[thoma]

What is stopping the dealership to take back the car and use it as a demo car or a manager's car or a gift car or a manufacturer test car or taxi or whatever?

I strongly am in support of the plight of Indian customers who put their life earnings on their dreams. They are stuck with one particular car for a long time, unlike dealers or manufacturers with much resources for whom one or two cars doesn't matter much.

[shancz]

Originally Posted by shancz

But the issue being discussed here is a grey and I don't find either you or Kia at fault. The fault and responsibility does rest with the dealer since it was under his control then but IMO asking for a new car isn't fair.
Looks good in this color, your wait was well worth it.

This was my earlier response, but based on an incorrect assumption that the date of delivery was 12th and the OP took delivery on 22nd. This would've meant the dealership was ready with the vehicle on 12th but the OP delayed it by 10 days also implying that the vehicle was parked on behalf and risk of the customer which isn't true. How I made this assumption even I am not sure.
Apologise for an incorrect assumption and suggestion, my bad and I stand corrected.

Based on OPs post and the points quoted below, I agree that the dealer is completely at fault since the damage happened on/before the predefined date of delivery.

Originally Posted by UmangThaker79

8. Vehicle allotted - 09-07-21
E-mail from Shreenath - "Congratulations, we have allotted you a vehicle. Pay in full by 12th July or we will give it away to the next person in queue."

9. Actual Delivery Date - 22-07-21
Pre-defined date of delivery - Call from Vikram Solanki and Punit Kshirsagar - "Car has met with a mishap. A glass door has fallen and shattered into your car."

The customer is absolutely right like he has already mentioned.

Originally Posted by UmangThaker79

I want a brand new vehicle as that is what I have paid for.

Apologies again and voted likewise.
How Kia handles their dealers shouldn't be the customer's concern.

[Kln]

Wow, did not expect to see the replies supporting the dealer and the "hota hai chalta hai" and "adjust karlo thoda" attitude! Guess many of the forum members are directly or indirectly associated with car dealership business. No way should Umang be taking the delivery of a repaired/refurbished car. As it is, Seltos is an overpriced car for what it offers - getting a damaged car from day 1 will completely ruin the ownership experience. I would escalate this till South Korea if need be. Raise hell, and you'll be done right by.

[sid_deb]

No way this is acceptable. The dealer should firstly apologize for all of this and fix their attitude.

Secondly, it doesn't matter if the car is already registered. Kia should intervene here and get the car registered as second owner in the name of the dealer (can be used as a test drive vehicle) or go to the plant or Head Office for employee travel duty.

The customer has paid in full with all hard earned money and put faith in a foreign brand. Justice should prevail.

[TrackDay]

No way acceptable !

Kia as well as other manufacturers should realize that for the majority in India a new car is a very big emotion. It is the equivalent of a family member. The Seltos currently is a highly aspirational car for a lot of folks and is a mark of prestige for the new owners. How can someone ever drive a damaged new car upon delivery ?

The best solution here for Kia is de register this affected car and get a fresh car registered in the customers name. As for the damaged one, they can repair and put it up for sale as a used option acknowledging the proper history. That is the right business acumen and not pushing your loses towards a customer.

[PaddleShifter]

Sad to see the dealer’s attitude. If the car has been damaged inside the dealership, they should accommodate the customer to his satisfaction. The fact that the car is now registered seems to be the main issue that complicates the matter.

Atleast the damage is unintentional. More than a decade ago, my car was deliberately scratched inside a TATA dealership minutes before delivery.

The left ride side just below the tail light and left side of the boot had deep scratches. My car was not even registered yet (only invoiced) but I took delivery back then. The boot and entire left side of my car (except doors) was painted after a few days. Good thing is that 11 years later, that punto is now what one may call, an old garage queen (not driven at all because of its age) but the paint difference is negligible.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-...ow-sold-3.html (My Fiat Punto MJD 90HP - 4 years & 51000 km EDIT: Now sold!)

Photo taken using a basic phone camera (hTC P3400i) without auto focus. The scratched area is much larger though the car with complete removal of paint looks small.

