Well, I've been reading all the threads about crappy dealers in Bangalore (specifically maruti ones). I figured this would be a good time to post up something good about a dealer.
To date, we've bought 3 cars from Trident Hyundai in bangalore.
The first one was a 1998 Hyundai Santro. Ours was the 101st Santro to be registered in Bangalore. When we went for the test drive, I noticed that the test drive cars rear door wasn't closing properly. So tried closing it twice (unsuccessfully). The salesperson shouted at me for fiddling around. This pissed me off cos its not like I was a little kid that he could shout at me like that. My dad stepped in and in front of all the customers at Trident, took the salespersons trip about it. Eventually, Cdr Kumar (the head of the dealership) came down and lo and behold, it turns out he's an old friend of my dad's (used to be in the Navy together).
Anyway, Cdr Kumar sealed the deal himself and we booked a beige santro the very same day. Our experiences with the Santro were quite a revelation (our prior cars were M800s, Fiats, Ambys n such). The first batch of Santro's did have some issues with the steering and bushes n such. And my dad is a stickler for quality. So almost every month, he used to go to Trident to try to get them to hear the noises that he kept hearing (I think more than half the noises were imaginary
). But the interesting part is that the service guys were very patient and helpful all the time.
When it came time to upgrade the Santro, we checked out the usual suspects (Accent, Ikon, Esteem, etc). But our experiences with Trident convinced us that an Accent was what was right for us. So in 2003, we picked up a Silver Accent GVS. We thoroughly enjoyed the Accent and found that the quality of parts and interiors was really pretty good (for a Korean brand).
Come Feb 2005, Company decides to give Dad a car. So dad sells his accent and guess which car he asks the company to buy? A new Silver Accent GLE
However, this time, things weren't quite perfect at delivery time. The guys at Trident were supposed to give us the car with mud flaps. But when we went to pick up the car, they hadn't fit them yet and not even installed the CD player. As usual, Dad blew a fuse and vented his anger on the poor salesperson there. But the salesperson didn't loose his cool and was very cordial and apologetic. Well, in about an hours time, the stuff was finally fixed and the car pronounced ready for delivery. We walked around the car checking it carefully, and when I opened the boot, I realised that the boot wasn't closing properly. The lock part on the lid and the body of the car didn't line up perfectly. So you had to bang the lid down to make sure it shuts properly. This was too much for dad and even before the service guy could say anything or offer to fix it, dad told him and the salesperson that this was the last Hyundai he was ever going to guy in his life. Then we got in and drove back home.
An hour later, Cdr Kumar called dad and spoke to him about the issues. Next day, a service guy comes to dads office and within an hour, he has the boot fixed.
Throughout our experiences with Trident, I have to admit that things could have been a lot worse. But touch wood, we've been lucky. What I like about Trident is how they retain customers. Everytime there's a new car launch, we get a call from them offering a test drive (with no strings attached or no commitments expected). They just send the car for a drive, with a full tank of gas and then return after the test drive. Thus far, we've test driven all the cars in the Hyundai stable at our leisure.
I remember, somewhere in 2000, my dad was invited to a meeting at Ashoka Hotel with Hyundai India and some other Hyundai owners. The owners got a chance to explain their complaints/suggestions to the Hyundai management. And the best part of all, about a year later, when Hyundai released another version of the Santro, they had incorporated some of the suggestions and fixed issues with the car.
I have to admit that if ever I decide to buy a car when in India, it will be a Hyundai and it will be from Trident.