[drive2eternity]

I seldom discuss things which I read on TBhp with my wife. If I ever do, it's mostly a travelogue. However, today I told her about this poll as we had had a similar conversation last year during our car purchase discussions.
She came up with the below analogy.
Car buyer= prospective bride
Product= to be husband
After Sales and Service= future mother inlaw

Now, the bride has to weigh her options before taking the plunge.
Is the mother in law influential enough (in a negative way) for the bride to let go of a good product?
Or is the product so good, that the bride can consider dealing with a problematic mother in law?

According to her, a good product may warrant some adjustments with respect to mother inlaw but it is just never 'good enough'.
On the other hand, a good mother in law is not enough to seal the deal but a bad mother in law is enough to issue a Veto.

I stood stumped after hearing this, unable to decide if I should be happy or sad.

[onedotsix]

I owned a Skoda Rapid for 4 years(1.1 Lakh kilometers) and every time I drove the beast, there was a smile plastered on my face. Had to visit the service center for 4 warranty repairs(Engine bedding- 3 visits 14 days; Glow Plug warning light issue- 5 visits, 5 days; Diesel Pump- 1 visit, 18 days; Starter cylinder- 1 visit, 26 days).
Having been victim of such horrible After sales service, with the vehicle grounded for 50+ days in 4 years, finally decided to sell off the car and brought the S Cross 1.3 a month ago. Regret the decision, had to realize earlier, that its the product you live with.

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by Night Raven

But no matter how good Maruti's after sales is, I won't ever buy a celerio diesel.

A very good example in my opinion. Many have equated the poor product but good after sales option with maruti and Hyundai. Whereas new Maruti and Hyundai cars are as good as the best in the segment. They sell also well because they offer best of both worlds. A good product supported by an equally good after sales. Except ofcourse cars like celerio diesel (no offence) and it rightly does not sell well.

[Sebzgeo89]

In this day and age when almost all the cars are fairly reliable as long as you maintain and service it no matter the brand, product satisfaction plays a big role.
10 years back I would have looked for reliability and after sales, but not anymore.

[anurag.somani]

To add to the discussion, brand perceptions need to be continuously re-evaluated.

My experience aftee having owned a Figo for 4 yrs and Santro for 8 yrs in Bangalore -
Hyundai no longer stands for a very good A*S*S experience. The labour is expensive and the service advisors frequently fleece customers with unnecessary add-ons.
On the contrary, working with Ford A*S*S has been a breeze and the bills reasonable for most times.
So much that the next car home has been an Ecosport - that speaks a lot about customer relationship.
The workmanship of both has been great.

My vote would be to well built cars with reasonably good levels of customer service.

p.s: Great cars + bad service = "NO"; especially if cars are owned for extended periods.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by MAS

If this poll had come 5 years back, I would have voted for Product Satisfaction. But with 5 years of owning and maintaining the Ford All New Fiesta (2012 - 2016) and a pre-worshipped Endeavour (2012 - 2016), I voted for After-Sales-Service.

I was forced to sell my Endeavour three weeks back due to lack of proper Service.

How bad had the service become, especially in Chennai where I believe Ford has its operations for India.

Though I am pretty satisfied with my current ride, the next SUV will either be these two and after looking at the new Ford Endeavour, it is pretty hard to look at the Toyota Fortuner. Only saving grace is, it has a MT.

The only good thing about a Ford is, it won't leave you stranded anywhere, this much faith I have.

[joe_antony]

Car purchase is more like a marriage. You may fall for the 'features' and 'fun', in the beginning but once the initial euphoria fades it's the A.S.S which does matter. That's what I voted for.

[agambhandari]

I guess there has to be a minimum level of both for me. Ranging from A.S.S. from Maruti to Skoda(famously the worst), I guess I'm okay with bad upto the level of ford/chevy (cars which i have actually experienced the sales and support). So upto these brands, if i see a car that really stands out above the rest , I would get that over something that would be more reliable for good A.S.S (something like a Suzuki/Honda etc.).
But Skoda, VW I don't know what they will have to do to convince me to buy it . Lol But of course it changes if they can really improve their service(which they say they have been improving now for years)

[Debashis_1]

I voted for Product satisfaction. But if there would be an option to vote for both, I would have voted for both. A perfect balance between A.S.S and product satisfaction is needed for peace of mind.

