As the year 2015 dawned, read on Daily Mail that a
second-hand car trader was told by a Jaguar dealership that he was not
allowed to buy a new £65,000 F-Type from them - despite agreeing to the deal
the day before. Not here but in UK. It
was reported that David Hatton, 42, reportedly was forced to leave the showroom
with 'his tail between his legs' during the embarrassing incident.
The man thought
that Jaguar bosses fear motor traders will sell on their vehicles for a quick
profit, like 1980s sitcom character Arthur Daley. Daley featured in Minder, a
British comedy about London's criminal underworld, and famously drove a silver
Jaguar. Mr Hatton, from Ilkeston, Derbyshire, was hoping to purchase the
classic car for personal use only. The
married father-of-two went to the Jaguar dealership, HA Fox, of Nottingham,
last week with his wife Stacey, 49, with the intention of buying a second-hand
model, priced at around £58,000. [Rs.54 lakhs approx]. But he was soon
persuaded to go for a new car and agreed a deal with a salesman after hours of
negotiation.
He told them he
would come back the following day to finalise the deal and place a deposit on
the vehicle. But when he returned to the showroom with his brother, he was told
that the dealership's manager had called off the agreement and insisted they
would never sell him a car. Mr Hatton said: 'We were absolutely gobsmacked. We
literally couldn't believe it. He added that the car was for personal use. The cars I sell are
fairly run-of-the-mill and priced between £3,000 and £5,000.' Mr Hatton stocks around 25 vehicles at his
used car dealership Hattons of Spondon, and has been trading cars for 25 years.
Back
home, today’s Times of India carries an
interesting article titled ‘RTOs refuse to register luxe cars’. Here is the same reproduced. Many car
manufacturers and dealers across the state have been finding it tough to
deliver vehicles to customers since the beginning of the year as regional
transport offices refuse to register them, allegedly demanding a higher bribe
than usual. A dealer of Mercedes and BMW
in Chennai said RTOs had stopped registering both brands. “RTOs have received
verbal instruction from higher-ups not to register some brands of vehicles. We
know these brands include Mercedes and BMW,“ he said. Another dealer said Audi,
Honda and Toyota vehicles also faced a similar problem. The mass market cars
appear to have been spared.
“None of our
vehicles has been registered in the past 20 days. We were told that it is a
fallout of our manufacturer refusing to pay bribe,“ said a dealer who
coordinates with RTOs. An official at a Chennai RTO, on condition of anonymity
said, “We have been told verbally not to register certain brands of cars. We do
not know anything more.“ But this was contested by some other officers who
attributed the pile-up to a large number of their employees going on leave
during Pongal. A dealer of high-end cars said 30 cars from his showroom were
awaiting registration. “Customers were waiting for the month of `Thai' to
begin. They are now putting pressure on us, but we are helpless,“ he said.
Meanwhile, a group of vehicle dealers and officials from the vehicle
registration department met in Coimbatore a few days ago to thrash out issues.
An official said, “A stakeholders' meet was long overdue. There were certain
issues to be sorted out.“ He didn't elaborate.
A dealer said it
was nothing but the demand from regional transport officers and vehicle
inspectors for higher bribes. “They said the amount per vehicle we give to them
was fixed almost 15 years ago and it was high time that it was revised. Also,
between what we dealers give and what the RTO staff get, there is a lot of
pilferage. Obviously , people engaged by us to coordinate registration of
vehicles were siphoning off some money . As per the demand at the meeting, we
will have to pay them Rs.500 more per vehicle.“
However, official
sources said lack of workforce at regional transport offices and the ongoing
road safety week celebrations were causing the delay . “Successive holidays
contributed to the problem. Officials have been directed to focus on conducting
road safety campaigns across the state, including educational institutions. The
situation will be back to normal in a few days,“ said a senior transport
official.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
21st Jan 2015.
