This was a first for me and coincidentally a first for the showroom too. Let me explain.
I don't buy new vehicles. Always have bought a single owner, well-maintained, less driven second hand vehicle. This saves me the warranty blues and prevents me from tearing my hair in frustration while dealing with the ASCs. I've an excellant FNG who takes care of all my vehicles and I've never ever had a problem.
The Bull Sr, my TCIC Tata Safari 1998 4x4 driven by wife, had grown old and needed replacement. I was wanting a 4x4 for myself and was seriously contemplating a Pajero BS III (118 BHP). While quite a few Endy 4x4 came my way, I wasn't interested in that behemoth though I would've preferred its manual 4x4 lever anyday over the electronic on-the-fly version. I had shortlisted three vehicles in order of preference:
1. Pajero
2. Scorpio CRDe 4x4
3. Safari 3.0L 4x4
A search for any of these spread over a few months in 2011 did not bring satisfactory results. I found out that owners of a 4x4 seldom sell them.
The budget too was a constraint - my upper limit was 10L. And then I heard about the LX 4x4 from the M&M stable. It was supposed to be a bare bones vehicle, the USP being a 4x4 system with a MHawk 2.2 Ltr 120 BHP engine. Funnily enough quite a few showrooms of M&M were not even aware of this model.
Fortunately, Sterling Motors, Gurgaon had heard and was aware of this model. On an enquiry on phone I was informed that the on the road (OTR) cost of this vehicle would be around 10L + and this needed to be booked and delivery would take place in 6 to 8 weeks.
A quick consultation with my FNG and other knowledgeable friends and owners of Scorpios helped in making up my mind and I decided to book this model.
This was going to be my first new vehicle.
What I didn't know then was that I was going to be the 1st customer of Sterling Motors to book & buy a LX 4x4.
Tuesday - 24th Jan, 2012 - 10:30 am
Reached the new Sterling showroom on the Old Delhi-Gurgaon Road, Near Atul kataria Chowk, Opp Air Force Station, Gurgaon, with family in tow and was greeted by the sales staff and taken to Sumit Singh Nagar, Dept. Sales Manager (Scorpio). He was going to handle my car personally throughout till delivery. Sumit showed me the fact sheet, explained the nitty-gritty, offered my family & I a cup of coffee and gave me the proforma invoice. I gave him a cheque of Rs.50000/- as a booking amount and a Black LX 4x4 was booked for me. By evening the order would be passed on to the manufacturer and in about two days I would get the booking reference number.
Proforma Invoice
At 13:35 I received a SMS from Sumit:
"Your order No. is 100064551 placed on 24.01.12".
Now the real grind started. I had to contact my bank to get a loan. I called up Axis Bank where I've my personal account as well as company's account too and asked them to send an executive. The executive landed up in the evening in my office and collected the relevant papers.
My earlier Scorpio - The Bull - a GLx and a 2004 model was financed by ICICI Bank. I had completed the loan in 2011 and they would've financed this new vehicle without asking for any papers. But they were offering me the loan at 12.75% for 5 years. That was quite a bit. Axis Bank said that they would give me a special rate of 11% for 5 years as I was one of their valued customers. It was so nice to hear this.
Two days later I received an email from M&M giving me a link and user ID & password to track online the status of my vehicle's build-up. When I had asked Sumit for the approximate delivery date he had said that it would take 6 to 8 weeks as no stocks are kept for LX 4x4. The production starts only when a booking is done. This meant that sometime in March the delivery would be done. But I was in for a shock. When I checked the online status on the given link it mentioned 25th April, 2012 as the delivery date.
There were thick rumors that the Govt., is going to levy a cess on the diesel cars in the forthcoming budget and also increase the excise duty. Rumours quoted a figure of 1L + increase on the diesel cars post-budget. This was an alarming situation. Now my single point agenda became to get the delivery in March itself. Search began to find contacts in M&M who could push up my order and get the delivery before the budget announcement.
Sometime in mid-February Axis Bank approved my loan application for 5L. I had asked for that much only. The Bank sent an advise & D.O. to Sterling informing them of the finance.
I received a SMS from a friend on 22nd February that warmed my heart:
"The vehicle is being billed from Nashik on 24th. So in another 8 to 10 days it should be available at dealership for delivery".
A day later another friend texted:
"Msg from GM Quality, M&M - latest update; billing on 27th Feb means del will happen around 10th Mar".
This was good news and I would beat the budget blues.
Tuesday, 28th february, 2012 - 11:30 am
It was a Tuesday when I had booked the vehicle and when this SMS came again it was a Tuesday.
At 11:30 am my mobile beeped; a message had come. I was driving and thought would look at the message later. As I stopped at a signal for the lights to turn green, I looked at the text - it was from M&M - "Dear Customer, Your Mahindra vehicle has been rolled out of production line and is in transit to your dealer. This is a system generated SMS, please do not reply. For any further information call us on 1800 209 6006 (or) mail us at
customercare@mahindra.com".
I called Sumit and mentioned him about this message and he confirmed that they too had received an email to this effect.
Yiippeee...! The excitement was building up.
