Dealership Experiences

hi guys, me and hummer checked few cars this week and went across few dealerships of different companies, so thought to share our experience here and would request other members too to add on their experience.
Started off at Emrald Honda showroom, newly opened honda dealer in my city,very nice clean and neat space, waiting lounge is good on side of the help desk and the time you enter it you are greeted with a gib smile from a lady to help you and asks us to be seated till we get attended.Floors are shiney and cleaned very vell.New honda city,Two Jazz, one Civic and one Accord V6 were parked inside the showroom.Greeted by the sales person with whom our TD was finalised came in and took us towards the car, explained things about this car and we went ahead for our TD, returning back were offered glass of water and also asked for tea-coffee.We checked out other cars over there, talked about colours and other offers for Jazz from dealer, and checked out with sales person greeting to se us back with a good smile,were pleased with that attitude from honda and was also expected.Perfect.
Then we went ahead to Concept Hyunda on highway.Again were greeted by a lady and asked us to be seated.Well again a sales person comes to us and gets down to our enquiry for i10 and getz.Water was offered and we kept checking out cars parked inside that premises.Santro,I10 irde,accent executive lpg, getz gvs1.1, i10 asta,and sonata transformm were seen there, we went ahead and checked all cars present there when that sales person was busy with getting few details we asked for getz, in that time another person accompanyed us for further assistance.Good clean and neat dealership, without much noise and rushing around.Nice flooring clean ambence and seen were customers attended by some or the other sales executive there, didnt saw anyone fuming around that dealership.Good to see that.Heard few heads of sales asking other fellow person to go to xx place for a TD of some car, prompt was the response from people working there.Good experience.
Then we went to our shocking attitude place: Kataria Automobiles, authorised dealer of MSL, went inside the plot and asked the gatekeeper where's the office as nothing was seen, boards or no sigh board, prompted us on back side sitting on his bench, went ahead and found it to be the service back office and waiting lounge for people to pickup cars. Again asked executive and he prompted us to go outside and climb that ladder for new car enquiry :affraid: , man this was so annoying.Hummer even quoted that we are getting from the best experience to worst and we laughed towards getting finally to that office, yeah they call it office.Getting inside was a 10x30 table space where few sales person were sitting chit chatting, we enquired about swift and ritz, he came up with the most dirty torn out price list i have seen.for TD he asked us to follow him to their stock yard :frustration: for a TD as well as to look at Ritz.Man i was actually very frustrated with this attitude from maruti dealers and its just not this dealer but almost of all of them who does believe that no matter what we be like they would still buy maruti,
My whole point is that is it just the car we go and buy and not that phathetic experience and dealer attitude which ruins the whole experience of buying a new car with ones hard own money, we did see many swifts, dzires and ritz parked on their open feild lying there with loads of dust mounted on them.This was not the experience i felt when 8-10 years back iw ent to buy my 800, time has changed and so is the maruti as well as their dealers attitude, but should we buy it, atleast not this attitude.

thanks for sharing your experience buddy.

this shows how international companies have moved the game so forward & our own national companies are not even bothered to stay in the game, in their very own soil.

yes vijay. so true. the difference between honda and maruti was great. and when you think about the higher price that you pay for a honda you feel satisfied and the price they ask for is justified.
Kataria's office was nothing compared to honda. i even saw how the sales execs in maruti were pushing each other to attend us. on the other hand in honda showroom vijay was talking on phone for sometime and i was checking out the accord. and the sales exec promptly came ahead and started explaining me the specs of accord without me needing to ask him.
I also remember when we went to check out tata nano. nobody even bothered to attend to us. the man sitting on a desk at the other end of the showroom called out names of some execs to attend to us. but no one turned up. we walked into the showroom saw the cars and came out and no one bothered to attend.

