[redsfx]

I test drove a SX4 last week and found the engine lights were on. Checked the odo and it was disconnected. Asked the guy why the lights were on and he said "You havent worn your seat-belts Sir".

While leaving the guy wheelspun and took the car. Wonder who is going to land up with that elephant grey almost new SX4.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by bblost

For Example:
If I am driving with so much care and concern how will I feel that body roll which happen when I try to take a U-Turn at 40 kmph .

I would say that the WagonR has body roll even without a TD.

[subscrive]

1. Dont buy the car from a showroom which doesnt have demo car.
2. Complain to the car manufacturer asking to revoke showroom franchisee - donno how much this would be effective.
3. Using hidden camera record that regular car is offered as TD car. Then publish to newspaper or stupid channel like aaj tak. They would love to have such thing on their channel "kaise fasate hai car dealers aam junata ko?! dealeronka farda fash! aapki mahinat ki kamai ka natija ek choosa hua fal!". You would also become a super star over night.

[abhinav.gupta88]

I refused to take a TD of verna crdi with a disconnected Speedo and told them that i would take the case to the police if you give TD in a disconnected Speedo car.
The mechanic came back immediately and then connected the speedo
It was showing 20 kms on it.
Took it for a really long test drive (around 50 odd kms round delhi )

and went there again 1 day only to find the speedo discontinued.
Talked to the manager of the showroom and he said that all their TD cars have speedo's discontinued.

He showed me some documents regarding the same and i went off.

just hope that it wasnt given as a brand new car to anyone.

( this was more than a year back)

[jat]

Ain't the TD vehicles provided by makers and are supposed to be monitored over a long period to accumulate data about the car performance, wear down etc? I always thought so.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

[abhinav.gupta88]

Yes jat , thats the way it is supposed to happen.
Sadly this is India.

The TD vehicles have to be purchased by the showroom and not gifted as such.
That is why the showroom guys do stuff like disconnecting the speedo and later on selling the car (after any repair work required)

[muneemmk]

Honda and Toyota does not seem to give TD on new Cars/Customer's Cars, most dealerships in all the major towns have vehicles registered in their names and sell these cars at a later stage as 2nd hand cars or at auto terrace(In case of Honda), Skoda also are said to have test drive cars but i am yet to see one even after requesting for test drives for the last 3 years.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I too have test-driven a car with a disconected speedo, and I am ashamed of it: I should have made the point, like abhinav.

Anyway, quite apart from the underlying fraud, one needs to check the speed on a test drive. One vehicle at 30 may feel like another at 50.

[Dose]

Originally Posted by Floyd de Souza

In another thread, I have given my TD impressions on the NHC Vtec. The car which was brought for the TD was a temp. registered car. The odometer(digital) showed 102 km and for the entire duration of the TD(5km), did not change. On questioning the sales person, he said that this was not the official TD vehicle(which had gone elsewhere for a TD) and the odo was disconnected. I have found this quite rampant and my hunch is that these cars get sold to an unsuspecting buyer. I consider this unethical...and more so was disappointed to note that a Honda dealer was resorting to this.

Any views?

Was the speedometer working?

[rohan_fonseca]

I myself have sat an indica dicor for a test drive with my fiance driving. Turned back after about a half a kilometer after the sales person said that all their test drive cars are like that! Will never buy a tata from them.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by abhinav.gupta88

Talked to the manager of the showroom and he said that all their TD cars have speedo's discontinued.

He showed me some documents regarding the same and i went off.

What sort of documents were these ? How did that satisfy you ? What stopped you from going ahead with the police complaint ?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

What stopped you from going ahead with the police complaint ?

Technically : Until the car is sold, it is the property of the dealership. They can do whatever they want with it.

The police complaint comes into the picture if you have been sold a car that has logged more kms than the odo indicates (forgery).

[Glifford]

I remember seeing this brand new (TC number plates) Zen Estilo a few weeks back. Fully loaded with four grease monkeys who seemed to be having a good time.

