[ash22]

Oops. This is the far worst experience man.
Thar 2.0 is a Freshly baked product and it is bound to have niggles. But the experience what you have undergone is horrible.

He then goes on to tell me that I have customers who are willing to give me One lakh in black to get the car delivered to them and the dealer will not hold the car for long and the dealer will cancel your brothers booking and give the car to someone else.

The SA gets one lakh in black to cancel other customer's booking? This is extreme arrogance.

[Pulse500]

Originally Posted by 13thpsycho

After about 2 kilometres of driving there was a ding on the instrument cluster. The check engine light came on. I thought it is going to go away after I stop and fuel up. The petrol pump was close so I decided I will stop and check there. On reaching the pump I noticed white smoke coming out of the front grill.

Sad to know what you have gone through with a brand new car. Dealers often wash the car engine bay post PDI and before delivery or during any free/paid services. My experience with Mahindra cars after engine bay wash (~6 times in last 9+ years of ownership) has been consistently bad.

It seems that cleaning solvents (diesel, detergent solutions, water etc) often get into some sensors or wiring connectors causing certain sensors to malfunction, or errors showing up on the display. My car's engine RPM also goes up and stays high without any accelerator input after a wash. Once engine warms up, or bay dries up completely, things return to normal. I avoid engine bay pressure wash, and I also avoid driving immediately after any wash.

Additionally, when the Check Engine lamp glows, the engine power is limited (had the same issue with my Accent Viva CRDI), the AC clutch doesn't engage often to minimize load on the engine.

I wonder why Mahindra did not chose better quality connectors or install silicone boots, install better seals or designs for fuse box, ECM etc even after years of learning. In fact, I see the check lamp glowing almost 20% times when I start engine early morning after heavy overnight rains or when humidity is extremely high (Mumbai). I just let the engine warm up a bit, for 2 mins if this happens, shut down, lock, unlock and then restart vehicle, and everything gets normal. This has been my observation for atlast 7 rainy seasons.

About the smoke, I guess it to be vapors of solvents used for underbody treatment or engine bay cleaning or dressing compounds if any, they take atleast 2 hours to sufficiently evaporate in warm temperature conditions.

I do not believe such underbody treatment is necessary at the time of purchase, and dealers MUST refrain from unnecessary treatments or asking customer to pay such extra charges.

[V.Narayan]

Dear @13thpsycho, Never let a crises go waste. Don't lose time writing to Anand Mahindra. I know from my own personal experience that neither he nor his staff reply even to genuine queries for bulk purchases. I doubt he or his office will respond to a serious complaint. After all if complaints were important they would have fixed Thar's famous shortfalls a long time back.

Go for the jugular -Tweet and link as many hashtags as practical. Tweeting is one of Anand Mahindra's chosen mediums to build his public persona. My guess is that is the one M & M will respond to.

[bracesdoctor]

Originally Posted by AMG Power

Sorry to hear about issues on your BRAND new car. This is one of the worst situations that an enthusiast can face. Some responses to your queries.



I wish you had asked the question before you bought a Mahindra Thar, but the short answer is yes.



Extremely bad quality in every area of engineering which is only to be expected from a crappy company except the superficial styling which is a rip off on Jeep’s IPR.



Mahindra, of course!



Yes.


Yes.



Them too.


Most probably yes.

Since it’s straight out of the dealership scenario, leave the car with the dealer and walk away. Ask for a replacement. You have enough ammunition in your arsenal to get it.

A Mahindra is a lemon. This is a lemon redefined.

There is one thing everyone should remember , a registered product is more complicated that just the product . Here the car is registered to the customer . I don’t think they will replace it short of a court order .

[Sumanyu17]

Originally Posted by VRJ

First, Mahindra screws up manufacturing and blames semiconductor shortage. Yes, true there is a shortage, but not at the extent that Mahindra claims. How does Hyundai, with fancy screens, deliver 20,000 (Seltos+Creta) and 25,000 (Venue+Sonet) every month? It’s just poor planning by Mahindra. 5-8 months of waiting for the car and Mahindra delivers lemons. Preposterous.

I read somewhere that during the lockdown when no Manufacturer was buying the semiconductor chips hyundai was buying them and also they hoarded around the end of 2020 seeing a rise in demand. Tells a lot about the vision of leadership.