This is a fact very well pointed out by VJ and Hummer. The customer satisfaction reports that these companies have got has gone to their heads. International companies, with whom we used to feel jittery at the beginning, offer mind blowing services to us and we come out satisfied and smiling.
I have had so many bad experiences with Maruti in the past. It all started in 2004. The news of the Swift's arrival hadn't reached us until then and we had decided upon a WogonR LXi. The booking was finalised and we were told to wait for about 2 weeks to get our new car. At the end of the first week, we get a call from the showroom. The salesperson attending to us said that we had not submitted some documents like owner's photo ID proof and Address proof. My parents got furious as they had given all these things and also a couple of extra photos for the various forms. We immediately went to the showroom and charged that person. At first he refused its submission, but on threatening, he admitted that he had LOST them and wanted them again. We got furious and spoke to the manager, who also showed a somewhat, 'I care a damn' attitude. Hence we went home and were thinking about canceling our booking. Just then Autocar's issue came out showing the arrival of the Swift in the near future. We fell in love with the car and canceled WagonR's booking and told them to call us when the car arrives.
On 28th March, 2005, the car is finally unveiled and we book it on that very day, even without a test drive. The salesperson was different and pretty friendly at that. His behaviour was good too. We wanted to go for a black ZXi version but he insisted upon us getting the orange color as it looked sporty. But we didn't like it and told him to give us the black one only, and he agreed to make the needful corrections in the booking form.
Two months pass by and no response. Waiting period is growing like hell. Finally the salesperson calls and informs us that an orange ZXi has been despatched and we would get it soon. We again got furious as he didn't make the corrections as he FORGOT to. Then finally he corrected it and this set the waiting period back by two more months, after which on August 14th, 2005, we got delivery of our black Swift ZXi. He also requested us to give him good ratings in the feedback form because it was a question of his job. Despite our dissatisfaction, we gave him good ratings. I later realized that this is something they do with every customer. Another irritation was that Maruti was not allowing customers to TD the Swift despite of presence of a valid license. We drove it when we got delivery of our own car.

The ASS experience is good for the first two years. The Maruti ASS people would literally steal the car from our garage in order to get it serviced from their workshop. Plus there were regular calls from Maruti asking for feedback. I would say that at that time we were well looked after.
Then, a month and a half before, our car crashes head on into a boulder and messes up badly. We tow it to the garage and leave it there for the night. The next day, the ASS person in charge of our car informs us straight away that our car will be delivered after two months. That came as a shock. When asked for an estimate, they refused to give us one and said that we would be told when all work would be completed. The body repair work gets completed soon within three weeks. The Airbags need to be refitted and they quote a 70k tag. We literally have heart attacks and say that we don't need airbags. So they said that they would just replace the compartments and give us the car. Those were ordered on May 15th. After two weeks when I enquire, they say the parts hadn't been delivered. All this while, I also asked for a loaner's car, which they refused to provide. Reaching the end of my patience, I lodge a complaint with Maruti. Promptly the ASS head gets back to us and asks us the cause of our grief. On listening to our story he promised us a loaner's car and also get the parts soon. After a day or two, the ASS person in the garage who was looking after our car, gets back to us and says that we MUST fit the airbags and quoted 1.1 lakh for them. He also provided an estimate whereby he said that all parts like dash, steering, seatbelts, etc must be changed. He could have told us this before and reduced a lot of time. Plus he is also charging hiked prices. He revealed a shocking truth-cars aren't made cheap and manufacturers overprice such spares to make up lost costs. Hence, a 30-40k job is costing 1.1 lakh. I was feeling like breaking my head off. The ASS head turns out to be an arrogant person of the top order and delays our loaner's car intentionally in an attempt to avoid giving it. This despite his SWEET promises to us. It is the ASS person in the garage who helps us in getting the loaner's car. As of now I don't have any update about the work being done on my car and a plea and complaint by phone and e-mails regarding airbags' costs have apparently fallen to deaf ears.

I AM EXTREMELY DISSATISFIED BY THE BEHAVIOUR OF INDIA'S No.1 CAR MAKER.

Another thing I saw at a Maruti showroom recently was salesmen trying to coax people into buying cars with colors of their( salesmens' ) convenience and availability of cars. For example, a person had booked a blue Dzire VDi and a salesman was coaxing him into buying a silver Dzire LDi. Even the manager was a part of this and it stunned me. When the customer refused, he hung up and started abusing the customer saying that what good will 4 power windows and a music system will do to them. As if we have to buy according to their wishes and not our wishes.

