[etchemkay]

This is an account of the horrible experience I've had the displeasure of experiencing while purchasing a SX4 ZXi VVT from MyCar Wakad (Pune).

Some background:
I sold my 4.5 years old Fiat Palio 1.2 NV ELX (Grey) to a friend 15 days back. In the meanwhile, after much research, I finalized on the SX4 ZXi as a viable upgrade to my faithful Itialian beauty. Spoke to 3-4 dealers in Pune (MyCar, Mahalaxmi, Ace Kudale, Sai Service, etc.) and inquired about availability of an Azure Grey ZXi (MT) piece of 2011 make - I was kind of adamant about the 2011 make. The general response that I got from most dealers was that a 2011 make vehicle could be delivered only around a month later. Mycar, on the other hand, promised a delivery as soon as my finance paperwork was done (17th Feb was my preference because it was an auspicious day according to my mother). Since I wanted to take the car for a holiday with friends planned for the 19th, it fit perfectly into my plans and I decided to go with MyCar.

Now for the real story:
Being a t-bhp member and learning from all the useful threads here, I obviously asked to inspect the car in the stockyard before I signed any papers related to registration, insurance or finance.

Thursday, Feb 10th: I went to the MyCar showroom with my wife and mother to show them the car, get their inputs regarding the color (there was a battle between French Eclair(wife's choice) and Azure Grey(mine) which I won in the end ). After their nod in the positive regarding the car and after final bit of haggling regarding accessories (I was promised 15K worth of accessories free from the dealer), I paid a booking amount of Rs.10000/-. I was told that a new shipment of cars was to be delivered that evening and that the car allotted to me was in that shipment. Yippee!

Saturday, Feb 12th: My wife and I went to the stockyard with the MyCar sales rep (Swapnil Kulkarni) to take our first look at the car. Needless to say, we were very excited. I had done my homework by preparing the checklist of points to consider while inspecting a car (thanks to some great t-bhp articles). After reaching the stockyard, all 3 of us started looking around to locate the car. We could find no Azure Grey SX4 ZXi MT in there. There were only 2 Azure grey SX4s there - 1 VXi and one (what we thought was a) ZDi with the body kit. Obviously, we were bummed. After waiting another 15-20 minutes, the sales rep returned with chassis and engine numbers written on a piece of paper. He called out to us that he had found the car and showed us the same car with the body kit and said - "yeh aapki gaadi hai sir". I got pissed off for a few reasons -

1. The car had a body kit already attached which was wierd because I thought that such kits were fitted at the dealership, not by Maruti
2. Second, and more shocking, the car clearly had the sticker marks of a DDiS badge having been removed from under the side indicators in the front. When I pointed out the obvious, he remained adamant that this was the car allotted to me.
3. The inside of the car obviously looked used - transparent matting already installed, seats without plastic wrapping, bits of snacks littered all over the floor, empty water bottles in front seat pockets, etc.
4. Fourth, and even more shocking, the car was ALREADY REGISTERED and had a proper (black lettering on white) MH-14 numberplate on both front and back sides.
5. Supposedly, the car had been delivered to the stockyard just 2 days back. Yet, with the amount of dust settled on the car, one could easily make out that it had been standing there at least 2 weeks, if not a month.

After I pointed out all these things to the salesman, he had no answer and he went off to speak to his "team leader". After a while, he came back, apologized, and said that there was some mixup in the delivery and that my car was sent to the Mahalunge stockyard instead. I asked him if we can go to that other stockyard and he said that it is very far (25kms). The sales rep (and his team leader) promised that the car would be brought to the Wakad stockyard the following day. My wife and I were bummed, smelled something fishy, but gave him the benefit of doubt and decided to follow up on Sunday.

Sunday, Feb 13th:
I called up on Sunday and was told that the correct car had been brought down from the Mahalunge stockyard that morning. I again went to the stockyard with the sales rep hoping to see a gleaming new ZXi waiting for me to plonk my money down. But, alas .. The car that the sales rep points to and says, again, "yeh aapki gaadi hai sir" also has the body kit on it. Obviouly, there's a big red flag waving in my mind. The flag started waving even more frantically after I noticed the following -

1. The body kit was already installed. It also had a different, bigger exhaust tip (not sure if it comes as part of the body kit)
2. There was no VVT badge anywhere on the car.
3. The seats did not have plastic covers on them. Although the matting was missing (so was the usual brown paper), one could make out that this was a recently cleaned up car. The seat pockets obviously looked used and had dirt marks on them,
4. The car already had dark films on the side windows
5. On close inspection, I could make out that the area around the front numberplate had several, distinct marks from someone trying to yank the numberplate out with a screwdriver. There were sticker marks from a double-sided industrial-strength tape.
6. I saw 2 tickets (similar to parking tickets) in the car which had Maruti logo on them and looked like stockyard entry/exit tickets. The date on them said 10th Jan and 4th Jan. It did not mention any information on the location though.
7. The other ZXi car (with DDiS badge, body kit and MH-14 registration) was nowhere to be found.

