My little angel -Chevy Spark

Dear All;

Thought:
I was thinking to buy a new car for myself since long. After birth of my kid it became absolute necessary.

Choices:
With limited budget of 3 lac (stretched to max) choices were Maruti 800, Alto, Spark Base model, Spark power sterring and Santro (ok I need to stretch a bit more for Santro) After going through reams of pages for pros and cons of each model, doing test drive, inviting suggestion from friends and sufing auto websites I decided for Spark base model. Maruti 800 is outdated. Alto I was driving few yrs back and wish to upgrade from 800 CC, Santro I drove a bit at my inlaws house didn't like he VERY tall boy design. Power sterring was kind of luxuary I can do without so Spark PS was also out. I took my entire family for test drive of spark base and I liked the overall quality of machine. Far powerfull than existing Alto, Never heard anything bad about the car in reviews also tilted the scale in her favour. I got the much needed green signal from my wife too for spark.

Color:
Swinging from White to black to blazing red wife finally settled on Icy blue and as usual I cant collect enough courage to go against her highness wish!!

Dealership: Sadly not much of choice here. Since I stay at Noida there is only one dealer for Noida, Gaziabad and east delhi, Shiva Motors (branch:Centrestage mall Noida).

Deal (Promises):
1) Discount of 60 K
2) Mud flap
3) Matting
4) Gear lock
5) Soft toy
6) Registration no. of choice
7) Visit to warehouse to select the car
8) Delivery within 1 week
9) Number Plate

I tried all other dealers from delhi too, was getting a slightly better deal in terms of 1K here or there but I decide to stick with Noida dealer for obivious reasons.

Total the deal was for 2.87 (including incidentals)

Funding:
Decided to try nationalised bank so went to SBI. 2 lacs, 1 year, 11.50%, daily reducing, No foreclosure charges after 6 mothes, No prepayment penalty. (Sounds sweet. Isn't?) and yes Rs 500 as processing charges and stamp papers of Rs 200. Need to produce tons of document for sanctioning. Paid more than 100 bucks for xeroxing only. Loan got sanctioned in 10 days with lot of push from my end.

Visit to warehouse:
A dirty looking stockyard with 50 odd cars parked in haphazard way with tons of dust settled on each car. It was difficult to even recognize the color of car without cleaning it a bit. I somehow managed to locate two Icy blue, done some checking and noted down the VIN no and handed over to the executive.

Delivery:
After delay of 10 days or so and after quite a push from my side the guy finally called me for delivery. I insisted on inspection before delivery or regitration. At the time of inspection I noticed that the car although of same color but was not the one which I selected in ware house. Executive gave some lame excuses apparently that car got delivered to somebody else. I inspected this one very throughly with a previously prepared checklist and found even this one ok  so decided to go for it. I finally got the car delivered at my house.

Modifications:
1) Seat Covers: 1.5 K
2) Perfume: Rs 150
3) Autocop 7000: 3.5 K
4) Sterring Cover: Rs 50
5) After market sun film: Rs 300

Initial Feedback:
1) Good choice 
2) Compelete Value for money
3) Excellent ride quality

a) Still getting adjusted to centre speedometer
b) Positioning of Wiper and turn indicators is bit ackward
c) A pillar restricts side view while negotiating a turn

Pain Points:
1) Rate of interest was 11.75 and not 11.5 % as promised
2) Selected car was not delivered(As explained above)
3) No regards for time. Missed delivery date by weeks and even on delivery day missed muharat time by hours
4) My friend working in a smaller company got corporate discount of 4.5 K but in my case it was only 2K.
5) No temp. number. I was given a transit number which is not valid. I reliazed this after paying a challan for 500 bucks.
6) Didn't got the underseat tray as well as external antenna. Dealer said that it got discontinued from GM


Lessons:
1) Could have negotiated deal in a better way by
    a) Arranging loan by myself and approaching dealership armed with a sanctioned loan
    b) Opting for insurance from outside insted from dealership ( Atleast 1.5 K saving)
    c) Bargaining harder (Human behaviour)
    d) One dealer in town is monopoly. Could have avoided the same.