[Parthasarathig]

Going by the original posts i think even my ford dealer engages in this practice. How else would a dent appear in the left fender from a simple service job? And moreover my odo showed the same reading to the dot. The disconnecting odo explains all this. No wonder they agreed to repair the dent without much haggling.
Thanks op for this thread.

[ssadwelkar]

Having owned and driven my Scorpio for more than 5 years and 52000 kms I have decide to go for a change and for the past few months have been looking around for SUV's and Sedans, having read through the TBHP forum and people's experience and reading the pros and cons of SUV's and Sedans, I am more interested in a Sedan this time with a budget of around 20 lakhs.

I have TD'd the Vento, Jetta, Yeti, Cruze etc. but so far the most unpleasant experience has been with the Chevrolet people in Mumbai, a few months back I had requested a TD for a Chevrolet Cruze online and in a couple of days received several calls from 2 or 3 Chevrolet dealers each one saying that they would send me a Demo Car, but since I was interested in the Diesel AT variant they said that they did not have an AT vehicle, so I finally agreed and requested that they send me a Manual Transmission vehicle.

Trust anyone to keep their promise to do anything on time after several calls and days the vehicle finally arrived, I was shocked to see the state of the vehicle, it looked like it came straight from a scrap yard, very dirty, dents all around, nevertheless took a TD, my wife and son were also with me and but naturally rejected the vehicle, we were all put off by the Chevrolet Cruze looking at the condition of this vehicle.

A few months passed and still hunting for a vehicle we decided to give the Cruze a 2nd chance, so went to the dealer Ashtavinayak Auto on Meera Desai Road, Mumbai and had a look at the Cruze again in the showroom, of course the car was new (I guess, at least it looked new) there was a sales lady there who was quite knowledgeable who gave us all the details, we sat in the car. the seats felt comfortable, the sun roof was a plus point, she allowed us to start the engine, everything looked good and we liked the car, this was a Manual Transmission, I asked her whether they had an AT vehicle for TD she said "NO" but could be arranged in a couple of days for sure, OK I said here is my number give me call before your driver comes, then I told her about my previous experience about getting an old battered Cruze for a TD and she assured me "Sir trust me we will send you a brand new car, don’t worry".

After 2 days no call received so I called up the lady, she said she was very busy somewhere in lalbaugh so she gave me the number of her Supervisor and said "Sir call him, I have already discussed with him about the TD, he will arrange a car for you by 1 p.m." it was already 11am, can they really send me a car by 1? I wondered. Anyway I called the number to speak to the Supervisor but he didn’t come on the phone, someone else picked up the phone, I said “can I speak to so and so, he said no sir he is very busy, can I help you? I told him about my request for a Cruze TD AT diesel, he said ok no problem, he took down my address and said the car will be at your place by 1 to 130 pm max, I said thanks and hung up.

It was now past 2 pm and I was getting impatient, so I called up the supervisor number again and asked on the status, the supervisor was very busy again and didn’t come on the phone but the person who answered the phone told me that the driver had already left and should be there shortly, no sooner I put the phone down I received a call from the driver "Sir we are having some problem in the car we will be there soon" I said ok will wait for you, 3 a clock the driver calls again and says "Sir we are stuck in the traffic we should be there in half to one hour' I said OK, no probs be sure to come. 4 o clock the driver calls again "Sir we are near your place, please give me your building name, so gave him the address again, he said we will be there in 5 minutes, I am all excited now waiting for the Cruze and waiting for my building Security guard to call me and tell me that the car has arrived, 1/2 an hour no car, what happened to these guys? Did they meet with an accident? Did they get lost? So I called up the driver this time and asked "Where are you"? He said "Sir' hum logo ne subah se kuch khaya nahi tha to hum log nashta kar rahe hain". I said What here I am waiting for the car since 1pm and there you are having your nashta and keeping me waiting? (Are they doing me a favour?) He says don’t worry sir we have almost finished we will be there very soon.

I was so mad on hearing this, I called up the so called supervisor number again and again another person picks up the phone, so I demanded to speak to the supervisor but the guy on the other end politely asked "sir what is the problem?, I explained to him how I have been waiting since 1pm to TD the car and now your guys are having their nashta, he said I apologize for this and will call them right now and see what’s going on, I put the phone down and in 5 minutes the driver calls me and tells me "sir we are under your building, I said ok I am coming down, told my wife and son the car has finally arrived lets go have a look, It was almost 5 pm now.