I knew that the LX 4x4 was a bare-bones vehicle and didn't come loaded with the usual bells n whistles. It would come shod with steel rims and some Indian rubber. I had already made up my mind to replace them with OEM alloys and Yokos.
I love Punjabis for their loud & gaudy behaviour. They are known to do things out of the ordinary. Why am I saying that?
Who in their "right frame of mind" would replace the company alloys and put the "dhinchak" variety of alloys? Who else but a large-hearted Punjabi. And where would you find them in abundance? Of course "saadda" Punjab.
Contacted my good friend Deepak Kataria owner of
Star Wheels in Gurgaon and he arranged a set of 4 brand-new OEM alloys in Chandigarh, though ideally I would've loved 5 of them. Got to know later that the company provides only 4 alloys and the stepney has a steel rim in the current crop of M-haw-haw VLX models. This meant that I wouldn't have to bother about the offset issues that is generally associated with after-market alloys. The catch was to pick them up and I was scheduled to go on 4th March (Sunday) to do so. But that was not to be. A mild bout of food poisoning put me in bed on Sunday.
Called Deepak and informed him of my condition and he asked me not to worry as he would arrange to get the alloys transported to Delhi.
6th March, 2012
Axis Bank's executive messaged me - "DD #: 978520 did. 25th Feb, 2012 for Rs.486864/- dispatched to dealer".
Sumit called to say that the container had arrived and he was trying to get the PDI done the same day itself so that he could deliver my vehicle on 7th.
Everything was working with clock-work precision.
7th March, 2012
Sumit called to say that the PDI could not be done as the vehicle could not be offloaded from the container due to rush.
8th March was Holi. Everything would be closed. This meant the off-loading & PDi would happen on 9th and maybe on 10th Sterling would give the delivery of the vehicle. But 10th being a Saturday, I would not take the delivery. This effectively meant that now the delivery would happen on 12th that was a Monday. I consoled myself that I shouldn't rush in these matters.
TB II comes home.. 
9th March, 2012
It was a half-day at Sterling Motors, Gurgaon on the 7th March. Sumit Singh, Dept Manager Sales (Scorpio) had said the previous day that he would call & let me know if TB II would be handed over to me on the 9th or the 12th. With baited breath I waited for the call. When I couldn't wait more, I called Sumit at noon to find out. He told me that most probably the delivery date would be the 9th.
A few words about Sumit. He was the one who was handling my case personally from the day I had booked TB II. Sumit was proactive, courteous and provided me with regular feedback from time-to-time. While I had heard & read the horror stories from the new buyers and had braced myself too for the same, Sumit's attitude came as a pleasant surprise.
So since morning today, I was tingling with excitement but didn't let that surface. Meanwhile DK (Deepak Kataria) had informed that the alloys had arrived from Chandigarh and I could pick-up from a shop in Karol Bagh. I left office at about 2 pm to go to Karol Bagh and enroute I got a call from Sumit that TB II was ready to be delivered to me. This was the news that I was waiting for. Picked up four 16" original alloys of the latest design and rushed home. I had already called home to tell the folks to get ready.
In the midst of all this joy, there was a tinge of sadness. The seniormost Bull - Safari 4x4 (1998) was being decommissioned today. Reached home, parked The Bull and alongwith family members went to my FNG in the Safari. The Safari was being left under his custody for him to find a new home. With a last wistful look at the Safari, left for the showroom in FNG's Scorpio with Rakesh at the wheels. Reached Sterling and there parked on the side was TB II. Rakesh & I gave a lookover and I went inside while Rakesh went back to his garage.
Sumit warmly greeted my family & I, offered water & coffee and initiated the paper work. I had already made it clear that the registration & insurance would be taken care by me and Vaibhav my insurance agent also arrived there to do the needful. All the paperwork took about an hour and in the meanwhile TB II was being readied. I told Sumit not to put the ribbon on the bonnet as I don't like it. Finally at 17:36 TB II's keys with the kit and a box of chocolates was handed over to us and photographs clicked.
Sumit handing over the keys etc., to my daughter
With a half turn of the key the engine sprang to life & settled to a silent purr. The odometer read - 7.2 kms. Fuel gauge needle was on red. Slotted Ist gear, eased the clutch and off we went. First stop was at a petrol pump to fill diesel. 24.92 ltrs of normal diesel was filled from a BP pump and then we proceeded to the temple. Vehicle worship was done, coconut broken and the truck driven over four lemons placed underneath the wheels.
Rushed home, dropped wife and daughter, loaded the 4 alloys and alongwith my son drove to DK's. He was waiting for me. The alloys were taken out and shod with Yokohoma Geolander AT-S 255/65 R16 rubber and balanced. Four steel rims with MRF Wanderer 235/70 R16 tyres were given to DK. I retained a steel rim with the Wanderer in the stepney. Alignment was found to be ok.
While driving to home from the showroom and then to DK's I observed that the vehicle was pulling to the left. I mentioned this to DK. He said that with Yokos it would go away. Alas, it didn't. I told DK after reaching home. He would check it the next week.
Came back home and parked where all these years Safari was parked. Sunday the 11th was the scheduled day when the accessories fitting would be done. Would love to deck-up this bare-boned truck.