[Simple_car]

Hi all,

Requesting members to share their servicing experiences ONLY. This thread will cater only to dealers in Bombay/Thane/Navi Mumbai region

Wanted to share my experiences of nissan service centers in Bombay. I have been maintaining a Nissan X trail T30 model for past 6 years. I have been to all the service centers in the bombay/thane/navi mumbai region. I am posting a brief review of the same:

1. Ichibaan nissan
In one word. AVOID this center. This owner had a monopoly in bombay region for quite a few years and has exploited it fully. He is also on board of Hoover automotive India, which is the middleman between nissan india and its dealers. I have had my car parts stolen from this center, which I subsequently fond out. And god help you if you have bodyshop repairs. They keep the car for a long duration for reasons best known to them. The workshop is located in a location which is prone to flooding, I have seen this every year. I am usually quite tolerant towards attitudes shown by s.a.'s, but the guys here just take the cake. Not one service has gone without me blowing my lid off, meeting the manager, begging them to service the car properly. However, I will give credit where its due. Amongst all the service centers I have been, these guys have been the cheapest for the same jobs done (the main reason was that they used shell synthetic oil compared to mobil 1 used by all others, which bought the costs down quite a bit). Their bodyshop did manage to do a good job on the car (after a lot of grovelling on my part i.e.). But seriously, not worth the headache. They never did any preventive maintainence as advised by the company, a fact that I learned the hard way. Finally, I befriended a mechanic there who tended to my car exclusively and did a good job of it too. Wasn't surprised to hear that he had quit when I last went there.

2. Ritu nissan
Its an average service center. I have been there once only. It was crowded, but overall I was tended to quite to my satisfaction. Your experience at this service center will depend on the s.a. there.

3. Torent nissan
My personal recommendation. Large service center, elevated so as to keep the rains at bay. A little more professional staff. One thing I appreciate is that they carry out all services as per schedule. Were very transparent with me at least (maybe because I went there when they just opened up). However they are a little over eager for replacing parts. Be a little cautious.

Note: these are my personal experiences. If you may have found that I have been a little harsh on ichibaan, then yes, I admit it. But I have good reasons for that as well. Most other owners whom I interacted with were disgruntled with their services. This I have seen every year. I have chosen to boycott it totally.
The car has been a superb companion of me and my friend. Just wish the service backup was as good. Hoover causes a lot of delays for simple parts as well sometimes. They have become a little better now, what with the tiff between nissan and its dealers. But still, just not worth it in my opinion.

EDIT:
Ok, I'll make one thing clear, some parts were replaced with faulty ones and some things were stolen. Its the same thing to me anyways:
1. Radiator fan unit was replaced with a faulty one. Why am I so sure? That's cause, when I saw it the next day, it was a damaged unit, and there were clear signs that the unit had been replaced shoddily.
2. My boot mat! I had the original one. Infact, this came to my attention the same day the car was delivered from service. I notified my S.A. immediately. He accused me saying that it was not present in the first place! I created quite a ruckus before they provided me with a new one. That too, it was stained!
3. Brake fluid cap stolen. Came to my attention next day. Created another ruckus. They washed their hands off completely.
4. I have a doubt about a suspension component (sorry, but I forget the part name now, I think it must be the lower arm), but I don't have any proof. Its very difficult to accuse them in this case. I had taken this issue up with them. They said it's due to driving style. But then, why should this problem be observed right after service? And, the damage to the part was easily visible. This will remain a mystery.

This one takes the cake. I saw the company driver brush a customer's teana right in front of my eyes (it was a misjudgment, honest mistake of the driver; if you knew the way the entrance was designed back then, it would be easy to scrape the car). My S.A. coolly walks and applies some paint WITH HIS HANDS. I mean, it would be so easy to catch him. Had an argument again with him (for somebody else). You know what he said, 'Sir, these things happen. Let the customer complain. Nissan can't do anything against us. And sir, please remember, your car is still under service.'
I was at a loss of words. I still regret not bashing him up that day. I was very young back then (only 20), and they treated me like an ignorant buffoon who doesn't know a thing about cars.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Simple_car

1. Ichibaan nissan
In one word. AVOID this center.

Am not a fan of the Ichibaan group at all. Have witnessed their lack of ethics first-hand during my Honda City ownership days.

My Sunny's sales experience sucked @ Ichibaan. That said, the service experience has been at acceptable levels.

