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Old 18th August 2012, 19:12   #451
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Originally Posted by drmohitg View Post
Well you have to give him some credit for trying to make this into a sales point for the customer.
I guess you are right. But when they mix wrong information with somewhat logical explanation, you dont know whether to take it or pass it off as a joke. But recently I saw an Audi Q5 where spare wheel which looks entirely different compared to regular 4 tires on which vehicle is running. Also I believe the speed at which you can drive on a spare wheel too is restricted. Looks thinner in width too. I dont understand the logic behind a premium brand like Audi following cost cutting measures. May be it is a safety measure indeed !!

Basically all these comedies occur because we as well informed buyers (or at least most of us who are interested in the specifications / technical details of the car) would have done our homework on a particular vehicle, its various trims with their features and differences. For most SA/SEs its their job to sell the cars and those who are not genuinely enthusiastic about the job hardly care about torque/ horsepower / ABS and it becomes a burden on their memory to remember which trim has what additional features. They are not buying the vehicles anyway. Of course they can fool an uninformed customer who wants a big, good looking vehicle and is chauffeured around and just wants a comfortable vehicle. But an enthusiast who will drive his own car around and knows what he wants from his car wont be fooled.

Note from Team-bhp support: Please use the EDIT or MULTI-QUOTE buttons instead of typing one post after another on the same thread!

Last edited by moralfibre : 19th August 2012 at 08:31. Reason: Back to back posts. Please use the EDIT / Multi-quote feature.
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Old 18th August 2012, 20:02   #452
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Re: Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

I had been to a Maruti dealer out here in Bhubaneswar accompanying a friend of mine who had gone there to book his SX4 diesel. At that time Maruti had a plan to launch Ertiga. The, so called sales supervisor told me that Maruti going to launch a vehicle to compete with Innova. I asked him whether its Ertiga to which he said yes. I advised him not to campare apples with oranges. I said that the diesel Ertiga would come with the same 1.3 Ltr. drive train which is shared by Swift and Desire. He challenged me that Ertiga will have a more powerful diesel engine.

On the date of launching, I was invited by the same sales supervisor. I couldn't make it to the ceremony but visited the showroom after a couple of days. And that day he admitted that I was correct.

I am not trying to project that I know a lot of things about cars and their engines. I just want say how misinformed these showroom guys are.
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Old 19th August 2012, 10:27   #453
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Re: Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

the Irony is that most of the sales advisors do not take passion in thier job. they just do it to get the salary.

I have visited numerous showrooms and till not i am yet to meet a passionate rep.

The biggest comedy of the year was one VW sales rep was explaining the automatic park assist feature in Passat. He was telling us repeatedly that "parking Brake" was the parking assist feature. When we parked the car and engaged the parking brake, we asked him where is the auto park mode. He said, since you have already parked, the auto parking mode is not activated. We were told that it comes into effect only when the parking brake is engaged while the vehicle is in motion.
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Old 19th August 2012, 11:44   #454
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Originally Posted by scopriobharath
the Irony is that most of the sales advisors do not take passion in thier job. they just do it to get the salary.
Well, I don't blame them entirely. Wether we like it or not, cars are still aspirational for most Indians. These salesmen usually have never even had a car in their family let alone owned one themselves. It's a dream for many of them. How else do we justify the puja and picture taking ceremony that happens on car delivery ?
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Old 19th August 2012, 11:57   #455
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Re: Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

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Originally Posted by byomjeet View Post
I said that the diesel Ertiga would come with the same 1.3 Ltr. drive train which is shared by Swift and Desire. He challenged me that Ertiga will have a more powerful diesel engine.
Actually he was right. The Ertiga shares the engine with the SX4 (90HP VGT) and not the Swift/DZire (75HP FGT).
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Old 19th August 2012, 12:05   #456
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Re: Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

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Well, I don't blame them entirely. Wether we like it or not, cars are still aspirational for most Indians. These salesmen usually have never even had a car in their family let alone owned one themselves. It's a dream for many of them. How else do we justify the puja and picture taking ceremony that happens on car delivery ?
I work in software industry and If i do not know something, I am expected to know/learn the same and respond. Heck I am given sufficient trainings and shadowings before I am allowed to face customer. If i mention something in-correct, my life will be screwed in the form of bad appraisals.

Same should apply for a sales executive too. Trainings and presentation skills can be polished and then made to face a customer. When i am paying close to 20 lacs for a Passat, would not the customer know what a parking brake is and what auto-park assist is?