In my experience, Maruti was good. While buying my Swift, it was Dzire's launch, but still i was attended after some 10-15 minutes and i even had TD of Dzire. The same can be expected from Hyundai. Mitusubishi was good too, as the showroom was empty wth a max of 2 buyers at a time, they deal with us pretty good.

But i had some not so good experience from Tata and Mahindra, you will get good attention once(more sales men, less customers), but not all times(many customers but 1 or 2 sales men).

The worst i experienced is from HM, they even claimed that Grand was less powerful than Classic(both 2000cc isuzu), as there was some problems with present Grands. But when we test drove both cars, contrary to their claim the lesser weighing Classic was under powered and definitely there is some problem with car. Classic was terribly under powered but till the end they claimed Grand to be under powered :oops: and was foolishly trying to sell the Classic which had some problem. To make us believe, they drove classic rashly to prove it was better. We actually went there with one of my cousin to buy Amby straight away, as it suits his needs for the money he is ready to pay. But once there, we were mislead by the sales men, who later took us for TD in stock yard and because of his attitude, we came out without booking.

I am stunned at the foolishness of the HM people. But then, thats natural because Classic literally has no takers nowadays. I am even more stunned because even in today's world of modern cars, people buy ambys for personal use?? :shock:

@ dcargod: that was a real shocking post buddy. its real sad that our very own INDIAN companies treats their own INDIAN customers in such a bad way whereas international companies treat us so much better. this is the reason maruti, mahindra & tata will never reach upto toyota & honda levels.

HM is out of the question! a shocking truth- both HM & honda were started together, in 1947. today look where honda has reached & see where HM is lying...!

dcargod wrote:Another thing I saw at a Maruti showroom recently was salesmen trying to coax people into buying cars with colors of their( salesmens' ) convenience and availability of cars. For example, a person had booked a blue Dzire VDi and a salesman was coaxing him into buying a silver Dzire LDi. Even the manager was a part of this and it stunned me. When the customer refused, he hung up and started abusing the customer saying that what good will 4 power windows and a music system will do to them. As if we have to buy according to their wishes and not our wishes.

this salesman deserves a big slap on his face. better, he deserves to lose his job. he is not fit for such a job.

wow, this really shows what our own leading maruti's dealership across nation does to their customers, why is this chalta hai attitude keep on coming more and more from them, this is one of the reason why hyundai is getting that close to compete in market, also what i was impressed was the way they handled all enquiry and attended every customers, different dilivery space where cars are parked ready with ribbon even before customers arrive, compared to open ground where cars are lying full of dust, and customers are asked to travell on their stockyard to collect their car after which only when they arrive to pickup, their cars are washed and handed over without any proper facility of a small lounge for waiting till their car gets delivered, Maruti seems least concerned now with taking people into their own attitude way.

Ok so i just had a pleasant experience with the GM dealer in DehraDun.
I have a 2007 Chevy Aveo 1.6.Given me no problems for the past 2 years,the servicing was just fine earlier though during the early months back in 2007 we had some issues with the servicing.But GM shut down that dealership and a new one opened in December last year.
So getting to the point-I had some problem with the Aveo,the engine malfunction light would not go off even when the car was in motion.My dad wasn't here so i asked vibhor about the problem who(afterall being an expert) explained me what the problem could be.The next thing i know-the car won't start!So now we called up DPM Auto Sales and within 30 mins(the showroom is about 20 mins away) the mechanic was here with his gadgets.It took him 10 mins to set the car right.I was impressed!What GM was in India with complaints flooding in regarding their service(even i was one of them) and what it is now.I am glad that they have been able to do this.Kudos to them and wish them luck for the future.

good to hear that siddhant, yes GM india is focusing more on customer satisfactory and services to current customers who in feedback are relatively happy and does spread good mouth publicity to company to trust their products and their services.

dcargod wrote:I am even more stunned because even in today's world of modern cars, people buy ambys for personal use?? :shock:

They live in extreme rural area, where they don't even have regular bus transport. And also they need a tough car for those roads with less maintenance cost. Space is also a big priority. They literally didn't have much options, so only Amby. Besides he drives a Tata Ace for transporting his produce, driving Ace and a modern car would a confusing thing.

