XUV-5OO W8 FWD Satin White: Buying experince and initial ownership

Hello Guys, I got delivery of my XUV5OO on 4th November . Here is my Purchase experience and initial review of the car. Note: Very long write up .please forgive if there are any mistakes as I am really bad at writing. The hunt for a new Car: We decided to upgrade our car as it was a decade old and we had been postponing the purchase from 3 years due to parking issues. Our serious hunt for a new car began in Aug 2010, basically budget limited up to 12-18lakh OTR and preferably a MUV or SUV and Sedan as 2nd option (9-12 lakh OTR) Toyota Innova: My dad was really impressed with INNOVA wanted to go for it from day 1 .Me ,brother and Mom we not interested in it because we already had 1 in our family(my cousin brother owns one).So we delayed the purchase and thought of looking out the Aria due to launch in a couple of months. Tata Aria: Early November took a test drive was impressed with the drive but did not like the interiors and fit and finish and it did not give a feel of 20lakh rupee OTR(top end) car even my dad was not impressed with the car and out of the budget so ruled out. Mahindra Scorpio, Xylo was ruled out initially as we needed a premium kind of a car. Now that we had tried out all the MUV and SUV decided to go for a Sedan Chevy Optra: Excellent car but ruled out because we did not like its looks. Hyundai Verna: Test drove the Verna and liked its amazing torque and asked my friend to get the car once to my place so that my dad and mom can see it. Meanwhile my neighbor bought a Verna in early January and didn't think of buying it as it was going to be discontinued. We did not think about buying for a few months till Late April as we were busy with work. VW Vento: Test drove the car and liked the way it drives and that German thud feeling when you shut the door. It felt like a solidly built car, decided to book this car but didn't want to regret later so decided to wait for the New Fluidic Verna and New Ford Fiesta. New Fluidic Verna was launched took a Test drive liked the way it looked, engine performance and its built quality but was disappointed with handling. I wanted a perfect driver's car in case of a sedan so Verna was ruled out. New Ford Fiesta: I liked the Kinetic design looks but pricing and the engine performance was a disappointment compared to Vento and the New Fluidic so it was ruled out. Thanks to TEAM-BHP and its members about the Vento Review and its initial ownership reviews on the forum I decided to go ahead and book the Vento. Booking & Delivery Experience We could not book the car in July due to some auspicious reasons and brother met with an accident and was hospitalized for almost a week. Finally me and my Dad went and booked VW Vento White Tdi highline on August 1st 2011 at VW Downtown and were promised a delivery within 2-3 months. I told the SE that I needed the car within a month or so asked to allot me a car if someone cancels the booking and was promised a delivery within 2 months I asked the SE to get the car sometime in that week to our place so that my mom and brother can see the car. I visited the dealership on 28th august to check my booking status as I had not received any tentative date yet and to check if there were any cancellations in bookings so I could get my car early. The SE replied she would call back in a couple of days and confirm my tentative date or my position on the booking list as the manager was out of town. I Called the SE after 2 days and she dint pick up the call. Called her again on 1st September her phone was not reachable so I visited the dealership on 3rd September and to my surprise the SE had quit the Job and no one in the dealership knew my booking status. I dropped my Business card in the reception and told them to call back on my booking status the next day as it was almost 6pm. I did not receive any call from the dealership and decided to give them some piece of s**+ ,went to the dealership on 5th September , the New SE who is attending the old SE files says my car is allotted and it is in their stock yard .We did not want to take the delivery till 28th September due to auspicious reasons.so told to pass my car to next person and a lot me a car by 28th September. Meanwhile I finished my Loan formalities as I had a pre-approved loan in HDFC Bank. My dad told me to buy the car in my name itself so got the loan done on my name. I called the New SE on 27th September and told him I had got my loan approved, initially he agreed and told what documents to get for registration but he called back and insisted the finance part will be done by dealership guys only, so told him i would come to showroom tomorrow and talk about it. We visited the VW Downtown next day (28th September) and told him to change the booking name to me .He told me to give a letter along with a relationship proof (which was faxed from my office within 15 minutes).Then told him my loan has been approved and told him to calculate the remaining amount so I could pay it now in cash. The SE was acting strange he was not ready to sit in front of me to do paper work was roaming around from 1 table to another asking every other guy to help him. I asked him what the problem was; he replied nothing Sir little upset with some personal