My personal recommendation. Large service center, elevated so as to keep the rains at bay. A little more professional staff.

Appreciate your sharing this.

[carzone]

Originally Posted by Simple_car

I mean, it would be so easy to catch him. Had an argument again with him (for somebody else). You know what he said, 'Sir, these things happen. Let the customer complain. Nissan can't do anything against us. And sir, please remember, your car is still under service.'
I was at a loss of words. I still regret not bashing him up that day. I was very young back then (only 20), and they treated me like an ignorant buffoon who doesn't know a thing about cars.

My honest reaction was
You scratch a car, agreed, mistakes happen, but using words like that.

That is completely unacceptable. I was going through another thread about a manager of a Skoda dealer in Hyderabad using such harsh words with a customer. Nissan following suite?

And sir, please remember, your car is still under service

This makes me feel, as and when I am in a service centre, I should be using a button camera and record these stuff in case anything happens. Do they by any chance hire goons from the neighborhood?

What year was this? Is the attitude same over the years, or are there signs of improvement?

[Simple_car]

Originally Posted by carzone

Nissan following suite?

What year was this? Is the attitude same over the years, or are there signs of improvement?

Dear carzone sir,

This may be a little bit of history lesson, but please bear with me.

The car in question was bought from Aquest auto. The dealer was very transparent in their dealing, and overall was very supportive. This was 6 years back when Nissan had just opened shop in India, and they didn't have any system of customer feedback. The only contact for a customer given on their webpage was their corporate address. But the dealer, was good.

Problems started when Ichibaan came into picture. I am only responsible for this vehicle's maintenance. So, I used to visit their workshop every time in and around the monsoon months. I have seen their workshop getting flooded right in front of my eyes, EVEN when rest of the locality showed no signs of flooding. Back then, it was not much of a problem since most cars were X trails which had decent ground clearance. If a teana was present, then they would raise it on the ramp.
Let's leave aside their poorly planned shop. I have already given you a gist of my experiences with them above. There are too many things I can tell about this workshop, but I don't have sufficient evidence to back up my point. There were brand new micras which were scratched by the drivers due to their poor planning. I saw a sunny which had met with an accident lying in their shop since 5 months (all insurance formalities completed) awaiting parts. Mind you, the damage (at least superficially) was not something great. I can go on and on. Does this mean Nissan is following suit like Skoda?

No!

I have visited orion nissan too (now closed) when the alternator belt of my car snapped (This I believe is my fault for believing the ichibaan S.A.'s word that the belt is fine. I had asked them to check it up, since the belts in earlier models were reported to be a little weak for Indian conditions). I had outstanding service with them. This was my first time I was treated like a customer should be. In fact, I asked them a quote for the next service which was due in a month's time. They quoted me 25k, which I naturally refused, and headed back to ichibaan; who did the same service for 7k. But all in all, excellent service.

Over the years, the price of parts of this car has come down drastically. It now matches its Japanese cousins. For eg. the abs sensor in this car costs 11k, while for the innova it's 10k. Tail lamp costs 7k. The ORVM assembly costs around 6k now (all these were about double just 3 years back). So nissan has pulled up their socks and are now take the market seriously.

I have had good experience with Aquest (now mitsubishi dealers), Orion (now closed), and Torrent (my preference); average with Ritu (but I am willing to give them benefit of doubt). Bad experience has only been with Ichibaan. And as GTO sir finds their service levels acceptable, I believe they might have become better since competition has come.

It's my personal choice to boycott this center. The senior management does not have good work ethics as per my opinion. I genuinely believe nissan has pulled up their socks.

3 years back, i wouldn't recommend nissan vehicles to anyone. Now, I would definitely buy one myself.

P.S. My experience with skoda dealers have been good here in bombay. As for the mahavir skoda's incidence, I will reserve my comments for later. I am usually more sympathetic to dealers because I hail from a family of businessmen. Dealers after all are doing business. Yes, mahavir shouldn't have lied. That is unpardonable. But, at the same time dealers usually invest a lot of money and risk when starting a business. Especially, here in India, where the envornment is not generally conducive to conduct a business.
These are just my thoughts. Feel free to correct me if you think I am wrong.

[carzone]

Originally Posted by Simple_car

Dear carzone sir,

No 'sir'. You were 20 then, I am now.
I have got a lot to learn here. As of now, I am with my first car, a Maruti product, reason is the same as all of India believes, cheap to maintain. Looking forward to your posts on how to manage that.