As the car entered through the building gate, we looked at it and said to my wife must be some visitor this cannot be a TD vehicle, this car is so dirty, but NO to our horror the car was the TD vehicle, (another dirty car?) 2 guys got down from the vehicle, one was a sales guy and the other the driver, I asked the driver why is the car so dirty and why are you so late? He says sir we had to go to 4 other people for TD before we came here no answer as to why the car was dirty, anyway we sat in the car, looked at the interior which was not as dirty as the outside, put on the seat belts, looked at the instrument cluster the Fuel indicator was showing "E" and the yellow light was ON, the tank was almost empty, I asked the Sales guy why is the Fuel empty, how can we TD this vehicle, what if we get stuck in the middle of the road somewhere, he assured me, he says Sir, kafi fuel hai" I said OK just to be sure show me the distance to empty on the MID screen, he says "Sir that part has been disconnected including the Odometer, I said "what “ he says “yes sir we disconnect the odometer for TD cars”, I was surprised at his answer and horrified, the guy must be stupid to give out the dealer secret but at least it was to my advantage, thought to myself I pity the guy who buys this vehicle thinking that it is brand new.

Anyway I decided to take a short drive, quite a smooth drive, but didn’t like the reverse parking sensor as the beep is very low and there is no visual indication, if you have the music on the beep is inaudible, I asked the sales guy is there no visual display, he shows me the small sensor on the Rear view mirror, and says it should appear here but looks like it is not working, I said that is something else and kept quiet, no point in talking to this ignorant guy, finally I said I need to take the car down to my building basement parking to check out the head lights, he says ok no probs, so we drive down into the basement and try to switch on the lights but the switch is stuck, we tried hard but could not get the head lights to work, sorry he says I will get that checked, I asked him is this not a new car? No reply, and guess what the engine stops, I said “oh no” no fuel how are we going to get this car out of the basement now? So we crank the engine, fortunately after a few seconds of cranking the engine starts, I said let’s get out of here before it stops again, we just managed to drive out of the basement and the engine stall again, I am sure the tank was almost empty by now I say thank you, I am getting out, here is your car thanks for the TD, he says Sir we need to fill out a feedback form, I said I will but be sure that it will not be good, and I filled up the form and mentioned what I needed to mention, and was waiting for the sales lady to call me back after reading the form.


At this time engine was still in the stalled state but after a few seconds of cranking it started again, I don’t know how, but I was not bothered, I was home, I didn’t care whether they got stuck on the road somewhere, that was their problem, maybe they deserved it, god knows where all they have been driving this vehicle for their own personal use and then sell it as a new car.

The next day the sales lady calls me and in a pleasant voice asks me 'Sir how was the TD on the Cruze?" I asked didn’t your guy tell you? She says No, what happened? I told her exactly what happened, how I was waiting from 1 till 5 while her sales guy and the driver was having a nashta, the car was dirty, the odometer was disconnected, headlights did not work, there was no fuel, the engine stalled 2 times, I asked her is this how your dealer ship resell their TD vehicles as new vehicles to customers? She says Sir I am very sorry I will check with the guy who came to your place and call you back in 5 minutes, no call from the lady the whole day that day, the next evening she calls me and asks Sir, can I send you another vehicle for TD, she does not mention anything about her findings of the previous day, I said NO thank you, I am through with Cruze and hung up.

[mango_pal]

Don't let this dealer dishearten you. I took a TD of the Cruze and was on the phone with Ashtavinayak as well as Nikhil Auto in Worli. These guys were pissing off, uninterested, uninformed and irresponsible. I could never get the same person on the line in spite of knowing their names. So I had to go over the entire procedure of asking for a TD all over again. I didn't get a TD from them by the end of it.
If that's not bad enough, I spoke with them 2 months ago. I still get call backs from there call center every week. In spite of having told them to eff off a million times. Once I got calls from them continuously for 45 minutes. I had to put my phone onto flight mode because I was very busy.

Get a TD from Nikhil. The guys are a little better. I was allowed to take a drive from Andheri to Worli and back. Nice of them to let me take a long TD.

It's quite scary though, the fact that they're disconnecting the odometer. Not very nice for the buyers of the car. Highlights the fact that you must be careful while doing absolutely anything in this country. And unless you have the might of a big organization or powerful individual to back you up, you can say good bye to your hard earned money.

