[Dippy]

While Mercedes (front page of TOI) and BMW (plastered all over the Bombay Times) are doing all they can to generate maximum positive PR, Audi has been in the news for all the wrong stuff lately. We've read umpteen reports on the forum about long delays in delivery, some engine variants not being available etc. etc.

There was an article in the Mumbai Mirror dated 9th May 2010 about how a customer has still not got delivery of his car despite paying the full amount for it. Imagine paying about half a crore and still being car-less.

Business man Avnish Mody had booked a brand new Q5 with Audi Mumbai dealer Shreyans Motors by making an advance payment of 5 lakhs. Now its 8 months since then and there is still no sign of the car. Six months after booking he was asked to make the balance payment so that they could deliver the car. Post payment Sheryans told him that there was a technical problem in the engine that was delaying things and Avnish had no choice but to agree. Few days ago Audi India terminated the Sheryans dealership (There was a quarter page notice on this in the TOI) and he is now told that they cant give him the car until dealership issues are sorted out.

Avnish has now taken legal action and demanded the car or a full refund of the money along with 18 percent interest due to the expenses incurred on the car loan. He has also asked for an additional 10 lakhs as compensation for the mental agony caused to him. Audi India has said that it is looking to resolve the matter with Shreyans Motors ASAP.

Not only Avnish but there are 22 other customers waiting for their new cars. Apart from that, the cars that were given for repairs or service are also stuck up. This is definitely not good news and this attitude and behaviour of Shreyans can do Audi India a lot of damage. The customer is the victim of these dealer manufacturer fights.

IMO Audi should now co-ordinate with the new Audi Mumbai dealer to clear this delivery log and. Currently Audi Mumbai West has set up a new service station at Kalina and the showroom is coming up at Andheri West. I am told that there is showroom space to display 12 cars at all times.

For the info, Shreyans Motors which is headed by Ashish Chordia is also the dealer for Porsche and Ducati in Mumbai

Link to the full Mumbai Mirror article here

[Dose]

Originally Posted by Dippy

We've read umpteen reports on the forum about long delays in delivery, some engine variants not being available etc. etc.

I have read a Teambhp report relating to Audi India spare parts waiting times of many months with no end in sight. If this is occurring in Bombay, imagine the plight of customers living in smaller cities.

Can anyone think of a single VAG company or product that delivers excellent reliability and service in India? Skoda, VW, Bentley, Porsche, Audi seem to sell products with excellent safety features/reviews but terrible reliability, service, and prices.

[aargee]

Offlate I've been coming across several such reports from every manufacturer, Skoda, Mercedes, Toyota & now Audi. Why isn't Hyundai, Maruti or Tata getting into such big controversies or are they not getting noticed at all? Or are these just the niggling issues with every company who tries to start a business in new country? Or do these manufacturers think that its easy to get away with such things in India? Or the problem lies with we Indians? Or the worst case, these manufacturers are getting transformed to do business with Indian way ?

With so much of bad remarks on Tata A.S.S, why isn't top officials of Tata applying for bail or dealer changing color of the car or Tata parts being changed during service or someone keeps waiting indefinetly for a refund on a car from Tata or Maruti or Hyundai? Is it because they're not so premium brands for people to complain or are these incidents not in focus light? I simply cannot understand how these things keep happening in India & how come such big manufacturers who give quality cars not thought about these things, while a home grown company like Tata able to do a better business without a quality vehicle?

[Dippy]

Originally Posted by Dose

I have read a Teambhp report relating to Audi India spare parts waiting times of many months with no end in sight. If this is occurring in Bombay, imagine the plight of customers living in smaller cities.

Can anyone think of a single VAG company or product that delivers excellent reliability and service in India? Skoda, VW, Bentley, Porsche, Audi seem to sell products with excellent safety features/reviews but terrible reliability, service, and prices.

I have heard similar issues with Porsche service in Mumbai as well. However member redeff had recently given his A4 to the new Audi Mumbai service station at Kalina and he was quite happy with the overall experience.

[kimianks]

The Showroom is being shut ( My sales consulatant at downtown VW told me ). Only Audi West is going to be dealer for now. There were a lot of complaints of delayed deliveries. The dealer has the Porsche Showroom as well, don't know what its fate is going to be.

[ecclipse78]

Originally Posted by Dose

I have read a Teambhp report relating to Audi India spare parts waiting times of many months with no end in sight. If this is occurring in Bombay, imagine the plight of customers living in smaller cities.

Can anyone think of a single VAG company or product that delivers excellent reliability and service in India? Skoda, VW, Bentley, Porsche, Audi seem to sell products with excellent safety features/reviews but terrible reliability, service, and prices.

