[akannath]

Originally Posted by mahesh_sn

To be brutally honest, Carens is VFM only till Prestige plus variant which is what I was keen to book in the beginning. But, having read DCT horror stories and with my intention to keep car for 7-8 years at least, I stretched my budget to top end diesel AT.

Are you specifically looking for AT? Have you considered waiting for the new Ertiga/XL6 that is rumoured to come with new 6 speed TC? Launch due by end April I think

[furyrider]

Originally Posted by NAVREVV

Look over at FB group, there are so many reporting cancellations and move will surely backfire. Out of 10,000 dispatches, these will 99% be prestige variants and not the base or the top end trims that have witnessed exorbitant price increase while the variant which is in most demand I.e Prestige DCT has seen very less hike compared to others. I thought the price hike for Diesel AT would at max be 25-30k (That’s what the SA told me) but INR 75,000 is just too much to swallow hence I cancelled right away. This is sure-shot way to kill your brand image.

I agree. Not just FB, I've been closely following couple of groups on Telegram as well and no body is happy about the price hike. Why would anyone be?

Regarding the 10k dispatches, my point was that this was low considering the hype this car had at launch. If I remember correctly, Mahindra offered price protection for the first 50K odd bookings for the XUV7OO. Kia offered no price protection whatsoever and were not transparent about the whole allocation fiasco. Even I had to forego my choice of colour (although it was my conscious decision) to get delivery before the price hike.

[achintatri]

Originally Posted by praveenkkr

Kia, please tell that this is an April fool prank

Had booked Prestige Plus DCT before launch. But changed to Diesel AT after price announcement, though it was out of my budget.
What a mistake it turned out to be.
I've also sold my car (luckily not to Kia dealer) and already facing hardships to commute.

Now, Diesel AT increased by 70K ex-showroom which can be effectively 1L increase in on-road price.

Time to cancel the booking and wait for XL6 launch, which is scheduled to happen by end of this month.

XL 6 Launch

I would not buy Carens as I feel that this kind of practice shouldn't be encouraged.
Though it wouldn't make much difference, at least I don't want to have the feeling of being cheated.

I was already half decided on Diesel AT (unfortunately only available in top end) and was not ready to pay 20.5L OTR Pune on the same, Now even if it few thousands costlier, I am more inclined towards cancelling the booking and rather wait for New ERTIGA. I am already exploring the used car market for Crysta Zx. Seems like new Ertiga is only going to save end users like me.
Automobile market or any market for that reason has a way to secure their profit margins. Inflation is only going to increase faster now. God save us all :-). Time to ask for raise :-).

[ccsekhar2022]

Originally Posted by achintatri

I am already exploring the used car market for Crysta Zx. Seems like new Ertiga is only going to save end users like me.
Automobile market or any market for that reason has a way to secure their profit margins. Inflation is only going to increase faster now. God save us all :-). Time to ask for raise :-).

Good thing and Relief here is there are people who share the pain and the approach as well . Booked Diesel AT and was on this excruciating wait and in parllel is in the hunt for Crysta Zx used! Looked at the price rise and at cross roads.

[kmadhok]

Originally Posted by praveenkkr

Time to cancel the booking and wait for XL6 launch, which is scheduled to happen by end of this month.

I would not buy Carens as I feel that this kind of practice shouldn't be encouraged.
Though it wouldn't make much difference, at least I don't want to have the feeling of being cheated.

I agree . I had booked the diesel AT, did not think it was VFM but had not choice. Am happy to wait for Ertiga launch or increase the budget and get a used Innova or Harrier (I don really need 7 seats).
There is a “I cancelled my booking” thread in team-bhp. I think we should update our Carens cancellations on that thread .
I personally have still not cancelled, will surely cancel as soon as Ertiga and XL6 prices are out.

[mahesh_sn]

Originally Posted by akannath

Are you specifically looking for AT? Have you considered waiting for the new Ertiga/XL6 that is rumoured to come with new 6 speed TC? Launch due by end April I think

Ertiga/XL6 was never under consideration. I was ok with 30k odd price hike. Every other OEM is doing it. I will now try to bargain hard with Kia to avoid accessories pack worth 19k and to get the insurance from outside. If they agree with this, I might just be able to save 35-40k which will lessen the burden of price hike. If they don't, then bye bye to Kia.

