[AkMar]

Zoomcar has added the new Verna to their fleet. Just saw a red Verna with Zoomcar stickers in Mumbai.

[Kamikaze]

Had a pathetic experience with Zoomcar today - I was told 1 hour before a 3 day trip that there is a change in vehicle pick location (new location 10 kms away) and that the vehicle has a 80km/hr (!!!) speed governor in place. Zoomcar effectively ruined my long planned 3 day trip.

Zoomcar tells me its a government mandated speed limit, and that 75% of their vehicles do NOT have the governor in place yet (as incongruous as that sounds!), but that if you are unluckly to get one allotted that does have the governor then they cannot do anything about it (unless they happen to have a spare vehicle without the governor in the same location)

If indeed it is a government directive, then they should have been stated this clearly at booking. (speed limit stated at booking was 125 km/hr). - I would never have booked a 80km/hr vehicle - its like travelling in an autorickshaw on the GQ!

I have cancelled the booking and currently fighting with them for a full refund - they are resisting a full refund currently. Let's see how that goes.

Will never go with Zoom car in the future.

[Nissan1180]

Originally Posted by Kamikaze

Had a pathetic experience with Zoomcar today - I was told 1 hour before a 3 day trip that there is a change in vehicle pick location (new location 10 kms away) and that the vehicle has a 80km/hr (!!!) speed governor in place. Zoomcar effectively ruined my long planned 3 day trip.

Zoomcar tells me its a government mandated speed limit, and that 75% of their vehicles do NOT have the governor in place yet (as incongruous as that sounds!), but that if you are unluckly to get one allotted that does have the governor then they cannot do anything about it (unless they happen to have a spare vehicle without the governor in the same location)

If indeed it is a government directive, then they should have been stated this clearly at booking. (speed limit stated at booking was 125 km/hr). - I would never have booked a 80km/hr vehicle - its like travelling in an autorickshaw on the GQ!

I have cancelled the booking and currently fighting with them for a full refund - they are resisting a full refund currently. Let's see how that goes.

Will never go with Zoom car in the future.

This is a Government mandated limit applicable to all vehicles registered with a commercial plate. Zoomcar has a lot of issues (including fake damage claims for unsuspecting customers) but the speed limits cannot be attributed to them. Going by the rising number of self-drive rentals which crashed because of high-speed negligent driving, it is actually good that all yellow boards have been restricted. 80 kmph is not a low speed on 90% of Indian highways and there's no reason to be sad about it.

[Kamikaze]

Originally Posted by Nissan1180

This is a Government mandated limit applicable to all vehicles registered with a commercial plate. Zoomcar has a lot of issues (including fake damage claims for unsuspecting customers) but the speed limits cannot be attributed to them. Going by the rising number of self-drive rentals which crashed because of high-speed negligent driving, it is actually good that all yellow boards have been restricted. 80 kmph is not a low speed on 90% of Indian highways and there's no reason to be sad about it.

To be sad or otherwise with a 80kmph speed limit is personal opinion (to me it is unreasonable to travel 300+ KM's always within 80kmph).

However, what is unacceptable is to not notify the customer at the time of booking that there is a 80kmph speed limit. If it is indeed a government mandate then why is not prominently displayed at the time of booking? Why does it state 125kmph speed limit at the time of booking and within the FAQ (https://www.zoomcar.com/faq). Is Zoomcar not displaying this in the hope of garnering more bookings? Not sure, but it is definitely putting a lot of previously loyal customers like me into a lot of inconvenience.

Zoomcar should state constraints like this clearly at the time of booking. Once the data is available, the customer can take an informed decision.

[Nissan1180]

Originally Posted by Kamikaze

To be sad or otherwise with a 80kmph speed limit is personal opinion (to me it is unreasonable to travel 300+ KM's always within 80kmph).


Zoomcar should state constraints like this clearly at the time of booking. Once the data is available, the customer can take an informed decision.

While what you're saying is true (about disappointments), a company cannot be made liable for the legislative decisions in a country. There's a thread on Team-Bhp about this decision, there are numerous news articles on most established media sites. The company claimed 100+ kmph limit is for cars without the speed governor, and having seen so many self-drive cars being wrecked, I'm actually surprised this reduction was not done earlier.