Spot on, Dose !! I see the same tone and arrogant attitude among most of the VAG group and its dealers.

That's why I moved away from Skoda and Audi. Was thinking about a Porsche and even spoke to Ashish Chordia once. Their stuck-up attitude really put me off !

[malgudi]

Read the news in Mumbai Mirror & you immediately feel for the customer who has to go through all the pain inspite of paying & no fault of his. Shame on Audi & VW group for such a shoddy treatment to a customer buying their premier product. If they cannot handle such small volume of customers, I dread to think how they are gonna handle when the volume increases. Atleast Skoda was better in their initial days in India and went awry only once the volumes increased. Here they are faltering from the start itself.
With the Indian market opening up to cars being imported by individuals or these large groups like audi or skoda, I feel the government has to relook at the Laws and come up with stringent penalties & anti-lemon laws to protect the customers interest.

[Drift King]

For the info, Shreyans Motors which is headed by Ashish Chordia is also the dealer for Porsche and Ducati in Mumbai



hi Dippy,
The dealer (Ashish Chordia) is the Distributor for Porsche on a pan-India level. So, if one wants to open a dealership for Porsche, one will have to go through Ashish Chordia. I think he also owns the Delhi Porsche dealership.
The reason I have heard about the closing of Audi Mumbai is the high rent they were paying for the masive showroom at Worli Naka. The first floor also serves as a office. The high rent was forcing their margins on every car and Audi was not able to make headway into Mumbai market, unlike BMW and Merc.

With VW buying a stake in Porsche (after the unsuccessful attempt of Porsche to buy out VW), the future of the Porsche dealership is also wary.

Isn't Ashish Chordia related to the Taleras of Pune? They have a Ford / Chevrolet and 2W dealership out there.

[srikanths1]

What is it with bad dealers and VW group - First it was skoda and now audi. Is VW even serious about its commitment to India ? If VW needs to sustain its high end car market it needs to shake up its business.

[prateekm]

First of all, I think that Audi is finding it very difficult to survive in the Indian market. While BMW is a better performance car than Audi, Merc scores in the backseat comfort. Now that we get to hear such negative news, I hope everyone thinks twice before going for a Audi.

I still feel VW makes great cars but their service is a big letdown!

[spiff]

Porsche needs to take dealership rights away from him as well. He is a very unpleasant person to deal with which is why I dont have my porsche yet..he delayed Dante's cayman by over 5 months and then mentally harassed him over registration issues.

Not to mention their high prices still even when the euro is so low today.

[Screwdriva]

That Monopolists and arrogance go hand in hand is a given. This guy doesn't understand that the Germans aren't stupid. Slow, yes.

Once they put 2 and 2 together, I see another Sah and Sanghi incident. i.e. total dealership shutdown

[unknown]

Q5 brought down as CBU ?

[redeff]

Well it is in the news that Shreyans is no longer a dealer for Audi. So we can assume that remedial action has been taken. I have had a pleasant interaction with most of the staff till date. As GTO told me in my ownership thread, most German car makers take time to get certain spare parts so I assume its common occurrence and not just Audi. The high handedness of the dealer can cause the brand problems and I guess that is why the dealership has been shut down.

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by aargee

Offlate I've been coming across several such reports from every manufacturer, Skoda, Mercedes, Toyota & now Audi. Why isn't Hyundai, Maruti or Tata getting into such big controversies or are they not getting noticed at all? Or are these just the niggling issues with every company who tries to start a business in new country? Or do these manufacturers think that its easy to get away with such things in India? Or the problem lies with we Indians? Or the worst case, these manufacturers are getting transformed to do business with Indian way ?

One reason could be most of these manufacturers import their cars as CBU. Another reason is they can't effectively plan the cash flows where each car costs a ton of money. Importing one vehicle over and above the ordered number could financially ruin a dealership if they couldn't sell it quickly enough. So the dealers would always order exactly as many vehicles as booked from them by the customers. In case some of the vehicles do get damaged in transit, there's no backup option. Also unless there were min. x numbers booked, they wouldn't order anything.

Same story would be true for spare parts. If you imported a large number of spares and no cars came back for any repairs, you end up wasting a huge amount of money on the inventory. If you didn't import them in advance, whenever any car turns up for repairs, you have to start the whole chain of events from the beginning, which could take days or months. Because the spares would typically have to be paid for (including the duty) by the dealer upfront, whereas he can only recover the cost from the customer after fitment. Please note this is my speculation only.

Hyundai, Maruti or Tata manufacture their vehicles within the country, so they have flexible supply chains and cheap spares.