[fight_club]

Update on My Booking status.

Met the GM of Fiat Caffe on Satarday to get Status of the Car. I was told to Clear the Loan Amount and the Difference and Car shall be Delivered with a Week.

I am Doing those Formalities Today. I did Ask him about the Allotted VIN no. but Was told that it will be given only after making full payment. I don't know whether that is the standard practice?

I also Told him as to what is the Process of Customer Doing PDI on which he feigned ignorance i.e "We will do the PDI" what's the need.

I Told him I would Do a Thorough PDI before taking the Delivery.

Overall I found them supportive now Finally waiting for the Delivery.

Their is long thread Due once I am done with it

[fiat_tarun]

Originally Posted by fight_club

Update on My Booking status.

...

One generally does not make full payment till you have done the PDI and are satisfied. Once you make full payment you are at their mercy and will have to double follow up for everything.

I think you should insist on a VIN before you make any payment. It appears like they are going to place the order for a car with your money !

[nkrishnap]

Originally Posted by fight_club

Update on My Booking status.

Met the GM of Fiat Caffe on Satarday to get Status of the Car. I was told to Clear the Loan Amount and the Difference and Car shall be Delivered with a Week.

I am Doing those Formalities Today. I did Ask him about the Allotted VIN no. but Was told that it will be given only after making full payment. I don't know whether that is the standard practice?

I also Told him as to what is the Process of Customer Doing PDI on which he feigned ignorance i.e "We will do the PDI" what's the need.

I Told him I would Do a Thorough PDI before taking the Delivery.

Overall I found them supportive now Finally waiting for the Delivery.

Their is long thread Due once I am done with it

My gut feel says, they have not even ordered the vehicle from the plant. The insistence on full payment is a clear give away. They will order only after you make full payment. Please do not budge, ask them for a VIN, do the PDI and only then make full payment.

All these are tricks played by the Fiat dealerships now a days.

[fight_club]

One generally does not make full payment till you have done the PDI and are satisfied. Once you make full payment you are at their mercy and will have to double follow up for everything.

I think you should insist on a VIN before you make any payment. It appears like they are going to place the order for a car with your money ! __________________

You read my mind their, I have asked Dealer to mail me VIN details he promised will do it on Wednesday and sent me a mail regarding that.

Well its going to be 2016 make as per email sent to me by GM.

I guess will move ahead with it now.

[thedragula]

Not really. Dealers insist on full payment because FCA stops giving them cars on credit basis. This happened in my case also and an FCA official confirmed that I had to pay full amount because the dealership was not on best terms with FCA and cars were not being given on credit.

The problem is further exacerbated because the Linea hardly sells. So no dealer will acquire vehicles at his cost and deal with unsold inventory. If am a Maruti or a Hyundai dealer, may be yes. But with FIAT, its a catch-22.

Only thing to do is agree to pay, but get FIAT involved and tell them that in case your PDI reveals anything of such nature which implies that the car shouldn't have left the factory itself, then you will not accept and would want a replacement. Try to be reasonable about it....for example..if it is something that can be rectified at the dealer level, say, a scratch or a misaligned panel etc. then deal with it on that level only.

Another thing, pay the road tax only once you okay the car. If all they need is the cost of the car to get it to you, then pay them only that much.

You may want to carry a detailed PDI checklist with you. You are welcome to use this.

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

My gut feel says, they have not even ordered the vehicle from the plant. The insistence on full payment is a clear give away. They will order only after you make full payment. Please do not budge, ask them for a VIN, do the PDI and only then make full payment.

All these are tricks played by the Fiat dealerships now a days.

[Suraj25]

Originally Posted by fight_club

Update on My Booking status.
Their is long thread Due once I am done with it

I did a complete PDI myself before making full payment for my fiat. This was at Aadya motors, Bangalore.

[whencut86]

My dealer here in Chennai ordered the car with just 25000 booking amount. Wanted only Magnesio Grey and it was available only at the Pune plant and not with the dealer. My loan was processed and I did the PDI before exchanging my old car with the dealer. My sales advisor had shared the VIN before I did the PDI. I was satisfied with the car allotted and so I gave the go ahead for registration and gave away my old car 2 days before registration.

[Arindam_Nayek]

Originally Posted by fight_club

I also Told him as to what is the Process of Customer Doing PDI on which he feigned ignorance i.e "We will do the PDI" what's the need.

I Told him I would Do a Thorough PDI before taking the Delivery.

Overall I found them supportive now Finally waiting for the Delivery.

Their is long thread Due once I am done with it

Don't even listen to their nonsense. I did believe their words made a huge mistake and have INR 2Lakhs parked with them.

Do a thorough PDI yourself and then pay the rest. A bunch of liars to say the least.

[carrerastrax]

Originally Posted by fight_club

Update on My Booking status.

Met the GM of Fiat Caffe on Satarday to get Status of the Car. I was told to Clear the Loan Amount and the Difference and Car shall be Delivered with a Week.

