How a sour dealership experience ruined joy of my Toyota Hilux delivery

ike any sane individual, I refused to pay even a single rupee over the agreed proforma invoice value

BHPian HighOnSpeed recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Let me share my experience with all the folks here at Team Bhp. I just had the most terrible delivery experience of my life with the Toyota Hilux. I recently took delivery of the Hilux a few days ago and the dealer refused to deliver the car post payment of the entire proforma invoice amount, which was extremely frustrating considering I had travelled around 700kms to buy the car and made arrangements for sufficient liquid funds.

The in-house insurance is offered with an IDV value corresponding to the pre-discounted ex-showroom price, so naturally, one would be paying a higher premium for no reason whatsoever(as during claims the maximum claim value should be less than the ex-showroom price as per invoice). I cited the IRDAI regulations saying that no dealership can force a consumer to buy insurance from them and should allow us to procure insurance directly if we require it. And they were obviously not happy and reluctant to budge. After a lot of negotiations, they offered a small discount on the insurance.

At this point, I didn’t want to argue much and waste time as I was already running late and gave in. I settled up the total invoice amount and headed out for lunch with the sales team and the manager said they would finalise everything and finish the registration process in the meantime, and things were good upto this point. But when I returned back to the dealership, everything went downhill. They first said that the portal for the temp registration was down and made me wait 2 hours(had already spent 4 hours at the dealership from my arrival). I suspected that something was fishy and straightaway asked if I should return another day. This is when the manager tells me that I now had to pay an additional amount for an extended warranty and a miscalculation on the proforma invoice value(from their end).

Like any sane individual, I refused to pay even a single rupee over the agreed proforma invoice value, so they said they will initiate a refund for the total amount paid and asked me to go back home without the car. Ultimately, I managed to get the car as per the agreed price(12-hour wastage).

So, for anyone looking to purchase a car out of state, be extremely cautious of such naughty and conniving dealers. Most car purchases are emotional investments, and an experience like this will ruin everything for you. Even though I received delivery of the car, I was unable to enjoy the 1K km drive back home fully. So do your due diligence and make sure you know someone locally(preferably of some influence) just as a precaution in case they try to pull something like this on you.

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