[Aroy]

Eve since I bought my first Maruti in 1991, I have been using MAAS, that is authorised service centres (not dealer's service centre).

The MAAS, at least in Delhi, are supervised by trained service managers from Maruti. In fact the one I use regularly, near Safdarjung Airport, had a Japanese engineer stationed.

The service costs are really reasonable, spares and consumables are in general lower or at the most at par with independent shops. The quality of work much better and what I like most is that you can be near your vehicle while it is being serviced (most are any way at petrol pumps), an activity that is difficult at dealer workshops.

Add to that thousands of Authorised Maruti Service Centres in India, you can get the job done practically any where - be it in remote rural areas, hills or jungle, in most cases the Service centre nearest to you will be a Maruti one.

[PrideRed]

As I see, biggest advantage with Suzuki is the accessibility. Even small towns have full-fledged authorised service center and are easily accessible. Not to mention plethora of FNG which specialize in Maruti. Prices are not particularly cheap but I find them prompt. Experience varies from dealer to dealer but again advantage with Suzuki is you have multiple choice even in smaller city.

[krishnakarthik1]

Long time back when I used to drive the Ritz, it was raining heavily and I hit a monkey on the way back from a temple in interior Telangana and the coolant liquid got drained totally.

It was around 9 in the night and I called Maruti. In 1 hour some one from nearby town was there. They inspected the car and said some part had to be replaced. They stayed with me till midnight 2, replaced the part and filled the coolant and even called me half hour later after I left to ask if everything was ok. They didn't charge me a rupee more than the bill and did not ask for a tip.

That's why Maruti is in the position it is. Unbelievable customer support both at sales and after sales. Buying the Ritz LDI was the best car experience I have had so far in my life and the worst I have had is easily with what I drive now, an Innova ZX. The Germans should out source their service and Toyota should out source it's sales.

Call them tin cars or plastic cars or anything but Maruti makes cars with great mileage which the majority can afford. A tin car is any day safer than a bike.

The day Maruti makes a 5 star NCAP car with 6 air bags, I will sell my Innova and buy that.

[ACMerchant]

First bought in 1991 Maruti 800 or the fronte model as it was called. The car served us well till 2009 and again in 2008 bought SX4 Zxi model. The car covered @ 142174 kms in its tenure for 14+ years. I have driven it on highways, country roads, hill, gradients and for its superb ground clearance could easily reach my destination. Maintenance costs were bare minimum as used to regularly get it serviced twice a year at the dealer from whom I purchased it. Again sold it in March 22 to Maruti true value and now again am in Brezza 2022. My reason for sticking to Maruti are (a) super FE (b) Low maintenance costs and availability of spares (c) Solid dealer and authorised service centers all over India.

[subhro1988]

After a late dinner with friends, the car refused to start at 2am in the night due to dead battery. This was clearly the impact of covid lockdowns when the car was not used much. I was stuck at Powai. Called up Exide service but they clearly said their service starts at 8am next day. Called up Maruti at 2am in the night. Within a minute or two of talking to the customer service executive, I received an sms with the technicians contact number from their Ghatkopar service station who is going to attend. That guy called me and inquired about the problem. I told him about the dead battery and by 2:20am he came in his Activa with a battery and jump cables. He started the car, checked the water levels and advised me to change the battery asap. Charged me 610/- and left after telling me to drive the car for 5-6Kms before switching the car off.

[Mustang_Boss]

Originally Posted by pacman2881

Having owned a Maruti during first 8 years of my car ownership and having switched to Hyundai for the past 5 years, I can agree to the OPs sentiment. Not withstanding the fact that the Hyundai is a segment higher costing twice the my Maruti when bought, I always felt MASS was better in handling issues not withstanding the huge numbers they do. MASS acts while HASS reacts only when things go out of hand. And they sneak in a unwanted extra in service hoping you wouldn't notice.
If I ever go back to the market, Maruti will be on top of my shopping list.

If you visit SaiService, you might change your opinion.

There are financially driven bad actors in all brands. I am not against their approach or something, but yeah.. the way they manage is all matters at the end of the day.

