Team-BHP - My Mechanic is the best in the world
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(the following facts are what I perceive as true. Take it as freedom of speech)

Its Silver jubilee and time for every Maruti owner to rejoice(I own two 800). As owners we would be relishing the monopoly Maruti has created in the small car market. Wov this sounds heartwarming to everyone..

err.............. waittt A closer look.

Since 1983 the main reason everyone choose Maruti again n again an again is for its superb service and reliability. To put it frankly, Suzuki gives its overused design dies cheaply and maruti promptly gets them into India and fits them with same old technology. The Best thing Maruti does is serving as a local mechanic at the knock and corners of your city. While Maruti did its mechanic job perfectly keeping all its cars spic & span, the Susuki kept making its own cars which it least bothered to release in India and even if it cares to release, the inside of the car is never the same as the original. Again, this creative mod jobs of new cars with old Suzuki engines and gadgets is trademark of our Mechanic Maruti. Basically Maruti has not prodced a single car on its own.

Also Maruti has successfully knowledge transferred its mechanic capabilities to many young aspiring youths who have setup their own workshop all around the country. These seemingly super fast guys don't know much about cars, but know very well about Maruti cars. Again, all this is to keep your Suzuki, sorry Maruti car working for ages to come.

Today, this kind of Maruti Mechanics have grown to such a huge number that they have started to have a gripping influence on the upcoming car market. Ofcourse, majority of these guys cant repair any other car other than the Maruti. So they blindly disregard any new cars with new technology. Infact, just to keep their customers coming they have been successfully in manipulating the reputation of every new car. And, we Indians with our pathetic salaries and budget can not afford to take the risk or have the exposure to understand this, but just to agree to our highly intelligent local mechanic.

So the next time you hear to a mechanic saying that this new car has poor resale value, costly spares, low mileage, poor customer service... just think twice!!!. This could be a well organised Con job....

to be honest, no other manufacturer has done the same. and a working car is far better than a better , but non functional car :P

you really hate maruti, dont you ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenhorn (Post 1093335)
to be honest, no other manufacturer has done the same. and a working car is far better than a better , but non functional car :P

you really hate maruti, dont you ?

Its been 25 years dude. You(Maruti) gottu move on and let way for the good stuff.

if a spark gets stuck in the middle of the highway in a remote area, do you curse maruti because they have a workshop nearby and chevrolet doesnt ? Its not like maruti is making their mechanics sign non compete agreements and preventing them from learning other cars. microsoft and sun have tons of people certified by themselves. this lets them sell products because of the widely available manpower. is this anticompetitive?

If you are a new manufacturer, try doing the same. Maruti didnt get every mechanic trained for free. stop complaining and do something.

PS: tata does have this to some extent , thanks to the widespread use of the indica as a taxi, most mechanics know how to work on the indica/indigo family. One of the reasons I bought one. Any manufacturer who sets his mind to get this done can do it , as tata has shown. You're just whining because some of your favourite manufacturers havent :p

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenhorn (Post 1093342)
if a spark gets stuck in the middle of the highway in a remote area, do you curse maruti because they have a workshop nearby and chevrolet doesnt ? Its not like maruti is making their mechanics sign non compete agreements and preventing them from learning other cars. microsoft and sun have tons of people certified by themselves. this lets them sell products because of the widely available manpower. is this anticompetitive?

If you are a new manufacturer, try doing the same. Maruti didnt get every mechanic trained for free. stop complaining and do something.

PS: tata does have this to some extent , thanks to the widespread use of the indica as a taxi, most mechanics know how to work on the indica/indigo family. One of the reasons I bought one. Any manufacturer who sets his mind to get this done can do it , as tata has shown. You're just whining because some of your favourite manufacturers havent :p

whining, no way. Its fact that the only way to get a good ride in India(not SUV) is to import a car by paying twice the actual price. And, reputed world known cars wont breakdown that easy. Also, if it does I will be happy to tow my car to the nearest dealership who is having trained workmen. As of me, I wont sacrifice on comfort and ride quality just because I am nostalgic about the once in a lifetime highway breakdown.