Originally Posted by Simple_car

Problems started when Ichibaan came into picture. I am only responsible for this vehicle's maintenance. So, I used to visit their workshop every time in and around the monsoon months. I have seen their workshop getting flooded right in front of my eyes, EVEN when rest of the locality showed no signs of flooding. Back then, it was not much of a problem since most cars were X trails which had decent ground clearance. If a teana was present, then they would raise it on the ramp.

Is it the problem till date? If yes, and if Nissan does not know about this, should not someone tell them about it? If it has been resolved, then I am really happy the way it has acted.

Originally Posted by Simple_car

Does this mean Nissan is following suit like Skoda?

No!

So nissan has pulled up their socks and are now take the market seriously.

Got your point sir. Completely agreed.

Originally Posted by Simple_car

P.S. My experience with skoda dealers have been good here in bombay. As for the mahavir skoda's incidence, I will reserve my comments for later.

Is there something to share about Skoda as well? We are all ears.

Originally Posted by Simple_car

I am usually more sympathetic to dealers because I hail from a family of businessmen. Dealers after all are doing business. Yes, mahavir shouldn't have lied. That is unpardonable. But, at the same time dealers usually invest a lot of money and risk when starting a business.

Indian environment may not be conducive to establish a business, but what I feel is, cheating should never be a part of one's money making practice, and I do follow it.

You explain things quite beautifully. Kudos!

[Simple_car]

Originally Posted by carzone

1. Is it the problem till date?

2. Is there something to share about Skoda as well? We are all ears.

3. Indian environment may not be conducive to establish a business, but what I feel is, cheating should never be a part of one's money making practice, and I do follow it.

4. You explain things quite beautifully. Kudos!

1. I haven't been there since 2 years. So can't comment.

2. Here's a thread describing my history with cars: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/introd...ob-bombay.html

3. About the Indian business environment, that is a topic for discussion for another day.

4. Thank you.

[Simple_car]

Just saw an ad in the paper's about Kamla nissan dealership which has replaced Ichibaan. A few calls and a little research later, I came to know that it is still the same dealer.
Ichibaan nissan = Kamla nissan = AVOID.

The thugs are operating under a new name now. My grudge against them shall continue. I want to order one part which I am unable to procure after-market, but I am not being assured by torent nissan either since Hoover is still unpredictable with rare parts. They want a full payment and still they are not guaranteeing when the part will arrive. I am going to wait for a year or so before ordering the part. The part will and does come, but 'when' is a question. Let's see how nissan deals with Hoover.

Thanks,
Simple_car

[vivanbhathena]

Hey guys
This is to inform you that Kamla Nissan is a part of Kamla Landmark Motors and has nothing to do with the former Ichibaan Dealer. I really do not know how you have arrived to this conclusion based on phone calls?. Anyways Please feel free to Visit the Showroom and confirm for yourself that this is a entirely new establishment and is the largest and premier dealer for Nissan in mumbai. They are also opening a new showroom in Mira road and its going to be a state of the art 12000 sq ft 2 storey structure.

The exciting part is that they are pushing Nissan to bring down the GTR next year and are going to be providing one of the only service centres for this high end car.

They also own Kamla Yamaha which is how i know of them and are the No. 1 dealer of yamaha bikes in mumbai. So please be re-assured that although they are new to the car segment they come from a solid background.

[Raosaheb Desai]

Nissan is unable to provide spares on time to their premium products like X Trail & Teanna and how come we expect them to bring GTR !!!
Purely Daydreaming.......
They must start dealing with customers directly rather than middle-man kind arrangement of HAI.
Else brand will vanish like MITSUBISHI/HM.

[Simple_car]

Originally Posted by vivanbhathena

Hey guys
This is to inform you that Kamla Nissan is a part of Kamla Landmark Motors and has nothing to do with the former Ichibaan Dealer. I really do not know how you have arrived to this conclusion based on phone calls?.

Hey! Thanks for bringing this thread to my notice. Had completely forgotten about it! I did visit the showroom to check out the micra along with a friend who lives in the neighbourhood.

Yes, you are correct... the showroom management is in new hands for sure. I apologize for my blunder. My mistake for relying on a couple of people who I thought I knew well.

