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Well we know that cars being driven from Factory or to and fro from yard is an unavoidable bit but what really irks me is that new customer vehicles being given for TD with Odo removed. And all this happens with the complicity of the company officials

IMHO....

For the dealers & factory personnel "A NEW" vehicle would be another unit with a unique Chassis number, tehy would go around doing their job without any emotions attached. I can draw a parallel to a doctor treating his/her patients, while working with patients there can be no emotions attached.

Another parallel can be drawn to our flats/bunglows/apartments, As it is generally seen during the construction phase there would be the labour class families who would be living within the four walls of these semi finished structures.

Taking the above argument further, most of us will have no clue from which jungle/mountain/cemetery/cremation groundthe material has been sourced or rather supplied.

To ward off any such evils and for good luck, we are taught to pray for the new house, do a havan and so on and so forth. That is why we do a "pooja" either in our homes or on the first day for our vehicles.

In today's age wherein Organ transplants and blood transfusions are possible in humans and virginity is a thing of the past.

IMHO ....One should not be too hasseled with a few 100 kms on the ODO.

Yes, if there is something one wants to do, then we should help unsuspecting consumers be aware of unfair trade practices by these manufacturers and their dealers.

Like I was sold a 2005 submerged vehicle.

In the UK I think the limit on the OD used to be 50 miles for the car to be called new!

I am going OT here, sorry.. but i feel before delivering the stock car to customer, there are instances of the same being used for Test drives too. I am sure these dealers would be disconnecting the ODO wire for the same.

My personal experiences:

Incident 1: When I was doing TD before buying my current car, I had visited Grande Honda in Pune for TD of the NHC. I was given 2 cars - one GXi and one VTEC for TD and both of these were new without any plates. My mistake that I did not check the odo. I found this strange, no wonder Grande Honda has been since shut by Honda.

Incident 2: One of my friend had asked for TD of Fabia and the dealer rep came with a shiny car. The guy was not well versed in dealing with customers and soon it slipped out that the car was not a demo car but a customer car which was to be delivered 2 days later. Never had this issue with the i20, i10, Ritz, Linea TDs, they were all proper demo cars.

Next time, I will ensure that I note the chasis number of such cars.

Now a days most of the cars carry demo stickers on the car itself. When i took delivery of my Santro it was 3.7 kms on the ODO :)

I would like to add on to the condition which i had noticed in MPL ford stockyard near medavakkam. The cars were all standing in hot sun and they were waiting for their rightful owners. Mine was there in the stockyard for about 1.5 months and during PDI check these guys did clear all the dust and the rust in the discs before it was delivered to me.

Its always advised to do an antirust underbody treatment when you buy your new car so that you are protected for next 5 years :)

One of my colleagues in Trivandrum wanted to buy a Getz CRDi in 2008. We checked with both delaers in TRV, after a long wait one of them finally got us a test drive car. Three of us ripped the car from head to tow, as it was the first timewe were all driving the crdi Getz and the sheer power mesmerised us. Obviously we liked the test drive and my friend booked the car. We had taken note of the odo readings as well as the VIN of the test drive car (team bhp effect, lucky us)...

2 weeks later, the new (as they said) car was delivered at my friends place... surprisingly, the car had the same odo reading as the test drive car... on checking the VIN, we found that it was the same car that we had test driven. The mechanics had forgeotten to reconnect the odo cable... we were lucky to find this, created a fuss and ensured that the car was taken back... finally after another month, my friend was given a brand new Getz CRdi... He was lucky.. but, I am sure the old test drive car would have been given to some unsuspecting customer. This is the bad state of affairs in any car delaership...

The customer is more or less on his own... He/she should try their best not to get ripped by the delaers/manufacturers... once ripped, as we read in many threads here, its hard to be indemnified...

This practice still continues. Many dealers have their stockyards in Taloja and beyond Panvel. You can see drivers with brand new vehicles picking up passangers. At times some of my office guys have travelled from Taloja to Navi Mumbai in sheer luxury.