[RJK]

Originally Posted by 13thpsycho

Problem 3
A day or two before my birthday Mr. Gopal calls me up and tells me what are you doing with the booking are you taking the car or not? I was stunned, when did I say I wasn't taking the car?I have to say and well trained Mahindra sales staff!
Problem 4
He then called me up and told me that you take an extended warranty for 4 years 1,20,000 kms. I told him straight away ok for it. Little did I know it was an extended warranty for one additional year not four.
Problem 5
Mr. Gopal tells me that anti rust coating is already done and I will have to pay 3500 for it. Guys do you see what is happening here?

The Delivery
The car had an ODO reading of 135 kms. I found it to be reasonable considering the commute they have to do from the yard to the showroom and workshop before delivery, mostly for PDI, cleaning and washing, I am assuming. I was ready to forget my sales experience as soon as I drove out of the gates of this dealership but guess what happens next?
There was very little fuel in the car so the first thing was to go fuel up. After about 2 kilometres of driving there was a ding on the instrument cluster. The check engine light came on. I thought it is going to go away after I stop and fuel up. The petrol pump was close so I decided I will stop and check there. On reaching the pump I noticed white smoke coming out of the front grill. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Hey 13thpsycho - I feel your dealer has behaved like your handle, psycho
In all seriousness, I feel you’ve been wronged. However, there seem to have been lapses on your part as well, unfortunately. I’m a little cynical and work with the premise that people are out to get us for each and every rupee; so buyer beware is always in my mind.

Problem 3 - This language from SA should not have been tolerated. I would’ve happily let the car go away if the dealer threatens with 1L black cash etc. I’m not the one to be cornered like that but then again I’m not the one to buy an unproven product from a tractor manufacturer either. I don’t intend to demean you as I understand people have wants of brand new model at their doorsteps.

Problem 4 - Unfortunately oversight on your part. Before committing, I would’ve asked about standard warranty. In any case extended warranty for 1 additional year at 1.2L seems really absurd. Not sure if it’s dealer level or Manufacturer’s warranty. Is it warranty at all or is it an AMC he made you buy?

Problem 5 - I see no reason for you to pay up if dealer went ahead without your permission. This is soft extortion and should not be entertained.

Delivery - If I suspected 135kms were tad much, I would ask! After all it’s your property and not dealers or their employees! The day car is billed and entire amount cleared from your end, it becomes your asset; dealer is from then on the care taker until delivery and has to be reminded so - sternly if needed. We have umpteen examples on the forum how dealerships treat customers vehicles.

My take - I would have definitely done a PDI at the yard, even if it means wasting a day, traveling 100kms away. It has the potential to save the headache that you’re in right now. Oh well, experience.

We bought a new car last month, Toyota product & I went through the exact above steps I surmised above. In fact, once the car lands in yard, I insist on driving it from there to the showroom or take delivery at yard itself on my own. I don’t like anyone driving my car because I know no one will care for it as much as I will, let alone the dealership or yard staff to whom it’s just another car and a chore to complete. Aside from that, dealerships usually employ 3rd party drivers to deliver the car from yard to showroom and I’ve seen how those drivers drive and how they pick up passengers en-route for mere 50-100 bucks extra cash. I have seen this happen multiple times across VW, Skoda, Honda etc.
That’s why I take the pain of doing a PDI before hand and collecting the car from yard itself for past 11 yrs, but that’s just my craziness

With that said, one can’t rule out M&M’s shoddy QA/QC either. However, I’m curious if the initial batch of XUV5OO also faced such trouble, of course not all but If there were reported cases as yours. As others have suggested, tweeting AM is the best weapon you have. And have zero faith in your dealers words, everything to be in writing. He has already shown his colours during the sale transaction.

Sorry for the long response and good luck with your fight.

Cheers

[gururajrv]

Mahindra ramped up their production by introducing 3rd shift (if I vaguely recall) - looks like the production number ramp up is directly proportional to the increasing list of niggles reported across.

Thing with Tata & Mahindra, they make brilliant looking cars and performance oriented ones too with strong construction. But, they neglect the basic QC against the materials used elsewhere in the process of building a car. If they fix it, they’ll be giving all Japanese, Koreans and Germans a run for their money.