My td experience with fiat GP was good enough to say that TATA is really working hard for this company as well unlike before where fiat was not to be sold ahead to tata cars attitude.We got in the showroom and were greeted, on our response for query for fiat GP the sales executive came along to the displayed GP model in showroom, explained features and details of the vehicle.Me and hummer were all over him with our questions and he promptly answered whatever he knew abt it.I also enquired about the fequency of oil change in this car and the quality,brand and quantity used to change oil, also this car uses fully synthetic oil, which he didnt knew but promptly took out its manual for reference, which was really good on that part, then came our TD time where vehicle just came back from one test drive, they took my licence, got it noted intheir register andwe went ahead for a tD, i was quite harsh with this vehicle, sudden brakes, sudden rev hard on it, and this fellow was cool andcalm and went ahead with all incabin informations he had,so overall it was a good satisfying experience, TATA really seems improving atleast with their dealership and attitudes towards customers.I am yet to get his call regarding the price list of linea-GP spares compare chart.

Now with Nano's game over, they would be left with no job. So they just hang to all customers. Any way we should appreciate job, if they are really improving.

thackervijay wrote:My td experience with fiat GP was good enough to say that TATA is really working hard for this company as well unlike before where fiat was not to be sold ahead to tata cars attitude.We got in the showroom and were greeted, on our response for query for fiat GP the sales executive came along to the displayed GP model in showroom, explained features and details of the vehicle.Me and hummer were all over him with our questions and he promptly answered whatever he knew abt it.I also enquired about the fequency of oil change in this car and the quality,brand and quantity used to change oil, also this car uses fully synthetic oil, which he didnt knew but promptly took out its manual for reference, which was really good on that part, then came our TD time where vehicle just came back from one test drive, they took my licence, got it noted intheir register andwe went ahead for a tD, i was quite harsh with this vehicle, sudden brakes, sudden rev hard on it, and this fellow was cool andcalm and went ahead with all incabin informations he had,so overall it was a good satisfying experience, TATA really seems improving atleast with their dealership and attitudes towards customers.I am yet to get his call regarding the price list of linea-GP spares compare chart.

vijay has already mentioned everything. even i appreciate TATA's improving service. what i disliked was they had no AC in such a big showroom. we were sweating badly in the stuffed heat. it got so hot inside the showroom that we felt so much better after coming out of the showroom under the blazing sun. that is something they should take note of.it helps a lot.

im_hummer_freak wrote:

thackervijay wrote:My td experience with fiat GP was good enough to say that TATA is really working hard for this company as well unlike before where fiat was not to be sold ahead to tata cars attitude.We got in the showroom and were greeted, on our response for query for fiat GP the sales executive came along to the displayed GP model in showroom, explained features and details of the vehicle.Me and hummer were all over him with our questions and he promptly answered whatever he knew abt it.I also enquired about the fequency of oil change in this car and the quality,brand and quantity used to change oil, also this car uses fully synthetic oil, which he didnt knew but promptly took out its manual for reference, which was really good on that part, then came our TD time where vehicle just came back from one test drive, they took my licence, got it noted intheir register andwe went ahead for a tD, i was quite harsh with this vehicle, sudden brakes, sudden rev hard on it, and this fellow was cool andcalm and went ahead with all incabin informations he had,so overall it was a good satisfying experience, TATA really seems improving atleast with their dealership and attitudes towards customers.I am yet to get his call regarding the price list of linea-GP spares compare chart.

vijay has already mentioned everything. even i appreciate TATA's improving service. what i disliked was they had no AC in such a big showroom. we were sweating badly in the stuffed heat. it got so hot inside the showroom that we felt so much better after coming out of the showroom under the blazing sun. that is something they should take note of.it helps a lot.

yeah that was just missed by me, A/c is something which was not working in that huge showroom and one of the biggest one in ahmedabad

The same goes for Mahindra-Renault, as well as Tata here. But in MR, with huge glass area, you could face the heat more. While Tata is in a green area covered with lots of trees, so not a big deal.