At the very very least I expect he "gets back to me" with correct data.

- Once we went to a Toyota showroom in Chennai and we were "received" by a lady. She was dressed as if she is selling "ladies nighties" at Naidu Hall Chennai . Presentation and grooming go a long way to woo a customer for a sales executive. My Friend was turned off by her presentation and needless to say settled for a competitor's product.

Last edited by scopriobharath : 19th August 2012 at 12:15.
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Old 19th August 2012, 12:11   #457
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Re: Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

Quote:
Originally Posted by scopriobharath View Post
I work in software industry and If i do not know something, I am expected to know/learn the same and respond. Heck I am given sufficient trainings and shadowings before I am allowed to face customer. If i mention something in-correct, my life will be screwed in the form of bad appraisals.

Same should apply for a sales executive too. Trainings and presentation skills can be polished and then made to face a customer. When i am paying close to 20 lacs for a Passat, would not the customer know what a parking brake is and what auto-park assist is?

At the very very least I expect he "gets back to me" with correct data.
Oh I agree with you completely. I'm just saying that it's not always the sales guys fault. As you rightly pointed out, the guy just wasn't trained properly. If the consumers are willing to shell out 20 lakhs+ on a car without asking questions, the showroom owner also has no incentive to spend time on training, right ?

I was at a Ford dealership recently in Gurgaon and asked the sales guy what kind of steering setup does the Fiesta have. He said it's hydraulic. He even went on to tell me that all "Premium" cars have hydraulic steering and even those that have electric are "converted" to hydraulic when the car goes beyond, say, 50kmph. I wasn't very impressed but well, he let me drive the car for a long'ish test drive so I didn't complain.

Last edited by sharninder : 19th August 2012 at 12:12. Reason: typo
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Old 19th August 2012, 12:30   #458
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Re: Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

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Originally Posted by sharninder View Post
Oh I agree with you completely. I'm just saying that it's not always the sales guys fault. As you rightly pointed out, the guy just wasn't trained properly. If the consumers are willing to shell out 20 lakhs+ on a car without asking questions, the showroom owner also has no incentive to spend time on training, right ?

I was at a Ford dealership recently in Gurgaon and asked the sales guy what kind of steering setup does the Fiesta have. He said it's hydraulic. He even went on to tell me that all "Premium" cars have hydraulic steering and even those that have electric are "converted" to hydraulic when the car goes beyond, say, 50kmph. I wasn't very impressed but well, he let me drive the car for a long'ish test drive so I didn't complain.
I agree with you - Sales Teams must really do well to do justice with the Brand. My friend was sold on Toyota but the sales rep's attitude made him buy a Scorpio.

In my personal experience, most sales reps say the same thing. A toyota rep would say "good quality and reliability saaar". Hyundai ones would say
"cheap to maintain and easy to drive saaaar"

I really wish dealers up thier game in sales strategy too.
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Old 19th August 2012, 12:32   #459
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Re: Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

Quote:
Originally Posted by scopriobharath View Post
I work in software industry and If i do not know something, I am expected to know/learn the same and respond. Heck I am given sufficient trainings and shadowings before I am allowed to face customer. If i mention something in-correct, my life will be screwed in the form of bad appraisals.

Same should apply for a sales executive too. Trainings and presentation skills can be polished and then made to face a customer. When i am paying close to 20 lacs for a Passat, would not the customer know what a parking brake is and what auto-park assist is?
I completely agree with you. When I was buying my car this February I was in dialogue with a GM dealership for the Cruze and a Skoda dealership for the Laura.

Me: Does the Cruze turbo have fixed or variable geometry?
GM Sales Rep: Sir, the car is not turbocharged.
Me: Errr.......what??

Me: Do you know at what rpm the turbo kicks in?
Skoda Sales Rep: Sir, turbo will come at 5000 rpm.
Me: Eh??
Skoda Sales Rep: Yes sir, turbo will come between 4500 and 5000 rpm.
Me: Look, can I give you some advice? Please don't ever say that to anyone again.

Last edited by ghostrider : 19th August 2012 at 12:33.
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Old 19th August 2012, 12:43   #460
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Re: Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

Most SE's would have cars at their homes, but it is passion & TBHP membership which all of them lack. I have heard auto-industry colleagues deriding our community apparently because their requests were turned down. Each & every time i gave my Figo for service, the SA comments as if i'm member of a terrorist outfit. "Team-BHP member huh?"