But seriously, check out Nikhil. They're worth it.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by ssadwelkar

Having owned and driven my Scorpio for more than 5 years and 52000 kms I have decide to go for a change and for the past few months have been looking around for SUV's and Sedans, having read through the TBHP forum and people's experience and reading the pros and cons of SUV's and Sedans, I am more interested in a Sedan this time with a budget of around 20 lakhs.

to your place and call you back in 5 minutes, no call from the lady the whole day that day, the next evening she calls me and asks Sir, can I send you another vehicle for TD, she does not mention anything about her findings of the previous day, I said NO thank you, I am through with Cruze and hung up.

Disgusting. Our dealerships and sales people here in the Auto segment are so so very poor quality.
Why would one ever want to spend close to 20 lac on a stupid Daewoo rebadged Chevy regardless of how good the car is? Especially when the test experience is so sad?

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by ssadwelkar

. . .

So the crux of the matter is
- You had a horrible experience with a Chevy dealer
- The dealer in discussion was Ashtavinayak Auto on Meera Desai Road
- You got the info that they disconnect the odometer/MID to reduce the damage when they probably re-sell the TD vehicles


To be candid, I don't see any connection to the thread heading and the experience. Yes, I feel bad for your test experience - that was really a horrible way to treat you. But I'd suggest you get over it and still give the car another try (via another dealer); and if you feel really strong about it, give a strong feedback to Chevrolet (you can get ids/contacts) and hopefully they should do something about it.

@Mods,
Request you to change the mis-leading thread name, probably the dealer name could be updated in the thread name to give a better idea about the contents.

[Saanil]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about your experience. I would say just try another dealer and do not reject the car straightaway. It is really sad to see dealer sales people not valuing customer’s time. I would have appreciated the driver to call me and just tell me that they will be quite late as they have other test drives pending rather than me calling them and then finding out that they are doing “nashta”. These are things we should just ignore and move on (if you want a stress free buying experience).

It is also possible that the test drive allotment system of that dealership is not upto the mark. I am sure it is not the case that many people are dying to test drive the Cruze and that there are not enough test drive cars. Why don’t these dealers realize that treating customers in this way is their loss of business?

[bansal98]

When I was looking to TD the Optra Magnum, the TD vechicle that I was given was five years old with almost 50k on the odometer. It didn't look shabby at all but was not in its best state either. I requested another, newer TD vehicle and was never given that, in spite of their repeated promises. May be this thing is unique to Chevrolet.

Anyway, don't let bad experience with one dealer dissuade you from buying this car. One dealer does not represent the entire company and its dealer network. If you really like this car, you should definitely try it at another dealership.

[sgiitk]

OT but cannot resist.

I think the GM bit has gone to them. At one point when General Motors got the US Govt funding and was nicknamed as Government Motors. Since then they have paid off with a profit to the US treasury, but habits die hard!

They are behaving in that way only, i.e. like a pucca PSU!

[hrman]

Its unfortunate that you had to go through this. Its pretty disheartening when a TD goes this way. If I was in your place, I would have also made up my mind that I don't want to go ahead with purchase, if the TD has been so bad.

However, I thought its a normal practice for dealers to disconnect the odometer of Test drive vehicles or reset the ODO on TD vehicles. I may be wrong

I recall reading somewhere that most dealers need to purchase the TD vehicles themselves and are not allotted these by the company. Maybe in this case, the dealer was mooching on getting a new TD vehicle since it is a big investment.
Did you inform Chevrolet about this and what was their response?

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by ssadwelkar

Having owned and driven my Scorpio for more than 5 years and 52000 kms I have decide to go for a change and for the past few months have been looking around for SUV's and Sedans, having read through the TBHP forum and people's experience and reading the pros and cons of SUV's and Sedans, I am more interested in a Sedan this time with a budget of around 20 lakhs.

I am through with Cruze and hung up.

Bad experience. Nontheless - I agree with ninjatalli that the header should be changed. TD is always a pain point in the buying experience as I see for Indian dealers. I personally had to buy my new car without a TD in India - whereas the used cars brought in US were after detailed TD.

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Why would one ever want to spend close to 20 lac on a stupid Daewoo rebadged Chevy regardless of how good the car is? Especially when the test experience is so sad?

