Team-BHP - Perils of having a Mass Market Euro Car Dealership

Gave my Skoda for service yesterday at Vinayak

Normally it is a bit of a task as I need to either park in a very tight spot and manovering cars around is a fraught task. Either that or I park on the road.

Yesterday, I went in early and wonders of wonders, I found plenty of space for the cars coming into today and more. I spoke to the service manager

"what happened? Is business so bad that no cars come in for service?"

"No saar, with the Rapid, we will need more space for new inventory, so we moved the inventory over there and only PDI cars come there"

He then added:

"Most of the cars moved from here were cars with issues?"

"Issues?"

"People buy secondhand cars for 4-5 lakhs, drive belt, injector pump fails and the bill is 2 lakhs or so, they just leave the car or the estimate is too high so they walk away"

Most of the cars were those with snapped timing belts, some of the fault 4 cyl Fabia's, two of three old Superbs which have some design fault issues but too old for the company to cover.

Think of the litigation effort that is required to finally get rid or formally scrap these cars. My estimate is that there were around 20 cars and that too not the popular ones!

But a person who has dumped his car at the dealer for the need of money will would not be forthcoming to pay the rent. Even the dealer I am sure will not go for litigation since the costs will be more then the rent they might get. Its just like the so many cars standing at police stations and MCD parking lots waiting to be claimed.

Most smart dealerships i know always demand an advance before starting work on any expensive job. Also the parking charges in any dealership are too high in case there is a delay in picking up the car.

The timing belt snapping is a problem with most second hand cars with tampered odo. The real issue is when the car is sold, the odometer is reversed by more than half, the new owner does not change the belt(most of the time the car is already beyond the specified interval) and keeps using the car and the belt snaps. The first thing i always advise to all second hand car buyers is to get timing belt changed irrespective of what the odo says.

:OT, I sold the second of the four Octavias that I had at various points of time to somebody way back in 2007. After a week, I went to the workshop for servicing my Laura. There I saw the car I sold which had landed there for replacing its alternator, which had packed up 5 days after I settled the sale. As you know, Skoda alternators are priced as if they are made of gold or silver. I talked with the service manager, and he told me that the new owner's eyes popped out when he learned about the forthcoming bill. But he had agreed, and had already paid an advance. I paid the remaining amount of the estimate without even asking the owner. The car was still in my name, the RTO was yet to act on the transfer application. The new owner was speechless, and we remain thick friends even today, and opened up a business alliance also!

Of course, my driver, accountant, cashier, manager all called my action crazy!

Actually Skoda should really do something about those spare part prices. They are in the end losing a lot of customers. The cars are good and I would love to own one. But the fear of something or the other misbehaving and ending up getting replaced makes a big dent to any plans of buying the car. Maybe if they could atleast price there parts sensibly, more number of people will be willing to explore the car. This is offtopic but I felt linked to the thread in a way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yeldo

I paid the remaining amount of the estimate without even asking the owner.
Of course, my driver, accountant, cashier, manager all called my action crazy!

Respect, not sure if I would do that if in such a situation specially considering the fact that it just was a coincidence. Having read this, maybe I will think. :)

I had just now posted in another thread where someone bought a new Laura and .anshuman quoted quite a few threads of good ownership there. But this is the kind of service that needs to be highlighted so that people actually know what they are getting into rather than seeing some rosy ownerships and thinking that all is fine and one fine day they park their car in the service centre.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yeldo (Post 2646568)

There I saw the car I sold which had landed there for replacing its alternator, which had packed up 5 days after I settled the sale. As you know, Skoda alternators are priced as if they are made of gold or silver. I talked with the service manager, and he told me that the new owner's eyes popped out when he learned about the forthcoming bill. But he had agreed, and had already paid an advance. I paid the remaining amount of the estimate without even asking the owner. The new owner was speechless, and we remain thick friends even today, and opened up a business alliance also!

Of course, my driver, accountant, cashier, manager all called my action crazy!

An act of Godly proportions in this real world. No one, i mean no one would even fill 500 bucks of petrol too after they part with their vehicle.

Again :OT, Thank you for kind words. In my nearly two decades of vehicle ownership, I've sold many, many cars. I keep in touch with every single person who has bought , including some in outside states, a vehicle from me, even after they resell the vehicles. Many even invite me to family functions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stormsearcher (Post 2646683)

@yeldo- I am willing to buy the next car you wanna sell. :-D

I'm afraid all my cars except the Verna (which I keep for sentimental reasons) are "pre- booked" by people I know. :) My cars are never driven above 80kmph (the usual is 50- 60), I keep every single service receipt, write down the exact liters of fuel I put in the cars date- wise, and keep a log- book for each of my vehicles, on who drove the car, kms covered, number of passengers, condition of raods, minor incidents (stone chippings, sudden braking, etc.), and do a full service, clean up & check- up before selling. And I make sure that the tank is at least half full when the buyer takes the keys from me. But I insist on full payment of the agreed price before taking away the car. And I don't haggle too much on price, I let the buyer quote his price first, and if he isn't ridiculous, he gets the car without much bargaining.

For me, an automobile is not a white good or appliance or hotel room. It's a part of my persona, a piece of my life.