[NAVREVV]

Looks like Kia is staring at mass exodus of Carens customers. FB group is flooded with cancellation posts. I am now planning to get Slavia 1.0 TSI AT since I was the one who convinced wife to take Carens for her office run and it would’ve served us well with 7 seat option on long family trips but was never a necessity that we needed to own a 6/7 seater only. Her mind was always on a sedan. With this steep price hike looks like Slavia is back in the reckoning for me and I will end up saving some good 3 lacs since I was planning to get Carens diesel AT. Also, With 3 Lacs saved, I am now on the look out for a used BMW as well which will be a replacement of my Audi A4 which I sold recently.

[MT_Hyderabad]

A friend asked me to suggest him which variant of Carens he should buy.
I opened my favorite carwale.com site to quickly see the list of variants and shortlist a few. To my utter surprise, there are 19, yes, 19 variants listed for the car.
Gone are the days when there were 3 manual+1 automatic variant for each fuel type for a car.
I think I should do a PhD in Carens variants before suggesting him one!
When I started driving a few decades back, ~15 was the total number of passenger cars available in the Indian market.

[dextor]

I had booked D-AT within 30-40 minutes of price reveal on 15th Feb because price of the car was 17L. But now with this price increase I am being forced to cough up another 70k. And that too when the company has itself not delivered any D-ATs in the city. So this means launch price is actually 17.70L.

This looks like more of a game plan from Kia where they are able to create a hype for their product being launched at good price point but they did not purposely deliver. Now that hype is well built and bookings have reached up to 50k (a feat in itself) they decided to cash upon this opportunity.

By not offering price protection to customer who had booked early, the whole price point does not make any sense. It was a pre-planned move. And this definitely raises questions on the integrity of the company.

I am not game for this price increase and will proceed with my booking cancellation. I personally feel this kind of behaviour of companies should not be entertained at all. If this flies off then it will become a norm for all companies to do the same in future just to create hype. Also if this is acceptable then soon there will be another price hike in few months for Carens.

If Carens did not have many bookings, Kia would not have dared to increase this price.

[CruiserX009]

I have a query with regards to the insurance on offer for KIA Carens. The car comes with standard zero depreciation insurance for the first year and 3 years of third party cover.

I was wondering if i take this package, will i be able to add the zero dep for second and third year later from same insurance provider along with the addons like engine cover, key replacement, NCB protector, etc? All the SA says is it can be done but is either reluctant to share or unware of the process.

Kind of clueless on this part with the insurance rule changes for the new vehicle. Please point me in the right direction.

[CruiserX009]

Originally Posted by dextor

If Carens did not have many bookings, Kia would not have dared to increase this price.

The price hike in such a short period from the release date is a nasty move . Hope they come to terms with the ones who have booked earlier and patiently waiting for the delivery, with some sort of adjustment on the extended warranty or other addons. Fingers crossed and waiting for the delivery date.

[Sebring]

It's the Company's fault that they cannot deliver. Why should the consumer pay such a steep hike? When the SA repeatedly told me there would be no price protection (During TD), I'd realised this would come costly later. The matter is definitely malpractice, and should be condemned. Hope someone takes KIA to court

Originally Posted by rajeevyes

this news of price hike within 45 days of launch is shocking. Even those who pre-booked also will not get price protection. Also no transparency in vehicle allocation from dealers. I am regretting now to have booked a Kia vehicle.

[furyrider]

Originally Posted by CruiserX009

I was wondering if i take this package, will i be able to add the zero dep for second and third year later from same insurance provider along with the addons like engine cover, key replacement, NCB protector, etc?

This is definitely possible. I did the same to my old vehicle as well. Instead of having a single insurance policy document covering both own damage and third party, you will have to carry the old document containing third party along with the new document containing zero dep for the second and third year. You will be charged for the difference amount (i.e., zero dep + add-ons only).

[msk_kapoor]

With the price increase the Diesel AT top end is reaching nearly 21.75 which suddenly looks not VFM. Might cancel my booking and wait little to see if I can stretch little to Hector plus or safari

[84.monsoon]

Updates price list in Chennai - Price for the 1.5 NA Prestige has gone up by almost 1.5 lakhs! On-road price including insurance and excluding any accessories or extended warranty used to be 11.41 lakhs and now it is 12.85 lakhs!