Quite delayed on this thread, Ninja, but I guess you know the reasons.
Congrats again! Have yet to see a Blue Vento on the road, but from your pictures -
What a lovely colour!
You must have heard that numerous times, I am sure. One thing I found interesting about the Vento is how it seems to take a rather different look and character with the colour. It happens in all cars, but even more so with the Vento.
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Originally Posted by ninjatalli There were only three cars in my head then - the ubiquitous Maruti Swift, the lovely Honda city and monster Tata Safari.
That made an interesting debate with the lady during the rest of the trip. While my choice was the Safari, she wanted a Corolla! The only point we could finally come to an agreement was that the car should be a sedan & preferably Maruti.
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The Ford showroom is close by, so I head over there to have a look at the Classic and also to get details about the new Fiesta. Although the showroom is empty, it takes close to 10 minutes for the sales guy to speak to me. In a very un-interested manner, he informs me that he has absolutely no idea about the new fiesta, and after indicating that the Classic is right in front of me, he heads back inside. I run after him to request for a TD, he shrugs and states blatantly that there are no TD cars available.
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(Let me go a little further on this - even the VW showrooms at Mumbai & Pune displayed similar setups - as a marketing professional I could only applaud VW for differentiating themselves from others!) |
Quite a mix, you started with, Ninja. From a popular hatch to the monstrous Safari!
The agreement between you and the lady speaks of the appeal Maruti has built over the years. A lot many people (including some of my friends), just don't want to look elsewhere, unless they really have to. An enviable position to be in for Maruti, and it seems to be frittering it away, by not having a suitable produce mix.
Others like Ford and GM (like you mentioned in the Finally! thread), seem to push customers away, but not having suitable arrangements for TD's. Weird, isn't it? To spend so much to get the customers by promotion campaigns and image building exercises, then only to fritter it away for such silly reasons.
Your experience at the VW showroom seems to have been much better than others. I too had 2-3 visits to them. Realized that if I let them, they'll make me wait forever. A bit of appropriate handling, and things started moving well. A lot of what one gets is based on how people are handled. Also on having reasonable expectations. Like your 15 minute wait, when the SE is busy is with another customer can be totally understandable, but also be taken by many as unreasonable behavior.
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Originally Posted by ninjatalli In terms of color preference, the lady (not the car) choose blue - I wanted black, but you know who always wins these kind of arguments So, blue it was. |
Aaah! So it is to the credit of the lady! Now you know whose advice to take!!!
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Originally Posted by ninjatalli Till date, after over 8 visits, the maximum time I ever had to wait was 15 minutes max, and that too because the SE was caught up with another customer.
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Till date I am ever grateful to my friend, but he also informs me a very disturbing fact - the dealer has been playing with my booking as there have been blue car deliveries done to BUB in the previous month.
Still, overall the experience with BUB has been a good one. In comparison to the cold attitude shown at Vidyut motors, I would recommend everybody to go ahead with BUB. |
BUB really seems to have won your over, mate. Feeling the experience to be good, despite them playing with your booking. Or maybe it is to do with the low expectations one may have had, with all the talk about poor pre-sales experiences with VW.
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Originally Posted by ninjatalli Finally she arrives - all washed and looking lovely like a newly wed bride! |
Now, don't let the lady read that
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and the new surveillance-less non-monitoring system
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Had read a comment about it
not being useful in India. Could you please elaborate on it? What was the surveillance system like and why it wasn't useful in India? (in case it has already been answered, pardon me, as I have only read the first few pages and the last).
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Originally Posted by samarjitdhar I actually like the handling a lot. I only drove a Linea (which is famed to be the best) for some TDs but didnt find the handling on the Vento worse than the Linea. During my recent road trips I could take reasonably sharp turns at around 70-80 with confidence without the car getting unstable even one bit. Sure these were not hairpin bends, but when compared with the Linea, the Linea handling might be better by a wee bit. |
To me, where the Linea seemed to be miles ahead of anything else in that price bracket, was the steering feel. It was, like, telling you everything the front tyres were feeling. A good experienced driver can use that to extract a lot more from the car, with similar levels of safety. The steering also felt very precise and quick. Besides all the talk about service question-marks, the car was letdown by the engine, IMO.