[drsachin]

My last experience with hyryder tought me how to deal with dealers. If you want the delivery of car early for a newly launched car in great demand and you are not among the early bird bookers who have booked immediately after bookings open , you need to be smart and follow certain tricks.

1. Always book with atleast two dealers. For example use first dealer to book the variant and colour of choice. Be flexible with the second dealer with regards to both. Keep visiting both the dealers and engage with sales executives to judge the number the number of deliveries they are doing everyday( For unknown reasons some dealers manage to get better inventory than others)

2. Use the booking time to look for a decent bank for loan disposal. Engage with atleast 2-3 banks and negotiate for cheapest interest rates. And ask them to provide pre approved loan letter. In my case I managed to get pre-approved loan from both IDBI and PNB bank. IDBI at 9% and PNB at 8.75% green EV car loan. Presently even government banks are very aggressive with loan disposal. Always engage with banks who are ready for loan disposal in just 2-3 hour or at max 1 day after pre approval. Most banks would be ready to send lower staff to your work place even at far of distance to complete paper work( Dealers are happy for early deliveries to buyers who have ready arrangements for finances).

3. Take adequate number of test drives and check cars both on bright Sunny day and in the night. Some colours such as T green and black look good in day light and white look good in night. I was dead against black as I consider it a safety hazard at night time specially on streets with poor light and secondly a study was published some time back that black colour consumes almost 30% more fuel in summer time. Buying an EV in black colour is extremely stupid decision when you are already struggling with range anxiety. (These things will help in making informed decisions in a quick time when dealer inform about availability of different colour/variant then then one you booked).

4. Although doing PDI before making final payment is advisable. But in newly launched cars with great demand chances of PDI failure is low, so you can take a risk of making payment immediately on allotment while the car is in transit. Most dealers now a days want payment and Invoicing when the car is in transit itself so that they are assured that new car can be delivered immediately on arrival to the stockyard. You can still do PDI when the car arrives at the showroom. Ask the dealer to allow PDI immediately on arrival to stockyard before the dealer PDI so that you may check the car while it's stickers are still on. You can still refuse delivery in case the PDI fails as long as car is not registered. Invoicing while the car in transit actually helps you too as is explained in next point.

5. Have a good rapport with the salesman and never engage with stupid talks of "Expensive insurance" or "Not buying ceramic coating/PPF/accessories" before the car allotment. Once the car is allotted to you and invoiced the dealer cannot refuse delivery to you. At this stage you can now negotiate for insurance/ceramic coating or deny it altogether. Of cource at the time of invoicing make payment only towards the car and accessories that you are sure you are buying and make the payment of insurance and other stuff only at the time of delivery. Anyway most dealers will not ask for insurance payment before delivery as the insurance prices keep fluctuating.

6. Try to book the car in a group or assure the salesman of more bookings of the car from friends and colleagues in case they are able to provide early delivery( Salesman personal incentives depends on booking targets they have achieved).

7. Booking time can also be utilised to look for insurance quotes from outside direct with insurance company and their agents. Try to look for insurance quotes from companies which have tie-ups for cashless claims with the car manufacturer in question. For example Toyota dealers don' t have easy settlement of cashless claims from "Tata AIG".

In case of hyryder I had booked the car almost two months after the booking started. At this time I was told that I will be getting delivery a good 6 months after my booking by most of the dealers of the area. The car was in great demand at that time. I had booked in red colour with black roof in "G Variant " as it offered most value for money. Kept checking with both the dealers that I had booked. Kept pressuring both in a nice way. Do visit physically every week. One fine day within a month of Booking while I visited one of the dealer. The salesman immediately came up and said that they can allot a blue car with black roof in top "V Variant" which is in transit. New prices were announced and there was going to be price rise after just 1 week. So either I agree to top variant at launch prices. Or I buy " G Variant" in increased prices( Almost 50000) whenever it's available. Suddenly the difference between top and mid variant for my case is now just 50000 from original 1 lakh. So now Top variant seems more value for money. I agreed and transfered money to dealers account.