The microsoft example is a good one. Trained workforce is not a scarcity, but its not an abundance as in Maruti. As I said Maruti is a mechanic who enjoys tax benifits and fails to improvise latest technology.

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenhorn (Post 1093342)
if a spark gets stuck in the middle of the highway in a remote area...

Why would that even happen??? Proper maintenance and these cars should not be having any such issues. I guess this breakdown in middle of nowhere is an overhang of amby/premier padmini era. And also this "MASS all over the place" sounds little hyped-up for me. If for example SX4 catches cold in middle of no where, do you think these guys are capable of handling it? BTW why would sx4 will even develop snag in first place.

A friend of mine, driving a decade old carb esteem broke down(:D...) some where between bhavani and salem. People who have used this road, knows what a busy highway it is. Basically his fuel pump gave up. The engine will stall after about 5 mins of driving.

He tried with atleast 2 garages on that highway. MASS, i suppose. And heard all kind of stories and arm and leg as the cost for fixing it. He then did an audacious thing of driving that "will work for only 5 mins before giving up" car all the way to bangalore and had to wait for about 10 days before the part "arrived". I am sure there are others having a positive highway break down experience with MASS. And would love to hear that..

BTW, it is not that i am supporting ritz's conspiracy theory...

Ok, since both of you are off to good communication, I might also jump in! :) (EDIT: ok, GKrishn jumped in before me. More the merrier!)

So, Ritz, are you worried that Maruti, even with some many years of having a good ride in the Indian market, is still not offering its best?

If so, yes, I do agree with you.

But then, the fact that they are still able to make very good numbers and are the most sought after brand also means that they have got their act right, isnt it.

We, aka Indian customers, need to stop buying if we feel that we are being sold some under-rated product, but we don't. So, why should the manufacturer stop if there is a demand?

Next, about mechanics: true that we get a MASS more frequently placed than a bus stop, but then, this is again that market playing. The mechanics found that they get more money working with Maruti, so why should the mechanics protest?

Bottom line: unless the consumer changes, nothing will change. (which, I believe, all of us already know.)

EDIT: Responding to GKrish,

In my few years of driving my Alto in India, the 3 times that I needed to go to a road side MASS was for side mirror change (hate the Indica's for that!!!). And each time the price varied from 500 to 700 Rs, whereas in Bangalore I get it for Rs 300.

But, regardless of MASS being omnipresent (am pushing this!) I do not think that the quality is there. Most of these shops are opened by people who had spent some time in another authorized center and decided that they are competent enough to work independently. So, unless it is a recognized and of a good chain, I really do not think that you will get good work, but this is an exception. There are quite a number of very (very) competent mechanics who have started on their own because of all the dung (from "Dungsville") that they had to stand at the authorized centers.

@happywheel. This is what is called monopoly. And its hard to bring back the competition and get valuable products delivered to Indian customers. I am sure Maruti enjoys unwanted import/export subsidies and many more which if given to intelligent car makes could make a big difference.

Now, India is talking about Malaysian low quality car manufacturer - Proton cars establilshing their base in India. Lol, this promotes more selling of Indian resources cheaply to outsiders.

Chekout A-star. It developed to suit the European market and Indian's are let to get a small bite of it.
A-star shortcomings:
High dash board, Elevated front glass, tight steering, thick A-pillars, cramped rear seats, minimal boot space - make it suitable only for European roads and not for Indian city or even Indian highway holidays.

it WAS a monopoly. now all they have is the first mover advantage in a chicken and egg game. you get widespread sales and service only if there are a lot of cars. and cars will sell only if there is widespread sales and service. Maruti just happens to be one of the manufacturers that got lucky at this game.

In america, chevrolet had this and several other advantages, and still japanese manufacturers beat them in their own home ground. What makes you think they'll do any better here ?

