[thanixravindran]

Couple of questions to those who love to pay these charges to support the low margin business auto dealer -

1. What type of PDI report you have received, if any for the service you paid? I understand this is a service, so can I opt out of it?

2. What HSN code the invoice this PDI service is charged and how much GST is applied for it? Is it possible to post a GST invoice for this service? Or it can be depot charges too if anyone got a tax invoice for it? I am seeing only proforma invoice and quote till now in the thread.

I am a mere mortal who has purchased non luxury cars but understood the tax evasion part of handling charges when I simply asked a tax invoice for it. No wonder I got the cars only with valid charges and these things removed. I have never seen a business who are willing to lose a single rupee from their margin but the buyer has to lose 40k to 90k of his money. I can understand, if you are justifying it as a cost/tax/toll of living in India as with other parts of life but don't believe they warrant justification. Just my 2 cents on this topic.

[androdev]

As long as they are offering me the car at the agreed total price, why do I care how they split the price? If everyone complains about handling charges, that amount will get added to some other item. You will not get away without paying the total price the dealer wants to sell the car for. For all I know, they are doing me a favour by not including that amount under some other head and saving taxes.

When airlines are charging a massive card payment or internet booking charges, it’s natural that it feels absurd that an internet portal that replaced their ticketing staff and saving huge money is being used to charge extra from the customer. They just want to put their costs under some heads - maybe to pay less taxes or avoid regulator limits, etc.

We are in a free market. No business has a free hand to charge whatever they please. On the contrary, most businesses are hardly profitable due to competition and cost pressure. To come in support of such charges doesn’t mean I am flush with money or I don’t have principles. It just means I probably have a better understanding of how businesses work.

At a philosophical level, I want to be very selective with the battles I want to fight. We are all given limited time and energy - better to avoid penny wise pound foolish situations. Just my humble opinion. Not the popular opinion here as we always encourage fighting against injustice and unfair practices - this to me is a legit business cost probably under an ambiguous heading for reasons best known to them.

[WorkingGuru]

This extends from the concept of MRP, which is a concept that is only good for mass market products, not premium products and premium experiences.

Lexus car prices are premium & the brand purchase experience needs to be premium, but their dealer margins are non-premium. They don't earn exponentially from servicing cars to the extent that (say for example) VAG group dealers who literally mint (which compensates their loss in sales outlets) in car servicing charges.

Also, if PDI charges are added in the cars ex-showroom price, you'll end up paying road tax on that increased price.

Since you don't believe it is acceptable / reasonable, write to Lexus. If they listen, fine. If they don't listen, maybe decide if you want to choose another brand.

[Tanmay007]

Originally Posted by Hayek

You don’t want to start a relationship with a dealer (who will have to service your car over 5+ years and will have discretion on various things) with a fight on less than 1% of the value of your car.

Can't believe people still believe relationship with the dealership has any effect whatsoever on after-sales experience. 99% of service center experience is completely detached from dealership, so much so that you will rarely ever see the faces of the salesperson involved. This is no reason at all to succumb to malpractices/frivolous charges.

[cormodore]

Harsha Toyota is owned by ex-vice president family and they almost have a monopoly of Toyota dealerships in Telugu states. They are very stringent in giving discounts and based on my experience, instead of working though Toyota(once they get to know that you have raised a complaint with Toyota against them, they don't heed to your voice and they will be pretty adamant to charge you the amount), you should rather work with the higher-ups at the dealership to reduce or remove the PDI/handling charges.

Ultimately, if they reduce the amount, enjoy the car, if they don't reduce, take the bitter pill and enjoy the car. Sometimes we need to let go off these trivial hindrances(especially dealing with businesses backed by political bigwigs) and enjoy the better things.

Advance congratulations on your new car.

[navin]

Originally Posted by pranad

This hidden charge was cleverly masked in the road tax component of the quotation with a few abbreviations put up next to it.

Originally Posted by Hayek

No point making a fuss about these things.

Originally Posted by Hayek

But if you look at the quote posted by the OP, it says Registration Charges plus TR, PDI etc. Yes that could have been spelt out but it is certainly not underhand.

Originally Posted by Hayek

Lexus is taking the call that ₹40 k is peanuts in the context of a ₹75 l purchase

We are dealing with two issues here.

1. Is the charge of Rs. 40,000 (in this case) justified? In a broader sense, are the charges under the various heads charged by dealerships justified?

2. Shouldn't the dealership be more transparent and offer a detailed/itemised explanation for each charge?

I don't think there is much of an argument about the issue of transparency. And maybe this is what we should aim to get dealerships to be.

Justification of charges, especially when they are deemed to be "mandatory", is about perception. How many here question the "mandatory" service charge (usually ranging between 10-12.5%) most restaurants charge?

It is a customer's right to question and require justification for any charges. Dealerships shouldn't be permitted to get away with lumping charges under Service charges, PDI, FSI, or any other acronym they conjure. I, for one would like to know what "service" did the dealership provide Hayek for 51k or Turbanator for 95k. If we don't question them, they will soon charge us for ensuring there is air in the tyres.

When I joined Team-BHP, I did so because its philosophy was to serve the Indian customer and ensure (to the best of its ability) that Indian customers aren't shortchanged by the very companies that often offer better service and value to their customers outside India. This begins with questioning the car companies and, by extension, their dealers.

From where I sit, 40k, 51k, or 95k isn't exactly chump change, even if the vehicle costs 75L or 95L. A penny saved is 2 pennies earned.

[the_bat]

Originally Posted by pranad

I will be sure to escalate this to Lexus and Toyota corporate teams to ensure they act in this matter failing which I will consider legal action against the dealer and Lexus/Toyota. Will keep you guys posted on my progress.

Hello,

The PDI amount charged by Lexus is truly atrocious and I know what impact it can have while getting your new ride.

I am willing to contact the Lexus Chennai branch at Ambattur. Please let me know if you want me to do it.

And a kind request to let us know the outcome of raising this with Toyota/Lexus management.

[nomad47]

Really surprised by some of the replies here. Understandable that this is chump change for some, but from overall perspective, it's still a significant amount. If OP has already agreed on the on road price without going into the details of the cost components it's on OP. But, if the dealer clubbed this with RTO charges and made it look like mandatory, it's scummy practice by the dealer. It might not be illegal to charge such a charge, but definitely not ethical.
As someone said, if it's a hot selling model and one has to compromise and accept the terms of the dealership. If not, one can walk away from the deal and look elsewhere.
If we start accepting such practices, we might see other "charges" added by dealership.

[V.Narayan]

Could the OP share what is the status on this issue. Thanks.