When the car arrived at the showroom I did the PDI and then started negotiated for the insurance. Quoted price originally was Rs75000 for Rs 19.19 lakh car. Dealer came down to Rs 55000/. I finally bought insurance from own agent who provided insurance from Reliance including all the addons which dealer was providing @ Rs 41000. I even convinced dealer to provide me free Accessories worth Rs 8500/( 3D Floor mats, Dicky mat, mud flaps). Free Accessories with newly launched high demand car, good na ha ha . I also bought few more accessories at this stage worth Rs 8000.

Now in case if Windsor. I had a test drive at dealer "X" in 6th November. Booked white colour in exclusive variant. Dealer suggested that white colour and mid variant I might get early delivery. I kept checking with the dealer for almost 25 days. Realising that dealer is not getting much allotment.

I enquired from another dealer "Y" who seemed to get more allotments. By this time MG had announced price raise from January onwards by almost 3-6%. I booked at the second dealer on 10th December who suggested to book " white colour in essence top variant for early delivery. He assured 99% chances of delivery before price rise.

I kept following with both dealers. On 29th december I got a call from dealer Y that a green colour Essence variant is cancelled by a customer so they can allot it to me. My family immediately rushed to the dealer, who suggested that they can allot me this car only if I can ask bank to disburse loan within a day. Of course I had pre approved loan so this was not an issue. My banker ( PNB) completed all the formalities even on Sunday and were ready to dispense loan amount next day after my green signal. I wanted to do PDI before loan amount is dispensed. But next I was told that the original buyer has now agreed to take delivery and already transferred money to dealers account in the night itself. But he checked that they have a excess number of T Green cars in transit one of which they can allot to me. But for launch price and free 1 year charging offer I had to get invoicing done before 31st December itself. I agreed and gave a green signal to banker to transfer amount immediately. In next 1 hour the amount was transferred and car was invoiced on 30th December.

Now when the car arrived at the showroom, i again decided to get insurance from outside instead of the dealer. The quoted price from dealer was Rs 75000 from Digit company. I managed to get insurance directly from Royal Sundaram, a better company, and this included more addons than what dealer was providing( Unlimited cashless, RTI including registration, Battery protect which covers all aspects of electric vehicle, consumables, keys,tyres and numerous others) @ 54000/.

The car arrived on 6th January, i did the PDI while it still had fresh stickers all around, got the insurance done. No free Accessories this time. Purchased accessories worth Rs23000 from dealer at this stage. I got the delivery on 9th January at launch prices and with free charging offer. No bribes to the dealer.

Now to the question which others have asked. Do MG dealers jump queues for some customers. No they don't they are quite fair in their allotment. I can say this for sure is because I received a call from dealer X two days back on 16th January 2025 that the car which I have booked on 10th November is allotted to me and it's in transit. I smiled and asked him to cancel it now that I have received delivery from other dealer in Noida. He immediately suggested that it must be T Green in Top variant as the other dealer of the area has received excess green stock in top variant more than they have actually received bookings for. Since last two days he is pressurizing me to send official cancellation confirmation through WhatsApp so that they may allot it to next in que. They can't allot it to anyone before my official cancellation message.

So this confirms that the MG dealers dont jump the que. But yes there is one area where they have some leverage to play around. That's the area of cancellations and when some dealer receives excess stock of a particular variant or colour. This is where good rapport with salesman helps.

By the way T green is a brilliant colour which looks great in day time. This is the colour that i always wanted.

Hopes this detailed post helps. Thanks

[sridhga]

Originally Posted by drsachin

My last experience with hyryder tought me how to deal with dealers. If you want the delivery of car early for a newly launched car in great demand and you are not among the early bird bookers who have booked immediately after bookings open , you need to be smart and follow certain tricks.

Thanks for the inputs. I have a question. I dont need finance. Will this reduce the dealer's interest in my business?

Again, I can buy insurance on my own as I have an agent in the family. Would this again reduce the dealer's interest in my business?

[drsachin]

Originally Posted by sridhga

Again, I can buy insurance on my own as I have an agent in the family. Would this again reduce the dealer's interest in my business?