PS: I hate Zoomcar and I've not used their services after they charged me wrongly for a dent that I did not cause. I was naive and did not take a video of the car while accepting it. Don't repeat that mistake to avoid being conned.

[Kamikaze]

Originally Posted by Nissan1180

While what you're saying is true (about disappointments), a company cannot be made liable for the legislative decisions in a country.

I agree. Zoomcar cannot be liable for legislative decisions. However, it is accountable and liable for misleading representation on their website, which still says their speed limit is 125kmph which has been proven to be incorrect.

Likewise, I have no issue with Zoomcar having a 80kmph speed limit. They can have a 10kmph speed limit for all I care - all I ask for is for them to clearly state their speed limit on their web site so that customers can make informed decisions.

[ksameer1234]

Originally Posted by Kamikaze

Likewise, I have no issue with Zoomcar having a 80kmph speed limit. They can have a 10kmph speed limit for all I care - all I ask for is for them to clearly state their speed limit on their web site so that customers can make informed decisions.

I had made a booking from Zoomcar this weekend for one-way drop from Pune to Mumbai and the email confirmation of booking had following clearly mentioned:

Speed Governor Alert: Please note that your car might come with a speed governor, which will limit the speed of the car to 80 Kmph. This is in compliance with a recent government regulation which mandates new commercial vehicles to come with a speed governor.

I was supposed to start early in the morning from home and drive to airport for catching the flight. Till the moment I picked up the car earlier night, I did not know if the car had a governor. What I did during pick up was that I asked whether there's one and made my plan to leave accordingly.

This is a compliance requirement and whenever these cars go for annual registration renewal, they get fitted with governor if not done already. Eventually all cars will have governors and Zoomcar being a legitimate entity can not (I hope) bypass it the jugaad way. So, it is just a matter of time that all Zoomcars will have governors.

My experience with Zoomcar one-way drop

I had a 10 AM flight from Mumbai past weekend and early morning Shivneri from Pune was out of question since first one only started at 5:30 AM. I toyed with Ola/Uber one-way drop but found Zoomcar better since the fare was similar and I had liberty of starting at my convenience.

Now, this was my first experience with Zoomcar after a few with Myles. Zoomcar came about much more professional than Myles. So everything happened on Zoomcar app, right from navigating to pick-up point to filling the inspection checklist to verifying the documents. Effectively, there is no personal interaction. The pick-up was smooth and done with in less than 5 minutes including a 2-min walkthrough video of car which the Zoomcar assistant advised. Best thing was that I was lucky to get the car without governor so no 80 kph limit!

The drive from Pune to Mumbai was uneventful apart from my struggle to keep it under 120 kmph (Zoomcar speed limit). Now I never went into triple digit speeds intentionally and always stayed around 95 kph but the downward slope on expressway and zero traffic at 6 AM on Sunday meant that speed would involuntarily jump even with minimum throttle input.

As if the uneventful drive was not enough, all the fancy app thing and professionalism reared its ugly side when we reached Mumbai Airport T2 for the drop. The drop-point was on P7 at pillar 36. I was used to having the contact details of an assistant when using Myles guiding me to drop location and all and face-less Zoomcar experience left me hunting for parking spot. 20 minutes and having explored every pillar of multi-tier parking, I finally reached pillar 36 only to find nothing there. I spent next 5 minutes walking around the parking to spot a few Zoomcars near pillar 30 and finally was able to take the car there. Overall this was highly frustrating since airport parking isn't particularly easy to navigate and Zoomcar has no signage to guide people to the location.

What went good
+ Pickup was seamless
+ Car was neat and clean
+ App-driven process helped a lot during pickup with inspection and documents checklist

What was bad
- No help from Zoomcar on reaching the designated parking lot. No directions, no signage in such a big car park.
- Horrible steering of i20! I have never driven a car with so vague steering. I don't know if this was a problem with that particular car since I haven't driven an i20 earlier but that steering kept me spooked and alert all the while.

[technicalytuned]

PATHETIC SERVICE OF ZOOMCAR

I had booked a Tata Tiago through ZOOMCAR on 26 February, 2018. It was booked on weekday since I like to travel at places which are less crowded and had planned to take the car at Global Vipassana Pagoda, sunrise point, Gorai Beach and Uttan Virgin beach.

