Pre-Launch Car Bookings – Yes or No?

[Surfer]

Re: Pre-Launch Car Bookings – Are Indian Buyers Being Taken For a Ride?

IMO 3-4 TDs are must before purchasing any car.After all its our hard earned money we are going to spend on car. Before purchasing we should test the car by all means. Try to collect as much of info by different ways. Also ask friend who own such car or any other references.In short don't choose car blindly. Most of the times everyone wont be lucky to get a nice car. No car is perfect but at-least we can test and judge at best by personal TD experience.

 

[myetios Munish]

Re: Pre-Launch Car Bookings – Are Indian Buyers Being Taken For a Ride?

Hi munish, here i was talking about people who have not even taken a TD & booked the car.

But in your case, you have taken a TD & then booked. If you were not satisfied with the TD, you could have asked for a longer one till you have satisfied.

When you book a car after TD, it means you are satisfied with it. So then how can you blame toyota? Its not that they had a better car for TD & gave you an inferior piece. Its also not that the car is having reliability issues.

Sorry buddy, I dont intend to hurt you here, but I think toyota is not to be blamed much over here.

I had booked my Tyota ETIOS on 01.12.2010 this was the first booking date of Toyota ETIOS. The vehicle came for the test ride in January end.But my dealer Galaxy Toyota had taken 50,000 from me on 29.11.2010 this day even the booking was also not launched.

My argument here is that my ETIOS has severe issue of vibrations that the vehicle in idle in idle condition wobbles, the doors also create noise because of vibrations like in case of a horror movie.Please visit my website and follow the link on youtube to evaluate the gravity of vibrations.

Interestingly when Toyota Engineers inspected my Toyota eTIOS at their workshop in Galaxy Toyota, Moti Nagar, they also showed me 4 other ETIOS and surprisingly all the vehicles had different vibration and noise behaviour, There was no standardisation of Quality.

 

[jalex]

Re: Pre-Launch Car Bookings – Are Indian Buyers Being Taken For a Ride?

A fact today is most manufacturers are cutting down on quality to save price hikes and no amount of test drives can reveal whether the car's got inferior sheet metal or raw material used for its shell.

I used to have a 1994 make 800 which was raced, autocrossed and kept unwashed for weeks at times, Still it only began to show signs of rust after the eighth year of ownership. I never gave it an under body anti rust coat or paint till the eight year. I feel I was an idiot to sell it off for the Alto.

In comparison, my Alto has begun to show signs of rust already at its underpinnings and its just past four years. Even the petrol filler pipe has rusted away, fuel has started to leak when its being filled. I used to keep my Alto like its out of the showroom at all possible times. Washed it even if its late at night and I'm just back from a long haul. Gave it an under body wash every week in the monsoons apart from myself hosing and cleaning the wheel arches and under body every other day while washing. But now I feel that Maruti has compromised on its quality and there is nothing I can do to save it from rotting away.

 

[raj_5004]

Re: Pre-Launch Car Bookings – Are Indian Buyers Being Taken For a Ride?

I had booked my Tyota ETIOS on 01.12.2010 this was the first booking date of Toyota ETIOS. The vehicle came for the test ride in January end.But my dealer Galaxy Toyota had taken 50,000 from me on 29.11.2010 this day even the booking was also not launched.

My argument here is that my ETIOS has severe issue of vibrations that the vehicle in idle in idle condition wobbles, the doors also create noise because of vibrations like in case of a horror movie.Please visit my website and follow the link on youtube to evaluate the gravity of vibrations.

Interestingly when Toyota Engineers inspected my Toyota eTIOS at their workshop in Galaxy Toyota, Moti Nagar, they also showed me 4 other ETIOS and surprisingly all the vehicles had different vibration and noise behaviour, There was no standardisation of Quality.

That is exactly what I am emphasizing on buddy.

You booked the car even before test driving it. The dealer showed you other cars also & all cars were similar. So it is a fact that all Etios are made like that, built to a price. Its not just with your car.

So who is to be blamed if you chose to book the car based only on trust on Toyota? Its not that Toyota cheated you in any way, is it? Its just that your expectations from the company's product dint meet.

 

[myetios Munish]

Re: Pre-Launch Car Bookings – Are Indian Buyers Being Taken For a Ride?

That is exactly what I am emphasizing on buddy.

You booked the car even before test driving it. The dealer showed you other cars also & all cars were similar. So it is a fact that all Etios are made like that, built to a price. Its not just with your car.

So who is to be blamed if you chose to book the car based only on trust on Toyota? Its not that Toyota cheated you in any way, is it? Its just that your expectations from the company's product dint meet.

Please note that I said that when I visited the dealer workshop and I ws shown 4 other Toyota ETIOS , ALL THE 4 ETIOS HAD DIFFERENT NOISE AND VIBRATIONS-THERE WAS NO STANDARDIZATION OF QUALITY.