As I have written i have obtained insurance and finance on my own. Still I was able to manage the dealer. You have to be smart enough to handle this.

Not taking a finance is also good for the dealar as then he is assure that there would be timely payment.

Regarding insurance dont let him know till delivery that you will buy insurance on your own.

While making final payment just pay him car and accessories payment. After car is Invoiced the dealer cannot force you buy insurance from him only then suggest him that you will buy insurance from your own agent.

[DriveDynasty]

Originally Posted by drsachin

As I have written i have obtained insurance and finance on my own. Still I was able to manage the dealer. You have to be smart enough to handle this.

Not taking a finance is also good for the dealar as then he is assure that there would be timely payment.

Regarding insurance dont let him know till delivery that you will buy insurance on your own.

While making final payment just pay him car and accessories payment. After car is Invoiced the dealer cannot force you buy insurance from him only then suggest him that you will buy insurance from your own agent.

Does this work? I visited all 4 MG showrooms and all said dealer insurance is mandatory and they wouldnt accept booking without one agreeing to it. They said they were flexible on accessories part. They also refuse PDI before full payment. Also were not ready to provide vin number before payment.

Also agreeing first for dealer insurance and denying later may have unintended consequences. If they feel cheated, they can provide you test drive/faulty/repaired car or intentionaly change internal parts which are hard to detect in PDI.

I feel its always better to be on good term with them until we get the car. Same thing applies to restaurants and house helpers who prepare our food

[Ashwathama]

Originally Posted by DriveDynasty

Does this work? I visited all 4 MG showrooms and all said dealer insurance is mandatory and they wouldnt accept booking without one agreeing to it.

This does work. So as you know even I purchased my car from Pune, and the dealer said the insurance is mandatory and quoted 96K. I also asked on this thread who applied what tactic. I finally decided to visit the dealership and talk it out. Now this is all before the car allotment. I went and simply showed him the below document.



If you read below, it says you can buy the insurance from wherever you want. I told him don't tell me company is saying this or that or has some new policy in place. This is what is on the official website and let's not make a legal issue out of this. Neither of us here want to inform MG or Pulsehub that I didn't buy the car because you were not allowing me freedom of insurance.

They simply said it would be great if you take it from us but you are free to take it from elsewhere. They explained everything about their insurance and made it sound like it was totally hassle free. I told them I will verify this and give the final call when I am making the final payment.

Now, my neighbor had received their Windsor in November. So I went and had a chat with them. They said even though they have a family agent, they were advised to go for the dealership insurance as it was an electric car. It was at that moment they revealed to me that their car was currently in the workshop as it had met an accident on the highway. So I quickly asked them about the claim process which they said was one phone call to the dealer, payment of Rs. 2000 as claim processing fee and rest was being taken care by them. No questions asked.

This is when even I made up my mind to go for the MG Secure insurance. They had a bill of almost 1 Lakh in damages all covered by insurance and all they had to pay was Rs. 2000. So yes, the MG Secure insurance is actually hassle free, tried and tested by my neighbour and as Windsor is a new car company is giving claims very easily.

Now coming to payments. I received the call that the car was allotted (23rd December). I told them I was out for Christmas so they simply requested for a payment of Rs. 2 lakhs and I didn't mind paying it. I went to the dealership after 3-4 days (27th Dec) and I then gave them two options, either I pay them the full amount post PDI or I give them full payment but they have to allow me for third party PDI. Because they wanted to deliver the car by 31st as 1st was a holiday and from 2nd there was a price increase they requested me to make the full payment and agreed for third party PDI.

Post that they asked me if I was taking insurance from them or outside. I said I wanted MG secure insurance but at a discount. After a little bargain I got a little discount and the full payment was done. There was no pressure on accessories but as I wanted a few of them I paid for that too. They asked if I wanted ceramic coating but we refused at that time. Yes, I did ask for the VIN number but the SA just had the last five digits as that's what the system showed. He said the full VIN even he will know when he gets the car for PDI from the stockyard. I was asked to come the next day (28th Dec) for PDI.

