I booked a 12 hour self drive with ZoomCar, Bangalore on 17th May, 7PM to 18th May, 7PM. For 12Hrs, it came for INR 7.5k, the photo shown was partial of a Mahindra Thar which appeared to be well kept. Although it was a bit steep, I accepted the charge and confirmed - since I had planned to go to an offroad location to see a farm on sale. Then the horror began:
The pickup location given on GoogleMap(Devanahalli Fort) was 25KM away from the actual location(Sadahalli Gate). When I finally caught up with the pickup contact, he said "We have been telling Zoomcar that the wrong PIN keeps going and harasses customers, they are listening sir."
It was 8PM when I got the vehicle, lost one hour of paid booking. I did not examine the car except for the guy taking photos for the App, and left.
Early next morning, on examination - the car was a total disaster. The body was fine, but the bumper was broken, the steering had a 3 inch false in it - so bad, that the car felt skittish even at 20kmph, the gears had pronounced false slots(on 2 and 5), and were squishy, the car rattled horribly and the engine timing seemed off(rod knocking sounds), and worst, the seats were badly torn(like knife cuts) and taped over with duct tape.
I reached Gowribidnur on 18th morning, and found that in 4WD the car stalls on rocky/gravel track at about 20 deg incline. I ditched 4WD and somehow made it on normal 2WD. In 4WD, the car used up about 10litres of diesel in 5-6KM on the village tracks and rough roads. 5. The worst was on the way back when it began to rain heavily. I found that the ABS was faulty and kept sending alerts to the dashboard. It also kept throwing up the Check Engine light, Service overdue light - intermittently.
It is clear that Zoomcar has become the new Ola - they have ZERO care for the product they are selling, ZERO effort to see that the cars they peddle are safe and kept on reasonable maintenance. Aside from the rip off financially, I urge my fellow consumers - do not risk your life with these deathtraps. I have deleted the Zoomcar app and hope other service providers for self drive are better.