A Maruti Suzuki dealership in Kerala was fined Rs 1 lakh for using a brand-new Maruti Ertiga with a disconnected odometer for running personal errands. This incident came to light when the images of the driven Ertiga emerged without any reading on the odometer. Unfortunately, this is a common practice done by dealers to use the showroom car for various purposes. This could be to take the car to another dealership in the next town or run personal errands or fill in for the lack of demo car available for a test drive. Not only is this highly unprofessional but also a fraud because these cars are then sold to the customers without acknowledging the fact that their car was used as a demo car. The unsuspecting customers walk into this trap all the time and on many occasions, end up buying a car that starts showing faults within the first month.
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Maruti Ertiga Disconnected Odometer
In this instance, the car is Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, the popular MPV from the largest carmaker in India. The images clearly showed that the dealership personnel was driving the vehicle without connecting the odometer. What’s more bizarre is the fact that the car was driven from Kozhikode to Trivandrum which is almost 370 km without registration. The last time we checked, it was illegal to drive on the road without registration. Maruti Suzuki staff were flouting all the rules and making fools out of the customers. This is completely uncalled for and the dealership received a fine of Rs 1 lakh. If anything, this should have been more considering how many times they must’ve done this to unsuspecting customers.
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In another instance, the CCI (Competition Commission of India) fined Maruti Suzuki Rs 200 Crore for breaching the policy related to Discounts from the Dealerships. Maruti allegedly participated in anti-competition measures which results in dealerships and customers bearing the brunt of capital loss. The carmaker restrained the dealerships to offer any discount to the customers apart from the one mentioned by Maruti Suzuki itself. Maruti Suzuki seems to be getting in some trouble with quite some incidents at the dealership level.
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