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BHPian gearless recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
After a 6-month waiting, finally, I got my Nexon delivered on the auspicious day of Mahalaya Amavasya on 6th Oct.
When I bought a pre-owned Celerio AMT in 2018, it was already decided that we will upgrade to a new car in 2020. Then due to covid, we had to postpone our decision. In mid-2020, we had closed on the requirements and started the search:
In hindsight, the Nexon seems to be the only option that satisfies these criteria with minimal compromise.
However, it was not on my initial shortlist as I wanted an upgrade from AMT as well and was eagerly waiting for the Sonet to launch. Just after the launch, I was excited for the Sonet, but it went away from the list after the Seltos safety rating was released.
The other contender was the Ecosport, but I rejected it due to very less useable space in the backseat. Now, I thank my stars for that decision.
I ignored the Creta and Seltos even before seeing the safety ratings, as the automatic variants were beyond my budget.
The S-cross and Vitara Brezza were ticking most of the boxes, but they felt outdated after we experienced the Nexon.
The Nexon seemed to be a good option as I will compromise only on the proper automatic. By then, I had two years of experience with AMT and have tweaked my driving style to AMT. I have learned how to manoeuvre without head nods.
I was stuck in my hometown for a long time and couldn't come back to Bangalore. As my hometown is in a different state, I did not want to buy the car there. I delayed my decision of booking the Nexon till I get back to Bangalore. Finally, in the month of March, I visited three different dealers in Bangalore. I couldn't get any discounts as there was high demand and could get only the basic accessories as a freebie. Also, everyone promised a waiting time of 3 months.
I went ahead with the dealership closest to my home and booked on 28th Mar.
Till June, I did not bother to follow up with the dealer as the waiting time was 3 months. Then started the follow-ups, false promises, escalations, cribbing in this forum and other social media channels, involving the ASMs and GMs. After a 3-month battle and a wait of 6 months, my car got allotted in September.
The dealer was trying to be helpful, but I think the delay was due to the mismanagement of Tata in terms of the variant and color balance. There was a huge demand for Foliage green color, but that seemed to be the least manufactured variant color from Tata. In fact, I have been seeing the car list which was allotted to the dealership from Aug (the sales advisor thought this was the only way to keep me from nagging him). I was 5th in queue to receive this variant color in their dealership throughout Bangalore in August and still, it took 3 months post that for Tata to allot.
The reasons I was given was the 2nd wave and semiconductor shortages but I used to point out that in the last 2 months, they sold 10,000 units which is much more than the average 6,000 which they had sold in Mar when I booked.
The delivery experience was smooth. As I had to travel out of the station, I had to delay my delivery. By then I had also got my number and got the car with the original number plate fitted.
I did not opt for any accessories as I had booked the XZA+ S variant.
Now I am getting a side-step fitted to enable easy ingress for my parents.
After spending a week within Bangalore, where I could drive only 150 km, the MID was showing just 8 km/l as the mileage. Last weekend, I had to travel to my hometown which is ~500 km. This trip is where I really enjoyed driving the Nexon.
My observations so far:
My first service will be post-Diwali and planning to be back in Bangalore for it. Will be sharing more experiences as I take the Nexon for more drives. Cheers!!
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