[techieaditya]

Hello All,

My brother-in-law who works in Bengaluru is buying his first car and has finalized Elevate. There is a dealer who is offering 2.2L discount on the ZX trim but it is manufactured in April 2024. The main question is, should he buy it? What things need to be checked before proceeding with the purchase?

Few things that the dealer mentioned:
- He said the warranty has already begun, as they only have 6 months before the warranty starts, so instead of
- He is asking my BIL to pay 2L before the pdi and he need to make the complete payment before the first week of march, although we will be taking the delivery on 14th April as per our auspicious muhurat.

I am concerned about making the payment in advance before taking the delivery, generally we make the payments before a week and this has been on all my car purchases till date.

I am also concerned about the condition of the car as it has been sitting idle in the stockyard for almost a year now.

Is this deal too good to be true?

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Even given the fact that the Elevate has fared badly in sales, and dealers do have MY24 stocks left, April still sounds a bit fishy. Coupled with that they want a heavy payment for a car that had no takers for almost a year. And warranty having started on the car also makes no sense - unless this was registered earlier as a demo or a lemon returned by someone else.

Do tread with caution. There is however official discounts on the Elevate for MY24 cars, and there will be dealer discounts too, so the deal isn't so unbelievable either:

The discounts on the Elevate SUV's MY24 stock are even more extensive. The top-spec ZX trim offers benefits of up to Rs 86,000. The SV, V, and VX trims offer benefits of Rs 76,000, while the MY24 Apex Edition models offer benefits of up to Rs 65,000.

Source

[sharmanova]

One word - IGNORE.

Yes, the Elevate hasn't been a sales hit, and hey it's a not dud either! So a April 2024 car with its warranty already started is a RED FLAG. You better suggest your B-I-L to consider late MY2024 or MY2025 models instead.

[IshaanIan]

A deal could be had here. But you have to check out the car thoroughly. Considering warranty has already begun on it, make sure to check it out extensively and test drive it before any further negotiations things like battery has to be changed by dealer if it has been sitting for a long time since it can bulge and brake rotors could have warped so check to see that there aren’t any vibrations while driving. Also, find out why the warranty has already begun (there ought to be some legitimate reason like if it was a demo car) and use that to negotiate a better deal. 2.2 lacs off on a 20lac car whose warranty has already begun doesn’t seem like a good enough deal to me almost like they are trying to take advantage of you by demanding large sum upfront and being vague about warranty starting.

[ABHI_1512]

An almost one year old car sitting idle with the dealer is a strict no no. The sales numbers of the car are irrelevant here. A car is meant to be used and if it is sitting idle for a long time, it means mechanicals are idle too. Second serious red flag is the demand of money even before the PDI. Walk away without even thinking anything. Right now, every manufacturer is stuck with unsold stocks, tell your brother-in-law to find another one from the recent lots. I am sure he will find one with almost similar discounts.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by techieaditya

Few things that the dealer mentioned:
- He said the warranty has already begun, as they only have 6 months before the warranty starts, so instead of
- He is asking my BIL to pay 2L before the pdi and he need to make the complete payment before the first week of march, although we will be taking the delivery on 14th April as per our auspicious muhurat.

If the warranty has already begun, it means it is already invoiced in the Dealer - OEM CRM tool. It may have been sold to someone who rejected it before registration and got cancelled or most likely dealer himself entered it as a sale in the system and used it for demo purposes for an year.

You can get the VIN number from him and ask Honda on the warranty of the VIN. I am not sure how Honda takes this up. I suggest to write a email asking all the details to them.

Irrepective of brand, never pay anything beyond booking amount without seeing the vehicle and completing PDI and then pay and sign forms for registration. Take delivery as quick as possible after Registration.

Overall, it appears Dealer is trying to close the financial year at the expense of a new car buyer with a shady deal. So I suggest to avoid it.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Warranty has already begun - there is no reason for this unless the car has already been registered before. Also, no money apart from a token booking amount should be paid till a proper PDI is done. Be firm on both counts. Tread cautiously with your eyes wide open and proceed only if the car fully checks out. Using a professional third party PDI service like Zeekardo can be helpful in this case.

