[shikh_oberoi]

I happily booked Scorpio Z6 Diesel AT with introductory prices on 30/7/22. As Mahindra promised, I was waiting happily to get my car in March-April 2023.
But then they decided to remove the tracking information and sent messages to all owners that the deliveries would be delayed. My 2012 Fluidic Verna had a lot of major expenses and I wanted to sell it off ASAP so I stretched my budget by 6 lakhs to get the top-end Z8L D AT variant.
Since I decided to extend my budget I looked at XUV700 also.



Dealer 1 was recommended by my close friend since he knew the owner. He assured me delivery within 10 days of booking.
I will keep the story short.
I initially booked an AX5 5 seater but the advisor told me only 7 seater is available which was expensive and not required. I still agreed.
The advisor was very rude, he didn't care I was giving 25 lakhs to his business. He didn't let me take photos and videos during PDI, was asking for 35k as compulsory accessories plus warranty to get early delivery, and didn't match the insurance quote which he agreed to some days back. When I was sitting in the dealership I was not at all happy having all these terms and conditions falling on me. While his guy was arranging the loan papers i got up and told him to cancel the booking.
I drove 100 kms for PDI and in the end lost 2100 rupees as cancelation charges. Yesterday only I got the confirmation(after 20 days of cancellation) to collect the cheque and I have asked my friend to get it delivered to his home because I can't even talk to that guy on the phone.


Dealer 2.
I had inquired about Scorpio through carwale and they connected to me a dealer in Delhi. I had talked to him before booking through Dealer 1. After cancelation, I called him to inquire about Scorpio availability and he gave me a positive reply.
I called him the next day after he gave me a quote with the same compulsory accessories and warranty items. I told him that I canceled my booking with dealer 1 because of these items. He just said "sir, cancel this one also" and hung up. I called my dad and told him this and he said if everyone is saying the same then don't fuss about it.

Dealer 3.

I have a direct sales agent through which I buy my cars (Santro, i10, verna, Brezza) He seemed good but 3 years back got to know he was charging an exorbitant amount of insurance renewal charges. He quoted me 21k for my 7-year-old Verna and I got it done in 13k through some other agent. And I was getting 5 cars insured from him.
I contacted him once again and he replied positively. Booked the car on 16/12/22. The quotation that I got was 20k expensive so I told him to get it checked. This also had compulsory accessories and warranty items.
I thought Mahindra had increased the prices and I told him I would give the old price.
He arranged the car through an advisor and when I inquired about the car he told me it was in the stockyard which is far off. I didn't have any problem with my DSA since he had arranged 4 cars for me in the past. ( He delivered Brezza within 36 hours)
He told me to get the loan transferred to this dealership and I wrote an email and it was done. Got the papers and Bank kit ready and when I inquired about the extra 20k, the advisor said " yes sir, 6 seater is 20k expensive" I got confused and pissed at the same time. I told him when did I ever tell you that I will be buying a 6-seater car. He kept on persuading me to get the 6-seater but I declined.
The next day he told me that a 4*4 is available and I told him sarcastically to give me that variant for the same price as a 4*2. it was 3 lakhs expensive. I had already stretched my budget by 6 lakhs.
I am still waiting for my booking amount which the advisor told me will come on 10th January.



Dealer 4.

After this disappointment, I learned that DSA can only buy cars through the DSA quota and when my agent told me he can't arrange I called dealership 4 which replied positively.
I reached the showroom and told him to show me the car before, and then only I will talk ahead. The advisor was calm and good to talk to. He let me check the car for 10-15 minutes which was enough for me.
After coming to the showroom he told me warranty and accessories are optional. I and my friend were holding our smiles back thinking we had hit a jackpot. After talking for a while he left and came back only to tell us that you have to buy 60k worth of accessories and warranty. After negotiation, I brought it to 25k plus a 10% discount, warranty, and that he will match the insurance that I get from outside.
Add to this he told me to get the loan transferred to this dealership. I told him my loan is ready and you will get the money when you encash my downpayment cheque( 7 lakh rupees) and that I will get my car asap. He declined and said we can't do that and I heard his manager saying to him " At no cost, I will be giving him the car without getting the finance done from here"
This should have been a wake-up call for me and I got agitated and told the advisor who the hell is that guy to say such things.
I had to agree and told my DSA to transfer the files here. I waited for 2-3 days and the advisor told me the loan was rejected. I got furious and asked my DSA and to this day I don't know why my loan was rejected. He's saying since the loan file was transferred three times it got rejected.
I gave the advisor a mouthful since I will not be getting my car before the new year. He started the loan process and he could sense my irritation while he was getting the signatures on another bank kit. He called me to say the loan is approved and in process and I will get the delivery by 2nd January 2023. I told him ok.
The next day he called and said sir there's a problem with your file. Since your loan was rejected, this company is asking for a reason or whatever (i can't remember)
I again got furious because now I will not be getting my car on 2nd January.
In the meantime, there was no help from the dealer and at home, everyone told me to postpone the plan and that the time is not right. I agreed and canceled my booking with this dealership three days back.
Advisor had already encashed my cheque and for 3 days he was not giving me any timeline that when he will give my money back. 7 lakhs is not a small amount and when I visited the dealership and after meeting 5-6 different persons and spending 2 hours they canceled my booking. These guys also charged me 2100 rupees as cancelation because the car was already billed in December. I spent 1 hour arguing and told myself that there is no point in arguing now and just ending this Mahindra Nightmare. They will be returning my money hopefully this week.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[rajeevsulu]

Whew!! I had very pleasant memories with my XUV 700 booking, delivery and service. Now I have booked the Thar yesterday. Hope my experiences remain good like last time and not like yours!

