[f1fan]

Wanted to share my car buying experience (well the car is currently being registered at the dealer's end, hence not a complete experience yet ). From the time the Dzire was launched, I was planning on buying the diesel one. Primarily it was in my budget and was diesel. Luckily for me, both me and my wife liked the looks of the same. I had heard all along that the wait time was approx 4-6 months and I already have a car, hence was fine with that. I had decided to book after Diwali and following are some amazing sequence of events:

Last Thursday i.e. 6-Nov-2008, I finally started my process of calling dealers for price/delivery estimate. Called up one of the leading dealers in Mumbai and my favorite (as all my last 3 maruti's were bought from there and I was very happy with them. They asked me what model and color I wanted. I said I want the Blue one. She said 4 months waiting period and updated me with the price. Before hanging up, she asked me for my name and contact information. I generally dont provide the same as I fear cell numbers being passed on to pesky telemarketers but for some unknown reason I gave it to her. After that I called up another dealer and they gave me the price and told me that the wait period for Diesel Dzire VDi was approx 4 months too. I said Thank You and hung up. This was all on Thursday morning.

In the afternoon, as I was tensly watching Sachin inch (He really was inching i.e. between him and dada, they played off four overs before Sachin moved from 99 to the three figure mark) forward to his 100 in our office cafeteria TV, I received a call from the first dealership I had called. They told me that they do have a blue VDI as I had requested with No waiting period. Believe me, I could not believe what I had heard and asked her to confirm the same. She said that she had confirmed with her manager and also checked their yard and they indeed do have a blue Dzire VDi for me. She told me that I had to pay a deposit of 50K asap i.e. that day itself and after that arrange for the remaining in the next five days.
I was very happy. I confirmed the deal over the phone. They took down my contact information and told me that someone would be there at my place at 8:00 PM to collect the cheque and also fill some docs that were required.

That evening between 4:00 PM and 8:00 PM, I was very excited but had one question playing in my mind all along i.e. How can I get a car so soon when there is a 4 month waiting everywhere. I cannot be that lucky, can I?. This raised questions in my mind i.e. is there an issue with the car i.e. Is it a damaged one or a lemon that they are passing on to me. I ended up calling the sales rep and he re-assured me that it is a brand new car with absolutely no issues. When he came over, I paid him the deposit and told him that I strictly wanted to check the car in the yard before doing the complete payment. He was fine with it. He said that he would SMS me the yard address and the chassis number by Friday noon and I can then go to their yard and view the car. This was comforting news to me. I ended up calling my parents, friends about my new buy and went to bed that night a happy man.

Something drastic was in store for me the next morning. Would update in the next post as this is getting too long.

P.S; Dealer's names have been withheld till the time I get my delivery.

[Swifty2008]

Hey there, This is nice write-up. Now I'm curious to know what happened the next day.

[f1fan]

Friday 7-Nov-2008, I was desperately waiting for a call/SMS and unfotunately it never came. Finally at 4:00 PM, I got a call from the Sales Rep stating that the car was sold to someone else by another Sales agent. The first question to him was how can that happen and if that has happened, what about my payment and pat came his reply "I have forwarded your cheque to Accounts Dept". I was flabbergasted. I asked him as to WTH did he ask accounts to process my payment when he knew in the morning about the car being sold to someone else and also asked him about how was the car sold to someone else when all along we had been discussing about it. He talked about their system and told me that till there is a payment against a car it can be sold to anyone by a sales rep. I didnt believe in his crap. But the bottom line was that I was without my promised car and my deposit had been processed. I really felt bad as my hopes of landing my hands on my car had been raised by Sai Service from 4 months to 5 days and within one night and I was back to reality the next day.
After a lot of calls back and forth to the Sales Rep, he said would check with his Manager and also check the next schedule of cars coming from MUL and call me on Saturday. I had really lost all my hope by this time.