What is worse than the above is that dealerships are loathe to put fuel in the car even though they make more than enough to give us a tankfull. What happens is that to save on fuel the cars are driven with windows down and exposed to all sort of smoke, odours etc etc and when they are delivered the new car smell is simply missing. Work or no work I pick up my car from the stockyard with the sales executive or the driver sitting besides me. It isn't something that one needs to do every other day, so make time and try it, you will love the new car smell.

khoj revived this old thread last march, i'm gonna do it this year. When I went for a sales enquiry at TVS Trivandrum for a Bolero, they old me quite honestly that the vehicles were brought by truck to Palakkad, and then driven down to dealerships throughout Kerala. It's the same for all M&M vehicles. I saw a crumpled up brand new Major in the workshop. It collided with a bus on the drive down. It's a sad, sad fact that every vehicle will be abused by throttle happy showroom idiots before being handed over to the paying customer. The worst thing is that they justify it by gratuitously informing the customer that 'these new engines don't need running in, saar, you can take it to 120kph right out of the showroom'. In particular, I must mention the TVM Popular Hyundai sales staff. They rip the life out of every car they drive. I've seen them in more than once accident, and have lost count of the times they barely miss hitting a divider or an oncoming vehicle, while swinging widly in and out of traffic. I have been forced off the road multiple times while on my bike by these moronic thugs in an i20. Regarding 'breaking in', I think that it should be done by the buyer's choice, don't you?

I know what system Tata follows for transportation of Tata and Fiat cars. A fully owned subsidiary of TML called TMLD( Tata Motors Limited Distribution Company), takes all the cars and transports them to the regional depots, spread throughout the country. This transportation is done by TMLD at its cost, which then charges some amount to the dealers. From here to the actual dealer depot, its the responsibilty and liability of the dealer only.

Any damage of the vehicle in transit upto TMLD depots is to be taken care of by TML, but from then onwards its the dealer's responsibility. Also there is a limit upto which the the car can be driven to the dealership, over that limit the vehicles have to be transported by truck.

In the case of Mahindra I have seen quite a few vehicles being driven to the dealerships. I happened to ask such a guy on the outskirts of Guwahati, he said he had to drive the vehicle all the way from Siliguri to Dibrugarh. And this was the case for all Mahindra vehicles, from the Maxx to the Scorpio VLX. I was a bit shocked, as I regularly saw trucks transporting all kinds of cars, Maruti and Hyundai being very common.

I happen to travel from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai and back daily. And I do pass the 'ínfamous' octroi naka daily. I happen to see a lot of brand new cars being driven to and from the octroi point to the dealerships in proper Mumbai by the drivers and not even once have I seen a driver drive any of these beauties (mercedes', audis, beemers, range rovers, jaguars etc) rashly. Very rarely do I see even their windows shut, in the most sweltering of heat, which speaks of their dedication to their job. Dust going into the car with open windows is another issue, but still. Most drivers I have seen driving these cars are sedate, responsible and stick to the slow lane.
{well, almost, once I did see a Toyota camry being driven SUPER madly by a driver and I even heard her hit the rev limiter in First (OUCH AND ONE MORE OUCH) from the signal. Pity for an engine that's run only 20-30 km }

With a number of threads talking about the ODO being disconnected i think it becomes very scary for a newbie taking the delivery. Even if the ODO shows 30-50 Kms the person is not really sure if the car has been used as a test drive vehicle earlier. :eek: This might be off topic but any quick tips for a newbie to find this out.

Have a look at the tread of the tyres. There will be a white/red line running along the centre. This will disappear if the car is driven 100 - 150 KM. Similarly there should be slight strips of rubber (from the mould) projecting from the centre of the tread. If the line is missing, the car has done at least 150 KM. If the rubber strips are missing, it has done at least 300 KM. Refer to the spare tyre to see what I am talking about.

A good method is to forego the choice of color and ask for the latest color introduced. It would have spent the least time at the dealership.