Purchase Decision:
I decided to buy swift dzire VXi, after lot of car forums research and discussion with my family and friends.
Dealer:
I zeroed-in on Pratham Motors, Queens road after hearing some good reviews about them.
Initial experience with the dealer:
Even though I decided to buy Swift Dzire, I wanted to take a test-drive and since it was a Sunday, not all the demo vehicles were available and took a test-drive on Maruti Swift, just for the sake of it. I gave a booking amount of Rs.5, 000/- . And also signed the Order Form which says vehicle will be delivered within 2 and half months and not more than that.
I’m also hearing from my colleagues & friends and seeing from various forums, that dealers charge anywhere between 10k - 75k as booking amount for Swift Dzire. So, I felt really comfortable, that I was not taken for a ride, certainly!.
Car Delivery:
And next is getting the vehicle delivered. Since I booked the vehicle on Jan 2010 and expected date of delivery is march 2010, there were 2 price hikes, one from Maruti (17k) for rising input costs and other from Union Budget on Feb 26 2010 on behalf of 2% central excise increase (9K).
So my on-road price was increased from 5.86L to 6.12 L. I would say my time was little bit bad. Its not all over, here!, Now, comes the Karnataka state budget on 5th March 2010 to increase the road tax by 1% from 14% to 15% and the state VAT by another 1 % from 12.5% to 13.5%, from April 1 2010 onward. Now at this point of time, I decided to follow up with Pratham Motors to deliver the vehicle before April 2010 to escape from this State budget hikes of VAT and road tax and also to get a better finance deal, since they also were set to roll up from April 2010 onwards.
And to my goodness, Pratham Motors, Queens Road, were able to release the vehicle on Maruti Quota and on time before April itself.
Their commitment is much appreciated! and I thank them for their best efforts in serving the customer.
Accessories:
I got the following basic accessories...
1) Floor Mat
2) Boot Mat
3) Scratch resistor (black rubber one) for the driver side door
4) Mud Flops
5) One imported perfume worth Rs.215/-
6) One very small sized Ganesha idol
I have one small request to Pratham motors here.
The size of the Ganesha idol for a car of size Dzire is too tiny! May be you can provide a medium sized idol.
Overall Experience:
My overall buying experience was almost pleasant, except few follow-up calls, to speed up the delivery.
But, I can totally understand one fact, that the demand for this particular model "India’s most wanted car" Swift Dzire is making the dealer to skip their deadlines.
Last but not the least, the finance executive person Mr. Manjunath was very proactive and gave a very nice deal from ICICI Bank. I was also closely following up with my HDFC Customer Care officer, since i’m a classic customer with HDFC bank. But I got a better deal through Pratham Motors and closed the deal on it. That too, at the time, when most of the banks were supposed to revise their rates from April 1st 2010 onwards.
After Sales Service:
Now I have completed my first free service from Pratham Motors, Queens Road Service Center.
The vehicle was serviced and delivered on time, after the service and since its a K-Series engine, no oil change was required till 10000 kms. and the service bill was zero. The car was super clean in terms of body cleanliness, dashboard and upholstery cleaning. The service representative who handled my case was Mr. Ramprasad and he was very courteous and friendly and promised to take care of the vehicle.