I am Doing those Formalities Today. I did Ask him about the Allotted VIN no. but Was told that it will be given only after making full payment. I don't know whether that is the standard practice?

I also Told him as to what is the Process of Customer Doing PDI on which he feigned ignorance i.e "We will do the PDI" what's the need.

I Told him I would Do a Thorough PDI before taking the Delivery.

Overall I found them supportive now Finally waiting for the Delivery.

Their is long thread Due once I am done with it

Two reasons why he's doing it
1. He wants to recognize the sale as a January sale. Because they recognize their commission at the time of booking and it's difficult for them pay that money back, if you cancel it.
2. It's a fiat. If you cancel it, he has a car in inventory for which he's already paid for and he has to work harder to sell it.

I was in the same boat in some January. They gave me a car with its paint already etched by bird poop. I rejected it and he said he will get it polished. I asked him, what if it re-appears? Can he give me in writing that he will take care of it through the lifetime of the car. But he's also a smart man. So he becomes very aggressive and very unfriendly. For a moment I was confused about who was the customer. I just kept quiet and told him that, I need the VIN and I need to see the piece and do a PDI, before which I will not pay any more money or sign the form-22. He then asked me to cancel it. Didn't do that either. Just held my ground and he sulked into agreeing with my stand. It wasn't pleasant at all. This was the sales manager of Concorde motors. Since I didn't relieve myself of my money yet, I was the king.

No two fiats are the same in India. The inconsistency in fit and finish at the factory level is itself questionable by modern standards. Say a door lock or something is not working, the dealer will still push it because
1. He won't order another car for you
2. Dealers probably make the most of Fiats generous warranty policies by over clocking the bills. Again a catch-22, because if they don't make money in their investment, they will shift to a maruti or something else. And they don't sell 5k cars a month to have a queue outside their service station. Most of the current queues are to do with approval processes, parts unavailability and extended diagnosis times. There was a time when they were even more generous. And rightfully so - you don't expect the paint to develop bubbles or the a/c compressor to fail. Bloody hell they have to repair/replace it. So probably the use of the word generous is not correct. But with manufacturers like skoda in the same realm...

[fight_club]

Thanks All for your Advice and opinions,

I have told my Bank to hold the payment till I give them Go ahead.

I would like to share this with members that I had bit of Trouble with Fiat Dealers initially and I got In Touch with Direct Fiat Officials to clear the mess. This particular Dealer is aware that Fiat Officials are in Loop about this booking.

I am Expecting VIN on Wednesday. GM has personally confirmed this on the mail as well confirmed that it will be 2016 make.

I would do the PDI before allowing my Bank to Release the Funds.

I am sure as long as I am getting 2016 make. I should not be too perturbed. I am getting a written promise from GM to ensure that any Issue's in the car must be taken care Which Looking at Fiat Dealers record of Honoring warranty is not much of a concern.

[mustang_shelby]

Originally Posted by thedragula

Not really. Dealers insist on full payment because FCA stops giving them cars on credit basis. This happened in my case also and an FCA official confirmed that I had to pay full amount because the dealership was not on best terms with FCA and cars were not being given on credit.

This sounds strange. FCA does not trust their dealer enough to release them a car without upfront payment, but expects the customer to trust that same dealer and make upfront payment ?

Either this is a C & B story made up by the dealer+FCA, or FCA really does not trust the dealer. If FCA does not really trust that dealer, then the customer is better off not buying from that dealer at all. See the thread elsewhere on this forum where a Skoda dealer took payment from the customer for a car and simply shut shop.

[carrerastrax]

Originally Posted by mustang_shelby

This sounds strange. FCA does not trust their dealer enough to release them a car without upfront payment, but expects the customer to trust that same dealer and make upfront payment ?



Either this is a C & B story made up by the dealer+FCA, or FCA really does not trust the dealer. If FCA does not really trust that dealer, then the customer is better off not buying from that dealer at all. See the thread elsewhere on this forum where a Skoda dealer took payment from the customer for a car and simply shut shop.

Isn't it how it works across all manufacturers? The dealer pays in full when he books the car. In the skoda case, it could be very likely that the dealer never placed the order, but collected the amount from the customers.

[akshay380]

Hey guys, I am being offered a 2010 made, 2012 regiatered Tjet for 4.8L. Car has been maintained well and has run about 40k. What should be a decent price for this?
TIA!

[fight_club]

Alright Folks, got the VIN no. the important part reads "AGZ" I guess its Jan 2016 model

I will be doing PDI on Monday and have already gone through "Team-BHP" thread about
PDI instructions, Still anything specific for Linea T-jet to be kept in mind?

@Akshay": That's not a bad price though I guess you can take to 4.5. Also whats the reading on ODO?

[rangan]

Called up a Fiat showroom in Electronics City, Bengaluru (which itself was difficult as the web-site has a wrong number listed and the service section just passed me the sales guys number instead giving him my number to call) - they apparently dont even have Petrol Linea for a test drive !

No wonder Fiat is struggling with numbers.