I wish you get all your niggles sorted out soon but Thar is a handsome looking car and I tail one whenever I see them on road!

Buying any car = marriage life you get a pinch and you make up with a kiss

[anand_roy]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Go for the jugular -Tweet and link as many hashtags as practical. Tweeting is one of Anand Mahindra's chosen mediums to build his public persona. My guess is that is the one M & M will respond to.

I second this. Try to raise a storm over twitter and tag Mr. Mahindra himself.

I would also suggest to write to all the top executives of Mahindra. They may still not respond on mail but you can grab a screenshot of the mail and put it on Twitter and tag Mr. Mahindra again. Today's corporates generally try to drowse the fire on social media so it might just help.

In this aspect, I see Maruti is much better. The dealers run scared of the company. For the delivery of my S Cross, the dealer was delaying saying the Maruti Dealer Management System was down. I complained for the same to Maruti and there were multiple calls from the dealer regarding why I was complaining. And the car was delivered within a day!

I really hope you get a resolution soon.

[superguy282]

Originally Posted by Sumanyu17

I read somewhere that during the lockdown when no Manufacturer was buying the semiconductor chips hyundai was buying them and also they hoarded around the end of 2020 seeing a rise in demand. Tells a lot about the vision of leadership.

Could you provide the source?

[Sumanyu17]

Originally Posted by superguy282

Could you provide the source?

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/81223225.cms

This should help.

[ganesc]

I can feel your pain, must have completely spoiled the excitement one would have while taking delivery of such a special vehicle.

I think it's more to do with the dealer than Mahindra in this case. Some of the comments are unnecessarily harsh on Mahindra I feel, given that we don't have full details yet. The workshop/delivery guys seem to have messed up the electricals while cleaning/preparing the car for delivery. Some of these chemicals if not cleaned thoroughly can produce smoke with heat.

Hope you have taken videos/photos of smoke, warning lights along with the KM's shown in Odo and to compare it with Odo reading during your delivery photos (Hope you had taken that too). As you named them, better be prepared already.

[venkyhere]

Originally Posted by GTO

However, anyone who is buying a brand new Thar should be doing so with their eyes open. I don't think its possible for them to have a niggle-free experience. Read the Official Review thread & the aforementioned niggles thread, and there is quite a list of niggles! If this is happening in brand new cars with 500 - 5000 km on the odo, more problems will surely crop up as these cars cross 25,000 - 50,000 km and over.

I am surprised you are still using the word "niggles" w.r.t new THAR. The issues (mechanical/sensor/electrical) that OP described, are catastrophic (that's the word) , to put it mildly. It doesn't matter whether it's a vendor issue OR QC check failure at factory OR dealer PDI failure OR dealer recycling damaged car etc etc ---- the issue is fundamental. And using a word like "niggle" (more suited to things like glovebox lock failure or dashboard button break or general rattles) is a disservice to the sheer engineering merit of the issues popping up.

[Herschey]

I stand vindicated of the fact that I didn't vote for the Thar for the TeamBHP COTY Award.

Afterall, why should a car with a copied design, poor mechanicals, failure prone electricals, squeaking hard plastics, and an after sales network which is nothing short of reckless, be even a contender for such a prestigious award?

I like cars that love to be driven on the road, not the ones which either spend time parked in the driveway or at a neighborhood garage.

[jkrishnakj]

This has run to 3 pages with many good thoughts and suggestions and comments/critics from fellow BHP’ians.

I do hope to see an update from the OP. That’ll help the forum and other Thar owners immensely. From what we have seen and read from other Thar owners who had issues, the Dealer and Mahindra were quick to jump in and resolve. I’m more keen to see if the OP had a similar experience.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by gururajrv

Mahindra ramped up their production by introducing 3rd shift (if I vaguely recall) - looks like the production number ramp up is directly proportional to the increasing list of niggles reported across.

Thing with Tata & Mahindra, they they neglect the basic QC against the materials used elsewhere in the process of building a car. If they fix it, they’ll be giving all Japanese, Koreans and Germans a run for their money.

Buying any car = marriage life

It all depends on the specific partner In my experience, the most niggle free cars have been Polo GT TSI and the Renault Duster, on a daily running basis.