[sudev]

Originally Posted by honeybee

One reason could be most of these manufacturers import their cars as CBU.....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......Please note this is my speculation only.

So the customer should suffer? Having paid for a car that costs so much the customer should wait for spares. If it was a car imported by an individual (exotic ones are still done that way) he can expect delays for spares which have to be imported by him on need base.

With rich experience and history of service from world over a manufacturer importer should not have that problem. Anticipatory imports are a must. Suzuki did that when Maruti was launched in much more controlled economy and we never had "shortage" of essential spares.

And even if they are not available on hand DHL/FedEx can deliver from world over in 24/36 hours to your door. If they have inventory of spares sitting some where in Germany it should be trivial matter for dealers here to be linked in and be in position to order direct. Why should it almighty long for spares to be arranged?

Hell individuals can organise spare better by shopping direct on the net and getting them delivered. Problem is that the margins for dealers disappear in such case and so they do not accept such spares.

The attitude seems to be "you paid so much for the car now pay equally high for using it."

[PlatzdaTurbo]

As far as Audi Mumbai West is concerned, its not even been 1 week since delivery of my CBU the Audi A4 3.0TDI SE & my experience so far has been absolutely great. No hiccups or niggles of any sort and right from the payment to the delivery to the registration formalities, everything has been smooth and ON TIME, touchwood ! Audi Worli ( shreyans motors) will surely NOT be missed if Audi Mumbai West continue this sort of service ! Besides, am quite sure someone else will soon take place of Shreyans Motors in South Mumbai as Audi would need a presence in South Mumbai ASAP. 1 dealership across the entire city will surely not be enough IMO

[GTO]

Shocking, absolutely pathetic and inexplicable for a brand that intends to compete with Mercedes & BMW...both of whom are well-established in the Indian market. I feel terribly sorry for those who've booked Audis from Shreyans and have to run from pillar to post for delivery. Imagine paying 60,000 rupees a month as EMI and not having the car in your garage! Audi is fully responsible for them, transactions having been completed through their authorised dealership, and should do whatever it takes to make good those customers.

WRT Shreyans, they've earned themseles possibly the WORST reputation in Mumbai (think on the lines of Nummer Eins, the infamous & now discontinued Skoda dealer). Audi is doing itself good by getting rid of this dealer.

Remember the Millenium Mercedes case from Pune? I think (NOT confirmed) that the families of Millenium & Shreyans are related.

[aargee]

@Honeybee - Some of your points are valid on the real time issues on sourcing the spares, but as an experienced manufacturer, they should be knowing that stocking up common items such as coolant, air filter, temp guages, gear knobs, steering wheel, bulbs, lights assy, switches, tail lamp assy, cables, wires, wiper assy doesn't harm them & they should've done it too. But look at this case, you paid someone to get the product, now his dealership is cancelled, first thing, as a responsible act, should be is to return back the money to the customers right? I would partially atrribute such kind of issues to the ineffeciency of law & justice in this country. No one dares to do such things in a country like Japan or US or any western countries. I cannot really comment whether its the dealer or the manufacturer who has guts to quit doing the business abruptly & let alone the customer suffer. And they have guts because they know that it takes ages to get things get settled in court. Had the court & law been turning around quickly to being justice, no one will dare to such things.

And even if they are not available on hand DHL/FedEx can deliver from world over in 24/36 hours to your door

More than possible in today's world; its also possible that these guys having a tie up with the manufacturer for even quicker time, all the more, they can happily charge the customer for it.

The attitude seems to be "you paid so much for the car now pay equally high for using it."

It looks to me also the same way.

[Drift King]

IMO, the customer should not be hassled at all. If my facts are right, Audi Mumbai West opened before Audi Mumbai dealership was terminated. In fact, Audi had been looking at another Dealer for about a year now. They anyways needed presence in North Mumbai. I know some other Dealers were also approached for taking the suburban Audi dealership.

