I booked a Toyota Corolla Altis Grande on 4th June 2016
at Toyota Multan Motors. They promised to deliver the car in July, but i had made up my mind for a late delivery, and as expected, the car arrived in the first week of August. But nevermind, i get butthurt about a lot of things, getting a late delivery was capable of triggering me, but the shocks that came with the delivery were beyond the scope of my imagination.
As it is stressed upon countless times on Pakwheels forum that a person should inspect a car thoroughly before signing the delivery challan, i just want to point out a few things that you guys should do while receiving your "new" car so that you dont have to go through the anguish and mental dissatisfaction i went through.
First of all, on detailed inspection, i found some scratches on the paint on the front fender and the bumper. Also there was a prominent black line on one of the rims too. As soon as i pointed them out, they called for a guy who buffed these marks out with compound polish. I was pretty disappointed by that point. But i was mentally willing to cut Toyota some slack as these car travel a long distance on a freighter to be delivered here.
Secondly, on deeper inspection, i noticed that the 60/40 split in the rear seat wasnt completely aligned. One part of the split sat a couple inches (yes, INCHES) ahead of the other. So when i mentioned the flaw, they tried pushing it behind as much as they could. Eventually, they had to call another guy, who opened the trunk, took out all the trunk mats and readjusted them to their proper positions, making the seat problem go away. By this point i was pretty pissed off.
The real fairy-tale started when i half-heartedly signed the delivery papers and took the car for a spin. As every normal person does, i went to the nearest fuel station, got the tank topped up to its brim. When i turned on the car, the fuel gauge was still at the E position and the reserve light was ON. The range on the MID showed ZERO Kms. That was a surprise for me. There was definitely something wrong with the fuel sending unit. Is this how a person gets payed off after spending 25lacs of his hard earned money? What a shame toyota!
So ofcourse i went to the dealership on the following monday to get it fixed, to get a BRAND NEW car "fixed"... The only reason i bought a brand new car was to evade all the problems that might come with a used car... But little did i know! Sigh.
They counselled me a little that this is a normal thing, some cars get a faulty ecu or sometimes the plugs of the fuse box get loose. But i wasnt going to buy this bullcrap. I made sure to bring this issue into everyone's notice down the chain of command.
They connected an OBDII scanner, then the guy spent 15 minutes finding the correct option in the scanner menu but couldnt find it. When i intervened to tell him about where i thought the option would be, he refused to give me the device and argued that he knew where it was. Then he finally opened the option i told him about, he found the error that said "Fuel Sending Unit Fail" the mechanic then suddenly said "Oh sorry sir ap theek keh rahay thay." The joint was swarming with incompetent and under qualified blokes.
So after about 30 minutes of fiddling with the electrical terminals, they solved the issue and i was on my way with a very bad mood and half a mind to sell off the car only to book a Civic later.
For everyone who has booked a corolla, or is getting his corolla delivered in the upcoming months, please keep the following list of things in mind :
1) ALWAYS do a complete inspection of the inside and outside of a car. Check for paint discrepancies, minor dents on body etc.
2) ALWAYS asks for a complete OBDII diagnostic scan before signing the delivery papers. If there are any errors, get them fixed before you leave the dealership.
Below are a few pictures of the car.