[avdhesh15]

The warranty starting sounds very fishy, and coupled with 2 lacs before PDI makes it worse. Adding to that is the fact that the car is 10 months old with no history of what's happened in this time.

Major red flags, and hence I would stay away.

Sometimes in life, if it's too good to be true, it's not.

[SixPistons]

Elevate is a bit of a dud in sales, despite being a decent car, but it isn’t as much a dud that it doesn’t sell for almost an entire year.

I would, if at all, proceed with a dead straight extremely carefully, given that the guy is being unnecessarily vague about the vehicle.

You’re thinking you’re getting a deal, this vehicle feels like you’re the deal the dealer’s getting.

This couldn’t sell for some reason, got stuck at PDI/rejected at delivery etc. or test/demo vehicle.

Maybe I am being a bit too cautious here, though I’d prefer to stay away from this vehicle and either buy a fresher unit if I really want an Elevate, or buy another car altogether that fits the budget better.

[RJK]

Vehicle is already 1yr old. Assuming there’s nothing wrong with the car, value has already depreciated by atleast 20% (if not more). Unless you’re getting a discount higher than that %age, it’s not worth the associated headache and 2nd guesses ie is it a PDI rejected car, is it a demo car etc.

I’d Skip it.

Cheers

[SS-Traveller]

Stay away.

Any car that has been sitting idle in a dealer stockyard through one monsoon season would have multiple issues, not the least of which being underbody rust & rat bites. I recently had occasion to inspect a WagonR from June 2024, and there was heavy rusting of the suspension and brake components. The dealer refused to give the buyer an underbody anti-rust coating, though the discount offered was about ₹75,000. The battery also had a CCA reading of 270A, the rated CCA being 310A. Fearing subsequent brake & battery issues in the near future, we decided not to proceed with that car.

[satnan]

Just that the car was manufactured about a year back alone shouldn't be a reason to ignore it especially if the discounts are mouthwatering and a through PDI shows no issues. I would always compare the offers on the recent manufactured ones and decide if the deal is really worth. That's how I bought my previous Linea that was in the yard for 1 year 3 months (I got at a price about 10-15 percent lower than the selling price of new cars). The car was flowless, I kept it for 9 years and finally sold off about 3 years ago.

In this case there is something fishy though. As many others also mentioned statement that warranty is already started is the biggest red mark. I would not proceed without digging into this and understanding the real reason for it.

[2000rpm]

Thumb rule in dealing with dealers.

Dont pay in advance unless you are convinced about the car. Refunds wont happen, if anything goes south.

[GTO]

It's a slow moving model, so I am pretty sure you will get a 1-lakh discount anyway on a Nov-Dec 2024 manufactured car. Why even bother with such a shady April '24 example for an effective difference of 1.2 lakhs? If you buy brand new, buy brand new for all the goodness of new (fresh, new warranty, no hidden shockers).

[ike]

Originally Posted by techieaditya

Hello All,


Few things that the dealer mentioned:
- He said the warranty has already begun, as they only have 6 months before the warranty starts, so instead of
- He is asking my BIL to pay 2L before the pdi and he need to make the complete payment before the first week of march, although we will be taking the delivery on 14th April as per our auspicious muhurat.

Why has the warranty already started? AFAIK warranty on Honda cars start after it's been invoiced, and the warranty cannot be reset even if the customer cancels after invoicing. If that was the case, the dealer would have scrambled to sell that particular car right away rather than holding on to it for so long.

There's no way dealer can demand payment before PDI. Even if you are getting a different car (a more recent one), pay advance only after you have done a PDI and are satisfied with the car. IMHO it is the dealer that is at a disadvantage here trying to sell an old car, he is in no position to dictate payment terms or demand 2L before seeing the car.