Team-BHP - Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India
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Hi folks - am thinking of renting a 7-seater for our Pune-Panchgani (approx 100 kms one way) trip next week.
Questions:-

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoshMachine (Post 4500591)
Hi folks - am thinking of renting a 7-seater for our Pune-Panchgani (approx 100 kms one way) trip next week.
Questions:-
  • Will Hexa be the right choice of rental? Or any other options suggested?
  • Any feedback on Hexa vehicle conditions (generally speaking) within Pune?

Hi Pune/Mumbai folks, if you have rented a Hexa and travelled to nearby locales, request your views on the above please:

Just completed a Mumbai -Shirdi trip with Hexa on Zoom car. We went for Zoom Car as they were the ones offering Hexa and we (me and my brother) wanted to tame it.
Quick pointers
Hexa is difficult to drive in city (will take time to get used to) as the steering is heavy and turning radius is large, resulting in limited manoeuvrability

Interior space is average, luggage room is limited, foldable rear seats however gives you option to reduce one seat in rear and add more luggage space.

In the highway it's satisfactory in terms of performance. Zoom cars are having speed limit of 80kmph so no update on overtaking in high speeds.

Noticeable turbo lag upto 1000rpm, overtaking will be tough due to speed governor.

Zoom car in general has low reputation for car cleanliness and car quality, mine was no different, A/c was throwing up dust and few clutters in car occasionally.

A word of caution, if you are taking zoom car, thoroughly inspect the vehicle, even the area's you may take for granted.

Hope this serves your purpose. Overall experience with zoomcar and Hexa - average/satisfactory (will not be my choice of car if going for entry level SUV)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MMV (Post 4503090)
Just completed a Mumbai -Shirdi trip with Hexa on Zoom car. We went for Zoom Car as they were the ones offering Hexa and we (me and my brother) wanted to tame it.

Do they offer options to choose a particular vehicle (for e.g. do they have more than 1 Hexa to pick from), or is it like "take it or leave it" process?

Quote:

In the highway it's satisfactory in terms of performance. Zoom cars are having speed limit of 80kmph so no update on overtaking in high speeds.
Regarding the highway performance, could you elaborate more when you say "satisfactory"?Is speed limitation the only factor for your feedback, or was there something that you felt was not good enough?
I will be mostly covering the Pune-Panchgani trip on the highway sections hence interested to know this bit.

Quote:

Zoom car in general has low reputation for car cleanliness and car quality, mine was no different, A/c was throwing up dust and few clutters in car occasionally.
That's sounds quite pathetic.

Quote:

A word of caution, if you are taking zoom car, thoroughly inspect the vehicle, even the area's you may take for granted.
Noted! If we eventually decide to go for this option, cleanliness check will be on top of my list.

Quote:

Hope this serves your purpose
Overall experience with zoomcar and Hexa - average/satisfactory (will not be my choice of car if going for entry level SUV)
Thanks a lot MMV for sharing your views.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoshMachine (Post 4503262)
Do they offer options to choose a particular vehicle (for e.g. do they have more than 1 Hexa to pick from), or is it like "take it or leave it" process?

This happened two years back. I wanted to book an XUV. Went to the nearest Zoomcar point to check out the cars. There were two XUVs, one in slightly better condition than the other. I asked the rep if it was possible to get that particular car allotted to me. He was not sure if we had the option of choosing.

Anyway, I booked and wrote to Zoom about my preference. I got a response saying they will consider but cannot promise - it would obviously depend on the booking status of the two cars.

As it turned out, I got allotted the other car. When I went to the yard, I saw both cars standing. Called up customer care and got my booking changed to the one I liked. So yes, it is possible but it is not a seamless process.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MMV (Post 4503090)
A word of caution, if you are taking zoom car, thoroughly inspect the vehicle, even the area's you may take for granted.

+1 to this. This is very good advice. Please do a thorough inspection of the vehicle and take pics of all the damages and dents.

My last Zoom car experience soured because Zoom car tried to charge me for pre-existing damage on the bumper. Thankfully I had taken pictures of the vehicle, but despite this I had a long argument with Zoom car on the extent of the damage. The Zoom car executive was trying to charge me stating that I had made the damage worse. I had to put my foot down, show him the before and after pictures and threaten to escalate if we continued to argue.

I have decided to steer away from zoom car in the future. Their cars are not clean, not in the best condition mechanically and aesthetically, and the staff is very rude. Annoying and totally unnecessary altercations are the final nail in the coffin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MMV (Post 4503090)
A word of caution, if you are taking zoom car, thoroughly inspect the vehicle, even the area's you may take for granted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamikaze (Post 4503350)
+1 to this.


+1. They tried to pull that up for me too.



I have decided to take complete video with some reference to date and time further up. Also recently they have contracted to 3rd party drivers for home delivery and are not taking responsibility of that driver' action. I mean, if that driver banged the car while delivering, it is your problem, unless you have photo or video with the driver and the damage to prove your innocence.:Frustrati

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoshMachine (Post 4503262)
Do they offer options to choose a particular vehicle (for e.g. do they have more than 1 Hexa to pick from), or is it like "take it or leave it" process?