On the next day of PDI also, they were very supportive. They let the third-party agent inspect the car with peace of mind. SA just told me if anyone asks just say you have brought a friend for PDI. The car was at an ODO of 13kms, charge was at some 37% and the VIN revealed the manufacture date to be December itself. So incase you have a doubt of receiving a test drive car see the ODO and date of manufacture. For me upto 100Kms on ODO is good. Anything above that and I would have rejected the car. Parts replacement can happen but then as they say, if someone really wants to go after you they will no matter how safeguarded you are.

I took a checklist from TeamBhp and did all I could. Checked the Infotainment, bluetooth etc and all. I told them to take the car inside the showroom and put it on charging just to check the charger. They even did that. I took three hours and after that gave a green signal. They asked again if everything was okay. Incase I wanted a different car, now was the time else they will go ahead and punch the insurance. I gave them the green signal, and I received the insurance copy in fifteen minutes on my email. Also, when I saw the 7.4KWh charger in the boot and asked them if it was okay I took it with me so that I could get it installed before delivery. They agreed to that, and just asked me to drop and email. I got the charger installed before delivery.

Now one thing which happened just 30 minutes before PDI was that my father and I saw a shiny just washed White Windsor parked next to a dusty Green Windsor and we just felt like we made a really big mistake going for green. My Windsor had gone for a wash then and was going to be brought out for PDI. Those 30 minutes of wait were horrific as we felt we should have gone for White. But after seeing a clean White and clean Green side by side we were like no, we made a good choice but my father said let's go for ceramic coating as this is a dark color. Now again, we have never done ceramic coating on any previous cars as we felt these were looting techniques and we didn't have much knowledge also to be honest. So I called my brother during the third party PDI and he said go for it. So we negotiated with the dealer a little and got a 3 year warranty ceramic coating done and the car post PDI quickly went for ceramic coating. Interestingly, the dealer during those 30 minutes told me that if I wanted a White, he could try and arrange, but the 31st delivery would not be sure. I went for Green but just to clear my dilemma on the 29th I posted on the forum that I have an option between Green and White just to see what people respond and I am glad I went for Green.

Now as I had the VIN number, I put it in the iSmart app. I could at times see the doors being opened mostly for ceramic coating. 29th Dec was a Sunday, so RTO processing happened on the 30th. Some RTO OTP's I had to give them and finally 31st Dec was delivery.

[drsachin]

Originally Posted by DriveDynasty

Also agreeing first for dealer insurance and denying later may have unintended consequences. If they feel cheated, they can provide you test drive/faulty/repaired car or intentionaly change internal parts which are hard to detect in PDI.

Let's not assume that car dealers are theives and they have a birth right over their bouty( Insurance/ finance/ besides dealers commision).

No dealers will risk damage to their cars before they are registered by RTO. Customers can still refuse delivery even after invoicing if the car fails PDI.

Yes there are some dealers who can deliver damaged, repainted cars but what's the guarantee that such a dealer is not delivering failed PDI cars even after insurance and accessories are taken from them.

I always develop good rapport with the dealers and the salesman. Always assure them more bookings from friends/family and colleagues. I let them know before that I am an active member of "Team bhp". Dealers are always afraid of bad reviews, spoiling reputation and ofcourse complaints to the parent company.

Where is the question of feeling cheated. It's not their birth right. Like I said don't indulge in insurance discussion before the car is allotted to me and invoiced. Let the dealer assume that as a customer you are buying all the stuff that he has shown on the performa. There are nicer ways to say no after car is Invoiced( hint: Many banks require insurance from own agents for loan financing).

[drsachin]

Originally Posted by Ashwathama

This is when even I made up my mind to go for the MG Secure insurance. They had a bill of almost 1 Lakh in damages all covered by insurance and all they had to pay was Rs. 2000. So yes, the MG Secure insurance is actually hassle free, tried and tested by my neighbour and as Windsor is a new car company is giving claims very easily.

.

Well it's true most car manufacturers/dealers have tie up with their prefered insurance companies through their own insurance agents to provide customised insurance benefits such as battery addon in case of strong hybrid or electric vehicles,you can have zero- dep for longer duration such as 7-10 years if you keep same insurance company for renewal, longer duration of RTI.

