I bought my Cruze in just over a month from the intial thought crossed my mind which is my fastest major decision in my life.
My first visit to the showroom was purely to check the beauty in person and its pricing.
June'10 3rd week visited
"Kun Chevrolet" showroom in Kavadiguda ( Just behind Hotel Marriot, near Tank Bund) and when i checked this beauty out in person, it was instant falling love. But, when i sat down with the salesperson to work out the financials my heart sank as it was seriously out of my budget.
Took the details and went back home depressed. Well, next two days instead of reading a book before going to bed ( thats my usual habit) i started by-hearting the car specficiations and financial details
Within 2 days, I get a call from Kun Chevrolet asking me when i am available for a test drive. Since i mostly work from home on Fridays, i told the sales person either on Friday or Saturday. For him the earlier was the better choice obviously. So, Mr.Kishore Kumar from Kun Chevrolet lands up at my place on a friday afternoon along with his colleague Mr.Venkatesh.
First thing before i took the test drive was to remove my Accent Viva from the parking lot and asked them to slot the Cruze in the same parking space right next to my i10 Kappa. I was elated to see it fitted into that space perfectly with some space left as well.
Next step, get in the driver seat and immediately noticed it was an Auto version and having driven only one other car it took me a few minutes to get used to it. Kishore kept telling me to forget that i have a "left leg", I thought nice way to tell me there is no clutch in that car.
Took it for a test drive in peak traffic and then moved to Necklace road and did a few rounds up and down and with performance being the key criteria with all other requirements a distant second, i decided this will be my next car.
When asked about the best deal they can offer, they came up with this one :-
10K corporate discount Mudflaps,Carpets and Teflon Coating
Having some experience of buying new cars in the last few years, important step was to pit them against other dealers so went to
Orange Chevrolet in Malakpet as i was passing by that area a few days later.
There was no Cruze in display and one young fellow reluctantly explained about Cruze ( maybe because i was dripping wet due to heavy rains outside which obviously means I was on a bike) thinking i cannot afford to buy one. I took the brochure and came back home.
In the meantime, Kishore delicately but nicely following up with me and during the next week or so, I took 3 more test drives. Another automatic and two times the manual version. He was the epitome of " Patience" and never said why i am asking a test drive so many times.
I took the test drive so many times just to reconfirm if my initial thought/passion/love was not a fleeting one. These additional test drives confirmed that i can live with this car for next 5 years.
During a lazy sunday morning after grocery shopping visited
Orange Auto in Banjara Hills and was greeted by a courteous Mr.Syed. He explained the features and even showed me an LT readily available in Olympic White and when i told him I am coming from Kun and outlined the offer received from them. He counter offered this :-
15K corporate discount ( from ex-showroom, this will reduce everything like RT and Insurance accordingly) Mudflaps,Carpets and Teflon Coating Body Cover Steering Cover in leather
He was bad mouthing KUN and said they have an LT in White readily available if i can take it immediately. But, then I was not mentally prepared even at that point of time. I thanked him and came back home.
If i were in his shoes, I would have made a follow-up call the very next day.
1 day, 2 day, 3rd day, 4 days passed. No follow-up calls. During this period, I regularly received calls from Kishore who promised me delivery in 2-3 weeks.
By the 3rd day, i had made up my mind that i am buying it from KUN CHEVROLET for a few major reasons :-
a) Attitude of ORANGE AUTO was absolutely callous.
b) KUN CHEVROLET service center is exactly 1km from my home
c) They matched the offer received from ORANGE AUTO
The irony of entire thing, I received a call from Mr.Syed just when I was paying a Rs.50,000 advance to KUN CHEVROLET. I told him where I was at that moment and patiently explained to him why I chose KUN CHEVROLET over their dealership and finally told him to
"Take a Hike" KUN CHEVROLET DEALERSHIP EXPERIENCE:
1. Polite, Courteous and Regular follow-ups
2. Offered test drives several number of times ( four, in my case)
3. This one takes the cake, when i wanted to see the interiors of an LT :-
Kishore took the trouble of taking permission from one of his recently delivered LT customer, picked me up from my home in a manual LTZ ( which I drove, so technically 5 test drives) and went to Tarnaka where his other LT customer resided.
I would rate this as the best gesture any dealer can offer his prospective customer.
Only thing that i didnt like about KUN CHEVROLET, on the delivery date, despite confirming will reach by 4PM, it was not ready until 5:30PM as teflon coating was underway when we reached.
Other than this minor hiccup, it was an awesome experience to deal with KUN CHEVROLET and would highly recommend dealing with Mr.Kishore Kumar.