? Did you confront any superior.

And what does it mean by damaged? Fully submerged with flooding of engine and everything? How can such a vehicle be roadworthy?

Something is missing here. I don't have high regards for MS dealers in general but this is unheard of for a new vehicle, used car dealers are notorious for concealing these things.

We were not planning to take this anyways and hence didn't continue with the discussion.
Like I said, maybe the SA would have come clean later and hence not jumping in to conclusions.

Originally Posted by Rahul Rao

Transit and stock insurance companies pay only book value less offered salvage or 75% of book value whatever is less. None of the car manufacturers help dealers in case of natural calamities.

After exiting the dealership game, I can say that all dealerships especially those of popular companies are loss making, but commission from insurance, accessories and handling make it barely break even.

Dealers have to resort to gimmicks to survive, most dealers themselves put an offer of 25% for cars in their stock, and claim 75 % from insurance, then dismantle the cars for spare parts.

Rahul

I agree. May be they were trying to make some quick money by selling the car as new with discount.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by superchamp

May be they were trying to make some quick money by selling the car as new with discount.

Please name the dealership so that people are careful in their dealings.

[GTO]

Mod Note: Thread moved to the dealership's section. Thanks for sharing!

[tilt]

Originally Posted by Rahul Rao

*SNIP*

After exiting the dealership game, I can say that all dealerships especially those of popular companies are loss making, but commission from insurance, accessories and handling make it barely break even.*SNIP*

Apologies for going off-topic, but this statement piqued my interest.

If this is the case, then why would these people (or anyone for that matter) have a dealership? I mean, isn't the sole purpose of a business to be profitable?

I understand said dealerships also having service centres where they do make a profit, but one could merely open a service centre without having a dealership attached, no?

Cheers

[saisree]

What is the guarantee that the flood damaged cars are not transited to their own dealerships at other cities and sold off to unsuspecting customers? Banglore to Mysore is sure a possibility.
There should be a provision to blacklist those VIN's from getting registered or the next best option I could think of is to get this refurbished at the OEM (not the dealer) and sold off at 40% discount with all the warranties that a new car gets

[Rahul Rao]

Originally Posted by tilt

If this is the case, then why would these people (or anyone for that matter) have a dealership? I mean, isn't the sole purpose of a business to be profitable?
I understand said dealerships also having service centres where they do make a profit, but one could merely open a service centre without having a dealership attached, no?

Yes profit should be motive of but market competition does not allow you to make enough profit to cover overheads. Current transparency due to the net allows every one to know your purchase price.

Originally Posted by saisree

There should be a provision to blacklist those VIN's from getting registered or the next best option I could think of is to get this refurbished at the OEM (not the dealer) and sold off at 40% discount with all the warranties that a new car gets

How does any one other than the dealership and insurance co know the vin's.

Rahul

[anjan_c2007]

Happens and is usual in all our cities that have /had been affected by flooding. Happened in Mumbai too post the July 2005 floods.

It's better to delay the new car purchase decision as of now for Bangalore city. Even used cars need to be avoided or suspected, as used car dealers are also very seasoned in selling such cars to unsuspecting customers.

Even if there is a price increase for new cars in the future months, paying such hiked prices would be more preferable as compared to buying a flood damaged new car.

[tilt]

Originally Posted by Rahul Rao

Yes profit should be motive of but market competition does not allow you to make enough profit to cover overheads. Current transparency due to the net allows every one to know your purchase price.

*SNIP*

Therefore my original question remains - why would anyone want to open dealership when it is well known that there is no profit?

I ask you specifically since you are an insider in that industry.

Cheers

[superchamp]

This may be happening not just in bangalore but anywhere else as well. Dealership disconnecting speedometer and giving the car for test drives. These are some of the ways they cheat customers. May not be prevalent everywhere but have seen few instances.

[UD17]

Originally Posted by superchamp

I want everyone to be extra careful if you are purchasing a new car here in Bangalore and this can happen in any new/used car showroom so please be careful.

I apricate your efforts to aware people regarding this malpractice. The buyers from neighboring cities/states should also need to be vigilant about these, its not difficult to transport these cars to places where flooding had not happened.

Its too appalling to note that SA has come down to this, off course they have pressures from their higher ups and their aim is just to mint money through this dealership business.

[Guna]

I was suspecting that this would happen, especially with the used cars.
Are there ways to identify a flood damaged car? They would have thoroughly washed the car and leave no traces.