Originally Posted by shrinivasap

My experince with Magnum - Honda - in Bangalore has been excellent till date. I always get prompt service reminders, my questions are always answered promptly. well, i never went to their show room for a TD - I just called them to my office and i took 4 TDs to confirm the deal...

Is Magnum Honda a dealer? I thought there are only two Honda dealers (dakshin and whitefield) in Bangalore.

My experience with Dakshin Honda was nothing short of 'fantastic'. I was overwhelmed by the response of the sales guy (prabhudev), but underwhelmed by the car. I did TD twice, first went to the showroom, second, he brought it to my office. At the end, I said: "sorry, I am not too much impressed to make a decision". He said: "no problem sir" and left.

In contrast, the FIAT dealer, Prerana was uninspiring, although not pathetic. After TDing the diesel Linea, I asked the sales guy to call me once the petrol version is available for TD. He agreed, but did not call. After a couple of weeks, he called me to ask whether I have made up my mind. I said: "I had asked you to call me once the petrol is available for TD". He said: "Oh petrol? Not yet available sir. Will call later" Never heard from him since. When the Punto was launched, went there again. They had the silver color on display. I asked the sales guy whether they had a black one to see. He said "No". I asked, do you atleast have a picture? Again "No sir". Then comes: "Sir, just close you eyes and imagine". I didn't wait to take the TD.

Sometimes, I think, if prabhudev was the sales guy at Prerana, I would have already bought a Linea by now. BTW, I have not given up on FIAT yet. Damn the dealers, and the service. I'd rather buy a good car sold by lousy sales guys rather than a mediocre car sold by nice sales guys.

[JVH]

Originally Posted by neotraveller

But, moral of the story is ... irrespective of BRAND, there are bad dealers.
So don't let insignificant things like "I was not offered cold-drinks, they din't get TD vehicle to my house, they din't greet me properly etc" bother you and end up NOT buying what you like!

Well said! This should put an end of arguments to the topic. If we look around the forum, we see disgruntled buyers unhappy with dealers from almost all brands on one issue or the other. I had to go through a horrid experience at Concorde Motors, Mysore road. But I would have bought the product if it was on par with my current ride irrespective of their behaviour.

I am wondering if there were any Jaguar XF sales!

[misquitas]

Originally Posted by neotraveller

What's Fiat gonna do when people are unwilling to give it a chance?

1. Continue selling its award-winning engines to MUL and Tata. In my opinion, it appears that Indians prefer a Fiat engine, but not a Fiat car. The 1.3 MJD engine has been a success, at least among the Suzuki cars (Swift, DZire & Ritz).

2. Design cars for other automobile manufacturers. Had the Fiat 'sold' the Punto design to MUL, the sales of that model may have hit the roof. Even a supposedly "ugly" Ritz is selling well.

From statistics of vehicles sold in India, it only goes to show that most people tend to play safe when they decide on spending in excess of Rs 3 lakh to purchase a car. Similar to real estate, where many people would prefer buying a flat/house from a builder of some repute rather than taking a chance with a builder who struggles to some extent to get his/her projects sold.

It seems that Fiat has a great diesel engine and great looking cars, but the sum of its parts (engine, looks) seems to be greater that the whole (car).

Man, how I wish my little Alto LXI had the Fiat 1.3 MJD engine or some similar Fiat diesel engine. With its feather weight and the great FE engine, the Alto may have achieved 30 kmpl!

[Mevtec]

[quote=Sunilrj;1432685]

Mangalore. Peninsular Honda
salesguy: 100's of people visit the showroom everyday. if we give a testdrive to everyone we shall have to close the showroom
me: fine then. keep your honda for yourself. i'll either keep the Sx4 or buy the linea! goodbye

Oh..what a dealership experience! Really sad to hear this.

I took testdrive four times from Peninsular Honda Trivandrum. Two times the car was brought to my house and once to my work place which is 27km away from the dealer !.I told the sales representative even if I opt for ANHC I may book the car from Cochin since my home is nearer to it.Still the guy was willing to give TD.

This was in March just after the price rise was announced and they were not under any selling pressure.I also took TD of CIVIC even though it was above my budget ,and envied ImmortalZ for a moment.

But when I went to see Linea , the dealership experience was not encouraging. The guy answered some of my questions reluctantly and didnot even bother to note my phone number.Since I was a victim of their poor aftersales service which was not showing much improvement over the last ten years in Kerala,I was not brave enough to buy Linea.

I think attitude of some sales representatives bring bad image to the dealer and the product.But the sad thing is that TATA/FIAT dealers do it more often and they are the ones who cannot afford to do so.

[diabloo]

Originally Posted by ashwinpak

I'd rather buy a good car sold by lousy sales guys rather than a mediocre car sold by nice sales guys.

People buy good cars sold by nice sales guys. They more often than not, not disappointed .

[BlackPearl]

Originally Posted by diabloo

People buy good cars sold by nice sales guys. They more often than not, not disappointed .

A little improvement on the comment -

People buy good cars at ridiculous prices sold by nice sales guys.

[shrinivasap]

Well, for me treatment given to me at delarship would also influence my buying decsion. If i get a shabby treatment, i would definately wouldn't buy anything from him. Just a good product is incomplete to me. A Good product + assured service + good reasale value makes a complete sentence for me.

[Sawyer]

Originally Posted by naveenvenkatesh

• Maruti Gypsy clocked 188 units compared to 190 in June!
• HM sold 159 Pajeros and Fold sold 65 Endeavours.