problems. He made me wait for 2 hours giving some stories cashier is not there, manager should come and sign to change the booking name; name change should be done in VW SAP id etc. I smelt something fishy and learned from another SE that his problem was that I had got finance from outside and dealership would not allow that .As me and dad had lost patience gave SE some piece of mind and paid part of the amount directly in cash counter .Luckily the cashier was friendly enough gave the receipt in my name checking the letter and even mentioned the HP to HDFC bank which SE initially was telling it cannot be done. Meanwhile SE had managed to get my Bank account number from my dad and had sent a guy to bank loan department to check whether they can do something to cancel the already approved loan and get it approved from their side. I spoke to the Finance head directly told him finance is already done so please do paperwork and give me Performa Invoice for the bank and get the car temporary registered. He gave me the all the receipts and Performa invoice and insisted a letter from the bank to get temporary registration. I promised the delivery of my car by 3rd October. Spoke to bank people on spot on got it confirmed from them after speaking with the manager as we have a good transaction in their bank. Everything was done final disbursement from the bank was pending as I had not yet signed the agreements. Destination changed 28th September : I came back home and checked out the launch of the new XUV 5OO on the internet ,initially felt the front was overdone and think about it as there was not much information about the car Next day 29Th September was held up with work whole day, came home late night and checked out the initial reviews and pictures. The pricing a real shocker as no one expected it to be so low, read each and every review and decided just to have a look and test drive it later on sometime in the week. Next day 30th September: Me and dad headed out on some work and passed by a Mahindra showroom, the place was crowded and had creating a small traffic jam on that road at around 12:30pm.Told dad about this car and we decided to have a look as we were passing on the same road. We went inside the showroom, there was literally no space to walk in the dealership every 1 was around XUV 5OO. It looked gorgeous I fell for it at first sight my dad also impressed with the car asked to book the car immediately. I immediately called the Bank Loan SE stopped the disbursement process. I wanted a Test Drive before I could book the car; we took a token for test drive and were 27th on the list. Meanwhile we headed out to finish our work and asked the sales assistant to give a call once the token 25 comes on the list. Finished our work headed directly to VW showroom gave a letter for cancellation of my Vento and headed straight back towards Mahindra showroom. My dad insisted to book the car first and take a test drive later on. Booked the XUV W8 satin White FWD and was the 13th customer to book the car in the dealership. By the time I got back from test drive there were over 35 bookings after me with a couple of hours.:Shockked: I got a confirmation call on 2nd October and message on 3rd October stating " Dear customer , your Mahindra vehicle is under production and we expect to deliver by 04 nov 2011".After this visited the dealer a couple of times and was in touch with SE and him could i manage to get my car at least a week before the confirmed date by M&M, but he had no clue as the allotment information was not to them at that point of time and told me he will inform me about this as allotment process was going on. I visited the dealer again on 17th October with my brother, as he hadn't seen the car. Another customer who was checking out the car asked me whether i had booked the car. i replied yes and told him i will get it by November 4th 2011 he replied that he was getting it by 22nd October. I took a long test drive and left. 4th Visit : On 19th October with my dad still SE did not have any clue about my allotment told him I should be the 1st person here to get W8 and told If I find any other delivery I would take serious action against the dealership. SE and the Mahindra manger assured will try to deliver by the date confirmed by M&M According SE only W6 variants are being right now and they have not delivered a single W8 till date from their dealership. 5th Visit: 24th October my dad was very angry with the dealer as they were delivering a W8 on the same day, he gave some [COLOR=red]piece of [/COLOR]his mind to the SE and manager. The issue was immediately escalated to Area sales manager and I was immediately allotted the car and they gave me the engine number and chassis number I finally got some proof that I would get my car in time. Finished all the paper work and other formalities on 2nd November 2011 Finally Got my XUV 5OO as promised on 4th November 2011. Accessories installed: Dramatic Chrome Grille Cover Bold ORVM Chrome Caps Chrome Tailgate Floor Mats Total cost of accessories Rs 4921/- Pictures don't do justice to this car it's a stunner in flesh. The front design is growing in me day by day, after all front does not look so bad. Sorry for bad photography.Will post more pictures by weekend. Attached Thumbnails

URL: