[wheelguy]

Steffen Knapp, director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars with the Volkswagen Assistance program car

Volkswagen announced the launch of its door-to-door service experience, ‘Volkswagen Assistance’ in India today. Aimed at enhancing customer’s experience, the program will offer doorstep services that will include small on-site repairs, breakdown assistance and service jobs.

To enable this service, Volkswagen has introduced a fleet of service vehicles, which are equipped to offer immediate services to customers. The ‘Assistance’ vehicle will provide services to customers within a 25 km catchment area of select Volkswagen service center across India. The Volkswagen Assistance program offers customers with peace of mind and basic maintenance services without having the hassle to visit a workshop.

Commenting on this announcement, Steffen Knapp, director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India said, “At Volkswagen, we are constantly working towards enhancing our customer experience through various programs. We aim to offer a holistic purchase experience with a special focus on aftersales service initiatives. Volkswagen’s Assistance is our unique program that is specifically curated for customers with a fast-paced life, technologically savvy and prefer convenience at their door-step.”

Initially, Volkswagen’s Assistance program will be available at 60 select dealerships across 45 cities of the Volkswagen service network in India. Through the doorstep service, Volkswagen claims that it will be able to reach a wider network of customers and enable a faster resolution to their basic service needs.

Though late, it's a good initiative, Maruti already had similar service program. Hope other manufacturers who doesn't have such services follow the suit, will be of great help for minor repairs, oil changes, and minor inspections. But can a small hatchback like Polo accommodate all the necessary kit? they should have chosen a minivan or pickup from other brands.

Source: Autocar Professional

[ankur_fox]

Hopefully this won't just be another channel for the service centre manipulating you into unnecessary repairs and higher billings.

[VWAllstar]

Does this mean the service costs will be doubled?

Whatever VW/Skoda does we can never stop having apprehensions about how much they would charge us? This year they gave labour free services upto 15000 Kms and yet I don't see people with lesser service bills.