But insurance is all about underwriting whether you do it through car dealers agents or your own. Read all policy words carefully. All insurance companies have to follow rules laid by IRDA. If you are smart enough you can look for an insurance product or company in the market which provides better coverage than the one provided by dealer.

I went for Royal Sundaram not because it was cheaper. But because it's policy words were more clear and it provided better coverage towards "Electric battery car components" for non accidental damages as I have already described in my previous posts, it provided" unlimited zero dep claims " instead of usual two per year which most companies provide, it provides for 360 degree zero dep coverage instead of usual "L" coverage( Two sides only) in the event of an accident, it provides the longest duration of zero- dep of 10 years in case of continuation of policy by them ( which is actually expensive though if you renew from same company although) , it included complete RTI including Invoice value+ RTO charges+ insurance premium. All these were explicitly written in the policy proposal itself.

These addons were far better than the one which all insurance companies were providing as part of MG insurance. There are numerous other addons which I didn't even ask for.
And ofcourse it was the cheapest available in the market at Rs 54000/

There is already an example in Team bhp itself. An experience was shared by a BYD Atto 3 buyer. Where he was denied " battery motor" claim even after taking insurance from dealer and including all suggested addons at the time of buying the car.

The claim was of Rs 13 lakh if I remember correctly towards damaged battery( non accidental) due to water ingress within 1 year of purchasing the vehicle.

The insurance was from reputed insurance company

The reason for denial was simple it didn't have "battery addon".

So it’s clear insurance companies will settle claims for only those things which find mention in policy wordings regardless of whether you buy it from the dealer or own agent.

Insurance companies now a days are very competitive. Most have seamless settlements for geniune claims.

Last year I had a seamless experience of claim settlement when my Toyota hyryder had an accident at Espirit Toyota Noida. This time I had insurance from Reliance. As this was the cheapest among all. I change insurance companies every year till first 4 years and at 5th year I settle for Royal Sundaram for longer zero dep benefit. After 5 years insurance premiums anyway reduce significantly due to lessor IDVs.

[wheelspinner]

Originally Posted by drsachin

4. Although doing PDI before making final payment is advisable. But in newly launched cars with great demand chances of PDI failure is low, so you can take a risk of making payment immediately on allotment while the car is in transit. Most dealers now a days want payment and Invoicing when the car is in transit itself so that they are assured that new car can be delivered immediately on arrival to the stockyard. You can still do PDI when the car arrives at the showroom. Ask the dealer to allow PDI immediately on arrival to stockyard before the dealer PDI so that you may check the car while it's stickers are still on. You can still refuse delivery in case the PDI fails as long as car is not registered. Invoicing while the car in transit actually helps you too as is explained in next point.

It is a big gamble to skip PDI. This obviously doesn't apply to all dealers. There are dealers who mask defects to sell old stock cars with bad history.

Always take delivery in bright sunlight. Even if there's a minor shade mismatch. Refuse to accept the car. Just go for a more considerate dealer if their expectations don't align with yours. PDI is must in my opinion, before any payment made towards final deal. It's not just effects. It's just our Indian mindset, "chalta hai". Unsuspecting buyers end up with repainted panels on new cars and such.

[Aditya]

Tricks for getting early delivery of a newly launched car in great demand - Posts moved to a new thread.

[ManiE]

I have observed many dealers don't agree on carrying forward the NCB from an insurance from the older car to a new insurance for a new car. The owner in both these cases should be same and carrying forward NCB can save substantial amount on the insurance.

[mrkireeti]

Originally Posted by drsachin

If you want the delivery of car early for a newly launched car in great demand and you are not among the early bird bookers who have booked immediately after bookings open , you need to be smart and follow certain tricks.

Thank you for detailed post! Quite a lot of helpful info, for me atleast.

[Bhodrolok]

Originally Posted by drsachin

4. Although doing PDI before making final payment is advisable. But in newly launched cars with great demand chances of PDI failure is low, so you can take a risk of making payment immediately on allotment while the car is in transit. Most dealers now a days want payment and Invoicing when the car is in transit itself so that they are assured that new car can be delivered immediately on arrival to the stockyard.