[lemedico]

My Ciaz is the only car that goes to a Maruti service centre for it's yearly jobs.
Every other car, including the German limos, are handled by my FNG. This says a lot!

[driver52001]

I have owned Alto 800, Alto K10 and now an Ignis. Each time it has been an incremental 200 cc rise, like my salary. Topical to this thread, want to mention an experience I had while going to Maruti service centre to check a rattle from the dashboard in the Ignis. It was a busy day at the service centre being a weekend. I went there because the service centre was near my house. I half expected they wouldn't look at a minor rattle while they have to deal with other bigger service tasks. Anyway, at the gate, i somehow found a technician to whom I explained my niggle. I thought he'd ask me to wait. But he told his boss he's going for a spin to check a rattle, and even called another technician with him. I sat in the rear seat. One of them drove while the other listened to the possible source of the rattle. It took about an hour to find the source. By then we had been driving up and down near the service centre on rough road deliberately for the rattle to kick in. It was a loose nut between the stereo mount and the dashboard.

I went home happy. The fact that two guys took their time out from their regular service schedule to check a mere rattle left me quite impressed. I remember telling them in between to let it be, that I'd go home and check myself. But they insisted that since I have come, they will somehow solve it. This experience will play a major factor in my next car purchase. For us middle class folks, service is a very important factor while buying a car. Moneyed people may overlook service and go for only one aspect, like a powerful engine or xx engineering.

[akg7091]

This thread echoes my sentiments. I tell everyone who cares to ask me which brand is the best to go for Maruti if peace of mind is what they prioritise. Despite this advise, I have no Maruti car in house now lol

Have driven marutis for almost 2 decades and never faced any issue of any kind whatsoever. Perfect service, no issues with vas billing ( Hyundai dealer used to bill us 20k+ for every service for our verna and Hyundai doesn't even bother replying to emails. The car itself was just bad quality ) and responsive customer care ( give a 9/10 rating to a maruti dealer during a feedback call and the SA will come to your house to fix the issue )

I wish Maruti starts making higher end and more feature rich cars so people can upgrade within the brand.

[speed79]

Everything is not hunky dory with Maruti Suzuki and MASS.

My 2004 Alto Lx refused to start at 2 years in ownership. I called Maruti RSA (Bimal), and they diagnosed it to some part costing 14k at that time. Got the car towed to Solar Automobiles, where they replaces sub-part for about 7k.

Later in 2009, MASS detected coolant leakage in one of the scheduled services, and said that they had fixed it. Few days later i went to drop my parents to railway station and while coming back whole coolant was drained and engine started behaving erratically and probably was on verge of seize. Had to get it repaired at FNG who found coolant leakage where the coolant pipe enters or exits the engine, which MASS had failed to find.

In 2015 I got my Storme, and shortly thereafter there was some leakage from brake lines @ 68k kms / 12 years. It was parked since then rusting, and was scrapped last week.

My friend, had bought new Alto K10 which proved to be a lemon. The AC used to stop working after reaching speed of 80 kmph, and power steering used to become non-powered even after coming back to lower speeds. Both AC and power steering used to work only after restarting the car. MASS spent lot of time to find the root cause, but failed. The ECU was changed 2 times. In 3 years he had to sell his K10.

On the Contrary, my 2011 QJD Vista is still going strong, and never had a breakdown apart from 2 times rat bites. My 2015 Storme never had any issue, and saved me and my family in a highway accident with a truck. If not for Storme (totaled and scrapped), I would have been history. That is what Maruti might not be able to achieve. Due to confidence in safety of Tata cars, I have got a Tata Punch last week. One needs to be alive first, then only he/she can experience good and bad things in life, be it car or the RSA.

[lonetraveller89]

Thanks for your reply, Kaumad, but I don't completely agree with you.

Originally Posted by Kaumad

No amount of corporate mandates can supersede deep-rooted Indian traditional beliefs and practices. All of us know this.

