[alpha1]

Originally Posted by Nilesh5417

Jagdish Khattar's carnation also was one of the entrants in this market. Its launch was with much fanfare but i hardly see any workshops/dealerships around. Don't know anyone who has availed their services either so no feedback.

So that is Bosch & Carnation that i know of. Now did they fail cause they are traditionally not known as really strong brands in the minds of retail customers? Will Mahindra trump because of its strong brand association as a vehicle manufacturer? Maybe people will actually give Mahindra a try cause they are "known".

Let's see the economics.
A local garage"walla" works on your vehicle for service.
He has an objective of running his shop, and earning a living.
The parts and consumables are available "off the shelf" - perhaps this garage-walla can eke out some margin on this, the next thing where he earns is the service component which in India is expected to be priced for free. Thus he has to cut down a little bit here.

There is no external CEO here, who has a resume to polish, no Board Directors who will be remunerated for attending board meetings, and no chain of managerial hierarchy each one with his personal career agenda.

What about Bosch and Carnation etc?
Who will pay for all the fluff? How will these enterprise make money (so that the MD gets to buy a new Bentley). How will they increase their revenue and reduce the costs - compared to the garage-walla?

[Nilesh5417]

Originally Posted by alpha1

Let's see the economics.
A local garage"walla" works on your vehicle for service.
He has an objective of running his shop, and earning a living.
The parts and consumables are available "off the shelf" - perhaps this garage-walla can eke out some margin on this, the next thing where he earns is the service component which in India is expected to be priced for free. Thus he has to cut down a little bit here.

There is no external CEO here, who has a resume to polish, no Board Directors who will be remunerated for attending board meetings, and no chain of managerial hierarchy each one with his personal career agenda.

What about Bosch and Carnation etc?
Who will pay for all the fluff? How will these enterprise make money (so that the MD gets to buy a new Bentley). How will they increase their revenue and reduce the costs - compared to the garage-walla?

You might want to take into consideration the vast majority of owners who do not mind paying the premium for peace of mind (even if its only a mirage!) and get their cars serviced at dealerships. I'm one of them. My Getz has seen the Bosch service in Viman Nagar once and the result was enough for me to go back and pay the premium Kothari Hyundai charges me for service!

We rant and rave on forums but still find some solace in the fact that organized sector is still way better than the local garage owner. I've myself experienced the magic of being able to post my rant on the manufacturers FB page. I got faster response than i got when i was talking in person at the service center! I can never expect that from the local garage guy.

So will i ever go back to the local garage -- not unless someone here recommends me a garage after years of relationship. And that hasn't happened much yet. Not with the busy life (IT at least) and the city hopping we do for a living. I've never managed to forge relationships strong enough to trust the unorganized sector with my prized possessions.

The revenue shall come if the service quality is good, they are close by (or have free pickup/drop off) and they don't aim to make the margins that dealers do. The initial costs of setup will be high but this is a marathon. If nothing else, i'm in if the quality is good, they are around in my vicinity (really important for most i guess), parts cost about the same, labour rates are cheaper by 5%. A 5% off my regular service bill on the Getz (including cleaning) will shave off a nice Rs.200.

My real worry is that with multi-car outfits, how do you ensure that a guy with Maruti doesn't feel short changed over a guy with BMW or an expensive ride? His car is just as important to him!

Am happy for the CEOs of these outfits who drive Bentley as long as my ride runs well and i save some money myself. So am not contesting your opinion, i just have my own that if they manage to address the complaints that we have with service centers at regular dealerships, they stand a fighting chance with the Mahindra brand.

[greenhorn]

That's where the Bhpian network comes into play! Our own reviews of friendly neighbourhood garages is a good place to start to look for the good ones. I've found a lot of good independent workshops in chennai thanks to the reviews here, and done my share of experimenting with workshops and posting my reviews.

[zenren]

+1 to the reliable neighborhood garages.

Based on my experience across multiple cities, there are a lot of good mechanics who quit the MASS to start their own garages. These folks are mostly the senior ones of the lot who were sent for training to Maruti and might never have a look at our car in A.S.S. unless it has a very complicated work to be done. They get the required parts through the authorized spare outlets like MGP outlets and service the cars.

FNG guy relies on the word of mouth advertising and hence less likely to compromise on the work than a staff in the authorized service station who always has the option to get a job in a different service station if his current employer shuts shop.

If you can find such FNGs in your area, you are unlikely to go elsewhere and might even have a chance to get a good used car at reasonable price for your next upgrade if someone else who regularly visits there might be thinking of upgrading.

[viggienomad]

Originally Posted by Nilesh5417

....
So that is Bosch & Carnation that i know of. ...

There's 'My TVS' (from TVS Group) who claims to have numerous service centers throughout India (except J&K and NE states). http://www.mytvs.in/24x7-breakdown-assistance/our-reach

They are around for years, but haven't met anybody who does service there. But still I think that counts as one more 'organised' national multi brand car service setup.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by Nilesh5417

The revenue shall come if the service quality is good, they are close by (or have free pickup/drop off) and they don't aim to make the margins that dealers do. The initial costs of setup will be high but this is a marathon. If nothing else, i'm in if the quality is good, they are around in my vicinity (really important for most i guess), parts cost about the same, labour rates are cheaper by 5%. A 5% off my regular service bill on the Getz (including cleaning) will shave off a nice Rs.200.

My real worry is that with multi-car outfits, how do you ensure that a guy with Maruti doesn't feel short changed over a guy with BMW or an expensive ride? His car is just as important to him!

Am happy for the CEOs of these outfits who drive Bentley as long as my ride runs well and i save some money myself. So am not contesting your opinion, i just have my own that if they manage to address the complaints that we have with service centers at regular dealerships, they stand a fighting chance with the Mahindra brand.

The service workshops of the dealers is not much far apart from the Bosch's and Carnations.

I was talking about local garage, where he doesn't have too high costs and profit targets committed to the board of directors. And hence a genuine servicing.

Dealer's workshop try to increase their revenue (by compelling you to buy new spare for every problem), whereas the Carnations and Bosch try to reduce their cost (by reducing the service component).
Both ways you suffer.

[SilverMachine]

Hi

Opening up an old thread to narrate my experience with the MFC service centre here in Bavdhan, Pune. I had booked an online appointment for servicing and got at least a million calls from the telephone operator/receptionist at the centre to confirm my booking. The appointment was booked on 23-Sep and was for 27-Sep morning (9:30 am). I reached there on time but it took a long time for them to actually start working. By the time they started, I asked them to do just a general check-up because I didn't want to waste too much time over there. To cut a long story short, it was an irritating experience and I'm not going back to those guys again. Here are the things that irked me no end:

1) One of the service centre guys opened up the electric external RVM to check his hairstyle...by pulling on the mirror instead of using the switch. I got really irritated and gave him a good verbal thrashing.

2) In spite of asking them not to wash the car, they did the same with a dirty cloth. I hate it when these people send in their 'experts' for a car wash. I always do it myself, no exceptions.

3) As expected, when I turned the key to start the car while leaving, the wipers started functioning at maximum speed, the car stereo was blasting at full volume and the headlights and fog lamps were turned on. While I agree that they need to check it during a 'check-up', I never asked them to keep these things turned 'on'. It was a 'goodwill' gesture on their part to leave an indelible mark on my mind.

That sums up my experience with MFC services. I was cursing myself for not having gone to my local, trusted mechanic. Lesson learned - no more experimentation from now on. I love my car too much to leave her with incompetent 'you-know-whats' .