Pretty good first shot at this, and thanks!
Looks like the two old warhorses still are holding their own. People are still buying new Gypsies, and the now underrated Pajero is the best selling SUV in its segment by far - I am not sure how many Captivas were sold. But it is outselling the Endeavour by a long shot, as a much better engineered car should.

[Sunilrj]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

Pretty good first shot at this, and thanks!
Looks like the two old warhorses still are holding their own. People are still buying new Gypsies, and the now underrated Pajero is the best selling SUV in its segment by far - I am not sure how many Captivas were sold. But it is outselling the Endeavour by a long shot, as a much better engineered car should.

Am i dreaming or is this true ? saw quite a few 'for registration' gypsies last evening. gypsy fever cathcing up again ?

[Sawyer]

I hope to get my new Gypsy this month, and a year ago it was not on my mind at all. So, yes, maybe a new generation of customers is waking up to a car that is both overpriced and fantastic value, in the same package! At a much higher price point, so is the Pajero.

[sanagg1]

Originally Posted by diabloo

People buy good cars sold by nice sales guys. They more often than not, not disappointed .

Unfortunately that doesn't happen quiet often here.
If someone experience this, he is either lucky or fleeced of his money.

Originally Posted by Mevtec

But when I went to see Linea , the dealership experience was not encouraging. The guy answered some of my questions reluctantly and didnot even bother to note my phone number.Since I was a victim of their poor aftersales service which was not showing much improvement over the last ten years in Kerala,I was not brave enough to buy Linea.

I think attitude of some sales representatives bring bad image to the dealer and the product.But the sad thing is that TATA/FIAT dealers do it more often and they are the ones who cannot afford to do so.

OT: Stay away from Kulathunkal Motors TVM. I had a bad experience with their service center. They are liars and do not know their job. In my car, they changed unrelated parts, made me pay the bill, and kept me waiting for at least an hour, saying that the car is being washed. And this was on the fifth day after I gave them the car. I barged into the service area to see the car still on the ramp, the mechanics still working on it. I asked them to put the car down down, and drove out. The owner called me while I was driving, apologised, and asked me to bring the car back. I never did.

I will never take any car to Kulathunkal again, but they alone cannot stop me from buying another FIAT.

[VahanPujari]

Originally Posted by shrinivasap

Well, for me treatment given to me at delarship would also influence my buying decsion. If i get a shabby treatment, i would definately wouldn't buy anything from him. Just a good product is incomplete to me. A Good product + assured service + good reasale value makes a complete sentence for me.

Car is not like FMCG where there is another next door retailer in case first retailer did not respond properly to you. In car buying decision, Manufacturer plays far important role than a dealer. e.g. If I decide a car & do not get proper response by a couple of dealers of that MFR, I won't let those 2 dealers force me into another car from another MFR. There is always a Manufacturer to turn to if you can not get proper response from the dealer & thats what precisely I would do. How can I let others to rule out my likings & decision?
To that extent I agree with below statement

But, moral of the story is ... irrespective of BRAND, there are bad dealers.
So don't let insignificant things like "I was not offered cold-drinks, they din't get TD vehicle to my house, they din't greet me properly etc" bother you and end up NOT buying what you like!

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by shrinivasap

Well, for me treatment given to me at delarship would also influence my buying decsion. If i get a shabby treatment, i would definately wouldn't buy anything from him. Just a good product is incomplete to me. A Good product + assured service + good reasale value makes a complete sentence for me.

+1 to that from my side too.

precisely due to above reasons we opted for hyundai santro rather than a swift. also budget played an important role too. my dad felt, even after willing to spend 1 lakh rupees more than our budget, we weren't feeling very enthusiastic may be because of following reasons.

reasons: don't care a damn attitude at 2 maruti showrooms(kiran motors and amar cars). not too good service experience(of 800, though had 1 dealer at that time), very unenthusiatic staff(technically as well as behavior wise) at both the showrooms. hyundai's showroom was the opposite. very enthusiatic staff, they showed decent respect being customers which lacked in case of maruti's showroom. they were eager to explain anything to everything we asked, not once did they forced us to take a look at other car say getz. while at maruti, the sales person tried to sell wagon r, estilo even though we told them specifically about swift only.

also we were exchanging for 800, so we expected better deal from maruti, instead we ended up getting far better resale value at hyundai.

we were given discounts on both the cars. around 40k rupees on petrol swift and around 35k rupees on santro. after this discount we had to pay a difference of 1 lakh rupees. add to this the difference in resale value of 800 which was 15k rupees. so i can say we got 50k discount for santro.

Good product + assured service(doubtful in maruti's case here) + good resale value, was a given in both the cars. but dad decide to go for santro just because of above factors and he didn't like spending a lakh more for the shabby treatment we got at maruti's showroom and later on we would have faced same issues with a.s.s too.

in this case maruti's loss was hyundai's gain.

and its been 3 years and we have been getting exceptional a.s.s from hyundai and need i say we are a satisfied lot?

ps: we have good rappo with service manager at hyundai and the manger of showroom is an acquaintance of my dad. so may be that plays a big role in getting good service.

and sorry for the long post.

[shrinivasap]

Exactly Chevelle -

Treatment given to you at dealrship normally gives you an indication of what level of treatment you can expect during the post sales - i.e, service period.

Take the classic example of Skoda- They do good cars, but what is the use. Because of pathetic delaership network they have, they loose good amount of business.

Stupendous sucess of Hyundai/Maruti is not only because they make some good cars - It is because they make some average cars but wth assured good post sales service.