@gkrish - not breakdowns, but still some issues - like once we had a headlight relay dying at night in a baleno which needed about an hour of work from Maruti mobile service - this was at 11 PM on a sunday night - which mean that you cannot continue with the journey safely - you'll still need help.

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenhorn (Post 1093415)
In america, chevrolet had this and several other advantages, and still japanese manufacturers beat them in their own home ground. What makes you think they'll do any better here ?

Agreed, but how many years it took the japs to do that? I guess even maruti is here only for that long. Agreed that US market is huge. It is about how serious the maker is about the market. And what is their target for that particular market. If you look at it, only the Koreans are aggressive about india. LG, Samsung, Hyundai etc. The Japs are not that aggressive. Maruti is one off case here. Toyota has only academic interest. They study the indian market all the time.

Quote:

@gkrish - not breakdowns, but still some issues - like once we had a headlight relay dying at night in a baleno which needed about an hour of work from Maruti mobile service - this was at 11 PM on a sunday night - which mean that you cannot continue with the journey safely - you'll still need help.
I agree. But outside, maruti, hyundai and tata i am not sure who else is good at a vast coverage, that too round the clock. Even honda or toyota don't have it. The point is that an aveo is still as reliable as a city or a SX4. But then the perception is different. And our people fall over each other...

Sundaram's mobile helpline was switched off, the night after diwalli(this was couple of years back), when i got locked out of my car!!!:D

This seems to be getting interesting! :)

My 2 cents...

One of the primary reasons Maruti is successful in India because it has got the pulse of the common man. Most people in India are not auto enthusiasts. They need conveyance to move from point A to B in relative comfort. This, Maruti provides successfully and with reasonable service and quality. The common Indian is not interested in what automotive advances are made in terms of safety, technology or even design. He/She is happy with plain vanilla looks and cheap ownership.
No wonder we only see modded cars in metros where the populous is waking up to the automotive phenomenon.
Yes there is no doubt that we are being offered older models with engine specs that scream 'mileage' rather than performance. However, the last 5 years have shown some improvement. Various brands are now targeting performance rather than mileage and are getting good sales too.
If the people would have been performance oriented, I'm sure the palio GTX would have been the most sought after cars on the road. (I only wish.... :))

And this whole obsession with roadside service and highway breakdowns, the modern automobile is quite reliable and most of the times if driven well and within limits does not warrant stranding in the middle of nowhere. We as a people need to factorize the quality of these vehicles.So, the whole concept of MASS being available at every nook and turn is quite not needed and generally overated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by prateekswarup (Post 1093464)
This seems to be getting interesting! :)

My 2 cents...
......
"pulse of the common man."
.......


Pulse of common man??? Fact is Maruti makes the cheapest motorized 4 wheel Bullock cart in all sizes. Ofcourse, its cheap to maintain cars with minimal parts and minimal engineer -- its soooo basic even a kid can repair.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ritz830 (Post 1093525)
Pulse of common man...... the cheapest motorized 4 wheel Bullock cart in all sizes......cheap to maintain cars with minimal parts and minimal engineer...... so basic even a kid can repair.

i guess then that's the pulse of the common man :p

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenhorn (Post 1093534)
i guess then that's the pulse of the common man :p

well if you claim this at the time of independence, it would matter. But dude, this is 2008. Definition of common man is different. This slogan is an excuse(con job) for not producing quality cars in india. Hope we establish a research base and raise our standard of living. After all, we are paying taxes on par with developed nations, and completed super highways, but still stuck up in driving standards.

Folks, Good discussion.
If we see what drives the decisioning of owning a car in India- 7 out 10 families/customers will attribute MILEAGE & MAINTENANCE as top two reasons. Unfortunately or Fortunately, that is where you would want to do business!! So, we Indians end up with old technology in new paints. But what is happening to US now?? Every Car manufacturer is talking in thier ads about 'mpg'!!
If I am not exaggerating, it will be a nice business proposal to launch M800 as an incity car in US of A!!!!!ofcourse, after some changes to get it cleared to be a people mover there too.


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