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-   -   Case For Foreign Brands Making Spares Of Older Models Available (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/119042-case-foreign-brands-making-spares-older-models-available.html)

The once foreign, now India based automobile manufacturers making cars and two wheelers can consider this as a suggestion.
In India, it is very difficult to source spares of old cars and bikes (need not be a vintage and classic but even a recently discontinued model), especially of foreign origin.The spares are if not plentifully but at least available in the Western and developed markets.
The point is that the car and bike makers, mainly the multinationals were not present in the Indian market till recently, but most of them have established bases here for a long term stay.
Most of them do not manufacture spares of older and discontinued models, but are very well aware of companies/ brands manufacturing these with their requisite standards of quality control.
It will be a welcome move on the part of these companies to acquire and make available spares of their older models at the service centres. This move will benefit many old car owners who like to keep these beauties going.
Like for instance, someone owns an old imported Mercedes Ponton or a fintail or the later models of the 1970's, 80's and 90's. He or she would be very happy to get his car serviced and repaired by the Authorised Service Centre rather than approach the grey market.
Moreover, this will also in most cases ensure brand loyalty and the owner will like to buy more automobiles from the same company.
I am sure automobile manufacturers will surely give a thought to this ides and try to source good quality spares into India to keep their older models plying here fit and running.
It will be a pleasure to have the older Mercedes', Honda cars and bikes,BMW cars and bikes, VW's (incl. Beetles), Chevrolets, Fords, Audis and many, many other brands get all their spares from showrooms and ASC's. :thumbs up

I really do hope spares would be made available for old/discontinued models.

Forget cars from the 80s and 90s; it took Chevrolet A.S.S. almost 2 weeks to source a part of the gear cable assembly. They didn't have it; a major distributor in Pune didn't have it. I'm sure it'll get only worse.

Although every car owner would like to retain his car as long as spares are available and viable; I wonder which manufacturer/dealer/distributor would go through the trouble of maintaining inventory with no guaranteed returns.

Forget cars, it is difficult to get spares of older model manufacturing machines. When we were looking for spares, we were given to understand by reputed German and Swiss manufacturers that electronics spares are normally available for 5 years and mechanical spares for 10 years. When that is the case with machinery costing in crores, we should be grateful that spares for consumer cars are available at all.

However manufacturers have enough expertise and know how to substitute parts. As far as mechanical parts are concerned, there are manufacturers in the business of supplying certain types of spares for older machinery. For electronic control systems, the latest available is adapted to substitute for the old one.

In the old days, I remember hearing that almost all parts for imported cars were manufactured in Ludhiana, on order, by small workshops.

The only way nowadays is to order the part from UK / USA or Europe. There is lot of info available and almost all spare part dealers in foreign shores are ready to ship to india. The only challenge is the high pricing and customs harrasment. A replacement part in such a scenario is heavy on the pocket. If a company (Parent Company) has the do this, the part will become more and more costly. I am talking something like 30,000 for a clutch cable for a Classic VW Beetle.

Now how many would be ready to spend that much. For those few, who do not bother about costs, There is always the conventional option of ordering online and paying the customs duties.

Maruti has refused myself defogger switch and demister switch for the Zen 2003 model.
They said they do not provide same any more .There are various other articles for Zen/1000/Esteem which are shown as stopped for ordering permanently in there internal ordering system.

I wonder who will listen to the argument above though i hope companies do .

This problem is across all products. Even the basic rule (of the Japs) of providing spares and service for ten years is often breached. I had a problem with the Sony camcorder in 1993 and the result is I have gone off Sony, a brand which I loved and respected.

With old cars the only option is to import, unless the companies specialising in spares of imports are willing to help.

No offence, sir, but I wonder how practical it is to expect electronic/appliance parts to be available with service centres after the model has been discontinued.
These evolve at a much quicker rate than cars and a camera or phone one buys today would appear primitive just two years down the line. How viable would it be for companies to keep producing parts for these?

What you are suggesting is that if your mobile packs up after six months do not expect any warranty repairs.

The law says 10 years. I bet you will not make this comment if you were in Europe. Also, they always have the option of replacing with a newer equivalent model. In my case Sony finally got it to their factory in Delhi and took 15 months to fix it. Did it foc, but it lasted all of one year!

It's simple economics at play here. As long as there is demand, supply will follow. Remember, part manufacturers exist solely for profits. If there is a ready market, why wouldn't they supply to it?

Therefore, you'll seldom have a problem sourcing parts for popular models. Example of a discontinued car that still has a healthy parts supply (in the after-market too) : 1st gen Honda City. On the other hand, with discontinued duds (Baleno, Astra, Fiats etc.) you'll always face an issue in sourcing parts.

I disagree for the simple reason that it's MUCH cheaper to source parts for these (and current) cars online, or through the after-market. Would you pay Rs. 40,000 for a Ponton part that you could easily buy off the web, Ebay or Opera House for Rs. 10,000? Parts available through the official channel will always be very expensive.

As far as Mercedes is concerned they do provide spares for their older models. I have got spares for my Fintail from the MB dealer. Some spares are reasonable but some are way too expensive.