Since I would sell one of my cars, I decided to get the value of the one I had driven in (a Hyundai Verna) checked. After checking my car physically, one of the guys tells me that he has to test drive it. I said yes and made the massive mistake of not sitting with him, and instead keep talking to the head of the showroom, who had come to escort us outside.
The guy was gone for approximately 10 – 15 minutes and I got a little worried if he’d banged my car or something. Just as we were about to call him, I saw my car around the corner.
The guy parked some 50 meters from us and even from there I could hear a LOUD whistling noise coming out of the engine. He walks up to us and says “Sir your car’s engine is fine, but the turbo is about to go”.
Now this was shocking to me since I did not find a SINGLE issue with the turbo before that.
I’d gotten my car serviced from Autopsyche, and even they’d not mentioned any problems with the turbo. I’d recently hit a 120kph on the highway and faced ZERO issues.
I thought the guy was trying to reduce the valuation of the car by telling me some shit story. So me and my wife decided to walk away.
As I drove out, I found the car to be extremely sluggish. So I stopped in front of the staff and asked them how hard had they driven the car for it to suddenly act so weird? Anyhow, not wanting to speak with these guys anymore I decided to go home as it was Karva Chauth, my wife was fasting and had started to feel unwell.
I must have driven 50 meters on the main road when we noticed INSANE amounts of smoke coming out of the car, while the engine shuddered. We panicked, thinking that something had caught fire and immediately got out of the car.
There was smoke everywhere and I decided to call the Nexa showroom staff to understand what exactly had they done and why was my car behaving like it was. The staff arrived a good 15 minutes later. I handed my keys to them and asked them to check and tell me what was wrong. They started the car and immediately there was smoke EVERYWHERE. It smelled like burning rubber.
The guy who drove my car earlier every calmly told me “Sir, I told you that your turbo is about to stop working”. HOW is it possible that I drive a perfectly functional car into the Nexa showroom and suddenly my turbo stops functioning after one of their staff drives it for 10-15 minutes? My guess would be that he repeatedly revved the car hard, redlined it and then shut down the engine immediately on purpose so that the turbo ceases. Anyone who knows turbo diesels will know that there should be a cooling down of 30-60 seconds after driving hard in order to avoid turbo failure, and I stick to that rule without exception.
Anyhow. We were stuck in the middle of the road and the Nexa showroom staff refused to take any responsibility. I asked them to have the damage repaired, and they refused point blank.
I took a picture of the guy who test drove my car, and the sales advisor. They realised what I was doing, and when I tried to take more pictures, the other guys started turning their faces away. I asked the guy who had driven my car for his name and he refused to give it to me. By now my wife was feeling really unwell, and I wanted to return home. I asked the Nexa showroom manager to get my car towed to a workshop and get it repaired yet again. Refused.
Finally I told them that I would be complaining about this on social media. The guys simply turned around and walked away.
I drove back home at the speed of 10 kph, with enough smoke coming out of it that I had zero visibility of the cars behind me. Getting home I realised that there was engine oil flowing out of the exhaust. I could do nothing at that late an hour as all mechanics were closed and my wife was feeling extremely unwell. I complained on social media overnight and got a call from the Maruti Suzuki office in the morning, taking details of my complaint. I then got a call from a lady working at the same Nexa showroom we had visited. She asked me what was it that I wanted, and I told her that all I wanted was my car to be repaired. She said that she’d get back “after discussing with her seniors”.
That was around 11:30AM yesterday. I haven’t heard from the Nexa showroom any further. The Nexa social presence refuses to revert to my queries. Basically, I have nowhere to go, but to shoulder the expense of the damage caused by the Nexa showroom team. It will cost me at least 60,000 – 70,000 rupees to get the turbo replaced in addition to other charges like getting the car towed. Hopefully there hasn’t been any other damage. That I will only come to know once the car is checked by a mechanic.
I am writing this partly, in hope that it gets shared enough for Maruti Suzuki / Nexa to be forced to act and get my car repaired, and partly because no one should have to go through what I did. Simply because I made the mistake of trusting a seemingly “premium” brand.
Edit: Got a call from Nexa marketing, and will be meeting him to resolve this issue on Sunday.
REALLY appreciate everyone’s support here people. You guys rock!
<Watch this space> |