| The entire experience ... From pre-booking to delivery
First of all, many thanks to everyone at T-BHP for the warm wishes. Really appreciate them. Makes me feel even more proud at my decision to go for the 1.6 S.
Ok, here is an account of the entire experience.
Pre-booking:
There are two Ford dealers in Pune, Planet Ford (Paud Road) and Talera Ford (Yerwada). Talera was the first choice to start with because they were closer to my workplace. I wrote an email to their sales guy and he promptly responded by giving a call the very next day. He arranged for a TD car (Aquarius color) in the next two days. The TD guy, Kaushik, is a pleasing personality. He displayed to me all the bits of the car. He seemed quite knowledgeable about the car and made me feel comfortable. The TD experience was fantastic and I was completely smitten by the car. There was no other choice to even ponder over after this. It had to be the 1.6 S, Aquarius.
Booking:
Prior to the booking, I had visited the dealership as much as 2 times to arrive at the final OTR price for the car. Mr. Sagar was the sales personnel I was dealing with. His final offer was 7.65 L OTR along with 3 years/120000 kms warranty (2 years/100000 kms is standard warranty) and 2 years/30000 kms Total Maintenance Plan (TMP). Seemed like a fair price to me, because I also checked with Planet Ford (the other Ford dealer in Pune). They did not entertain me much, the sales guy on the phone did not offer to invite me to the showroom and talk on the table. He simply said, 'Sir, we cannot match Talera's offer'.
In about a week's time from the TD day, I went armed with 30k cash to the dealership. Although, their terms said 50k for booking, Mr. Sagar was alright with the 30k I gave him at the time of the booking. He called up Ford in front of me to order the color and promised to give the VIN in a few days time. The VIN was made available to me in the next 2 days.
Finance:
The dealership, like most others, had their own DSA's. I was put through a young chap, Mr. Balasaheb. For a man of just 24, he seemed quite composed and knew his job like the back of his hand. He gave me two options to chose from, SBI and Axis. I chose SBI over AXIS due to various reasons.
1. SBI offers part-prepayment of loan after 1 year of the loan tenure is over, without any penalty charges.
2. After 2.5 years of the loan tenure, I could fore-close the loan sans any penalty charges.
3. The first year interest is 8 % an the next two years at 10 %.
Overall a better deal than Axis's. However, I was warned well in advance that SBI's loan processing might take as much as 10 working days. I was prepared to wait for that much time, because of the obvious benefits in the long run.
The loan processing took that many days. The only delay that happened was from my side. The loan approval came on a Monday. But I had to wait till the ensuing Saturday to sign the loan agreement. Reason: My Dad was standing in as co-applicant/Guarantor for the loan, hence his signatures were also essential. There was minor glitch too at this juncture, when the external agency appointed by SBI for verifications, reported that they called my Dad and he said that he hasn't applied for a car loan. My Dad refused the claim, as he firmly believes no one from SBI or any such agency called him regarding the car loan. This was sorted out on the Saturday, when he came to Pune and we went to SBI RACPC (Shankerseth Road) along with me. We had tons of papers to sign and it took approximately 1.5 hours to get the entire loan agreement thing sorted out. I'd say SBI is dealing quite professionally, albeit a bit slower in their approach compared to private banks. Overall, I am fairly satisfied with the SBI dealing.
Delivery:
The loan was disbursed to the dealership on Tuesday, 3rd November. Mr. Sagar promised to deliver the car on Wednesday evening. I went around 2 pm on Tuesday to do a quick PDI before he sent the car to the RTO for the registration process. The PDI is a boon, really, thanks to T-BHP for this wonderful piece of information. Really appreciate all those who have given their valuable inputs in that thread. I did not find anything that rang a bell, during the PDI check. All looked in perfect order. The VIN matched with the one that was given to me by Mr. Sagar, post booking.
Wednesday evening, I reached the dealership. The feeling had not yet sunk in! I was simply going through the motions, as they say. By the time I was there, Mr. Sagar and his team had arranged all the paperwork, the 'Pooja' related stuff. What remained though were the number plates, I would get them only the next day, I was told. I did not make a big fuss about it, because I had all the papers in order to present to the cops, if they chose to stop a car with TC plates. I checked all the paperwork, everything seemed to be in order. I was happy with this experience. Then came the 'pooja'. This again was well done by the dealership. The 'Blue Beauty' felt like a bride ready to go to her new home :- ). I was handed over the keys to the car in sometime. Happily drove home and now a proud owner.
I'd like to thank one and all for your best wishes during and after the car purchase. I'll post the initial ownership experience in a few days time, maybe when I have completed a 1000 kms (Its done 250+ kms last evening). | 
7th November 2009, 23:38