Say a X brand manufacturer has great A.S.S, but mediocre products (cars). It will be a big pain in neck if the car breaks down every now or then. Would you like to visit service center frequently?

Say a Y brand manufacturer has excellent product line up but very pathetic A.S.S. Would you like to wait for weeks/months just to have your car serviced or parts replaced?

[amalji]

It has to be a mix of both. And even the voting pattern seems to suggest so. 1:1
The product has to be good in the first place and should meet your requirements.

The 'good' doesn't necessarily mean beating on the feature's list or the spec sheet comparison. Think about what you will be using the product for and list down the "Must haves". Then list down the desirables and then see, if the product meets the must haves, and how much of your desirables are given by the product.

After sales should be an additional criteria. I would put 60:40 for product:after sales and then take a cumulative score.

[MAS]

Originally Posted by Sheel

How bad had the service become, especially in Chennai where I believe Ford has its operations for India.

Though I am pretty satisfied with my current ride, the next SUV will either be these two and after looking at the new Ford Endeavour, it is pretty hard to look at the Toyota Fortuner. Only saving grace is, it has a MT.

The only good thing about a Ford is, it won't leave you stranded anywhere, this much faith I have.

My cars were regularly serviced at MPL Ford. I used to visit MPL Pallikaranai or OMR, both were within 7 kms from my residence.

Whenever my cars were given for regular service, i always used to wait at the service centres and drive it back. Service used to take about 3-4 hours and the car was back with me by afternoon the same day.

After MPL Shut shop, almost a year back, Ford took a long time to rope in Eureka Ford. Due to this delay, almost all the good technicians and mechanics had left MPL, leaving a big hole in their service levels, particularly for the Endeavour.

Ford Endeavour is a reliable truck and will not leave you stranded. Ford service levels are much better than when i first bought the Ford Fusion in 2007. If you are able to build a rapport with the some of the L3 technicians, things are much easier. But, when the truck throws up niggles, the Service Team sometimes are unable to diagnose the problem and solve it once and for all.

Wish you good luck with your purchase.

[Paradox p100d]

Voted for product satisfaction
In my opinion ,There are many factors that play an important role in choosing one of the above
1) the purpose of the car:
Whether the car is used primarily for performing household duties or for personal enjoyment (for personal enjoyment I'd rather have a VW Polo GT DSG than a reliable jazz CVT and vice versa for household duties )

2) how long the car is kept in the family:
The longer you keep the car or older the car gets the overall product reliabilityand A.S.S play an important role

3) it also depends on how many cars you have or whether you would be able to manage without a car for a while,
having a backup car while one is getting repaired done at the workshop won't be as big a pain in the back as say having your only form of transport stuck at the workshop for some time(say a week or two in a span of 2-3 months)

4) depends on how many cars you have owned:
I would rather choose a reliable car with strong A.S.S rather than a tarmac scorcher as a first car

[mxx]

I voted for product satisfaction
I spend 99% of the time in the drivers seat, and I will not buy a car that cannot excite me for even 10 minutes of driving, does not matter to me if the car will last 15 years without any problem.

[subuiyer]

I choose the product because that is what starts the story while aftersales will always be a part of it. The product has to entice me first - tick all the right boxes in the list. Aftersales could be one of those boxes.

Have purchased 3 vehicles so far. The only time aftersales appeared on my check list was for my latest purchase, and it was not even in the top 5.

I am surprised that we are at 51/49 for product/aftersales after about 260 votes. Expected it to be a bit more lopsided.

[speedogod]

Though my mind says after-sales satisfaction (Thats what I voted for)

But my heart says Product quality. And after voting I realized that when I finally buy my cars, Product quality weighs heavy on my mind than After-sales and I take a plunge for the better product.

Oh god! why I don't get both in one package (Combo offer maybe).