I concluded from all of the above that this was the same car that I saw the day before, just cleaned up. I went ballistic on the sales rep after I heard his answers for these questions -

• Q:Why is the body kit already installed when I didn't even ask for it?
  A:Sir, this is how Maruti sent us the car.
• Q:What will you do with the body kit since I don't want it?
  A:Sir, we will give it to you.
• Q:For free ?!
  A:< no answer >
• Q:Why is there no VVT badge on the car?
  A: Sir, I had it removed so that we could polish the car before you take delivery
• Q:Please get the keys - I want to see the odo reading.
  A: Sir, all keys are stored in the stockyard office - no keys are allowed inside
• Q:Can you show me ANY other car in this stockyard which does not have the keys inside it?
  A: Ok sir, I will get the keys. (The odo reading was 63 kms.)
• Q:When was this car brought to this stockyard?
  A: Sir, I drove it down from Mahalunge myself, last night.
• Q:How far is that from Wakad?
  A: Very far sir, it is at least 25 kms. (I looked it up on Google maps just now and found that it is more like 5 kms)
• Q:Can you show me any documentation proving that this car was brought into this stockyard last night like you mentioned?
  A: < no answer >
• Q:Where is the other ZXi car that we saw the other day?
  A: < no answer >
• Q:Can you show me any documentation to show that the car we saw the other day has been removed from this stockyard since yesterday?
  A: < no answer >

I went back to the showroom where I spoke to the Sales Manager (Mr. Deepak Salunkhe) who listened to all the evidence I had collected (I took snaps of everything) and promised that he would do a root-cause-analysis and find out what went wrong. I ignored all his promises and asked him to cancel my booking with immediate effect. I also threatened to escalate this (with evidence) to higher authorities in Maruti if I was not given a complete analysis of why this happened before Tuesday EOD. I took his business card, wrote down all my questions to him, asked him not to call me at all to try to persuade me into keeping the booking and left the showroom.

This was a shocking experience for me and I understand now the extent to which sales people can give you blatant lie after blatant lie just to get your business.

I will update this thread once I hear back from MyCar regarding this.

[amitoj]

Thank TBHP for the checklist and your acute observation of the state of the car! It seems you have managed to walk out of a swindling operation without any damage.
Please DO escalate this matter further.

[etchemkay]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Thank TBHP for the checklist and your acute observation of the state of the car! It seems you have managed to walk out of a swindling operation without any damage.

Yup, many thanks to this wonderful community and all its members.

Originally Posted by amitoj

Please DO escalate this matter further.

Does anyone have contact details for any Business Development or Sales Manager in Maruti (for Pune city or Maharashtra state or the western zone) who I can take this further with?

[Alter_Ego]

@etchemkay cancel the booking buddy and book it through some other maruti dealership.
Me and a couple of other t-bhpians have had their share of crap from Mycar.
Though I can still vouch that Maruti as a brand still cares of what its customers feel but the management of Mycar gives a damn about the customer priorities.
Just an example is this thread:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ss-bhopal.html

And there are tons of such pathetic experience MYcar stories.

Anyways would congratulate you that you religiously followed the t-bhp guidelines.They make a lot of difference.Otherwise Mycar would have been easily able to fool you and a used SX4 would have been currently parked in your parking lot.

[kevinephraim]

Do post pictures of this entire sham / scam. Looking forward to Updates on this. And do escalate this further with higher authorities.

[bblost]

@etchemkay: I seriously don't know if I should laugh or cry at the stupid cunning of My Car.

Please do escalate the issue with Maruti. They will do something about this.

and thank God that your smarts were better than their cunning. Buy an Sx4, its a lovely car but not from these idiots.

[etchemkay]

Originally Posted by Alter_Ego

@etchemkay cancel the booking buddy and book it through some other maruti dealership.
Me and a couple of other t-bhpians have had their share of crap from Mycar.
Though I can still vouch that Maruti as a brand still cares of what its customers feel but the management of Mycar gives a damn about the customer priorities.
Just an example is this thread:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ss-bhopal.html

And there are tons of such pathetic experience MYcar stories.

Anyways would congratulate you that you religiously followed the t-bhp guidelines.They make a lot of difference.Otherwise Mycar would have been easily able to fool you and a used SX4 would have been currently parked in your parking lot.

Wow! I've washed my hands off MyCar forever. I really wished they were good because they are conveniently located from my home and office. But, better go that extra mile than regret later..

Originally Posted by bblost

@etchemkay: I seriously don't know if I should laugh or cry at the stupid cunning of My Car.

Please do escalate the issue with Maruti. They will do something about this.

and thank God that your smarts were better than their cunning. Buy an Sx4, its a lovely car but not from these idiots.

