[hemanth.anand]

This incident came to light yesterday!

One of my close friends purchased a 2013 Fiat Punto 1.3 75hp Dynamic. He was one of the initial customers for the new Fiat caffe opened in the City and the delivery of the car happened in June.

Last week, after 7 months of hassle-free experience, when his brother took the vehicle out, the vehicle met with an unfortunate accident. It was not a major accident, but another vehicle had hit the driver side door. The impact was such that the door was dented and also it damaged the lock inside. Because of this, the driver side door was jammed and couldn't be opened.

He decided to get it repaired under insurance. The vehicle was taken to the service centre. After filling in the claim form, he got the RC photocopied to attach it with the form. Everything was fine till then. Just after this, he realized that the registration number on the RC and the number on his car was different

He checked his RC once again and all the details were correct, Engine number, Chassis number, description of the car, his name and address everything. So it was evident that the mistake has happened at the dealer. Although he should also have looked at the RC after getting it.

Upset with this, he went to the dealer. When they checked the numbers, they found out that the number on his car was that of a Tata Nano! So, A Nano was displaying the number of a Punto and a Punto was displaying the number of a Nano for 7 months on Bangalore roads! Without the knowledge of its respective owners!

At the time of delivery, dealer had fixed the wrong number plates on both the cars!

He gave his piece of mind and the dealer accepted the mistake and agreed to get new IND plates for free. I don't want to key in the numbers here for obvious reasons, but the numbers aren't similar so much so that it can be mistaken for one another.

Thankfully the issue is sorted out and we all had a hearty laugh at this, But both the car owners were in serious risk of becoming offenders. The two owners were careless for sure, but I wonder who could have been blamed in case something serious would have happened?

With this episode, I want to request everyone to check their RC and car number plates and make sure they match.

[GTO]

A simple operational error and - unfortunately - one that's more common than you'd think.

In my immediate circle, I know of:

- A Chevy whose number-plate was incorrectly printed by dealer. Discovered only after it was 2 years old.

- A Ford which ran the same number-plate as another Ford delivered by the same dealer.

Best practice for owners is to check documents & number-plate at delivery.

[getsurya]

Best practice for owners is to check documents & number-plate at delivery.

Agree with you, GTO. However, this is very surprising to me that somebody spends so much money on a car and then does not worry to look at the number plate and RC validation.

[IshaanIan]

Wow that's quite a story but what's even more surprising, is hearing that this is a common occurrence from GTO it's funny thinking about it, but knowing that there are possibly thousands of cars out there like this is kinda scary.

[laluks]

My Civic displayed KA03 in the back and KA01 in the front till I figured it out while exiting Goa, needed to write on the register and voila .


I used a black duct tape to make the 1 to 3 and escaped further embarrassment!!

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

The two owners were careless for sure, but I wonder who could have been blamed in case something serious would have happened?

In case anything untoward happens, RTO will charge-sheet the owner only for sporting the wrong registration number plates, which is illegal. So, the respective owners are to be blamed for not checking the registration numbers of their vehicles for 7 long months notwithstanding the goof-up by the dealership. The owners are supposed to check each and every entry made in the RC, not just mere registration numbers. In case of my Thunderbird 500, the dealership/RTO goofed up with wrong cubic capacity and unladen weight! My Thunderbird 500 was downgraded to Thunderbird 350! When I pointed out these blunders, the corrected and attested RC was issued later. The details are here and here.

[Live To Jive]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Just after this, he realized that the registration number on the RC and the number on his car was different

Though it is the fault of the dealer it is equally your / your brother's fault.

The correct procedure would be:

Originally Posted by GTO

to check documents & number-plate at delivery.

[Rajeevraj]

I think this is part of the team bhp checklist. I remember verifying the number in all places at the time of delivery and when I got the RC Card. Do not think this step would have entered my head if I had not seen it on the checklist. Guess it can easily happen especially at large dealerships and on special occasions when there are a large number of deliveries scheduled.

[driving_smartly]

Originally Posted by GTO

Best practice for owners is to check documents & number-plate at delivery.

Before i took delivery of my Liva from Millennium Toyota, Thane i was made to verify each and every document and also was asked to check registration number on some documents that consisted it.

Even though i knew the number as it was choice a number, but still they went through their standard procedure twice.

Apart from dealer goofing up, i think it is our responsibility to verify everything rather than believing the dealer blindly.

Worth a mention Team-Bhp checklist helps big time

[ghodlur]

True, that dealer is to be blamed for the goof up but one thing that led to this is the unusally long delay in getting the RC. Normally the number plates are fixed maybe a couple of days after the vehicle is deilvered but the RC arrives after a full 1.5 months or even longer. This makes the owner a bit careless as to not cross check with an assumption that data on the RC will be correct. Also mostly the owner are interested to know whether the chassis/engine no imprint is correct or not not giving thought to other details.

In my case the RC had one character in the chassis no missing and I wouldnt have come to know about it until the first visit to workshop to replace the faulty door lock under warranty which needed me to provide the RC. Thats when I realized the error after a full 4 months of usage. The dealer got the RC changed at his expense, thats another thing.

[mahesh_sn]

A similar thing happened with me as well in 2011 when I bought my Manza from Balaji Cars, Thane. My car sported MH 43 AX **** stickered on a crappy plastic number plate at the time of delivery. I did not check the papers in detail then. Two days later, going through papers while at home, I saw MH 43 AJ **** as my car's registration number handwritten on some receipt (road tax receipt, i think). I called the dealer immediately to confirm this. He confirmed that the number indeed has AJ instead of AX and arranged for the "J" letter stickers. On probing further, he admitted of an operational error. As it stands today, the series MH 43 AX is yet to start either on bikes or on cars.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

True, that dealer is to be blamed for the goof up but one thing that led to this is the unusally long delay in getting the RC. Normally the number plates are fixed maybe a couple of days after the vehicle is deilvered but the RC arrives after a full 1.5 months or even longer. This makes the owner a bit careless as to not cross check with an assumption that data on the RC will be correct.

True. This is what happened in my friend's case.

The thing that surprised me though was that the sales executives of 2 cars and both the owners have not looked at this. Sales executive might be same but even then atleast 3 people have been careless!

Last month, one of my colleagues who was not as careless, found out as soon as he got the RC, that he owns a diesel Brio
He has sent it for correction now.

If this is so common as I'm discovering from the posts, is there nothing that can be done? Or should this be just put down as human error?

[binand]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

With this episode, I want to request everyone to check their RC and car number plates and make sure they match.

I have had my car RC sporting one chassis number and the car itself with another (two digits swapped). So that is another place where you should check for match.

[Chetan_Rao]

It's sometimes data-entry error, sometimes just sheer laziness. Ultimately, it's upto us as legal & liable owners of the vehicle to make sure any document issued to us has the same details as the actual car.


Slightly , the NICE road toll-booth guys here in Bangalore can't even get the car# right on the receipt. I've caught them thrice just the last month typing in my car# wrong. They say it doesn't matter, but then why bother issuing a receipt at all, if you don't care to record the correct number? No wonder their (slightly glorified) data-entry brethren in the RTOs & dealerships mess up frequently.

[bharat4ever]

OP, When he gets the RC smart card, did he not check the number then and there? How was he in the unknown for 7 months?