Speaking of comedy amongst customers, I had one gentleman mention that he is going to sue my company because we do not offer tinted glass retro-fitment in our SUV !!!

He argues that since SC has banned sunfilms, it is manufacturers duty to offer tinted glass as retro-fitment.

He offered to pay the required amount for upgradation though.
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Old 19th August 2012, 13:55   #461
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Re: Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

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Originally Posted by Skyline GT-R View Post
Each & every time i gave my Figo for service, the SA comments as if i'm member of a terrorist outfit. "Team-BHP member huh?"
Speaking of comedy amongst customers, I had one gentleman mention that he is going to sue my company because we do not offer tinted glass retro-fitment in our SUV !!!

He argues that since SC has banned sunfilms, it is manufacturers duty to offer tinted glass as retro-fitment.
In my cases, if i mentioned TBHP (in some cases) i could see a change in behaviour. I generally speak to Sales rep's boss. I clearly tell him / show him "Indian car dealerships" and tell him, depending on his straight-forwardness an appropriate unbiased review will be made. Some take it seriously, some dont.

The person who takes it seriously is a part of the informed community. Many sales reps just tell that TBHP is just a blog site.
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Old 20th August 2012, 02:17   #462
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Re: Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

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Originally Posted by sharninder View Post
Well, I don't blame them entirely. Wether we like it or not, cars are still aspirational for most Indians. These salesmen usually have never even had a car in their family let alone owned one themselves. It's a dream for many of them. How else do we justify the puja and picture taking ceremony that happens on car delivery ?
I agree with you, the puja and picture taking ceremony is a service performed by the dealerships to delight the customer - this is partly to do with the Indian culture and partly with the fact that buying a car is still considered to be a major event.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sharninder View Post
Oh I agree with you completely. I'm just saying that it's not always the sales guys fault. As you rightly pointed out, the guy just wasn't trained properly. If the consumers are willing to shell out 20 lakhs+ on a car without asking questions, the showroom owner also has no incentive to spend time on training, right ?
Actually it's not even the dealer's fault, while I am an advocate of the notion that a sales rep should know his product well enough to be effective in selling it, 99% of the buyers do not ask the "probing" questions that a TBHPian would ask so I don't think it's even in the dealers interest to spend time and money to provide that level of detailed training to the reps. Also, when we ask such a question to the rep, most of the times we already know the answer, the purpose of asking is to evaluate how product savvy the sales rep is - we have already done our homework and will end up buying or not buying the car irrespective of whatever comical response we get from the rep.

The point I am trying to make is, it is expected that the sales rep knows basic information about the car - i.e. does this car have disc brakes or drum brakes? how does park assist work? etc they cannot be expected to know the engineering details.
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Old 20th August 2012, 06:49   #463
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Re: Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

Ill-informed salesmen can put a customer off a car completely. While evaluating my next car i walked into Rana Motors, gurgaon - one of the new maruti dealerships in town. I insisted only on the VDI ABS Ritz. The slimy salesman tried to dissuade me off ABS since they didn't have any in stock. Then, the moron called his team-leader, a polished smooth talker. The conversation went like this:
TL: Do you know the function of ABS...
Me: (Taken aback) Explained him the basic working.
TL: Fine do you know when it starts working..
The moment i said wheels locking, he said
TL: See, it works only in rain, and in no other condition. In Gurgaon we hardly have any rain. So there is no need.!

Well, i just said "Thankyou" and walked off..

This experience ensured that i docked off a few points for the Ritz and eventually it lost out in the race.
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Old 20th August 2012, 16:39   #464
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Re: Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

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Originally Posted by sharninder View Post
Well, I don't blame them entirely. Wether we like it or not, cars are still aspirational for most Indians. These salesmen usually have never even had a car in their family let alone owned one themselves. It's a dream for many of them. How else do we justify the puja and picture taking ceremony that happens on car delivery ?
The main reason for the picture taking ceremony is "proof of delivery".
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Old 21st August 2012, 10:18   #465
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Re: Comedy of Errors at Indian Dealerships

On a recent extended test drive of the Hyundai Verna petrol, I had complained to the salesman that the car was feeling very unsafe as speeds build up. The saleman's reply was epic. No sir, customers have reported the car is very stable at high speeds and as high as 140kmph. The fluidic design contributes towards the stability of this car. As the saleman was a very nice man, I Thanked him for the extended test drive and said that the car was not for me.
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