[ruzbehxyz]

Dear shikh_oberoi
Very sad to read about your ordeal. This is what happens when a particular brand or particular car is famous and doing well in the market. The dealers want to squeeze in maximum profit by way of selling expensive insurance, accessories, 3M packages etc. The only thing what I feel worth buying from dealers is the extended warranty as that’s useful and directly from the brand. Thanks to social media and forums like Team BHP we know about the scam of buying over expensive insurance from the showroom, when this would actually be 20-50% cheaper buying from outside.
Most of the time it is the dealers that spoil the reputation of a good brand by poor sales experience as well as by poor service. Even some dealers of big companies do not behave properly with customers as they know that if you walk away there be five more customers behind waiting to buy, especially when it comes to companies like Maruti, Mahindra etc.

[GTO]

To be fair, you are the one who is jumping the queue. Both the cars are extremely popular models with a long waiting period.

From the dealer's point-of-view:

- Why should he give you instant delivery of the car at MRP when it has a long waiting period?

- Why should he give you the car at MRP when there are other customers ready to buy the accessories? If the dealer can sell something at 100, you can bet that he will...he won't give it to you for 90 bucks.

Am not condoning the practice, but car dealerships are run by shrewd businessmen (and also thugs, thieves, politicians) who will maximise the earning of any product.

If you want to jump the queue, be prepared to pay for it. Else, wait in line like everybody else.

[ninjatalli]

Second @GTO's point.

That's exactly the view I got right from your first dealer's experience. From your words, it seemed like you expected a fast delivery basis your friend's connect with the owner; while still expecting the dealer to play as per your terms. While jumping the queue via "relations" is common practice, it isn't a legally correct route - you are basically expecting the dealer to jump others' booking to allot you a vehicle much ahead. And he's exploiting the scene to make some extra money. Basically you scratch his back, he scratches yours and so it works.

Also this month long period ordeal is kind of your action based in jumping ship from dealer to dealer. Going by the original booking schedule, March - April 2023 delivery date is still 2 - 3 months away. Also if you ask me, the delays indicated by Mahindra would partly also be due to the jumping of queue done by many buyers through "close relations" with the dealers; especially in the case of extremely popular vehicles that are seeing huge order by the masses. If I were you, I'd keep following up on that original booking thread and try to reduce the delay as much as possible.

[batish]

Sir, first of all you need to calm down. Get off your high horse. All these points you could've managed from your phone itself. If you were that desperate you should've called 5-6 dealers in/around Delhi. Got hold of a salesman and talked to him politely explaining your situation. Worst you could've got was 'No, not possible' and then to the next one.

Rather than accessories you could've asked for maximum warranty extension. Sometimes talking politely yields results. Salesman would have told you the solution to your problem. Keep in mind those salesmen and their supervisors have targets imposed from dealerships so they don't have much leverage to cede to your wishes.

As GTO mentioned these dealerships are not run by ordinary businessmen, they have political-beauracratic links.

Since you're in Delhi even now you can check other states as well like Himachal. There can be anyone who isn't keen now and has cancelled his delivery so you could take his.

From my experience, arrogance and anger only works when you have the power otherwise it translates to nothing but increase in blood pressure.

[shikh_oberoi]

You guys didn't understand what all went through my mind. I was perfectly alright to pay extra for accessories and warranty by the time I contacted the third dealer. But making false promises by pushing a car and completing all the formalities and in the end persuading me to buy a 6S that i dont even want is not at all ok.
You guys won't even order 500 rs worth of order from a restaurant if the owner is a complete jerk.
First dealer's superior and smug manner made the conversation unbearable.
As a businesman myself even if I don't want to sell my product(99% of time it's because of MOQ) I politely ask them to contact my other dealer in his area. I don't say that i dont need you, my product will sell without you like the second dealer made me feel.
Nobody's on a high horse. And I was jumping the queue only because my 11 year old car had immediate expenses that I didn't want to spend.

[Kosfactor]

Dear Mr Oberoi,

Forget this car purchase as a whole for a moment.

Money is good to have but does not always guarantee the results you are looking for, depending on the time and place money may not matter much at all.

If you were ready to use the good relationship that your friend had and pay the additional 35K towards warranty \ accessories to the first dealer - you`d be enjoying a fantastic car now, that too without the waiting period. This sort of setup is not going to happen anymore, their allotment system has been changed recently, dealers have less control now.