I thought the same .. How could they even think of selling a car in such a state to any person with even half a brain ?! I just wish they don't find any unsuspecting simpleton to hand over the car to ..

[narayanang76]

This really looks like a ploy of selling a used / test drive / demo car to an unsuspecting buyer. But you caught them red handed!

Please escalate this to Maruti with evidence and more details. Please also share this team BHP thread details with them

AND - DO NOT go the dealer again, get your money back and go to another dealer in your place (even it is slightly far, delivery date is late etc)

regards,
narayanang76

[Habanero City]

Originally Posted by narayanang76

This really looks like a ploy of selling a used / test drive / demo car to an unsuspecting buyer. But you caught them red handed!

Please escalate this to Maruti with evidence and more details. Please also share this team BHP thread details with them

AND - DO NOT go the dealer again, get your money back and go to another dealer in your place (even it is slightly far, delivery date is late etc)

regards,
narayanang76

I fully agree to what Narayanan has said above.
You HAVE enough evidence to put forth your case not only for your benefit but also for the benefit of many other "simpletons' who might get cheated by this dealership.
In my experience with Maruti, they are very sensitive to Customer and you should report this not only to the regional maruti office but also their sales head offices in New Delhi and Gurgaon.
Please take up this task for the sake of protecting others who might for prey to this dealer in future.

HC

[etchemkay]

Chassis Number -


No VVT badge -


Tampering of the license plate -


Engine Bay -


Body Kit -



Seat Covers -


State of the front discs -

[Thar4x4]

Hi etchemkay,

Go to Chowgule at following address:

This is newly established showroom, sales guys are very friendly and professional, I inquired here about Gypsy and to my surprise they spent half hour with me to give me information, in my experience no other showroom entertain for Gypsy.

Let me know if you need more details about the team lead their.

Ambegaon

Survey No.1,
Next to Poddar International School
Ambegaon Budruk, Katraj Bypass Road
Ambegaon, Pune 411046
Phone (Sales) : 020 - 66803500
(Service) : 020 - 66803555
Fax : -
Email (Sales) : ambegaon.sales@chowguleind.com
(Service) : ambegaon.service@chowguleind.com

[narayanang76]

Your chasis number indicates that it is a Feb 2011 car - from VIN decoding methodology.

Is it possible that the car is ordered to someone else, who cancelled the booking and Mycar is selling it to you. The car also looks like manhandled inappropriately.

What is Mycar thinking I dont understand, for someone who didnt ask for bodykit why are they giving it - if this car didnt have bodykit then the obvious spotting might be tough and could pass through unsuspecting customers (not you etchemkay I am sure you will spot them too)

[Live To Jive]

Originally Posted by etchemkay

We could find no Azure Grey SX4 ZXi MT in there. There were only 2 Azure grey SX4s there - 1 VXi and one (what we thought was a) ZDi with the body kit.

Second, and more shocking, the car clearly had the sticker marks of a DDiS badge having been removed from under the side indicators in the front. When I pointed out the obvious, he remained adamant that this was the car allotted to me.

AFAIK the SX4 is not available in ZDi trim and DDiS engine. This is only for the Dzire.

[etchemkay]

Originally Posted by Live To Jive

AFAIK the SX4 is not available in ZDi trim and DDiS engine. This is only for the Dzire.

The SX4 is, in fact, available in ZDi trim. I saw 3-4 white diesels in the stockyard myself.

Originally Posted by narayanang76

Your chasis number indicates that it is a Feb 2011 car - from VIN decoding methodology.

Actually, that can't be the case. The snap of these parking/stockyard retreival tickets is proof. You can zoom in and see that the dates on this are as early as 4th January.

Originally Posted by Thar4x4

Hi etchemkay,

Go to Chowgule at following address:

This is newly established showroom, sales guys are very friendly and professional, I inquired here about Gypsy and to my surprise they spent half hour with me to give me information, in my experience no other showroom entertain for Gypsy.

Let me know if you need more details about the team lead their.

....

Thanks a lot, Thar. I will definitely call them. I'm already in talks with Mahalaxmi Motors (Senapati Bapat Road) as well. They, too, are a new showroom in Pune.

Note from the Team-BHP Support Team : Please use the "edit" button if posting within 20 minutes of the first post, instead of creating another back-to-back post.

Also use "Multi Quote" option for quoting Multiple posts.

[narayanang76]

Sorry Jan 2011 - my bad.

Last 2 alphabets are AB - meaning January 2011. (Details below)

The month codes are giving below

A= JAN
B= FEB
C= MAR
D= APR
E= MAY
F= JUNE
G= JULY
H= AUG
J= SEP
K= OCT
L= NOV
M= DEC

The YEAR codes

B=2011
A=2010
9=2009
8=2008
7=2007
6=2006
5=2005

The Tickets also shows it as Maruti SX4 ZXi MT, Azure Grey Color, BS IV - so the make model is correct isnt it?

narayanang76