The car was a brand new Tata Tiago XE with minor dents and scratches and had done only 7748 kms.

The car was in its best mechanical condition but the front left tyre was worn out. The tyre was also of different brand (Maxxis) and of different size 175/70R13 (standard tyres were of Bridgestone with a tyre size of 155/80R13)


I thought that the previous renter might have replaced the punctured tyre with the spare and I would replace the spare with the damaged front left tyre. When the car opened automatically after I gave a thumbs up to the exterior condition of the car, I was shocked to see a punctured spare wheel in the boot.


I escalated this to them via a call since no executive was available at the location and all the procedure was automated through the app. The executive who was located at Bangalore requested me to send the pictures of the damaged front left tyre and the punctured spare via WhatsApp and apologized that since no other car is available with them I will have to continue with the same car. After seeing the pics the zoomcar executive called me and said that he spoke with the owner of the Tiago who has stated that the car’s front left tyre is in perfect condition. The Zoomcar executive requested me to get the punctured spare tyre repaired and attach the bill in the zoomcar app as other expenses which will be refunded at the time of return. I took the car to the puncture repair shop and while driving noticed that the front left side was having some wobble which also got transferred to the steering wheel. The puncture repair guy removed the tyre from the boot and opened the tyre. To my shock and disbelief there was a tube inside a tubeless tyre. Now I got curious about the tyre condition and was shocked to see a major crack on the side wall and the tube was also damaged.


I asked the puncture repair guy to check the condition of front left tyre and I got the second shock of the day, the car tyre had a bulge in the centre. I called the zoomcar executive and a female executive received the call. When I spoke to her about my ordeal she said that since all the other tyres are in ok condition you can continue with your journey without a functional spare wheel. After hearing her I was cursing myself for trusting Zoomcar and wasting my weekday leave. When the other Zoomcar executive called me I explained him that the sidewall is damaged. The zoomcar executive asked me to get it repaired. I got furious and explained him that since the side wall is damaged the tyre is rendered useless and needs a replacement. After wasting my 1 ½ hours (45 minutes to check the car and report the issues to the zoomcar executive on phone and whatsapp and another 45 minutes at the puncture repair shop) I politely asked them to cancel my booking since I was in no mood to check the condition of other 3 tyres and risk the lives of my family members. After wasting my 3 hrs (It took 30 minutes to travel to the remote locality which was a residential area where the owner of the car lived) I was in no mood to continue with the plan but since my family was also ready for the outing I called a cab and continued with my plan. Never in my life ever will I take such a risk to travel with my family in such a car and would never recommend Zoomcar to anyone.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by technicalytuned

After wasting my 3 hrs (It took 30 minutes to travel to the remote locality which was a residential area where the owner of the car lived) I was in no mood to continue with the plan but since my family was also ready for the outing I called a cab and continued with my plan. Never in my life ever will I take such a risk to travel with my family in such a car and would never recommend Zoomcar to anyone.

That is completely unacceptable. This seems to be an issue with the Zoom car ownership program (is it being rebranded as ZAP?) where they do not have much control over the quality of upkeep of the cars. Their own fleet left a lot to be desired anyway, but this is a new low.
It is high time that we start getting selfdrive rentals of the likes of Avis/ Europcar/ Hertz with the associated quality levels. I would not mind paying a little more for better quality and peace of mind. Zoomcar does not seem to be a reliable option any longer.

[hotstuff]

TLDR summary : Dangerous Cars. Unclean cars. Useless Customer care. Very bad experience.

Before I let the pictures do the talking; I had booked a Ecosport for a family trip from Pune airport to interior Maharashtra.

It was early in the morning, foggy and drizzling when I took delivery from the airport.

I pointed out to the delivery persons that the car looked very dirty inside (dried mud and muck on the seats) and the tires looked 'iffy'.

Unfortunately, there was no replacement, Zoom cars refused to help and I was forced to take delivery since cancelling at that time was not a option. (My family was waiting outside the airport.)

In retrospect, taking delivery inside the airport terminal was a bad idea since you cant do a thorough inspection before taking delivery. The cops keep chasing you to move on.

