Team-BHP - Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

I guess a lot of variants make these ill-informed, ill-trained sales personnel confused. Add to that, the spread of news is becoming fast and wide. To save face, these people make even more mistakes. The news about Tata Venture was here on net but the show room people are not aware of any such product. We cannot blame them as the company hadnt made known about it.

Also, I feel sorry for these guys sometimes as ignorant but brash customers keep on pestering the sales people, trying to bully them. Most common attitude of these people is that they are seriously rich and that the car they are inquiring about doesnt matter to them.

I once overheard people trying to bargain on life tax (!!!) while I was waiting to take delivery of Bolero (in 2004).

Quote:

Originally Posted by shyamhegde (Post 2114800)

I guess they were referring to this gadget -
Anti Brake system

Umm... I don't think so. Plus the gadget seems to fit on a two wheeler and that particular section of the website doesn't let you select bikes, but cars instead.

Due to my interest in Santa-Fe, called up the local dealer (name changed to ABC) in Lucknow.

Me: I'm interested in Santa-Fe and would like to have some information
SP: Santa Kya !?
(Santa What !?)

Me: Santa-Fe ke baare mein kuch jaankari chahiye
(Want some info about Santa-Fe)
SP: Santa ? Ye Santa Kya hei ? Yeh ABC Hyundai hei.
(Santa ? What is this Santa ? This is ABC Hyundai)

Me: Are Santa-Fe SUV jo Hyundai ne abhi kuch din pahle launch ki hei ..
(It's Santa-Fe SUV that Hyundai has launched few days back)

(By now she is totally bewildered and thinks I'm making some prank call)
SP: Dekhiye yahan koi Santa nahin milta hei. Aap kahan se bol rahe hein !?.
(See .. We don't sell any Santa. From where are you calling !?)

Me: About to burst into laughter .. just hung up the phone after a "Thank you".

My 2 cents, While buying Optra Magnum, I asked the SE why the alloy wheel design has been changed and the previous version looked much better.

Here comes the reply: The previous version of alloy wheels was difficult to clean and hence the new one. He in fact went to the extent of showing the cleaning process as well and I was like :Shockked:.

I wonder if GM India is actually changing wheel design for cleaning purposes:uncontrol

Was not able to give this picture the perfect home (thread), so sharing it here as the owner mentions incapability of car dealership to correct the alignment. (Found this pic on Facebook). The car seems to be a Honda Civic.

Mods, please move this picture if this thread is not the best option.

When we were in the market for a premium hatch back in May this year, we'd taken test-drives of the 1.2 Fabia petrol, the Punto 1.4 and the Jazz 1.2. While on the Fabia test-drive, I put forth a comparison between the Punto's 90 horsepower 1.4litre motor and the Jazz's 1.2 90 bhp engine against the 3-pot powered, petrol Fabia.

Me: So I'm aware that the Fabia has its disadvantages in the engine department. It has a 3 cylinder motor as opposed to the more powerful and refined Punto's mill which is a 4-potter and makes a healthy 90 horses. What do you have to say?

Salesman: No Sir, the Punto has a much smaller engine. It also has a 3-cylinder engine(!).

I really wanted to prove him wrong but decided to not start an argument that would invariably lead to an uncomfortable situation, especially when around my parents.

Me: The lack in power is evident though (while driving it up the Domalur-Indiranagar flyover) See.. it's barely managing to climb the ramp! The Jazz also has 90 horses or so (we had the Jazz brochure with us at that time :D) while the Fabia's engine produces only 68?

Salesman: Sir, the difference is 22 and is not much(!). The extra 22 bhp makes a difference only when you are doing more than 130 km/h and in the highest gear!

Needless to say, I just left it at that.

