[maximus_fiat]

Is it not possible for a dealership to return the car to the factory ? I understand there will be transportation charges but it is much easier for a company to allocate the car to a dealership pan India.

[Voodooblaster]

The dealership has genuine business concerns as they don’t want to be saddled with a car in a Color that’s not popular, in the event buyer rejects the car for any reason

An acquaintance working in a dealership informed their protocol when faced with similar preferences of customer (customer wanted a Petrol AT Innova in a unique colour). Dealership accepted booking only after collecting a 25% non refundable advance and took a state from customer in stamp paper confirming make, model and colour combo. They also put in the clause that customer will forfeit advance if he cancelled or modified the order.

[HighRevving]

Originally Posted by arsachdeva

Anyone having a similar experience? Or have an opinion, do share please.

PS: I am a bit annoyed at friends judging me for odd choices all my life. So, if you want to judge, please do all you can (and write about it even) but make sure to answer my question - what’s it with judgment about odd colors?

I know about resale value, hardships for dealerships and all other sane reasons. What to do if still I want to buy a car in an unconventional color?

Thank you for starting an interesting discussion. From driving cars for over 2 decades and owning them for over 15 years, I think I have some experience with what you are saying.

Let me digress a little. It's the era of seeking others' consent and appreciation than self-satisfaction. If someone travels outside the country, they want to post it on social media and have numerous people they haven't met in their life, like and comment on their posts. It's not enough if the family and friends they are travelling with, are happy.

No wonder many people want to buy a car that their friends and relatives feel envious about. Even if they run the car for 2,000 KMs in a year. The car is a status symbol, a thing to show-off and something to be proud of - instead of driving it, visiting places they've never visited and enjoying road travel in general.

If you have noticed, regular passenger cars till very recently used to be sold only in a few standard colours except for sports cars like Porsche or Lamborghini. But now people have started selling them in very different colours - in fact, I don't even know what a colour tropical mist could look like. If the adjectives next to the colours, like pearl silver or midnight black were not enough, now they have very new ways of describing colours. Now what this brings to the table is, a lot of attention and criticism; positive and negative alike. If you buy a car today and tell your friend "hey look, I booked a Tata Punch" the first thing they will ask will probably not be "what variant?" "petrol or diesel?". It will be "what colour?".

People like to talk about it on social media. Why get there, just look at the "I booked my car thread" here on the forum. This means you ask friends, family and a whole lot of strangers for their opinion. When you book a car colour that is off-beat, people will mostly have some strange thing to say about it. Like, "did you get a hefty discount?" "weren't other colours available?" "but why? it looks like baby poop brown!" "Congratulations, but I think Punch looks best in XYZ colour". If you ask me why people say all these things, I have no answer - maybe everyone seeks attention and opinions and they assume even you do.

What could come out of this is regret and sometimes, remorse. As a customer when someone comes to cancel the booking or change the colour, the dealership can only oblige. The waiver letter they got you to sign may not hold good beyond a point. If the car booking gets cancelled or they have to change the colour, it is more painful than getting the customer to buy a run of the mill colour in the first place. In your case, you are very clear about your decision, not many people have that much clarity in their head. Some crumble soon, some later. As far as your decision of buying an off-beat colour is concerned, I think it is your money and no one should have any problem with it - even if they do, you should not have two craps to give.

But if someone wanted to experiment with extremely off-beat colours, I would suggest they try wrapping their car; lose much less money in the process and retain much better resale value.

[n33rav]

This reminds me of an conversation I had with my sales guy while I bought Ignis 2 years ago. There was Orange Ignis Zeta on display. I asked him whether anyone buy this color or not. He said, one customer booked it and then end up not buying it. They have this car since 6 months. They use it as display car. If I want it they can offer me some good discount, 30k he was readily offering. I wasn't interested, I bought Blue. After 5 month, I went with my brother for his Baleno inquiry. That orange Ignis was still there.

Having witness this, I don't think dealership did anything wrong confirming your decision twice.

[Vinod_nair]

Nice thread, I love offbeat colours, actually me and wife were quite done with white and silver/gray pallet for our cars.

