[superbad]

You have to be adventurous if you stay in a small town & decide to buy a car from a manufacturer probably having a lower market share than Merc/BMW/Audi. Either he was severely misguided or tempted by discounts. Feel sorry that he has to go through this.

[porsche_guy]

Originally Posted by ksameer1234

When one dealer group can have dealership of competing brands, why can't a good garage become authorised service center for multiple brands

There are many reasons from which the biggest one I feel is the competition between brands.

E.g Renault authorises a local FNG and therefore, aims to increase sales in a particular town. Now would they let the FNG be authorised from VW also? That would completely negate their plus point which was a wider service network compared to rivals

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

Forget others, if the auto groups with small presence start consolidating within themselves, it may workout. Ex - Renault, Nissan, Datsun, Mitsubishi - under one roof.

That again faces the same problem as Maruti did with the Kizashi and Grand Vitara. No Pajero customer would want to buy their car from the same place that sells Datsuns.

Although, some groups like FCA have started to do this with Fiat, Abarth and Jeep under the same roof but it's not as widespread to call it successful

Cheers!

[GTO]

Have an update, guys. Datsun has read this thread & offered to reach out to the customer. Will update this thread as & when I get more details.

Nevertheless, I still insist, those from smaller cities & towns should stick to the bigger brands.

[groom]

This is absolutely true!!
My friends lives in Hospet, Karnataka. He owns a VW Vento with DSG.
He travels every time to Hubli around 120Kms to service the car and come back.


This is like a full day affair, so all the family visits. They start early in the morning, drop the car, finish watching two movies, eat at some favorite place and return back after the excursion and service trip. Its funny actually.

[saket77]

Someone I knew 'won' a Renault Duster some 5-6 years back in a lucky draw This was in Ranchi. Back then, Renault didn't have any service center in Ranchi, but there was one in Jamshedpur/ Tata which is some 150 kms from Ranchi.

I remember that Renault used to conduct a 'service camp' sort of thing in Ranchi for its customers in some intervals like a month or so, and used to send sms'es to the registered mobile numbers so they are informed about the service camp schedule. Though a good effort to address the issue as a stop-gap arrangement but getting a car serviced as per manufacturer's schedule and not yours could be a problematic situation. I definitely wouldn't want to be in one. Also, such efforts are only good for normal periodic services. Any unusual issue/ accidental repairs etc will mean driving or even worse, towing your car to hundreds of kms for repairs which would have been so much easier with ASCs located in your city.

Definitely a good advice and one *must* look at the serviceability of cars before getting one.

Regards,
Saket

[//M]

Originally Posted by saket77

.
.
Also, such efforts are only good for normal periodic services. Any unusual issue/ accidental repairs etc will mean driving or even worse, towing your car to hundreds of kms for repairs which would have been so much easier with ASCs located in your city.
.
.

JLR, Porsche, Volvo, Triumph, Isuzu, BMW Motorrad, Kawasaki still organize periodic camps for Test Drives/Rides combined with servicing of vehicles for existing customers in Ranchi as the nearest dealer presence is atleast 450 kms away in Kolkata or Bhubaneswar.

BMW, Audi, Harley Davidson used to do the same before officially setting shop in the city.

I am sure the same happens in every Tier-II and Tier-III cities across the country.

The periodic servicing, as you mentioned, is not a challenge. The real challenges are the sudden issues with the vehicles or accidental repairs. Having no reliable FNG in cities like Ranchi is another concern !

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by saket77

I remember that Renault used to conduct a 'service camp' sort of thing in Ranchi for its customers in some intervals like a month or so, and used to send sms'es to the registered mobile numbers so they are informed about the service camp schedule.

....which confirms their strategy as this is the same thing Datsun is doing for smaller towns down south as well.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

The story today remains the same and I heard from him last week that Renault/Datsun comes once a month/fortnight, leverages infrastructure from a popular FNG on the bypass road and invites the owners for the service - You are good if its basic service.

Originally Posted by saket77

Though a good effort to address the issue as a stop-gap arrangement but getting a car serviced as per manufacturer's schedule and not yours could be a problematic situation. I definitely wouldn't want to be in one. Also, such efforts are only good for normal periodic services. Any unusual issue/ accidental repairs etc will mean driving or even worse, towing your car to hundreds of kms for repairs which would have been so much easier with ASCs located in your city.

Definitely a good advice and one *must* look at the serviceability of cars before getting one.

And I totally echo this mere thought about accidental & incidental repairs and the consequential damage your car may have to suffer if you end up driving after the issue has cropped up or you have attended to it by fixing your car with spurious parts due to lack of support!

Originally Posted by paragsachania

I only wonder what happens when there is a breakdown or you need to drive to even get genuine brake pads replaced from the service center. I think here is where you end up with counterfeit parts for your car due to lack of choice!!

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by saket77

Someone I knew 'won' a Renault Duster some 5-6 years back in a lucky draw This was in Ranchi. Back then, Renault didn't have any service center in Ranchi, but there was one in Jamshedpur/ Tata which is some 150 kms from Ranchi.

Reminds me of this lovely episode from the ever green Malgudi Days series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1PUXHk6zPY

The protagonist goes through pretty much all the travails summed up so far in this thread!

[Sheel]

I have been giving this advise to every one. Nowadays, people have started to earn and want to spend, so not everyone can afford a LC-200 and wish to upgrade from the Fortuner, so most end up with a Q5, Discovery, XC-60 etc.

Service is a big issue, which most realize after the initial euphoria dies down.

Imagine, Toyota having a good diesel engine in the Prado and keeping the price at 60L OTR, or the Montero at 60L with decent service everywhere.

My place has Tata, Mahindra, Honda, Ford, Renault, Hyundai, we miss Toyota a lot and really wish it made its presence here.

[VKumar]

I live in a tier II city and I drive a VW.

What is wrong?
Once I met with an accident and the car was required to be towed to the Noida service station. Around 70 kms from my place.

The nightmare started when I discovered that the combination switch has gone for a toss and it was discovered at the time of delivery. Secondly there were minor issues with paint job too.

You guessed it right. I am still driving with the same paint job, because neither I have time, nor the will to visit there twice and leaving my car there.

So, it is indeed wonderful to have your A.S.S. near your place. With the A.S.S. far off, everything is fine until it's just a periodic service; but if it comes to major repairs, especially the accidental repairs - things really go for a toss.

In fact, I would add one more point here. Do not buy the failed products like Kizashi, Vitara, Tucson, Santa-Fe etc too if you are in a small city. The small dealers prefer not to keep even the regular maintenance items for these cars at times. I personally know a friend who had a Kizashi when I used to drive a Laura, he faced bigger issues twice and the story was really grim. Once the part arrived but not mechanic was competent enough to work on that car and once the part that arrived was wrong and needed to be reordered. I am not saying that Maruti was wrong there, they did a fabulous logistics job - but the basic issue is that neither the parts are available, nor are the A.S.S. guys experienced to deal with those cars too. I had my Accord 3.5 wait in the service center for over a month just because a component was required to be ordered all the way from Japan, being too adventurous actually frequently end up getting you annoyed.

[avisidhu]

Another problem is the terrible resale you will encounter. People in small cities tend to stick to locally registered vehicles, and thus chances of fetching a good price in an already shrunk customer base will be tiny. The same brand could potentially fetch better returns in bigger cities.

Although the likes of OLX would have made things better, but not by a considerable margin.

We brought a Honda Brio at a time when Honda was just conducting service camps in our home town, but luckily a service center opened up later. Else I'm sure selling it would have been a nightmare.