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Old 1st July 2010, 20:03   #31
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Quote:
Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez View Post
I wouldn't be surprised if Ford India is already looking at this thread.
Well, I think we have a member Mustang.101 on this forum, who can help take this up with the dealer, and try to ensure the corrective actions

Ford should get these vehicles repaired by the dealers themselves, withdraw them and use them only as TD vehicles, for which there is always a shortage anyway.
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Old 2nd July 2010, 10:07   #32
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Originally Posted by Jayant..B View Post
For a mistake of a driver who drove that Figo, is it correct to declare that whole dealership irresponsible?

Who knows? They might have taken diciplinary action on the concerned already?

Yes, its absolutely right to declare the the dealership irresponsible, since "A Country gets its reputation by its citizens", "A company gets its reputation by its employees" and a "A dealership gets its reputation by its sales & service team and the care they show for its buyers"

Last edited by nandans2005 : 2nd July 2010 at 10:08.
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Old 2nd July 2010, 10:28   #33
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Well, a couple of days back, the Lathangi guys were here in EGL displaying the Figo and a 2 year old Fiesta for sales and promo.
My cousin is planning for a new car and keen on the Figo. I went around the car with her, checked out things and exchanged cards with the sales guy.

After seeing this thread and my cousin being a prospective Figo buyer, decided to call up the sales manager there. The call was connected by the front office there and I hope it was indeed the manager on the other side.
I started off with T-bhp and this thread and the pictures for evidence. I got the shock of my life when the guy on the other side said "if the car had indeed met with an accident, we would replace the parts and then sell it". He was stressing that nothing would be repaired, but will be replaced. When I asked him about the structural damage and if they would be upfront and admit to the customer that its a accident vehicle, he said its for the customer to check out. He said "these days people come with a long PDI checklist from your bhp club (he meant T-bhp), so they should find out".

Gosh. Keep away from these morons.!
Wonder how many such cars were sold to innocent people.
BTW, my neighbours 2008 Fiesta sxi has horrible alignment problems. Yes, it was bought from Lathangi.

My cousin booked a Swift vdi. With Maruti and most of its dealers, life is much more peaceful.
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Old 2nd July 2010, 11:36   #34
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Originally Posted by jeeva View Post
Gosh. Keep away from these morons.!
+100.

Can someone write to Ford please? I have found Ford to take action in the past to emails that go to them.

Cheers,
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Old 2nd July 2010, 12:42   #35
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jeeva,

i am happy that this thread has saved your cousin. i am very happy for you & your cousin.


diffsoft,

i dont mind doing it. But tell me if it will yield any results in the right direction.

However, would you mind sending me the details to contact Ford.

lets try to change the way dealers work.

Last edited by nandans2005 : 2nd July 2010 at 12:46.
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Old 2nd July 2010, 12:51   #36
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Originally Posted by prithvi_seln View Post
guys want to have a note in this regard been in the OEM final assembly for 8 years i think without knowing the extent of damage we should not comment on this. on seeing the accident pictures i assume that the damage will be to the extent of bumper and fender damage and these are replaceable parts so once replaced and after through inspection i can say that the car is as good as new build, incase the shell or the mounting area has got damaged and the gaps and lines dont match then it can call for a discount.. hope people know what are moving parts what is a shell..
No way an acceptable action ! Why should I be even buying something that has been tinkered especially when I am paying through my freakin nose my hard earned money. Its my right to get a car that is mint fresh !

This happens only in India where the market is not in favor of a customer, though things are indeed changin but at a very slower pace.

There is already a thread dedicated 'exclusively' to Ford car owners, probably one of them should do something about this, READ hold the dealer responsible for this act !
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Old 2nd July 2010, 13:03   #37
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Brings up a question.

What does the dealership do to such a car?

To the best of interests of all, I think this is what the company should do.

List down the damage to the car.

List down the repairs required.

List the parts required.

Complete the job and put the car up for sale with a discount - depending upon the damage and what is required to mend it.

Any customer who gets the above list gets to know what he is buying and why the discount.

This way someone who wants a deal (I guess there are many) gets one and some folks who want pristine cars dont have to worry about being sold a "repaired" car.

And the last action.

Whoever the mechanic/worker who busted the car by driving it, should be expelled. His name balckmarked in their sheets and any background verification on such an employee should have a major flag against his name mentioning the incident and the costs involved in setting it up right + the discount offered to the customer.
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Old 2nd July 2010, 14:29   #38
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Originally Posted by jeeva View Post
He said "these days people come with a long PDI checklist from your bhp club (he meant T-bhp), so they should find out".
I just read this one now ! What the heck !!! On top of being ignorant morons they are now taking customers for granted.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jeeva View Post

My cousin booked a Swift vdi.
Though this wasnt the right solution. Carwise Figo would have fared better ! Just my thoughts....
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Old 2nd July 2010, 15:20   #39
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Dear All,

Quite a long list of of countermeasures suggested by all. I liked the ones suggested by Spitfire.

Having worked with a dealersip for 2 years and now working for an automobile manufactures,would like to pen down few thoughts.

This accident/incident has happened in dealership premises and sole responsibility lies on dealership. As we know that no dealership will want to lose money,in all probability they will repair the car and sell it. I say this because in my previous job at a dealership my collegue crashed a brand new accent into the wall,the car was subsequently sold as new car. Would like to tell you that new generation cars aren't very hard to repair as previous generation ones. The fronts are made up of panels. Especially in the sides are quarter panels which sits on inner frame. The panels are simply replaced. If there is underlying damage to the frame,again the frame is made up of number of small steel parts, these part are sent to dealers to by manufacturing company to deal with accident repair. Similarly bumpers to are replaced. Some manufacturers call their bumpers as '3 stage bumpers', they are nothing but bumpers in 3 stages or 3 parts,you may have observed that no longer are we are getting bumbers made up of steel. Even Maruti makes 'acrylic bumpers'. These bumpers are are made up of 'thermosetting' type of plastics. The good feature is that they do absorb some impact but break/crack as well. It is cheaper to replace such parts(esp bumpers). The auto dealerships have insurance tie ups wherein they insure with an insurance partner against such mishaps. Whenever such ugly incident happens,dealership informs the insurance and they take care and everything is handled swiftly. The owner (incase it is a service vehicle) never comes to know what happened while car was left for service.

