Team-BHP - Mercedes RoadSide assistance in India

Quote:

Originally Posted by 99w210

In USA, I know that for the life of a Mercedes Benz ( regardless of how many owners change ). Mercedes roadside assistance is free. It includes, free gas in case of emergency, jump start and free flat tire changing.. Is sucha a facility available in India?.

are you sure of this? i thought you get it free for first year an after that you have to pay. kinda like on-star.

Manufacturer need to be spanked by the govt for not providing basic warranty. I think labour and parts have to be paid for if something goes wrong to a car in india.

you dont have pay for anythinig except oil changes for 4 yrs in most cars sold here in the US...What are the manufacturers thinking? they charge you the same MSRP, but dont give the bare minimum service required..

ok. i uncovered this scam about a week back and this might be the thread to share it.

i went to get my automech exhaust fitted to a sidey dusty garage and what do i find .. a shiny black mercedes s-class parked inside with no badging ..

after some questioning i figure out that the lady driving it had wrecked it by running over a divider and the total bill quoted by mercedez showroom was close to 48L.

now here's the interesting part .. this car was being repaired in this garage by the SAME MERCEDES TECHNICIANS, USING ORIGINAL MERCEDES EQUIPMENT AND MERCEDES ORIGINAL PARTS, only difference being this time it was outside the showroom. I mean there were atleast 10 different people from mercedes working on it .. A mercedes techy came with this huge suitcase embedded with a laptop that got connected to the merc so that they could configure the ABS, suspension etc.

The entire thing seemed so sytematic and well orchestrated .. i was like *** ..

I have some low res pics too .. dunno if should share them ..

at a cost of 22L

this is a juggar in india every thing is possible.....the low cost of the local garage due to less overhead is helping in getting good customer....

I have one example my friend had a honda city his silence got rusted and corroded due to the passage of time and sound of the exhast was coming out ,he went to the showroom at southend honda as for the price they quoted nearly..20-25k for the silencer....he was surprised to hear the price.....he went to the local mechanice asked for him for the silencer he arranged the silencer for 2k.......and the car is still running fine and this incident is nearly 1.5 year back........no problem in the car seen till now......

Quote:

Originally Posted by low_bass_makker

this is a juggar in india every thing is possible.....the low cost of the local garage due to less overhead is helping in getting good customer.

no dude .. i think you misunderstood the story .. maybe i didnt communicate properly .. lemme try this again ..

here the quality of the garage has nothing to do with it .. they might as well be doing in your backyard .. the reason is that the same people and same equipment (note: i didn't say similar) are working on the car outside the showroom .. my understanding is that this is orchestrated by a group at the showroom who convinces the customer to follow this route

winners
mechanics > as in showroom they only get a fixed salary, now they get that salary anyways plus extra dough under the table
customer > obviously, as he is paying 22L against quoted 48L

losers
mercedes > either the showroom/franchise owners or perhaps just the company (in case the franchise is in on this i.e.)

Guys,
I'am sure that Mercedes in USA has a lifetime roadside assistance. I've
used it a couple of times on my E320...BMW carries roadside assistance
only for 3 yrs...but mercedes is for lifetime..Infact, this is one of the
factors that people consider while contemplating to buy a Merc Vs BMW.

I know for sure that Merc also offer such assistance in remote parts
of africa..I've read that some other mercedes forum.

Its very sad that Mercedes doesn't offer this kind of service in India,
obviously this service is included in the price of the vehicle. The
way it works is when you call the toll-free number for assistance, they
inform the nearest dealer and they will come to you in a "MERCEDES"
vehicle and help you out..the dealer charges the company in return.

Maybe, mercedes in india also offers the service but we do not know...

Anybody with a mercedes in india should find more about this...

Dealer vs independent mechanic charges
---------------------------------------

Even in USA, the dealer charges are really exorbient...We can find
independent mechanic shops who specialize in european cars, wherein
the mechanics are none other than the guys who work at the
dealerships...they charge around 30% less than the actual dealer...if
they require a special toll/computer system that only the dealer carries,
they have connections so they get it done by the dealer...

If its not a warranty item, I always look for an independent dealer first..

Quote:

No such service/s. Not even by Maruti.
Someday. May be someday.

Rudra, that 99w210 is talking about roadside assitance and most manufacturers DO offer it. Some do for a limited period (say when the car is within warranty) but some like Mercedes and Honda do offer lifetime support. Its a very grey area in terms of cost. If you get your car serviced regularly from the authorised service stations, then there is no service charge. Else there is anywhere between a 300 rupee to 700 rupee charge per visit.

Maruti, Hyundai, Tata, Mahindra (yes Mahindra) etc. all offer the same. And among other services - fuel, breakdown service etc. are provided.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 99w210 (Post 277285)

WE dont get a fair treatment forget about free assistance mercedes robs you everytime there stupid and ediotic product fails because of there unrelaiable part and then with out any reson they keep increasing the cost of there vehicles by 30 40 thousand in one go and we indians are just blinded by 3 pointed star we are unable to see anyhting other than a merc
sorry:
In the end you get what you deserve and we re robbed like we re foolish indians why dont they have same style in other countries like they have here because we take crap from them can any body explain me when i was working in calgary canada the c 240 with a bigger engine was priced at 32000 cdn which was 14 lacks then why the hell is c200 more than 26 lacks when they only pay 24 % excise it should be 17 lacks at the most i can under stand the 102 % import duty logic but fail to understand this day light robberywithstupid could ne bodyplease: explain to me