[ariendj]

5 days seemed like too much to believe!!i understand how much of pain your mind must be going through..all those hopes shattered but hey 4 months isn't that bad!!
i had planned for a dzire VDi a month back when the waiting period was 7 months and then postponed the plan for few weeks and just 2 days back came to know that the waiting period went across 9 months and now they stopped taking orders for the VDi!!
i have no hopes and no dreams now!! now its eyeing for the swift VDi!!

[f1fan]

Originally Posted by ariendj

5 days seemed like too much to believe!!i understand how much of pain your mind must be going through..all those hopes shattered but hey 4 months isn't that bad!!
i had planned for a dzire VDi a month back when the waiting period was 7 months and then postponed the plan for few weeks and just 2 days back came to know that the waiting period went across 9 months and now they stopped taking orders for the VDi!!
i have no hopes and no dreams now!! now its eyeing for the swift VDi!!

I would only say "Dont lose hope". Atleast I didnt. My next part coming soon with details of what happened on Saturday and this week

[deardaljit]

Originally Posted by f1fan

Wanted to share my car buying experience (well the car is currently being registered at the dealer's end, hence not a complete experience yet ). From the time the Dzire was launched, I was planning on buying the diesel one. Primarily it was in my budget and was diesel. Luckily for me, both me and my wife liked the looks of the same. I had heard all along that the wait time was approx 4-6 months and I already have a car, hence was fine with that. I had decided to book after Diwali and following are some amazing sequence of events:

Last Thursday i.e. 6-Nov-2008, I finally started my process of calling dealers for price/delivery estimate. Called up one of the leading dealers in Mumbai and my favorite (as all my last 3 maruti's were bought from there and I was very happy with them. They asked me what model and color I wanted. I said I want the Blue one. She said 4 months waiting period and updated me with the price. Before hanging up, she asked me for my name and contact information. I generally dont provide the same as I fear cell numbers being passed on to pesky telemarketers but for some unknown reason I gave it to her. After that I called up another dealer and they gave me the price and told me that the wait period for Diesel Dzire VDi was approx 4 months too. I said Thank You and hung up. This was all on Thursday morning.

In the afternoon, as I was tensly watching Sachin inch (He really was inching i.e. between him and dada, they played off four overs before Sachin moved from 99 to the three figure mark) forward to his 100 in our office cafeteria TV, I received a call from the first dealership I had called. They told me that they do have a blue VDI as I had requested with No waiting period. Believe me, I could not believe what I had heard and asked her to confirm the same. She said that she had confirmed with her manager and also checked their yard and they indeed do have a blue Dzire VDi for me. She told me that I had to pay a deposit of 50K asap i.e. that day itself and after that arrange for the remaining in the next five days.
I was very happy. I confirmed the deal over the phone. They took down my contact information and told me that someone would be there at my place at 8:00 PM to collect the cheque and also fill some docs that were required.

That evening between 4:00 PM and 8:00 PM, I was very excited but had one question playing in my mind all along i.e. How can I get a car so soon when there is a 4 month waiting everywhere. I cannot be that lucky, can I?. This raised questions in my mind i.e. is there an issue with the car i.e. Is it a damaged one or a lemon that they are passing on to me. I ended up calling the sales rep and he re-assured me that it is a brand new car with absolutely no issues. When he came over, I paid him the deposit and told him that I strictly wanted to check the car in the yard before doing the complete payment. He was fine with it. He said that he would SMS me the yard address and the chassis number by Friday noon and I can then go to their yard and view the car. This was comforting news to me. I ended up calling my parents, friends about my new buy and went to bed that night a happy man.

Something drastic was in store for me the next morning. Would update in the next post as this is getting too long.

P.S; Dealer's names have been withheld till the time I get my delivery.

Interesting !!! I am anxious to know what happened next !

[lambuhere1]

Originally Posted by f1fan

I would only say "Dont lose hope". Atleast I didnt. My next part coming soon with details of what happened on Saturday and this week

My good guess is that the Beauty is already in your safe hands.

Dont want to be a spoilsport, Pray continue your discussion at your won pace. Its a interesting experience.

I agree to what the sales guy says. As long as the payment is not recd, the car can be sold to anyone.

[f1fan]

Originally Posted by lambuhere1

I agree to what the sales guy says. As long as the payment is not recd, the car can be sold to anyone.