We're in our 60's, we have 2 striking car colours for our present ride.
A 2016 Dazzle Blue 🔵 Nano XTA.
And 2018 Etna Orange 🍊 Nexon XMA.

Let me talk about the Nexon, around June/July '18 Tata launched Nexon XMA, I went to book it at Sai Motors, Kanpur, I knew the GM and mentioned my variant choice and colour, this was 25th July, he made a couple of calls and assured me that they will ship my choice in the coming week shipment. I gave him a 10k cheque as advance, and he delivered my Nexon on 30th.

This is my Nexon after 4 and half years.

[Intelsingh]

Apparently, the dealerships don't have a say in this matter. The car manufacturers wait for a certain number of cars to be booked so they can paint them in a single lot. This can take time, thus the booking amount is usually a tad bit higher, and non refundable.

[Ton Ami]

The dealership will assess its risk factors for any investment. In your case, dealership would have happily offered you exotic colours had you made 100% advance payment.

Since, you couldn't risk your money before PDi nor could dealership risk ordering a hard to sell colour.
Nothing unusual here, its all part of their business.

[FLYBOYSID]

Originally Posted by Vinod_nair

I went to book it at Sai Motors, Kanpur, I knew the GM .

Any possible leads, my not so off beat to be tata safari is booked with them.

[Vinod_nair]

Originally Posted by FLYBOYSID

Any possible leads, my not so off beat to be tata safari is booked with them.

Are you from Kanpur? The GM I knew left long time back.

However if you need help send me a PM, and I'll see what can be done.

[FLYBOYSID]

Originally Posted by Vinod_nair

Are you from Kanpur? The GM I knew left long time back.

However if you need help send me a PM, and I'll see what can be done.

Good evening sir, still not qualified enough to send you a PM.
I am from Kanpur and have booked my car with Sai motors. While dealers in NCR are promising me a delivery for the same colour and variant within 3 weeks. Updated vehicles have started reaching their showrooms. Even after a month of booking Sai motors here tells me it will take another 3 months . Their Customer Relations head too did not sound very pacifying. Seemed more of an effort to cull the tweet I made..

Would be grateful if I could get any sort of heads up on this. Tweeting to Tata Motors and their customer care follow up did not help much.

[Vinod_nair]

Originally Posted by FLYBOYSID

Good evening sir, still not qualified enough to send you a PM.
I am from Kanpur and have booked my car with Sai motors.

Please check your email, and send me the details.

Regards

[FLYBOYSID]

Originally Posted by Vinod_nair

Please check your email, and send me the details.

Regards

Thanks sir for the help and the prompt response. Finally I cancelled the booking for my Safari XZA+. Not listed in CSD anymore. Rebooked a #Dark edition in the same trim. Hopefully this time the wait will seem fair.

[Vinod_nair]

Originally Posted by FLYBOYSID

Thanks sir for the help and the prompt response. Finally I cancelled the booking for my Safari XZA+. Not listed in CSD anymore. Rebooked a #Dark edition in the same trim. Hopefully this time the wait will seem fair.

Good move Sid, is this with the red interiors? Looks killer in this combo.

[FLYBOYSID]

Originally Posted by Vinod_nair

Good move Sid, is this with the red interiors? Looks killer in this combo.

I agree that the #Red Dark edition looks stunning. I simply love the very subtle hints of Red on the exteriors. Its beautiful. The interiors however seem too Red for my liking. I would have rather preferred, red inserts or Red stitched upholstery. I wont say I hate the interiors of the Red Dark edition but certainly don’t love it. Therefore its the normal #dark edition for me. Another two of my friends here have also booked the same with the same dealer.

[Falling star]

Originally Posted by karanddd

Indian car buyers are extremely conservative regarding colours. Driving around in India you see a sludge of white and grey everywhere you look, even black is rare.

Your comment reminded me of a beautiful line by Jason Cammisa from Hagerty's review of the Ford Bronco Raptor. Attaching a time-stamped link to the same.

https://youtu.be/QBM6cS_dRns?t=840