Issues faced during the trip:

[1] Two tires were completely worn out on the inside (uneven wear) - with the belts actually showing out in patches here and there and there were deep cuts in other tires. These issues were not visible during the initial inspection since the tires were wet and I could not check thoroughly.

[2] The spare tire was damaged and had bubbles on the inner side-wall; which would be visible only when the tire is taken down from the mounting.

[3] I was driving only on the highways - Pune - Aurangabad etc. Yet I had three punctures in four days! - attributable to the damaged tires. (In comparison, my current personal car has done 78000+ kms mostly on the highways in four years with three punctures so far.)

[3] The lights were very very dim; in fact I was surprised that a Ford Ecosport could have headlights like a good old battery-less Bajaj Chetak ? Something seemed to be wrong with the lamps or the electricals.

[4] Steering had serious play and alignment issues. Car would drag towards the right without constant inputs to keep it straight.

[5] Car was delivered in a very dirty condition, with mud and muck on the seats and smelling of vomit - noticeable when we rolled up the windows. (We bought a new bed-sheet and two big towels, just to cover up the seats)

[6] Zoom cars refused to help even though I was willing to accept any other car in a better condition (I was willing to take even a lower class car without requiring any refund, I just wanted a different car.) Instead, Zoom cars offered to 'cancel' or 'reschedule' the booking. (Which was not an option since me and my family were outside the airport will all our luggage and a kid.)

Needless to say; Zoom cars quality has degraded as their demand increased.

I am willing to accept an older car, a cheaper car, may be even a dirty car... but giving customer a dangerous car is just plain irresponsible of Zoom cars.

Is it too much to expect a basic safety and cleanliness check before delivering the car?

And Zoom cars probably never heard of periodical maintenance

And, since the local road side repair guy accepts only cash, no bills or credit card statements to prove your expenses; no reimbursement of the money spent by the customers either.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by hotstuff

TLDR summary : Dangerous Cars. Unclean cars. Useless Customer care. Very bad experience.

The only good cars Zoomcar has are brand new additions to the fleet. Even a few thousand on the odo usually means the car's already trashed, like the Tiago in a prior post.

If someone pulled service records at A.S.S., I'd be very surprised if any of their cars actually have a full (or any) service history.

Originally Posted by selfdrive

...This seems to be an issue with the Zoom car ownership program...

Nope. This is the situation since their first batch of cars got some running. Zoomcar never believed in proper maintenance.

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by hotstuff

TLDR summary : Dangerous Cars. Unclean cars. Useless Customer care. Very bad experience.

How can Zoomcar say that EcoSport is safe to drive in any condition.
Ridiculous, no wonder we see a lot of accidents with self driven cars.
This is an issue across most players in the market.

No way these companies replace a personal car.

It is anyday better to hire a cab than drive such ill maintained cars.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by hotstuff

TLDR summary : Dangerous Cars. ...

The law should step in here. They should be closed down for renting out vehicles with tyres in this condition.

To save others from posting the obvious reply: Yep. In my dreams!

[drmohitg]

I think we Indians as a race do not know how to use stuff or just don't care enough. I pity the car to have suffered such abuse by people who do not bother before putting all that mud and dirt on the car seats and arm rests ( and even vomit!). And then the staff at Zoom car is probably not interested or motivated enough to follow the company's laid down T&Cs and are rather just interested in signing off receipts like untrained moneys and wait for the end of the month for their salary. Otherwise there is no reason why a customer should not be made to pay for all this damage done to the car.

The company needs to take a serious look into this and the way they are running their business. If the give such cars to customers then for sure they will not stay in business for long. If they can't charge the customer who is responsible for this abomination then they should bear the expenses themselves. But under no circumstance can such a car be given off to a new customer.

[Thad E Ginathom]

We do see positive experiences, but this one is beyond bad and can't be isoloted

Originally Posted by drmohitg

The company needs to take a serious look into this and the way they are running their business. If the give such cars to customers then for sure they will not stay in business for long. ...

If they give such cars to customers it suggests that there are enough customers who don't care. The state of the inside may be the sole fault of one previous renter, but the tyres must have been bad for quite a while.