But that is not all about it - Imagine the embarrassment your friend would have when he has to go back to the same dealer for something else later, its not just about money.

I would have told the sales assistant that you work on the insurance quote and use that money for accessories - its a win-win.

Hope you get your car soon.

[r24x7]

A quick thought from my mind. If one were to not jump the queue, but get the car after a long wait, the dealer cannot demand the additional accessories or push for insurance from their office in this case? Is this true and no such practices happen then?

I was under the presumption that these practices have become standard ( seller's market + being M&M ) since even if one cancels a booking after the car has arrived, it would still be beneficial for the dealer since there are already thousands waiting next in line.

[RijuC]

This is quite in contrast to my experience with the Mahindra showroom Koncept automobile, MG Road, Gurgaon. I was not available in India and at that time they were coordinating with me for billing and expected date of the vehicle arrival. Though they asked for payments before PDI, when I retaliated they didn't respond in negative.

Later on, I asked for few days to decide and the dealership patiently waited. While deciding the OTR cost sheet, they even agreed to match the Insurance cost with 3rd party quotation with same add-ons. There was no forceful addition of accessories etc. However, it was before PDI.

Finally, based on my usage-case, I didn't go ahead with the purchase. The SA just asked me to inform through an email so that they can alott the car to someone else.

They even asked me couple of times after that whether I'll be interested to take any That or XUV300 models (during December discount offers).

[DrZhivago]

I want to share an experience of mine booking a vehicle which was very weird for me because the last vehicle purchase done was before the lockdown in a totally different market. I had recently booked an MG ZS EV from a showroom in my city and after waiting from April to December I couldnt get a vehicle even though MG was asking the dealer to give me the vehicle. I am the very polite kind and I never pushed them because I knew there were some issues at their end and I didnt use any contacts or any pressure tactic from my end even though I could have because I knew there was a waiting. Finally when I saw that I couldnt get the vehicle I rolled in the contacts and got a vehicle ready in the next 5 days from a dealer 200 kilometers away. Again, I didnt push them for any discounts because this was a fresh booking and they were doing me a favour giving me the color I want etc which was told to be not possible by the previous dealer. Still, I got a little discount in the Insurance because of God knows what and they didnt need to do it as the cheaper Acko insurance wasnt even showing serviceable for my pincode so there was nothing to match as most of the insurance providers were similarly priced.

What I learnt from this was that nowadays its a sellers market when it comes to buying cars and we are the ones throwing our money at the dealers and if they are arrogant, its because of the demand we have made. Like someone said, if we dont have power or influence, money wont matter and if we get worked up and angry about dealers then it will just affect our mental health. We can be adamant about not being sold a bad car or any sort of cheating, but we cant be adamant about accessories or pricing these days because its like that. Few years back it was unheard of atleast here in my part of the world for a dealer to ask for full payment before the car even starts from the factory but its rampant nowadays. Is it fair? No, but then its their market. Till their market comes down, they have the upper hand. Until then, we can only try not to get fleeced. God Speed

[gururajrv]

Whilst I feel sorry for you, Mahindra surely has earned customers' interest. You've an inclination either to buy a Scorpio N or a 7OO. Likewise with me as well - no other recent cars have created so much interest and a zeal for me to buy like the 7OO created. I have my eyes set on 7OO and I'll buy it someday when I am in a better position.

Mahindra has created such a fan base if I may call it. I never noticed you mentioning going to a different brand but tried your best to get the car of your choice from Mahindra itself despite trying at multiple dealerships. This is surely a testimony for Mahindra

At the same time, like others have already pointed out, please wait in line or pay premium for the car of your choice. There's no point in fighting over this with any dealership.

[Turbohead]

Originally Posted by shikh_oberoi

But making false promises by pushing a car and completing all the formalities and in the end persuading me to buy a 6S that i dont even want is not at all ok.

And I was jumping the queue only because my 11 year old car had immediate expenses that I didn't want to spend.

With such a high demand product and with your need for urgent delivery, you can only choose what's available. If the dealer doesn't have it, he can't provide it to you.

As an alternate option, consider fixing your Verna ( which I assume may cost 1-1.5 lakhs) and use it for an additional year. Considering the upcoming recession, you may be able to get a car of your choice of variant and colour at a discount. Who knows.

Please calm down.

[haribalram]

Originally Posted by r24x7

A quick thought from my mind. If one were to not jump the queue, but get the car after a long wait, the dealer cannot demand the additional accessories or push for insurance from their office in this case? Is this true and no such practices happen then?

I was under the presumption that these practices have become standard ( seller's market + being M&M ) since even if one cancels a booking after the car has arrived, it would still be beneficial for the dealer since there are already thousands waiting next in line.

No, I wouldn't generalize it as the norm or the standard. Even though, my (good) experience has been just with 1 dealer (& similar experiences for many customers with the same dealer), it is still an adequate sample size.