[lordtottuu]

Bit of a joke seeing people side with the dealer on this. If an Amazon ordered product comes damaged, they simply replace it as I have no control over what happens before it's in my hands. Sure, it's billed in my name, blah blah, but that doesn't really matter. The very fact that we think a trinket we buy online comes with better customer protection than a car we buy physically in a dealership is a farce.

The incident happened on company premises, with their employees around, before the delivery was done. That alone should warrant a massive compromise on the dealer's end. I'm 100% sure the dealer has liability insurance for cases like this. If I send in my car for a service and gets into an accident on their premises, you can rest assured there will be hell to pay for it.

OP: 100% do not concede. New car or a non-trivial compensation is what you're looking for. Do not capitulate for anything less.

[ashishy]

I have seen first hand how Shreenath's brand new cars are driven from stockyard to showroom on the eastern express Highway and at powai. They are doing minimum 80 without a care, breaking signals and skipping toll payment by zipping through and endangering opesrators there at Mulund toll.

I have written an email to them notifying this but as expected I was ignored.

Do ask for CCTV footage to prove this was an act of God. There is no a high possibility this was done by their drivers

[Memnon]

Originally Posted by Kochikaran

In light of the above incident, it makes me question whether registration of car should be done even before physical handover. Perhaps the ways of taking temporary registration in dealers name and then transferring ownership at RTO personally, within a month of delivery, is better.

As I already mentioned in another thread this is an issue in India. They once sold me a BS3 car when all the brochures for the product had BS4 written all over it. Unfortunately I realized this on the day of delivery after car was registered in my name.
I had an argument with dealer and their owner etc but to no effect. I know many members will talk about all the legal options available to me. But are they really practical solutions? After winning this fight will it feel like a victory or like an ordeal I don't want to go through again?
I went there with my family to celebrate a milestone of owning my first car and should I then have a fight and come back with a bad taste in my mouth and give a bad experience to my family? It is not that I don't know how to do that.
But then you think that the peace of mind for us and the family is more important and let it go. I agree that might be a mistake but in India with the kind of laws everyone of us makes compromises on a daily basis and it is sad that it has to be like this.
There needs to be an alternate arrangement on how a car is delivered to a customer. With the current arrangement the dealer has an upper hand over the customer and leads to the customer being put in a difficult situation after shelling out so much.
Sorry about the rant, I feel very bad for the OP and hope that he gets a satisfactory solution. But this is a fundamental issue and a proper solution needs to be found for everyone's sake.
Tomorrow it could be someone else with a different type of issue.

[kpkeerthi]

Please do not fall into the "ceramic coating" trap. A good one costs about 50-60k for a car of this size. Would you think they'd spend that much on you?

[Voyager-1]

The car got registered in the OP's name should not be a valid reason for the dealer to pass off the car to the OP. Let the dealer re-register (buy) the car from the OP and register in the dealership's name (as second owner) and they can use it as a test drive vehicle. Kia should allot a new car to the OP. Period.

[aadya]

I have voted that he should not take delivery of the car. There are many things to be considered when we give solutions to the OP. In ideal situation the dealership should give a new car and use the repaired car for their own use as demo car etc., which would negate the loss to a great extent. But are we in a ideal world?

Its painful to be angry and keep a grudge against anyone. Anger would burn the person who is angry. All the keyboard warriors who prod him to fight would congratulate him after couple of years of hard fight, if he wins the case. If he loses it would be still painful. I would suggest to push for replacement. If there is no proper support from KIA its better to get it repaired properly and settle for the maximum warranty and service package possible. If car is mechanically sound and safe, a little bit of body work would at the maximum cause some sadness and less resale value.

Calculate the actual financial loss of taking this car. Weigh the emotional pain and time you would be going through in waiting for the ideal solution. Even if the measurable loss is 2 Lakhs it is not worth spending your sleep and health for proving a point.

P.S : I do not have any connection with a KIA dealership. I express my opinion on personal experience and in treating patients with various health disorders gained by going through litigations for various reasons.

[kiku007]

Should the Customer get a brand new replacement car? Hell, yeah.

Will he get one without a fight? No, but that should not stop him.

He's done the right thing by refusing to accept delivery. Good luck man.

