Car Buying experience



Of all the dealers I went to, Bimal was offering me the best deal in terms of freebies (sunfilm, teflon coating, underbody coating and a 10% discount on seat covers). I also liked dealing with the salesman even though his every second word was "Sir". I really wanted to tell him the Queen had not knighted me busy as she was with the grandson's wedding. But I held my tongue!

The booking amount paid, now the only thing to do was wait. I was told that June 1st week would be when I would be getting the car and I was by now almost salivating at the thought of driving an Sx4. There is something that I had left out when I was choosing the car - ever since the SX4 was unveiled in India, I wanted one. There was no analytical spreadsheet behind it, there was no logical reasoning behind it. It just had to be something that I would drive one day. I guess, that did bias my choice in vehicles to a great extent.

Anyway as the calendar inched closer to turn of the month, my good, smiling and 'sirring' dealer called me to say that the car delivery would be pushed back by a week. This was repeated again after a few days and now the delay was 10 days or so. This irritated me but at that point I did not want to make any snide remarks and swallowed the wait. Unfortunately, it was around this time that the strike in the Manesar plant of Maruti also took place. As expected, in due course of time, I got the call from 'Sirrer' that it would be further delayed. Everyday in the once loved Zen was becoming a little more painful. A couple of my friends then decided to do what I should have done myself. They called up a few other dealers, claimed to be looking for a black SX4 ZXi and Voila! it was available immediately.

When all else fails, there are mails. I have noticed at work that work gets done only when the 'cc' of the mail has the boss of the intended recepient in the 'to' of the mail. Having successfully applied this in the past has got me results not only at work but outside too. I can distinctly remember Reliance overcharging for something, Airtel not moving the landline/broadband and and a couple of other instances. All I had to do was search in google for the standard email format for a particular company and fit in the names of the CEO/Director/any other high ranking top shot into that format and write a mail. And there is bound to be a reply.

So, in this case a mail went to Bimal topshots (I had not sent it to Maruti folks deliberately). And YES! WOnder of wonders, within 2 hours Bimal called to say they had a black SX4 ZXi ready to be delivered. I was apprehensive about how old the car was but using the check formalities which I had taken from this very site, I ensured that the vehicle was new and not some old dump they were passing off. They even put in a RVM parking sensor for FREE!



On the alloted day, the car was delivered and a happy me has been driving it for the last 1600km.

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