And that's the problem. All of us know this and yet we blindly promote it. Why should I be denied of services promised to me because of someone else's beliefs or customs? How is this not akin to politically motivated harthals inconveniencing us normal citizens? Do we not pay the same hard-earned money? Unless there is a clause that clearly states that RSA will not be provided on the day of Ayudha Pooja, they are legally liable to provide the same. Period. It's our generalised 'chalta he' attitude towards goods & services over time which has led to us consumers always getting the short end of the stick.

Stating MSIL's service as #1 for all this seems a bit too far fetched to me. We have many threads citing bad experiences from the same company. So I guess it's only a matter of time till another one of those threads materialises and the echoes in this chamber stop reverberating.

[pavi]

Happy that the ordeal ended on a good note for you. Kudos to the guys who actually made your day a good one, even though it was ayudha pooja. But thinking this in another perspective, based on the reach of Maruti service centers across the country, they should be in the best position to offer RSA within very less time. That is their other biggest strength apart from 'better fuel efficiency'. The day they decide to loose these two strengths, I don't think Maruti would be Maruti in this market. Even our official reviews have the statement 'better after sale service experience' by default for any Maruti product. So I would say this is the minimum expectation for any Maruti customer. Although I cannot say they are cheap, because I service my Honda City even at a cheaper rate compared to our previous Maruti WagonR at authorized service centres.

[maheshm619]

Originally Posted by bht

SA there just handed over 4 sachets free of cost without any queries, this was to an person who was not even an Maruti owner and even refused the payment when i insisted,

I had an exact opposite experience to what you had. I had walked in to a Maruti service center at Kochi and requested for these. This was my second time at the same outlet, the first time I had bought around 10 sachets.Coming back to now, they were not ready to sell anything this time and said that can give a maximum of 1 sachet and were adamant.

Your story reminds me of a movie clip I saw , in which a cashier working at a cafe was putting everyone's bill on the house , because she was resigning on that day.

[CarWorld]

I have 2 experiences to share here. I bought a new Alto LXI back in 2010 as my first car. I drove the car home after delivery and forget to take keys with me and shut the door. Guess what, all 4 doors were locked with no keys. I had no clue what to do as it was my first car. Called my SA and he promptly arranged a mechanic who travelled all the way from Wakad to Warje (approximately 20 kms) and solved the issue in sharp 1 hour. I was relieved and the showroom charged me nothing for it. The second instance is, i switched off my car, took the keys out and still tried to adjust steering/ wheels. Here the steering was locked. My car was in office parking. Again no clue what to do. Called the same advisor again, he sent the mechanic to my office and got the issue resolved. Such experiences when you are novice surely raises respect level for Maruti and the reason it has become true India brand.

[WhiteSierra]

Originally Posted by krishnakarthik1

Buying the Ritz LDI was the best car experience I have had so far in my life and the worst I have had is easily with what I drive now, an Innova ZX. The Germans should out source their service and Toyota should out source it's sales.

I agree on Maruti part, but I'm surprised on the Toyota part. We bought 3 Toyota UVs from Harsha Toyota over the years and their sales and service so far has been excellent, actually better than Maruti. Spares are little bit costly, few parts are 3x cost of Maruti but their reliability is worth it! I wonder what went wrong in your case.


Coming to Maruti service, we bought a Maruti Suzuki Wagon R LXI CNG 2012 model at Varun Motors, Begumpet True Value in 2016 with 21K kms on the odo. The vehicle was well maintained, with a low mileage car, the car was almost brand new, like it just finished it's running in period. All the mechanicals were intact. My mother used to commute to her hospital daily from Hyderabad to Medak district (80 kms round trip), with a driver. In 2018, one day, the driver left acc on, with his mobile phone charging for long time and it conked off some fuse. The driver called me and told that the car is not starting, despite trying to push start it. I immediately called up Maruti RSA and they reached her hospital location in 30 minutes from nearest town. The dealer is Sai Service. The technicians discovered that the starter relay was not working and replaced the same, they told that the 12v socket took all the power and short the relay when key is turned to ignition mode, I don't know how far this is true but they replaced the same and just charged 1500 rs for part replacement, running the scanner and clearing fault codes via OBD 2 port and RSA itself (40 kms round trip travel).