I have had some very bad experiences with Auto dealers and auto Sales-men. I am writing this review because I want to warn people of their little *tricks *and give advice on how to handle them. Hope this helps people whenever they want to buy a new automobile.
Let me first relate my experience with a car dealer(whom I don’t want to name for legal purposes), when I went to buy my first car, a Tata Indica.
The salesman welcomed me with a bright smiling face, offered me a seat. Then I started asking him the details of the car I was planning to buy. He gave me a pamphlet with all the details including the price break-up with ex-showroom price, road tax . everything. The entire deal went very very smoothly. I asked him if he had a Steel grey model. He said tata has stopped producing
that colour. So he offered me a Golden coloured one which he said he had ready with him. I agreed.
The deal was stuck, I completed the financial transaction, after taking a auto finance with him after enquiring the interest rate and EMI.
On the day of delivery of the vehicle I took a driver along with me, since I didn’t know driving then. We brought the car home.
First few days everything went fine and I didn’t notice anything, but after about 10 days, to my utter horrorI discovered that the dealer had put some muddy water instead of coolant in the coolant tank. Whats worse, I discovered that the A/C was not working at all. Andone of the remote controls of the central lock also stopped working. Imagine this for a brand new car bought with hard earned money. I took this back to the dealer who reluctantly agreed to get everything fixed for free, but I know he must have passed the cost to Tata Motors for no fault of theirs. The Indica is a good car, but it was the dealer that was bad.
Now here are the tips I would like to give a new automobile buyer:
1) Take an experienced mechanic with you when you go to take the delivery of your vehicle
Ask the mechanic to check every minor detail of the vehicle, just before you take it home. YES, you need to do this for a brand new automobile. NEVER TRUST THE DEALER WITH ANYTHING.
2) Everything is negotiable
Did you know that the interest rate on your automobile loan in ANY finance institution(even banks) is negotiable? YES, it is. Everything is negotiable. Negotiate until the dealer collapses.Negotiate on Ex-showroom price, the extra parts that the dealer will give for free, the discount, the insurance you pay(Ask that it be free for first year). If you don’t negotiate you will definitely loose. In fact the salesman would have jacked up the rates expecting some people atleast to bargain.
3) The dealer/salesman is everything BUT your friend
Salesmen/dealers have a way of pretending like they are your very close friends and they have your best interests in mind. They will say that they are giving you a deal that they have never given to anybody before. DON’T TRUST THEM . NEVER. The only interest they have is profits, period. They might be knowing your mother-tongue or belong to your community or belong to your region or be your friend’s friend. But don’t trust them with your hard earned money.
4) First EMI is next month, not this month
The dealer will very smartly calculate that your first installment for the loan begins this month i.e. the month you bought the vehicle. They sometimes even take the first installment with the initial advance. SAY NO. What is the point of taking a loan if you are paying back a part of it immediately.
5) Read loan terms carefully, and don’t sign unfilled applications
The vehicle finance people might ask you to hurry in signing the loan application and other related papers. But read the documents very carefully and then sign it. Never sign if some of the relevent fields are left blank. Take loan from a popular bank or financial institution.
6) Check the interest rate, EMI and loan period very carefully
Note that the interest rate goes up as the time period in which you pay back the loan goes up. The dealer will neatly ask you to not worry about the loan period and that HE will give YOU the opportunity to payback the loan in 5, 6 or 7 years. But note the longer the duration, the more you will loose. And not just the interest for those extra years but also the higher interest rate for the entire period.
If you have the money, never take the loan, whatever the interest rate.
7) Prefer a brand new vehicle instead of the one they already have
The reason I am saying this is because of my personal experience. The vehicle that they already have might have been used or its parts, oil, lubricant, coolant.etc stolen by the employees at the dealers place.
Also ask what company’s extra parts they will be fitting on to your vehicle. Most of the times these extra parts are of very low quality.
8) Never BUY extra fittings from the dealer.
I am NOT talking about the free parts and fittings that the dealer HAS to give you. I am talking about the extra fitting that you might be tempted to BUY from the dealer. Believe me, any extra thing that you will buy from the dealer will be available for atleast30% less value in the outside market. Be it A/C, seat covers, steering or handle bar covers, guards, music system .anything. I had heard this problem from many of my friends. The dealers would have never sold it if they didn’t overcharge.
9) Beware of the music system scam
This happened to one of my relatives. People have this habit of asking for music system as a free extra fitting. But the dealers usually cannot afford it. So what they do is give you an option. They say they will give you a discount of X Rupees on your vehicle or put a music system of X+Y rupees. But the truth is that the Music system costs much less than X rupees and is usually not of the original brand as written on the system. My relative’s Music system stopped working after about 10 months.
10) Compare dealers
Compare the features provided by each dealer in the following order.
Reputation of the dealer
Number and Quality of service stations(Sending you to service stations of other dealers is not acceptable)
Direct discount that they give or Specials offers that they may have during some seasons
Discounts on insurance and other break-ups. Low interest rates on loans.
Number of free and quality extra fittings they give on your vehicle.
So there friends, I gave you 10 tips when going on the great journey of buying a new vehicle. Take a printout of these tips if you won’t remember them. Best of Luck.
