Buying a new car is a special occasion in any one’s life. It is a day that people look forward to, especially because the entire car buying experience involves so many efforts and decisions. Customers spend many week contemplating on the various options available, their budget limits, colour and variant choices, etc. Hence, it is important that the delivery day is as special as it can be. However, for a man had the worst car delivery day that you could think of.
A video has gone viral on the Internet showing a brand new white Kia Carnival MPV being driven out of the delivery bay and straightaway colliding with the showroom’s compound wall. The fact that the Carnival is priced at over Rs. 40 lakh on-road in India makes the video even sadder. However, we are thankful about the fact that no-one was hurt in the incident as there could have been a possibility of someone getting trapped between the MPV and the compound wall, which would be even worse.
From the video, it looks like the owner was being given a brief about the Carnival’s features by someone from the showroom staff when the MPV started moving forward. We say this as the driver side’s door is open in the video when the vehicle lunges forward. Another point to note here is the fact that the Carnival is an automatic transmission vehicle. As a result, there might be a possibility that the owner was habitual to manual gearboxes. As a result, he would have kept the Carnival in D (drive) mode and when the brake pedal was released, the MPV started moving forward. This is a function seen on almost all automatic cars. It allows the user to just module the brake pedal pressure and the car moves forward without the need to press the accelerator. This helps the driver in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Sadly, this feature appears to have taken the customer by surprise as he reportedly stomped on the accelerator instead of the brake when the car moved forward.
The result of the accident was a damaged front bumper, headlights, grille and a bent bonnet. The front two airbags were deployed on impact. There is also some fluid dripping on the floor under the engine bay. We believe this is coolant fluid as the radiator might have been damaged to the frontal impact. Thankfully, no injuries have been reported in the incident.
This incident should be reminder for new car buyers to be extra cautious when taking delivery of a car. Every car behaves in a different manner and even the most experienced drivers can take some time to get used to a new car. Additionally, car dealerships often have very narrow pathways with cars lined on either side. Hence, it is important for customer to judge whether they should maneuver the car post delivery or ask the showroom guys to help in getting the car out to the main road. There is no need to be ashamed of such requests as it shows how mature you are to take a call whether to risk an accident by driving an all-new car in narrow areas, or allow the experts to do so.