All the suggestions mentioned in this thread is a natural outburst of a disgruntled customer who has just come to know what transpired. While not supporting what the dealership did and knowing that this should not happen to people like you and me, in reality,the dealership cannot think of sacking the erring employee,reason being that it is not easy to get skilled manpower. Most of the time the erring employee is severly repriminded and incentives are cut but never sacked. At this point would also give you inside info that in any dealership across in this country(IMHO), there is a strong lobby behind every service employee. The reason is double edged sword
1. How close is the erring employ close to General Manager service.
2. Strength of relationship of GM service to Dealer Principle (Dealership owner)

The reason is a dealer Principle (DP)would'n't want service man lobby to be rubbed wrong way,because it is the service who bring in the moolah everyday and not sales guy. In any dealership the DP is always close to service guys because break even is achieved not by sales but by service. All 'minor sins' are covered by service manager even if sales manager or the DP is informed about this misdemeanor.

I hope my explanation were easy to understand bt TBHPians. This insight is possible because of being associated with auto industry closely for last 11 years.

Regards
Andy
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Old 2nd July 2010, 15:44   #40
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nandans2005 View Post
i dont mind doing it. But tell me if it will yield any results in the right direction.

However, would you mind sending me the details to contact Ford.

lets try to change the way dealers work.
@nandans2005:

In these cases, the first step is awareness, otherwise it will be a "din't tell, din't see" policy these guys will apply - "saab, apne hamko bataya hi nahin" Atleast Ford can't say that.

In any case, I think Ford has been more responsive and I do not think they will tolerate this behaviour.

You can write at write2md@ford.com . I have sourced it from http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...s-india-2.html

You can also send a snail mail at:

President & Managing Director, Mr. Michael Boneham
Ford India P Ltd,
S.P. Koil Post
Chengalpattu - 603204
Phone : 91 44 27454375
Fax : 91 44 27455177

Cheers,

Last edited by diffsoft : 2nd July 2010 at 15:46.
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Old 2nd July 2010, 16:24   #41
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Smashing up a brand new car and then selling it to an unsuspecting customer is a "Minor sin"?

No offence meant, but which brand/company are you associated with?
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Old 2nd July 2010, 16:40   #42
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Spitfire View Post
Brings up a question.

What does the dealership do to such a car?

To the best of interests of all, I think this is what the company should do.

List down the damage to the car.

List down the repairs required.

List the parts required.

Complete the job and put the car up for sale with a discount - depending upon the damage and what is required to mend it.

Any customer who gets the above list gets to know what he is buying and why the discount.

This way someone who wants a deal (I guess there are many) gets one and some folks who want pristine cars dont have to worry about being sold a "repaired" car.

And the last action.

Whoever the mechanic/worker who busted the car by driving it, should be expelled. His name balckmarked in their sheets and any background verification on such an employee should have a major flag against his name mentioning the incident and the costs involved in setting it up right + the discount offered to the customer.
With due respect to your suggestions about the car, I am sorry but I don't agree with your view on the actions on the mechanic/worker.

I do understand the way they "use" new cars. Almost all thinks they are "Schumacher" and they treat cars like that too, but there may be incidences which are not part of this way of tackling the cars. why to be that harsh? I mean consider any genuine driver who can meet with an accident, would you like to penalize them in such harsh way?
It's just my thought though.

Thanks,
Pradip.
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Old 2nd July 2010, 16:42   #43
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Nice work Nandans.!

No doubt the car will be repaired and brought back to the showroom in couple of days (the dealer can easily replace the bumber and do the denting work on the other places). And will be sold to some one as New Car.

I presume some one from Ford community also reading TBHP threads, especially on Ford cars?
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Old 2nd July 2010, 16:53   #44
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pradipk View Post
I am sorry but I don't agree with your view on the actions on the mechanic/worker.
Oh well you dont have to I am not the blinfolded woman holding the scales anyways

It was just a suggestion.

Quote:
why to be that harsh? I mean consider any genuine driver who can meet with an accident, would you like to penalize them in such harsh way?
Every mechanic or whoever works in the showroom/Service Center should understand that the car he is driving/working on is not his and that it belongs to someone and he needs to take utmost care of it.

Accidents happen but if one is careless like the Figo driver here. Then its not an accident but delibrate.

Make a clause in the job approval that if the mechanic breaks something in a customers car he has to pay for the damages from his salary and see how they behave.
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Old 2nd July 2010, 16:57   #45
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@jeeva

What I have written is an insight on what usually happens not what I subscribe to. Read my post slowly again.

@diffsoft

Good move but in reality will not impact much. I doubt Ford India will really reply. They may at the most say "We will take care " or something like that. This is partly due to 2 reasons.
1. Everybody knows dealerships in the city have cramped working space.
2. Manufacturer does not interfere with dealerships operation unless it impacts manufacturer rating especially in something like JD Power SSI (Sales Satisfaction Index)

In this case a photo has been clicked by an alert BHPian, but what about the posibilities of such blunders which may be happening at every car dealerships? I am able to say this as I have been associated with Toyota,Hyundai and Maruti and seen what carelessness of staff can create and how it is covered - Major or minor
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