I had my first experience of buying a car last year.
After saving my hard earned income for years, I managed to save enough to buy a Suzuki Mehran for 4,60,000 rupees.
But it wasn't that easy to get that car even for that price.
Before buying the car, I went out to some dealers and confirmed the price of car and mode of payment. The price was confirmed at 4,58,000 for a 2009 model car.
But before making a Pay Order, I called two of the dealers just to confirm if the price is still at 4,58,000. Then I got a Pay Order prepared.
But to my horror, next day I went to the dealer to buy the car I found out the car prices had increased considerably. How much they had increased? it was not know, even to dealers.
They refused to provide me a new car for 4,58,000 which was still the listed price. Infuriated, I asked the dealer the reason for increase in prices, they told me there is no specific reason. Its just the will of the company, they have gotten imported cars banned so now its up to them to do whatever they want. I overheard one of them saying they will reduce the prices after they earn a billion or two from this black-marketing.
Then the dealer gave me an option of an unsold 2008 model Mehran for 4,60,000 rupees.
I had already sold my previous car and I had no option but to buy that old unsold car.
But my real horror started after I bought the car, it was full of faults.
Speedometer was not working, half of the lights were not working. There were too many cracking noises. The car would slightly move ahead in the neutral gear. The gear was so hard, I needed to try three or four times to get it into first gear.
When I went to the dealers workshop, the dealer informed me since it is a 2008 model car, its initial 1000 kilometer warranty had expired!
And then he told me even if I had that initial warranty, mechanical problems were not covered in that warranty!
For the faulty gear problem, the dealer explained it as a "New technology" being used in gears!
I really wish this chor company could be banned from Pakistan, we are better off with imported cars. I don't care how many jobs they create, I don't see the need to feed those worthless souls with my hard earned money in a fraudulent way.
Now one year has passed and I have to pay regular visits to workshops for all kinds of problems from door switch (I got it replaced 3 times) to faulty clutch.
The biggest irony is that the dealers themselves keep two qualities of each part, one is what they call genuine and the other one is DESI. There is a 100% price difference between these two qualities and they blackmail customers by saying there is no guarantee the DESI part will work but the genuine part will definitely work.
The same parts can be bought from workshops at 50% less price.
Even an oil change from Suzuki dealers costs a lot higher from what it costs at petrol pumps.
I would say this company is like a daylight robber in Pakistan and it should be boycotted whenever possible.
