[libranof1987]

Very pertinent points!

Originally Posted by blackwasp

• Focus. It's easy to get distracted in the melee and all the celebration, video shooting by family, balloons, music, clapping etc. Don't let the festivities distract you from focusing on taking your new car home as safely as possible.

This is such a big factor: some, especially newbies, are just overwhelmed by the occasion (nervous / anxious / instigated to do something they've not practiced), some people want to "make a statement" while some just get too engrossed in the fanfare and lose situational awareness.

The first car we bought, we had a family friend drive it home even though Dad had been driving for a bit. I've taken delivery of a few vehicles by now and even as recently as last week, I prefer to have the SA bring the car/bike right up front of the showroom. Bring it out of the showroom door? Drive it down the ramp? No, thank you.

The whole problem becomes more pronounced with first time buyers/drivers, and those that do a significant upgrade. Eg. a colleague upgraded to an EcoSport from the M800 and was so very uncomfortable with the thick A pillar that he just stopped midway back from the showroom and had this brother drive it back. Another bought a pre-owned Cruze (after having owned a WagonR) and just couldn't get used to the torque. He ended up stalling it every few hundred metres for a while.

[Ford_Prefect]

The headscratcher is, how did these people get a license to drive?

You have to learn driving before you get your driver's license and after you get your learner's license. Not after you purchase a car.

[TrackDay]

One point that I would like to add, is to take delivery in sufficient light during daytime. Even if one is familiar with the power and transmission, it could be tricky handling an all new unknown car in the dark.

In my town I have noticed that majority of the Showroom executives always take their test drives vehicles out into the open before handing it over for test drives, while they don't do that for the new car delivery. Do they gauge the customer's ability during test drive ? What if it is a different person taking delivery ? Or is it because once signed the car is the responsibility of the new owner whereas the test drive vehicle is their liability ?

[Durango Dude]

I took delivery of the my son's Grand i10 automatic and it was a dealership which had more cars than real estate and it was parked in corner that had a pillar on the left side and many cars parked in front I asked for a SA to get the car out but it was almost 8-15 pm when we took delivery and all drivers had left and SA didn't want to take the car out. It's the first automatic I had driven so gingerly negotiated it out and drove it home.

[arun_josie]

Apart from tricky spots, in my opinion the driving skills of many newbie drivers are bad and that is leading to such kind of incidents too. If not on day 1, they crash sooner than later. People easily get license these days and the standards of driving schools have come down drastically too. This is a worrisome trend.

[vspraneeth1995]

Here goes my first post in team-bhp ! Thank you for making me a member and I am glad to be a part of this wonderful community.

This reminds me of a few incidents which happened with us.

1. This is a story that always comes up when ever we are taking a delivery of a new car. Long time ago (must be some time in 1990s) when dad and mom were taking delivery for their first car, it was a second hand Maruti 800. Dad had asked one of his friend to park it at home. He was backing up the car very slowly into the parking area and he almost made it. Just when he had to press the brake, he pressed the acclerator by mistake and the car crashed into the wall.

2. This was a recent incident which happened last year after we took the delivery of our new Seltos. Although it didn't occur at the showroom, it occurred on the 2nd day of our ownership. It still highlights the importance of being aware about the behaviour of the vehicle. Dad had to park the car in the basement of his office. To go to the parking area, we have to go down the ramp to a basement and take an immediate right. Similarly to come out of the parking, come till the ramp and take an immediate left. Kind of like a T junction buy without one of the turn. As he was coming up, he misjudged the, say turning radius of the car and ended up heavily scratching the left side doors ( inner side of the turn) of the vehicle. Although he would have done this manoeuvre so many times, it's just not know how much space the car needs to turn that beat him this time. Didn't help that the windows were rolled up and music was playing. It wasn't untill he felt the contact and decided to look what happened.

In my opinion, there are always a few things that people have to be aware of once we have a new car in our hands.

- The way the car acclerated. Especially in the first gear. There would be enough difference between different cars to take people by surprise in situations.

- The way the car brakes. Again different cars come to a stop differently. Some give a good feedback back to the driver and some have a woody feeling while applying the brake. And also, the amount of pressure that had to be applied to achieve the required braking also takes some driving to get used to. Very important to know this to stay out of trouble.

-How to turn on and off the engine safely. Back in the day I remember the way to power on MPFI engines were different as our Maruti 800 had a couple of stickers explaining that brake or clutch need not be pressed. ( I'm sorry I don't really remember what. But I am 100% sure the car had the stickers). Even now, the way to start a MT and AT vehicle are different. Knowing this would prevent embarasing situations when the new car stops in the middle of the road.

-Estimating the distance between the front bumper and the object in front of it. I always make my dad stand just in from of the vehcle with a little gap when I'm in the driver's seat just to be aware of the distance. Again this is important in bumper to bumper traffic and while parking in close areas. Nowadays even with camera systems there is always a little gap left out even though it appears as if we are touching the wall or something. Maybe due to the wide angle lens used, not sure though.

- And how much distance a car needs to turn. Helps while taking u turns and parking safely in malls and other places where card are thigtly closed.

I believe these are some of the few things that people have to be aware of before we start learning about the different gadgets that come in our car !

Drive Safe and Stay Safe !

[AKSarkar1]

Hilarious thread! I feel bad deliveries are a result of bad driving skills coupled with bad luck, nothing more to it!

I think most of the people who unfortunately crash their brand new possessions are either first-time drivers or aren't used to the car yet! As a result, whenever I get a new car, I avoid driving it on our crazy Mumbai roads for a couple of days/week. I take the car out for an early morning or late-night spins to get used to it first!

[gatsby_great]

I was on learner license while taking the delivery of my car in 2016 and there wasn't anyone to accompany. So I simply requested my sales agent to drive me home in the car. He was kind enough to take the car for puja along the way. Now seeing many tragic videos of accidents during delivery, I can only reminisce in relief.

[asm3899_CHD]

On a related note, do look at the floor mats of a new car you are driving. My friend once asked me to bring his Ford Endeavour 3.2 back from service station as he was out of station. On my way back home, I started testing the power of the beast and floored it. The accelerator got stuck in the mats and I couldn't understand what was happening. I pressed the brake pedal very hard but then also the car was revolting to accelerate. It somehow came back itself. I told the same story to all my friends and they took it casually. One day while going to Shimla, one other friend was driving the same car and while overtaking he floored the throttle and it again got stuck. Because he had prior knowledge from me that this could happen, he quickly used his foot to bring back the stuck accelerator.

[IP_Man]

Purchase of new car is special moment. In order not to spoil this moment and joy of new car purchase, few cents from me.

1. Even if your are good driver, you are likely to make mistakes because you are tense after new car delivery. Best is to ask show room people to deliver car to your doorstep. It will be their responsibility.

2. You can also ask your friend's help.

3. Try taking delivery when traffic on the road is less.

4. Try choosing dealer that have ample parking place and not situated in traffic congested area.

5. Read instruction manual. Get yourself familiar with all the control and then only try your hands on new car.

[pritishekka]

I didn't even have to ask my showroom executive to bring it out of the showroom. My Renault Whitefield experience was so smooth. After customary photographs, features demo, they brought the car near the gate of showroom. The executive was chit chatting with me during this time when he escorted me from showroom to the gate.
I have done multiple days road trips in my relatives' and self drive cars. But surprisingly, I felt the anxiouness of holding the key of my first car which wasn't cheap by any means for me. I was so thankful that I could start the 1st gear without worrying about other things.

[gkveda]

Originally Posted by IP_Man

Purchase of new car is special moment. In order not to spoil this moment and joy of new car purchase, few cents from me.

1. Even if your are good driver, you are likely to make mistakes because you are tense after new car delivery. Best is to ask show room people to deliver car to your doorstep. It will be their responsibility.

2. You can also ask your friend's help.

3. Try taking delivery when traffic on the road is less.

4. Try choosing dealer that have ample parking place and not situated in traffic congested area.

5. Read instruction manual. Get yourself familiar with all the control and then only try your hands on new car.

Adding another very important point is, immediately after taking delivery don't try checking all features explained by Sales guy while driving home.

I have seen many people trying out on steering controls, navigation, music tuning, peer windows functions, rear wiper functions, cruise control, and what not, they experiment with all these features when driving the new car first time home in city traffic.

You need to get acquainted with the fundamentals of driving first. Then when car comes home and is at rest, you can experiment with all electronics and features.

If your focus is on electronics, driving will go for toss.

[InControl]

Originally Posted by gkveda

Adding another very important point is, immediately after taking delivery don't try checking all features explained by Sales guy while driving home.

I have seen many people trying out on steering controls, navigation, music tuning, peer windows functions, rear wiper functions, cruise control, and what not, they experiment with all these features when driving the new car first time home in city traffic.

Completely agree, and especially that darned pano sunroof, controls on the top taking your eyes off the road and taking in the view. Its the same sky that you saw while entering the showroom

[ArTigor]

This is one great thread, first time new drivers(including me when I was new to driving) are constantly under denial that they are bad/novice at driving, as humans none of us are born drivers.
Damaging a new car during delivery and in some cases even within few months after delivery is fairly common and it happens due to the following reasons.

1- Ego & Overconfidance:-
Newbies(including a younger me) never accept that they have to learn many things about safe and careful driving. Overconfidance and ego gets the better of them. In this case God save them, these are a crop of people whom despite whatever you suggest them, they will never give any regard to safety over their ego.

2- Graduating from Cycle to Motorcycle to Car to SUV:- My dad gave me(a 19 year old then) our Estilo when I got into my First Year of graduation. In the first week itself I scraped the rear right side door while entering my building. I still remember my dad telling me "Never ride a Car the way you rode your Motorcycle" that was a mantra that helped me improve my driving a lot. This is the greatest mistake which first time owners who graduate from smaller/lower vehicle category to a higher one makes.
A remedy to this is buy a cheap used vehicle for the first time when you are graduating to a car. Few of my colleagues did this. They bought an old santro/alto for 80k-1lakh rupees, used it to brush up their driving skills, then sold it off with negligable loss and then proceded to buy a new vehicle.

3 Misjudge the size and length of vehicle:-
My dad despite being an expert driver with 30+ years of driving experience faced this issue. When we upgraded from Ritz to Ertiga my dad had a tough time getting accustomed to the big dimentions(partially aeging was also a factor), he actually sold it off after 2 and half years and bought a tiny K10 .
Always when geting behind the steering wheel of a new vehicle, what I practice is setting up virtual marker points that helps in gaugeing the clearence the vehicle, for ex. Understanding the location of front left most corner of the vehicle with reference to a point on the wiper or dash board and so on, atleast untill you get accustomed.

4 Technical advancement and change in transmission.:-
Many a times for someone who upgrades; say from a 15 year old Santro to a new Hyundai Venue the bling inside cabin can itself gets overwhelming and disorienting.
On the other side those moving from a Manual to Automatic many a times have tough time in adjusting.
It is always good to take a friend or hire a driver in this case to take the delivery and then for the next one month focus purely on getting accustomed to driving rather focusing on the bling while driving.

Most Important: Lastly I would recommed to the members & readers of TBHP, just like while we encourage anyone we know to take the TBHP PDI list before taking delivery of a car, encourage/send links of the wonderful Safe driving threads on this forum to your near and dear ones and encourage them to read it (especially the new drivers), I have sent these links to many of my known ones, for a few the driving have drastically improved once they read it couple of times. Believe me, even after years of driving experience, I learnt a lot through the threads on safe driving on this forum.

[Shwet]

I remember when I took delivery of the first car bought from my own money in 2008 Feb. It was an Alto and though I was not new to driving , having almost two years of prior driving experience, I felt extremely nervy. I remember unnecessarily braking at times and my wife sitting beside me was getting flustered and even enquired about my mental well being☺️. On the contrary, when I took delivery of my Ertiga in Dec 2014 , I was completely relaxed and rather nonchalant. To be honest I just drove the vehicle in my normal style and everything went smoothly. My wife was concerned having past experience of my nervy behaviour during delivery that I might scrape a larger car. However it's all a state of mind and if one composes himself, it just goes on normally as it would under normal circumstances.