They were driving the car on the ORR in Bangalore between the Marthahalli Junction to KR Puram (atleast I followed them on this stretch). The rear wind-shield read "Pratham Motors" (IIRC)! I suppose they were driving it from the yard to the dealership for delivery (could see some ICE boxes in the hatch).

And how were they driving it! As if they were riding some bike fast in slow moving traffic. Taking sharp turns, accelerating HARD, braking even harder (heard the tyres squeal) and almost hit a vehicle in front of them a couple of times. They were criss crossing vehicles like crazy as if they were some kid on a Yamaha RX100!

I chased them on my Pulsar way beyond 90 kmph till I found them too crazy to follow even with a decent gap between us. I backed out. They plundered on!

My heart pained thinking of the way they were handling the car as some customer awaited the delivery at the dealership. Poor guy!

I have been extremely picky about picking up vehicles new. Remember the "fuss" I made when I picked up my Pulsar, insisting I ride it to the RTO (for registration) myself!

[JRD]

Ok i was going to post a new topic but found this post so here is my experience.

I am planning to buy a new car for myself. It started at a fiesta S n Dzire to a civic v and back to a fiesta diesel SXI. The fiesta diesel combined with the surprising outstanding customer service at Cargo Ford Ahmedabad convinced me that the fiesta is the one to go for. It meets all my requirements - fairly compact, fuel efficient, low end grunt, driveability in the city, solid build (unlike the half a dozen japs we already have) and tones of luxury features to spoil me (i'm a sucker for electrically adjustable mirrors). so i had made up my mind and instead of buying it right away i have decided to wait till the month end or even till year end. A week ago in a conversation with my elder brother at dinner he suggested that if i was ready to pay for a 9L car, i should also go and take a look at the fabia diesel top end (the one with the goodies sunroof, xenons etc).

So I took his advise as i always do and visited Torque automotive (skoda dealer in ahmedabad) a week ago for the fabia diesel. I got a lousy walk through of the car in the showroom (even worse then the maruti guys who didnt even offer me a seat at the showroom and straight away told me that there was a 8 month waiting) Any ways back to skoda, about 10% of information was provided by the sales girl and even basic information like engine displacement and HP of the engine were not mentioned. When I asked for a TD i was told that the TD car has been in an accident and she will call me as soon as one is available. (Like they will be motivated enough to pick up the receiver of the phone.)

To my surprise, yesterday afternoon i received a call at my office that the TD car was available. I informed them that i would come down there on my way home. 6pm I reached there and again lousy and lazy attitude shown by the sales people. It seems like they don't have a coffee machine there. Anyway I got the keys and started the car for my TD. After driving a couple of kms I was not too impressed with the car (compared to the fiesta TDci). So i was playing around with the cd player and wiper controls etc and my eye went to the speedometer. Except for the rpm meter everything else had been disconnected with the odo showing 164 kms. I pressed the button to see weather the trip meters could be accessed and nothing. The odo had been fixed at 164km. So immediately i asked the sales girl why the odo is not working and to her audacity she bluntly said "sir ae to test car che ne atle" WHAT!!! So what she is telling me is that all the cars delivered to customers who are paying 8Lacs for a hatchback have been abused as test cars first? My response was "HUH! okayyyy?."

I was shocked at first but then was kind of expecting this from skoda after i remembered what happened with us at another skoda dealer in 04. I wont get into the details but to quickly tell you about it, We had made full payment for an octavia petrol in 04 and it was supposed to be delivered in 11days, but the car was no where to be found till 70 days after the payment and the dealer refused to answer our calls. a week from then we went to the dealer got our money back and went to toyota at 11am made the payment and the corolla was delivered at 5:30pm that same day.

Is this what VW group is going to offer in the future?? Dealers like these spoil a company's image permanently and rest assured i will make sure none of my friends and relatives will go for a skoda.

[TheHorse]

as long as Dealers sell their TD cars in second hand market i've no issues. But they start selling these cars as brand new ones, it gets messy and to top everything we as customers can't do anything about it :(