Posts Tagged ‘maruti authorized service station’

Car Servicing & Repair Cost

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

What is the price of car servicing? Commonly asked question. Works managers are very conscious to reply the same because people confuse with “parts” and “consumable” items . Repair cost differs from normal car servicing.

Car Repair

Dealer charges 50% more labour than small workshop because of their costly labours. During warranty period, labour cost is free and customers just need to pay for lubricants and small liquid top ups. 45% cars owners even do not know or they do not take chances to get their car servicing at car workshops other than dealer service centre.

In india, cost estimation is still not exact and dealers try to be accurate during car check up. Customers are different and trusting dealer for cost estimation remains doubtful until he gets his car with satisfactory delivery. Small workshops run on referrals. That is the only way they can build trust or car owners consider them cheater.

The new trends are authorized multi brand workshops. To build trust, branding is important and corporate are coming up with good processes to give cost estimation accurate. Bosch has opened more than 500 authorized Bosch Car Service center in India and more corporate are coming up with same business model. Even corporate are trying to give small workshops technical training but making transparent cost of car servicing is still a problem for car owners. Maruti and Hyundai are opening more authorized workshops (non-OEM dealer) .

Why Do Car Mechanics Suggest for Extra Parts. Check out

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

It is very common that you go for car servicing at dealer workshop with minor running repairs but you get a bill with some parts changed without your knowledge. Most of the car owner has similar complaints.

Car Mechanic

Dealer workshops have many targets to meet. Targets of spare parts orders in a month. So, service managers get incentives to meet that target. It is obvious they would try to sell same parts to every car owner even if that is not required. Incentives to service manager leads to mal practices at workshops.
To avoid these problem, here are few things you can keep in mind.

1. Car Check up
Always go for car check up first and get assessment with estimated cost. It is in the report that which parts runs how much time. For example, service manager would say your break pad needs to be changed. There are chances that present condition of break pads may not worse but they recommend it do it now. Ask them few questions. You are the better judge!

2. Estimated Cost
All good car workshops offer estimated cost during car check up. Ask for labour charges, that makes difference as it varies from workshop to workshop. For your knowledge, dealer and independent workshop labour cost has 25 % to 50% labour cost difference.

3. Test Drive
Every good car workshop offer test drive after servicing. You must ask for test drive. If you find any problem during test drive, you can point out.

4. Extra Parts
Always go for genuine spare parts. Maruti offers genuine spare parts are Maruti Authorized Service Station and have strict guidelines to their service station of not using any spurious spares. Other brand Authorized service stations also have genuine spare parts, but ask to car workshop to show you spare parts they are using.

Next time your car mechanic suggests you replacement of new parts, you must have assessment ready if that is required or not. There is no formula to know but when you get assessment from 2 car workshops, then you may have fair idea.

Race of Small Cars. Bajaj Auto’s Small Car at Auto Expo 2012

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

Bajaj Auto is following Tata Motor’s success of Nano, the world’s cheapest car. There is a race of manufacturing low price and high fuel afficient cars. The small car by Bajaj Auto will be manufactured in collaboration with Nissan Motors and Renault. Bajaj’s small car is named as RE60 and it expected to give higher fuel efficiency of 30 kmpl which is more than Tata Nano.

Even every car manufacturer wants to follow success of Tata Nano, but it was not easy to achieve that. There was a time when many car breakdown and firing incidents were reported with Tata Nano. To save its position the company announced schemes and Tata motors maintenance contracts at cheapest price. Tata set up special Nano Access Points on the similar model of Ace mini truck for smaller towns across the country.

The Bajaj model is a five-seater like Nano, but will be more spacious. As soon as the small car by Bajaj launches, it is expected to entice customers who were thinking about purchasing Nano, the world’s cheapest car. The time would tell us how Bajaj Auto would make their success with small car.

In small cars, Maruti Alto is still preferred car for mediocre families. Even if this is not much cheapest, but people still trust it. Maruti has setup a large network of car service centers, that build trust without worry of car maintenance.

Source / More reading:

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

http://truthdive.com

Car servicing facility for every 25 km across India

Sunday, November 27th, 2011

Affordability and convenience of buying a car in every city has increased demand. A recent estimate says the total number of vehicles in India are 60-70 million and 14% are cars and taxis (wiki).

After-Sales service would become a major criteria while selection of any car for buying. Maruti announce to add 1500 car servicing outlets by 2015 and plans to open car servicing facility for every 25 kms across India.

Maruti has a large network of MASS (maruti authorized service station) apart from servicing outlet at dealerships. Presently Maruti has 2992 maruti service stations in 1,406 cities in India.

In small town, customers need to get their servicing done from nearest major city. Opening service centers everywhere within 25 kms definitely would help customers to enjoy facilities. This approach definitely help increasing Maruti cars sales.

Last year Tata Motors focus on after sales service to increase sales of Nano in small towns. Now for every car manufacturer, building a network of car servicing outlets also is become important while opening sales outlets.

Source:
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

why-do-majority-buy-maruti-not-because-of-features-it-is-servicing

india-will-have-450-million-cars-20-years-from-now

Customer expectations are high for car servicing – JD Power Survey

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

JD Power study released on Monday, points out that customer expectations are high and they want quick turnaround time for car servicing.

The administrative processing and booking of appointments at car service station are some of factors affects the survey for customer satisfaction. The Customer Satisfaction Index Study is based on evaluation of 6821 car owners. The study was fielded from May to August 2011 and includes customers who purchased their vehicles between May 2009 and August 2010.

J.D. Power and Associates has been conducting customer satisfaction research based on survey responses from consumers worldwide. J.D. Power is translating survey responses from consumers and businesses into studie. Their reports are used to improve businesses worldwide.

The study measures satisfaction among car owners who visited their authorised dealership service centres for maintenance or car repair during the first 12 to 24 months of ownership. The study measures overall satisfaction by examining five factors (listed in order of importance): service quality, vehicle pick up, service advisor, service facility and service initiation. Overall customer satisfaction is measured on a 1,000-point scale, with a higher score indicating higher satisfaction. (India Today)

Maruti Suzuki India has topped again in customer satisfaction with dealer service for a 12th consecutive year, with a score of 879 points. Maruti has a large network of Maruti Authorized Service Station.

According to reports, 94% customers who are highly satisfied from authorized service station say they will definitely revisit their service dealer for post-warranty service, but according to Muti-brand car workshop chains (source HT) 60% car owners change their decision after post-warranty and visit other car workshops. The major reason is high labour cost post warranty.

Source:
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com
http://indiatoday.intoday.in