Sorry I do NOT agree and neither is this a recommended approach for any buyer. No wonder dealers try to get away with this nonsense across the country. Booking amount is sufficient to get a PDI done, please do not encourage illegitimate behavior and encourage unscrupulous practices, at least not on this forum.

You like a new launch, book it early and follow up regularly; booking with multiple dealers is also fine as long you are transparent about it with the dealers.

[drsachin]

Originally Posted by Bhodrolok

Sorry I do NOT agree and neither is this a recommended approach for any buyer. No wonder dealers try to get away with this nonsense across the country. Booking amount is sufficient to get a PDI done, please do not encourage illegitimate behavior and encourage unscrupulous practices, at least not on this forum.
.

I totally agree with you doing detailed PDI before making final payment is the best practice. Sorry but I am not encouraging buyers to forgo this practice. I thank team bhp for providing detailed PDI guidelines which I did follow everytime.

But since 2020 there is a sea change in the behaviour of dealers and car manufacturers. They have become smarter and greedy thanks to huge demand for some of the cars such as XUV700, Hyryder, Hycross, Windsor EV.

For newly launched cars which receive great number of bookings it's extremely rare that dealer will agree for early delivery and PDI before payment. They know very well that thanks to great demand prices are going to be raised sooner so they use this deterrent to force people to make payment on allotment itself while the car is in transit. When I checked with my friends who brought newly launched cars almost none of them was able to do PDI before payment. So they actually brought cars without PDI altogether.

So I am only suggesting a middle ground.

This practice i learnt from one of my friends who worked for Toyota who suggested that I can do PDI even after payment and invoicing and refuse taking delivery if it fails PDI but before registration by just writing a mail to the company. Yes after the car is registered you can't do anything.

In both cases while buying Hyryder and WINDSOR. I made payment on the condition that they allow me to do PDI the day the car is delivered to the warehouse before dealer's own PDI. In case of Windsor the salesman offered me to do Joint PDI with the dealer.
When I did PDI both the cars had company stickers all around which the dealers remove at the time of PDI. So this assured that none of the panels is re-painted by the dealer. Rest everything I followed as suggested in the team bhp PDI ready reckoner.

With newly launched cars you will not be passed on an old car.

There is a big reason why with newly launched high demand cars dealers are looking for buyers who are ready to make payments on allotment itself.

And I checked it myself. These dealers are delivering cars in great numbers everyday much more than what their warehouse can handle. They don't want cars struck in warehouse due to buyers who delay payment.
So to oil the machinary they want payments while the car is in transit itself.

So yes it's a risk but a calculated risk.

[Virtualaman]

Originally Posted by drsachin

For newly launched cars which receive great number of bookings it's extremely rare that dealer will agree for early delivery and PDI before payment.
So I am only suggesting a middle ground.

I disagree that the above suggestion is a middle ground. It is a suggestion fraught with a LOT of risk.

If the allotted car fails PDI, what stops a dealer from NOT refunding your money if you want to cancel booking after making full payment? Nothing!

It's a huge and unnecessary risk. Just wait longer or try other dealers. A car is an asset that one keeps for many years. Waiting a little longer is the wiser choice than succumbing to any dealer coercion and pressure.

The power dynamic shifts completely in the favour of the dealer, once payment is made before PDI. Most dealers will be extremely hesitant to allot another car and instead offer to rectify / remediate any defects.

You don't want to be in that situation, EVER!

[saket77]

Originally Posted by ManiE

I have observed many dealers don't agree on carrying forward the NCB from an insurance from the older car to a new insurance for a new car.

If this is happening then this is just next to robbery. I would ditch the deal anyway. NCB is the right of the policy owner- as a reward. If one is having NCB on the outgoing vehicle, they must get it transferred to the new insurance policy of the new car. Just to note that NCB is transferred across the same vehicle category, eg. 4 wheeler to 4 Wheeler. It not only saves the upfront costs, but also the insurance cost of subsequent years.