I hear you but when a sales person is in discussion with someone who had agreed to pay, then I feel that there should be some way they should be able to put a hold on the vehicle atleast for a day. In my case, the sales person came to my house at 8:00 PM collected the cheque and next morning when he logged in, he said he saw that the car was booked by some other agent which he says happened the earlier night. I feel that they should be able to add a comment there say "Working with a prospective buyer" or something on those lines to hold on to the car.

[sukrit7]

looking forward to more, though like most bollywood movies, it doesn't seem too tough to guess.

[BenjiRoss]

OK - I'm hooked to this thread. I've already hit F5 (refresh) about a dozen times.

[f1fan]

Originally Posted by lambuhere1

I agree to what the sales guy says. As long as the payment is not recd, the car can be sold to anyone.

I hear you but tend to disagree to a certain extent. I was told to do a down payment and I agreed to the same. If I had defaulted, then it is right on their part to give it to someone else. In my case, I paid the downpart at 8:00 PM and next morning when the sales guy logs in, he sees that the car is given to someone else. He says that someone sold it the previous night ( i.e. when i did the payment). I feel that they should be able to add a comment like " Talking to a prospective buyer" or something on those lines so that no two or multiple sales person sell the same car.

[f1fan]

Originally Posted by BenjiRoss

OK - I'm hooked to this thread. I've already hit F5 (refresh) about a dozen times.

Thanks for reading thru my thread
Give me sometime. I am stuck with some work and have penned down half of the post. Will post it in a bit.

[f1fan]

Saturday 8-Nov-2008. I had pretty much lost all hope and was planning on cancelling my booking as I felt I was given the run-around-the-mill that most of us have been subjected to by MUL dealers of delivery of diesel Swifts or Dzires. I got a call in the morning stating that a new lot of cars would be ariving next week i.e. weekend of 15-16 Nov and there is one blue Dzire VDi in that lot and they would pass that on to me. They also updated me stating that they had a black Dzire VDI ready if I required. I said no to the Black and resigned to the fact that if things go as they planned, I might be able to lay my hands on my car next in two weeks time. Thinking hard, I thought that even that option was better than waiting for 4 months and with a heavy heart said yes to that plan. Pls note that all dates provided by the dealer till this time were tentative dates with no confirmation.
More to follow...

[f1fan]

[FONT=Tahoma][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]Saturday 8-Nov-2008. At approx 5:00 PM on Saturday, I got a call again stating that they now have another blue VDi with them and this time it is confirmed that the car is there and is locked down for me as I had already paid in advance. I did ask them as to how they suddenly had an extra car. The reasons provided were not very convincing and really I wasnt that interested in grilling them further on that as I was finally getting the car that I wanted in a small period of time. I had the same set of conditions i.e. I would like to see the car in the yard fist and if everything is good, pay the remaining amount that same day. It was then decided that I would go to their yard on Monday and if I like the car, the sales guy would come on Monday evening and collect the remaining amount. By 6:00 PM on Saturday, I received an SMS with the address and the Chassis Number[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma]By now I am sure, you can guess what has happened next and hence I dont want to pull this thread too long. [/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma]This Monday, I went to the yard and saw the my beauty there. Was covered in a little dust but was there. The chassis number matched. I nearly did a PDI in the yard itself and then confirmed back to the sales agent that I would like to go ahead with the purchase. [/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma]In the evening on that day, the Sales person came over to take the complete payment and have promised me the car by this Sunday (fingers crossed).[/FONT]

[FONT=Tahoma]I have some images that I had taken of the car at the yard. Would post when I go home (USB Drives de-activated at work )[/FONT]

So here my friends is my story about my desire for a Dzire which hopefully should be complete by mid next week (Mom/Wife telling me that coming Wednesday is an auspious day, hence will have to wait three additional days).

Would keep updating this thread as time progresses.

[Swifty2008]

Well, this is a sad story, but that's the reality.

As far as I know, all those who booked dzire had a waiting period of minimum 3months.

Keep us posted.