I believe the TD experience is with the dealer. Daewoo cars sold in India have historically been well received - e.g Cielo and Matiz. IMO Cruze is quite a capable car.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

@Mods,
Request you to change the mis-leading thread name, probably the dealer name could be updated in the thread name to give a better idea about the contents.

+1 - I believe the dealership is at the receiving end here and that should be properly reflected in the thread name

Originally Posted by sgiitk

OT but cannot resist.

I think the GM bit has gone to them. At one point when General Motors got the US Govt funding and was nicknamed as Government Motors. Since then they have paid off with a profit to the US treasury, but habits die hard!

They are behaving in that way only, i.e. like a pucca PSU!

The govt had to help them - they just couldn't afford massive job losses in the rust belt.

[ssadwelkar]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

@Mods, Request you to change the mis-leading thread name, probably the dealer name could be updated in the thread name to give a better idea about the contents.

I agree with you, I should have mentioned the dealer’s name in the thread name, I did not mean to generalize, apparently the Mods have modified it, thanks.

Note from Support - Quoted text edited. Please avoid quoting an entire post as it inconveniences our mobile and small screen users. Thanks!

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by blackasta

I believe the TD experience is with the dealer. Daewoo cars sold in India have historically been well received - e.g Cielo and Matiz. IMO Cruze is quite a capable car.

.

I think it is very expensively priced for a Daewoo though I do like its looks.
When the Cielo and Matiz were available to us here in India, there wasn't very much choice at all in the marketplace and this may have had a lot to do with the impression that these vehicles,as per your post, were 'well received'.
Today's scenario around the 15 to 20 lac bracket has a lot more choice and certainly a number of better vehicles too.

[georgesraju]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I think it is very expensively priced for a Daewoo though I do like its looks.
When the Cielo and Matiz were available to us here in India, there wasn't very much choice at all in the marketplace and this may have had a lot to do with the impression that these vehicles,as per your post, were 'well received'.
Today's scenario around the 15 to 20 lac bracket has a lot more choice and certainly a number of better vehicles too.

Sorry to go off topic.

The Chevrolet Cruze is not a Daewoo. Just because GM uses its Korean facilities taken over from Daewoo for some its design operations, it will not be fair to paste Daewoo label on the product. Its predecessor, the Optra, was a Daewoo and GM only rebadged it as a Chevrolet; but that was not the case with Cruze. It was not even based on the erstwhile Optra platform. The GM Delta II platform which the Cruze uses is shared with Opels and Buicks, not with Daewoos.

Globally, Chevrolet is more of a 10 lakh+ rupees car maker. And even with the lot of choices in the 15-20 lakh bracket there are only a few that can beat the Cruze in it's game.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by georgesraju

Sorry to go off topic.

The Chevrolet Cruze is not a Daewoo. Just because GM uses its Korean facilities taken over from Daewoo for some its design operations, it will not be fair to paste Daewoo label on the product. Its predecessor, the Optra, was a Daewoo and GM only rebadged it as a Chevrolet; but that was not the case with Cruze. It was not even based on the erstwhile Optra platform. The GM Delta II platform which the Cruze uses is shared with Opels and Buicks, not with Daewoos.

Globally, Chevrolet is more of a 10 lakh+ rupees car maker. And even with the lot of choices in the 15-20 lakh bracket there are only a few that can beat the Cruze in it's game.

Good info thank you. I stand corrected in my impression!

[vivekgk]

Most dealerships have a dedicated TD car for all models, usually the top end variant. I recently took a TD of the Fiat Punto, and the car they got me had the odo disconnected (Temp plates were bolted on just before the TD, they got the car from the yard and washed it). I specifically asked the sales rep about it, he said that it was because the regular demo car was being serviced. On the way to the yard to view a Punto in a different color, I did see the Demo car (with stickers on the side) in a service bay.

I think the problem is that dealerships get a lot of enquiries for TDs, and there's usually a limited number of demo vehicles. Customers always complain if a TD is not given immediately. And you can't exactly risk losing a sale because the TD car was not available in time. If you delay a TD because the demo car is not available, there will be five other dealers willing to offer up even a Customer vehicle for TD.

I'm not defending this practice by dealers, just putting it in perspective. On our part, we can insist on driving only the demo car even with delays, and in case you have to drive a yard vehicle, be gentle. In our case, the rep asked us to be gentle with the car, drive it very carefully, and only demoed the ride, handling and braking for a 10 minute TD. He offered to bring the demo car around for a longer TD as soon as it was serviced.