There are people who have taken delivery of lemons that were sold as cars and they didn't do themselves any favor eventually as they found out.

Things work very differently abroad due to laws that actually make sense and social-media backlash I guess.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/41977/...ph-street-race

"Earlier this month, we brought you the story of a Fremont Chevrolet mechanic caught taking a customer's C8 Corvette for a high-speed joyride, and it was even worse than that classic setup makes it sound. The tech ran the car up to 148 mph on a public highway in a street race that went viral once the video from the car's Performance Data Recorder was shared online.

The car's owner, Michael, wasn't sure what to do at the time other than vent about it online. He certainly wasn't expecting all the attention his story got—nor was he expecting the surprisingly good ending that we've now confirmed. Over the weekend, Fremont Chevrolet agreed to trade Michael's 2021 Corvette for a brand new 2022 model in order to make things right. No strings attached, no hidden fees, and the dealer even paid the sales tax. Michael says he's extremely happy with the resolution."

[Emvi]

It is really an unfortunate situation that you are currently forced to deal with. Your anguish is understandable.

Now coming to the point, a lot of valuable suggestions have already been put forth on the forum. However, we all know that certain things are easier said than done. Once the car is registered in your name, it's a mighty task convincing the dealer to provide a new replacement unless of course the manufacturer steps in. Yes, morally the dealer should, and if pursued legally, the odds are heavily loaded in your favour, but.. but, we all know how efficient(or inefficient) our judicial system is, don't we? In pursuit of justice, you might end up burning a lot your resources- money, time and effort. Unfortunately consumer laws in our country are still not consumer centric. You may find it hard to be at peace till the issue gets settled once and for all. Saying it again, ideally and ethically, the dealership should replace your damaged car with a new one. But in reality as opined by @aadya the world is far from being ideal. So, what are the options you are left with?

1. Try escalating the matter to the manufacturer and pressurise them for a new replacement, which you might have already. If this works out, nothing better.

2. If you think or believe option 1 is not feasible for some reason, ask the dealership to replace the body parts/panels completely at their cost. Not a great solution, but given the bigger picture it might not be the worst option.

3. Now, the worst case scenario leaving aside the legal option. Ask the dealership to claim the insurance and replace the damaged parts/panels with a precondition. The condition is that the dealership should provide you best possible extended warranty package for free and not just that, they should also pay your second year's insurance premium from their pockets during the time of renewal. I know it's not a big consolation for everything that you are made to go through. Do make sure to take it in writing if an agreement is reached on this condition.

Now, why this option? Well, if the car indeed was accidentally damaged as claimed, it can't be dealership's fault entirely. Fault or not, when the car was(which still is, if I am not wrong) in their premises, it's their responsibility without an iota of doubt. However, no dealerships would let go an amount close to 2 million bucks just like that. I guess dealership might find this arrangement acceptable as it won't cost them much. Mind you, dealerships have good "tie-ups" with insurance companies. And more importantly you can still continue to avail their service if you are happy with your 'refurbished' car. I know it's not an ideal solution, but there's something for both the parties involved.

'Fighting' for replacement is precisely the right approach. But how many of us have the time and patience to pursue the matter. If you think it's worth your time, don't step aside because you have a GENUINE case here. If you deem it's not worth a fight, then you can think of other options. Only YOU can decide, not anyone else.

Wish you all the very best.

P.S: This comes from a person who legally fought tooth and nail for ten long years in pursuit of justice against one of the biggest auto majors in India. And yes, I am proud that I ended up victorious. A story for another day, perhaps.

[Mr.Boss]

Originally Posted by Emvi

ask the dealership to replace the body parts/panels completely at their cost. Not a great solution, but given the bigger picture it might not be the worst option.

Not a good choice for this level of damage. Replacing the bolted body parts (Doors, hood, boot, front fender) will be a viable solution, but anything that is welded (Quarter panels, roof, running board) it is better to get them repaired (for minor damages like this case) instead of cutting them and welding again.

OTOH, we spend pages and pages giving all XYZ solution, but look at the OP's response



Literally people use this forum and members for granted only to cry and take advantage of the forum's reach to hide their side of mistake (not in this case though) and make the opponent's life miserable and vanish once the issue is sorted out.