Originally Posted by vivanbhathena

Anyways Please feel free to Visit the Showroom and confirm for yourself that this is a entirely new establishment and is the largest and premier dealer for Nissan in mumbai. They are also opening a new showroom in Mira road and its going to be a state of the art 12000 sq ft 2 storey structure.

I wish them all the best for their venture I am just waiting till the day the Hoover issue is sorted out, since it is more expensive for me to get my car serviced outside.

Originally Posted by vivanbhathena

The exciting part is that they are pushing Nissan to bring down the GTR next year and are going to be providing one of the only service centres for this high end car.

Don't know what they are aiming for.. but I hope they do tidy up the mess Ichibaan has left behind. I have stopped going to any dealer here in bombay, since I am not given assurance of parts availability as of now. As Raosaheb Desai mentioned, most nissan dealers are unable to procure the parts of their relatively premium offerings; this is a fact.

Originally Posted by vivanbhathena

They also own Kamla Yamaha which is how i know of them and are the No. 1 dealer of yamaha bikes in mumbai. So please be re-assured that although they are new to the car segment they come from a solid background.

A solid background.. I don't know but I sure hope so. I am not touching nissan dealers till Hoover is completely out of the equation.

Thanks, and once again I apologize for my stupidity.


Thanks,
Simple_car

[isodope]

Originally Posted by vivanbhathena

Hey guys
They are also opening a new showroom in Mira road and its going to be a state of the art 12000 sq ft 2 storey structure.

Any idea by when the facility will be up and running? I first heard about this around the Terrano launch, and I look forward to having a Nissan service center near home.

[carzone]

Originally Posted by isodope

Any idea by when the facility will be up and running? I first heard about this around the Terrano launch, and I look forward to having a Nissan service center near home.

I think it might open at the place where we had a Maruti showroom earlier, Laxmi cars. I see that place being renovated.

OT: you stay in Mira Road, you have got a lot of company.

[isodope]

Originally Posted by carzone

OT: you stay in Mira Road, you have got a lot of company.

Thanks for the information! I live just north of Mumbai, so Mira Road is nearest for me. At the moment Ritu Nissan at Kapurbawdi on Ghodbunder road is easiest for me to reach, but they don't seem particularly interested in paying attention to me. I figure at least Mira Road will be a shorter drive to go and be ignored.

Or, fingers crossed, Kamla Nissan will actually give me good service. At this point I'm willing to settle for "acceptable".

[masteryoda83]

I am a proud Micra owner from Mumbai and have serviced my car in all the service stations - Torrent, Ichibaan and after the take over Kamla Nissan.

Torrent has a workshop in Andheri East where I had given my car to fix an AC leak and boy it was an ordeal I would never forget. When I went for the first time, they kept the car for one day and returned it after claiming to have fixed the leak. But in 3 days the gas leaked and the AC was as good as non functional, after which they kept the car for a good three days and returned the car, but the problem was still not fixed as the gas leaked after a week. So for the third time I went to them for the same problem and after keeping my car for another two days, the problem was finally fixed, sadly the steering cover (the center part) was not fixed or hooked properly which I realized when I honked, whats worth mentioning is that this was the part which holds the driver airbag as well. So I had to drive back once again as the technician had forgotten to clamp the steering wheel. Apart from the multiple visits, what really took me off was that the dealership tried to skim money from by charging me for AC gas recharge. Which I refused to pay as the car was under warranty.

Kamla Nissan (Formerly Ichibaan) - Reaching there is a task in itself as it is in Kurla. So far my servicing has been done properly. And I have not got a chance to go back to them. Although they did quote me 8000 bucks for aligning my bonnet, (I had ran into a nasty pothole which misaligned by bumper and in turn the bonnet has shifted by a few cms to the left).

[isodope]

I finally went to Kamala Nissan's Mira Road facility yesterday. They've been open two months now.

Location: Mira Road. If you're approaching from Thane, don't take the Kashimira flyover and keep looking for the Datsun signs. If you're coming from Mumbai, don't take the bridge, take a U turn at the Kashimira signal (that's the biggest, most crowded one which feeds Mira-Bhayander) and look for the Datsun signs. The second gate is the entry - there is no sign to indicate this at the first gate.

Contact details: I called up the Worli Kamala Nissan because the Mira Road facility isn't on the Nissan India website yet. They gave me the number of a lady, Madhu (7506239923). She was really polite and heard me out completely - which is rare for a service advisor. She even pre-ordered the part I requested. Another person who actually handled my car at the service centre was Pravin Patil (7506334094).