HI Guys
Last night I registered my interest in Fiat Linea T-Jet on Fiat-India site. This morning I got a prompt call from the dealership.
(Currently I am in Gurgaon)
SP: Sir, aapko Tata ki gaadi leni thi (You wanted to buy a Tata car).
Me: No, I registered for a Fiat.
SP: hein !!
Me: Mujhe Tata nahi Fiat ke baare me jaankari chahiye.
SP: Phiat !! Kaun si phiat leni he Sir aapko? Leena or... (which Fiat you are intersted in, Sir, Linea or..!)
Me: Fiat Linea, Turbo Jet
SP: Kaun si Leena sir? Hamare paas petrol he, Diesel he aur TJet he. (Which Linea you are interested in Sir, we have P, D and Tjet)
Me: Mujhe Turbo-Jet leni he (I am interested in Turnojet).
SP: Sir, Turbo naam ki to koi gaadi nahi he hamare paas.
Me: What !! :deadhorseohh, Tjet me jo T he uska matlab Turbo jet hi he (The T in Tjet stands for Turbo only).
SP: ohh, thank you sir, accha aapko Tjet me petrol leni he ya diesel (oh, thanks Sir, well, which one you want to buy in Tjet, P or D)

I was like :Frustrati

I asked her to ask somebody from Fiat to make this call and she was happy saying good bye.
Good thing is, after few minutes, I got a call from a different lady who was more knowlegeable about the cars (even the ground clearances of Tjet and Tjet+) and promised a test drive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by drive_or_die (Post 2130312)

It is surprising. We have few threads on forums when companies like FIAT attended the customer (obviously after hard tries) complaint. In one case car amount was paid back to owner and in another case culprit tyre replaced free of cost.
How it can happened with HONDA company? And for a civic!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by sidindica (Post 1544121)

(All the points that I am typing are 100 percent correct.)
Will just go to some points that salesperson mentioned when I went as a "serious" buyer of i20 crdi at samara hyundai, defence colony, Delhi:

sir, tyres are 15" and alloys are 16"
power is 80 nm torque.
our car has 16v DOHC design, punto MJD doesn't.
another person:sir, I don't know anything about punto but only about my product.
GC is 160 inches!
sir, let me get the brochure while first asking for engine tech specs..

Totally made my day! Samara, kindly train your executives.

agree:
Totally true dude and surely isn't made up. I've had similar experiences myself. The SEs seem to be completely uninterested in gathering information and help the customer compare. It's high time the dealers understood a person spending lakhs of rupees needs to be attended properly! Honda dealerships though are different altogether in terms of customer attending. Others seriously need to learn from them

Quote:

Originally Posted by suhaas307 (Post 2130495)

Me: The lack in power is evident though (while driving it up the Domalur-Indiranagar flyover) See.. it's barely managing to climb the ramp! The Jazz also has 90 horses or so (we had the Jazz brochure with us at that time :D) while the Fabia's engine produces only 68?

Salesman: Sir, the difference is 22 and is not much(!). The extra 22 bhp makes a difference only when you are doing more than 130 km/h and in the highest gear!

I believe the salesman is right in this case. For climbing a flyover torque is what matters and both jazz (110 NM @ 4100 RPM) and Fabia (108 NM @ 3000 RPM) are both evenly matched and should have struggled equally. If anything Fabia delivers the torque quickly before Jazz.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MileCruncher (Post 2163494)

Sorry for sounding clueless but what's the difference between TJet and TJet+. Engine specs seem to be same on the FIAT website.

Cheers

Tjet+ is the top end model with the leather interiors and more features than the standard Tjet.
Engine specs are the same.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DWind (Post 2163480)

Quote:

Originally Posted by suhaas307 (Post 2130495)

I'm not quite sure if you read my post clearly. I was comparing the power that the Fabia and the Jazz make. And the salesman never mentioned anything about the torque, and neither did I. :)

While you're right about the torque figures and your statement, the salesman on the other hand claimed that the 22 horses don't make a difference unless you're in the 5th cog and doing speeds in excess of 130 km/h. That's not true at all, in any way. Power delivery depends on the RPM you're at, not the speed you should attain or the gear. 22 horses makes a difference in all gears, not just the 5th.