Also find enclosed the mail from the dealer confirming he problems in my ETIOS after inspecting the same.



from:customer relations north delhi crgalaxy_dl04a@thesachdevgroup.com
reply-to:crgalaxy_dl04a@thesachdevgroup.com
to Munish
cc:etioshelpdesk@thesachdevgroup.com,voc@toyota-kirloskar.co.in

date:Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 6:14 PM
subject:FW: Etios Feedback

Dear Sir,
Greetings for the day,
We highly appreciate your patience andsupport in regards to your Toyota Etios. We have been advised to send further reportslike RPM, AC condition, idling/driving, gear etc. The team is already working onthe issue to resolve the concern. We have to capture the same nature of concernif there is any on other vehicles as well. We will update you further course ofaction accordingly.
Thanks & Regards
Naresh
Galaxy North

My only expectation from Toyota was to give me a better car than my existing WagonR, but Toyota did not meet my expectation.My expectation from Toyota was to acknowledge the problem in my Toyota ETIOS, which they did but after inspecting other vehicles they termed this fault as common to all ETIOS and they could not do anything. Yes, you are right my expectation from the Customer support is also shattered.
Please do not expect Quality, Fuel economy, Comfort, Luxury, customer support from Toyota ETIOS or else you will also be disappointed.
I hope I am able to put my views clearly now.

 

[AMIT AGARWAL]

Re: Pre-Launch Car Bookings – Are Indian Buyers Being Taken For a Ride?

Many people do book car without test driving. Even in my case this thing was about to happen I have been driving Swift for almost 5 years now and was pretty satisfied with the car. Now seeing the Petrol Prices was looking for a diesel car, when my dad came to know about that Maruti people coming out with the new swift he straight away asked me to book a Zdi version, even without test driving or seeing the vehicle. His justification was Swift has always been amazing to drive so new version will be even better, and if we wait we might have to wait for a year cause of the popularity of the car. I straight away said NO. I am seriously against booking a car without TD.

 

[mukeshus]

Re: Pre-Launch Car Bookings – Are Indian Buyers Being Taken For a Ride?

Many people do book car without test driving. Even in my case this thing was about to happen I have been driving Swift for almost 5 years now and was pretty satisfied with the car. Now seeing the Petrol Prices was looking for a diesel car, when my dad came to know about that Maruti people coming out with the new swift he straight away asked me to book a Zdi version, even without test driving for seeing the vehicle. His justification was Swift has always been amazing to drive so new version will be even better, and if we wait we might have to wait for a year cause of the popularity of the car. I straight away said NO. I am seriously again booking a car without TD.

I appreciate your presence of mind, never pay a penny without being satisfied customer.
And later end up with hassles and sueing the dealer.
What you have done is correct.

 

[AMIT AGARWAL]

Re: Pre-Launch Car Bookings – Are Indian Buyers Being Taken For a Ride?

Who said you can drive only for 10 minutes,I had driven the TD vehicle of Scorpio from different dalerships.

When testing the vehicle one must tell the Salesman to shutup and end his blah-blah, and lower the volume of music ,and i drove the vehicle with windows closed and rolled up.
I was happy with the NVH levels in the car.
For more than 1hour, upto 50 kms.
From different dealers.

It do happen when there are lot of people waiting in line to do TD. When all new Verna Fluidic was launched I went to do TD with my dad my cousin and one of his friend who too was interested in buying the car. The sales guy just took us a km and said Sir take a U turn as lot of other people are waiting too. Hearing this I blasted on the sales person, I told him how can you expect a person to buy 11 lacks rupee car without even taking a proper TD. I stopped the car and said you can take your car back we ll get down over here only and we will call our chauffeur to pick us up. Hearing this he got little scared and embarrassed and apologized. Then we drove the vehicle for almost 45 mins covering almost 50km and driving in every possible way till we were fully satisfied with the TD.

 

[Surfer]

Re: Pre-Launch Car Bookings – Are Indian Buyers Being Taken For a Ride?

AMIT AGARWAL you are right. but I have seen many people booking the car without taking any TD!

 

[sudharshang]

Re: Should We Hurry To Book New Car Before Launch?

I was about to make the mistake of my life when I booked Etios petrol on the day of launch in Bangalore last year. Thanks to Nandi Toyota Sales Associate who was dilly dallying with my delivery date

After getting seriously frustrated for 3 months, I took a casual walk to Sireesh Auto. Scorpio bowled me over, took a TD and finally bought it. Going great at 21,000 km in 10 months

 

[TSIVipul]

Re: Should We Hurry To Book New Car Before Launch?

For me,no booking of a car without at least 2-3 good long TDs,even one TD is also not sufficient for me.
So,NEVER BOOK A CAR WITHOUT A TD,in fact even in the first 3-4 months of its launch.Its simple,if the car comes out to be a hit,then you may have to wait a bit but you have the assurance that your car will satisfy you.For me,this case is simply unacceptable.

 

[The Master]

Re: Should We Hurry To Book New Car Before Launch?

Hi

I have purchased the Verna Fluidic after taking two test drives, Here I have taken a gamble because its a new vehicle and no one is sure of its longevity. My gamble paid off, however its not always this happens because sometimes even the best and the renowned care manufacturer's do make mistakes as the saying goes err is in human. So I would say If you are prepared to take a gamble then go ahead or else play the wait and watch game . Bear in mind sometimes the new vehicles launched are prices high and then later after few days or months depending on the sales they come up with offers or discounts , looks at manza , Mahindra or Vento's case for instance .

Wanna take a gamble then buy when its talk of the town or else wait and watch for the talk to be more cemented so that you can build your own impression on it