Quality Issue with Indian autos.

[SirAlec]

Here i recollect one of many vehicle that passed the 'Tested OK' seal through the not so sharp eye of Indian manufacturer. Maybe the tester was on booze or high on grass the very day...lolz

Here i start with a Tavera. At about 6.5+lac tavera is not cheap. Still people buy them. This particular one was bought by a neighbour.

[Car-Agey]

This is common in India. I dont know how buyers ignore theses panel gaps. I have seen several Indica/gos with such gaps.I have even seen a new Innova with such gaps. for Sumo/Bolero/Scorpio such gaps are quite common.

The latest, I saw an i10 with wide gap near the wheel flare where the bumper joins the body (dont know if this was because of some minor accident or a manufacturing defect).

[vkochar]

The worst companies in terms of the above mentioned defects or Panel Gaps and uneven gaps is TATA & Maruti.

The Tata Indica & Safari ( most of them ) are full of examples like above. And Maruti has these kind of problems in Swift.

I am yet to see a problem like this in Honda, Toyota or even Hyundai. Maybe I could be wrong, just my observation.

[amtak]

I am not sure of Maruti but I haven't seen panel gaps as wide as the Indica's!

[SirAlec]

Believe me you, this is a brand new scorpio, just bought. Its funny that this is Mahindra's premium offerings of the lineup.

[1100D]

But do the larger panel gaps have any effect on how the vehicle actually performs.

Stuff like body rattle, cowl shake are dependent on other factors like the housing points for the panels in question.

I would dismiss these as minor visual blemishes nothing else.

[arunmur]

Some cars are designed with wide panel gaps to make it cheaper to assemble. This may not directly relate to low quality. But inconsistent panel gaps(high on one vehicle and low on other) indicates poor quality.

On the whole there is more to quality than meets the eye. Cars that lasts long can be considered good quality, unlike many nations our cars do not have minimum life promise. So we could easily be bedridden with quality issues well after purchasing. They have no obligation to change it cause we cannot drag them to court. Even if we do there is no hard and fast rule to give a straight verdict. This even extended to the extent that some dealers cover up their mistake by saying that "that's all this vehicle can offer".

Apart from all this, Indians in general have lower quality sense than many customers world wide.

[sujaylahiri]

You get what you pay for.

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by sujaylahiri

You get what you pay for.

Sujay,

Care to explain what you meant by this?

[lavi_cool_1999]

I remember when Maruti launched its Swift (P) in mid 2005 , magazines were filled with complaints about Panel Gaps....
How can u expect a 4L+ small car to have Panel Gaps.

[Elantra.Rules]

Hi, out of 1000 indian car buyers just a few look for gaps and if everything is ok when they go out for car buying. rest all depends on the dealer mercy and out of those few who do have a look on the car, 99% of them look just for paint quality , if there is any dent or paint peel off and if all gadgets are in working condition and all accessories are ok or not.
just 0.001% of indian car buyers are tech savvy and do look for EVERYTHING for which they are paying and argue with dealers about it. further on there is absolutely NO CONSUMER awareness so dealers + manufacturing companies does take appropriate advantage of it and sell their scrapped material too.
I have seen many brand new cars just a couple of days old with enough complaints to drag these companies and dealers to consumer courts but no one take initiative and there is always "Chalta hai yaar" (its ok) in their minds.

[wilful]

You get what you pay for.

Yes - I would also like to know what you meant, because I was given to understand that Indian consumers pay more for the same model of car (in comparison to many countries).

[dadu]

Most gaps are engineering requirements for eg space for door opening and closing movement.

I can quote from my safari, the front door gap between the door and body seems big but when you look carefully while opening and closing, at a point, the gap is reduced to 2 mm.

[anupmathur]

I think some people compulsively post simply to increase their post count!

Originally Posted by sujaylahiri

You get what you pay for.

On a more serious note, I believe this 'quality' issue will be with us forever. It is not just our cars; this kind of 'shoddy' attitude is all around us in every sphere of our lives.
The reasons for this are way too complex and would lead to heated discussions/arguments if aired on a public forum. Essentially, it boils down to what may be termed as, in very general terms, a national trait!
And therein lies the problem. Immediately, for reasons not clear to me, many people take it as a personal affront and come down on you like a ton of bricks.
No brickbats please!

The power of observation is called into question first.
Next, even if a shortcoming stands noticed and exposed, comes the 'seriousness' attached to it by the 'powers that be'.
Then, not the least, is the cost ramification of having to rectify it.
And so on....
We are not equipped to address/handle all these aspects. We have woefully small numbers in our country that can deal with these issues with a healthy attitude.
And by the time cost-cutting measures are implemented (perhaps to meet the competition), the jobs are relegated to a cross section of the population that do not have a clue to what it is they are supposed to be doing!

Please excuse if these views are different from yours.

[LLL]

Guys, lets not just focus on panel gaps.

On a brand new Safari, i noticed a huge gap between the ignition keyhole and plastic of steering column.

In a showroom Grande, a lever came off when we were checking it out.

On a scorpio standing in the showroom, the door panels appeared loose when i touched them. Would soon lead to rattles and sooner or later, it would drop off.

On my brand santro, the car was full of rattles within first 500 kms. The service guys had to tighten every nut and bolt and then the rattles disappeared. No rattles till date after that.

Doesnt everyone know about poor gear shift in tata cars? Doesnt everyone know about poor braking/handling of scorpio? These issues are design issues but can be fixed easily (GM fixed gear shift in Aveo).

To summarise i would say that manufacturers find that their cars are selling with substandard quality and do not take adequate steps to improve it.