The landline number for the place is 022-39346767 as per Pravin's visiting card.

The background: A rat set up house in my car (pre-facelift Micra XV petrol) and packed the guide rails for the air mix flap of the climate control system with newpaper. The motor that operates the flap has since burnt out, so I needed a replacement. I've been to Torrent for my initial checkup and found it really horrible, so decided to wash my hands off Nissan service centres in Mumbai. Oxford in Pune is brilliant, but they wanted to keep the car for two days and check everything - and I didn't want to do that, since I know exactly what the problem is. Nissan parts are unavailable in the open market, and this isn't helped by the fact that they aren't popular cars, so I need to get that part at a service centre only. My deadline is the monsoon, since I'll require to operate the heater then. I cannibalised the motor from my family's Scala since our driver doesn't know how climate control works, but I've now put it back - I don't want him getting into an accident because of a fogged-up windshield, and I have access to other cars should I need one.

The experience: Called up Madhu, she was really polite. Ordered the part. I was really happy and planned to go fix it ASAP. Unfortunately had a meeting at work the day I scheduled it, and couldn't go that day or the next. Finally got in touch with her the day I could get off work and reached there. I was handed over to Pravin as she was at Kamala's Kurla facility that day. Again, the service advisors took me at my word, which is REALLY rare. Unfortunately the part number isn't stamped anywhere on the part itself, so I didn't have it. They had to look for it. While I waited, two kids wandered in looking for a Force Motors Cruiser windshield (no, really) and a Sunny customer with a 3-month old car (his son had an expensive phone, about twenty rings and a gold chain worthy of a south Indian bride) complaining that he had lost 2kmpl on his diesel-powered Sunny after service. Finally after about ten minutes of waiting while the advisor kept clicking his mouse on the screen I asked if it really took that long to locate a part in the inventory. I must admit that it looked suspiciously like he was playing Solitaire at the expense of my time, but he immediately turned the screen and showed me what was taking so long - there was an exploded parts diagram on the screen, and it wasn't clear which part I wanted despite me giving them as much detail as possible. My bad. I then dug out photos I had taken of the actual part and showed it to him, and then things got easy.

I also wanted to stand right next to the car while it was being worked upon, and I know this is against policy. Renault in Thane relaxed this for me, since I said if I was getting in the way, I would go sit in the customer lounge. I learned a lot that day, and as such I wanted to do this here as well. Asked the service advisor if I could do that, and got a no in return. I needed my work done either way, so just called up someone I know who could find out more and asked if that rule could be relaxed - it is a new facility, there were all of two cars being worked upon and mine was the only one waiting so I didn't see a safety issue. The call came to Pravin from upstairs pretty much immediately, which was surprising, but to my disappointment, the answer was no. I requested that my car be placed in the bay right next to the customer lounge so that I could watch, and this was agreed to. The lady named Madhu called me up in another five minutes (from another cellphone number) asking from where I got her number. Strange.

The part was retrieved from inventory, and I was told that the entire thing would set me back by Rs 5000, most of it going towards labour and AC gas recharge. Turns out they wanted to remove my entire dashboard, open up the air-con system, etc. I refused, said this is a half hour job, and please introduce me to your technician so I can put my mechanic on the phone with him and let them sort it out. At this point they let me walk up to the technician at the car in the service bay and hand my phone over - I'm not saying this is good or bad, just pointing out that this is inconsistent with their own words that I couldn't stand near the car. This, again, was agreed to, which is something I'm happy about. An hour later, Pravin came to me and said that the new part was not working properly so they couldn't fix it. I think he expected me to blow my top - but I know the motor I need isn't a common part, and this could have happened to any part, so I kept calm and said okay. He has called me back today, a day later, with the news that it isn't available anywhere in Mumbai and that it will take two weeks for it to be shipped here from Chennai.

I'm unsure if I should wait that long, since the monsoon is right around the corner, and I'll need my heater. I think I'll give it a week and then start trying myself. If any of you can help, the part number is "27732-1HA0A" - the actuator assembly - airmix. It is common to the Micra, Pulse, Sunny and Scala.

I'll update this if I end up going to the service centre for this job. I'll most probably end up going for a key replacement anyway, I have misplaced one of my keys. Rs 9000 down the drain. Sigh.