The app lists only models, variant and Colors cannot be selected, mostly it will be base variant.

Regarding the highway performance, could you elaborate more when you say "satisfactory"?Is speed limitation the only factor for your feedback, or was there something that you felt was not good enough?
I will be mostly covering the Pune-Panchgani trip on the highway sections hence interested to know this bit.

Ride quality and comfort was fine, body roll was noticeable during cornering. Acceleration is not great. But with speed capped at 80kmph the effects mentioned above will be limited. Also plan overtaking manuouver well due to speed cap.

That's sounds quite pathetic.


Noted! If we eventually decide to go for this option, cleanliness check will be on top of my list.


Thanks a lot MMV for sharing your views.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PetrolRider (Post 4503446)
+1. They tried to pull that up for me too.



I have decided to take complete video with some reference to date and time further up. Also recently they have contracted to 3rd party drivers for home delivery and are not taking responsibility of that driver' action. I mean, if that driver banged the car while delivering, it is your problem, unless you have photo or video with the driver and the damage to prove your innocence.:Frustrati

In my case the left ORVM was temporarily fixed by a tape and came out while driving. I had to fix it at a local car shop. They fined me for this but I got it reversed by following up via app and phone and backed my case with pictures clicked on time (ensure to click pics on time to back your story)

Over time one annoying trend in the car rental business I have noticed in India is lack of automatic cars. Zoomcars anyway do not keep automatics but did have some premium options but even they are now not available. Myles generally has few options but even they seem to be getting rid of automatic cars.



Pretty inconvenient when you are used to drive an automatic.

I'm no way related to this guy, but, thought his ordeal deserves an attention. Personally, I was contemplating to sell me SCross & book a Zoomcar for the occasional holiday drives. But incidents like this brakes to my decision...

https://youtu.be/3jIkuhXXovk

Quote:

Originally Posted by aargee (Post 4509701)
I'm no way related to this guy, but, thought his ordeal deserves an attention. Personally, I was contemplating to sell me SCross & book a Zoomcar for the occasional holiday drives. But incidents like this brakes to my decision...

I came to this section to post about this but good to see it already here.

I believe it's all good if you don't encounter any breakdown or issues with the car but, god forbid, if you do then the process appears to be very painful.

Delays, arguments, poor customer support, poor condition of the car etc. is something that I can't handle. I have never used service of Zoomcar and I hope I never have to. I prefer to use my own vehicle then entering into an obligation with some corporate crooks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mudhasir (Post 4511377)
I believe it's all good if you don't encounter any breakdown or issues with the car but, god forbid, if you do then the process appears to be very painful.

Not just that, I happened to know that we cannot drive their cars over 100 Kmph on account of imposing penalty. Even the govt lets us go with meagre fine, but these guys will not. They seem to be tracking every inch & will wait for a big penalty of surprise when we return the vehicle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aargee (Post 4511477)
Not just that, I happened to know that we cannot drive their cars over 100 Kmph on account of imposing penalty. Even the govt lets us go with meagre fine, but these guys will not. They seem to be tracking every inch & will wait for a big penalty of surprise when we return the vehicle.

I don't like speed governors and tracking personally and will not consider renting because of that but I can completely sympathize with them as a business.


Number of Zoomcars and other rental cars I have seen in the past years getting abused on the roads is very high - high speeds, riding rough on bad roads, overloading, people sitting on the hood posing for pictures, eating within car, use it as a way to learn driving etc. We as a society for some reason don't value things which are not ours. Cars are their property and they have every right to take steps to protect them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yieldway17 (Post 4511498)
Cars are their property and they have every right to take steps to protect them.

They sure should.

The same can be achieved in a more customer friendly way. To start with, handover a car to customer in a better condition (clean interior and exterior) and have a very clear clause of car wash/interior cleaning charges, if the car is returned in unacceptable condition.

As a customer, if I receive a very dirty car then I will probably not worry about maintaining it well for the duration of rent - it's already dirty enough and I have no motivation to keep it clean.

Speed limit clause and penalty charges are reasonable monitoring and can be clearly specified in the contract, if not done already.

Take care of basic checks before delivery to customer - tyre pressure, oil levels, wiper fluids etc. This ensures peace of mind for the customer and, more importantly, a positive start.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mudhasir (Post 4511540)
They sure should.

The same can be achieved in a more customer friendly way.

Absolutely, they should keep their end of the deal too. Giving a clean and mechanically sound car should be their bare minimum all the time for a car rental company.

I have rented cars from few other airports in the world with agencies like Hertz, Enterprize, Avis etc. and even though all the experiences have not been positive because of various other factors, they all always had the basics right. Zoomcar and Myles really need to up their professionalism and get their employees more engaged to meaningfully improve the customer and car experience.


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