Getting back to the point, all pending orders should have been transferred to Audi Mumbai West immediately after Audi Mumbai was terminated as a Dealership. Let the Dealers and Audi sort it out between themselves and not harass the customer. I, personally, would be infuriated if my money was blocked for 5 months and no car standing in my driveway!!

[honeybee]

Originally Posted by aargee

But look at this case, you paid someone to get the product, now his dealership is cancelled, first thing, as a responsible act, should be is to return back the money to the customers right? I would partially atrribute such kind of issues to the ineffeciency of law & justice in this country.


RE DHL/FedEx... More than possible in today's world; its also possible that these guys having a tie up with the manufacturer for even quicker time, all the more, they can happily charge the customer for it.

My guess is first of all when a car is taken to a dealer for repairs, the dealer has to:

1. Find out which part is faulty
2. Decide if the part can be repaired or should be replaced
3. Decide if the repair/replacement is under warranty or if the customer will pay for it.

For #1, he needs to have skilled people who know the particular car inside out. The diagnostic experience won't come to people just by attending technical trainings. It will also take field experience. The mechanics won't get field experience unless the cars sell in good numbers.

For #2 and #3, if the part needs to be replaced and the customer is going to pay for it, this might be the shortest route. However in most cases the dealer will have to wait for the manufacturer to approve both a repair/replacement and the same under warranty. My guess is people are spending too much time in these stages, whereas the actual logistics of delivering the right parts may not be much time consuming.

Also to prevent dealers from selling original parts OTC, the companies will have in place extensive checks to ensure no dealer can order parts outside the company approved channels. This means further checks and balances and in effect more time for the delivery.

As for the payment, I doubt if the dealer would keep the payment with him for eight months. He may have remitted the whole amount (minus his commission) to the parent company already. Now since the dealership has been terminated, the company people will have to spend time sorting out the payment issues. I am still not sure what kind of criteria are used when awarding dealerships. So again it may be a case of wrong selection.

In my opinion, these issues are typical when setting up a capital intensive business in a new country. The company cannot predict the sales it will have, so the inventories may prove to be too little, or to be too much. Since it takes money, companies will err on the side of having less.

Please note, I am just trying to put forth my ideas. I would be pis#ed off if I had to pay someone a thousand rupees and he didn't deliver. So I very well understand the frustration when the transaction is worth lakhs of rupees.

[fx45]

Shreyans enters luxury pre-owned segment




The Shreyans group, which runs a couple of Porsche dealerships in New Delhi and Mumbai, has entered the luxury pre-owned market.

The company recently opened its first pre-owned outlet at Worli where it will display several luxury marquees including Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Porsche. Graeme Jackson, general manager, said that this outlet is the first in Mumbai to sell luxury pre-owned cars.

Its USP will be trained staff to carry out maintenance and refurbishment of luxury cars. He says the company will also open a service outlet for luxury cars in South Mumbai that will be equipped with a paint booth, bodyshop and diagnostic systems.

The Worli outlet can display 12 cars. In the initial phase, Shreyans will sell its cars in the range of Rs 18-68 lakh. The company will also undertake repairs of luxury cars.

Source: Autocar Professional

Auto Car Pro

[quattroa4]

now look , this is all the fault on AUDI INDIA . this is a company statargy and the company is the one only who decides and states the clear guidelines for acceptance of bookings and amount etc etc.
now there has to be a policy also regarding if something goes wrong like this case , then what should be done .
similar case happened with mw also , that after depositing 10 lks the VW dealer said that the touareg will be late for more then a month then the stipulated time he told me . but then the company said that you can have your full amount back if you want to on immidiate basis and then book it afterwards as the company policy says that they wont be holding any customers money more then a month .
i didnt took back the money and kept like that because i was assured by them of full refund as they wanted to give back the money but i refused . it was a good buying experiance then i think after reading this article . but then as said so its AUDI's fault not to have such guidelines.

[dhall_gagan]

Post deleted by the Team-BHP Support : Please do NOT post one-liners that add little or no informational value to the thread. We need your co-operation to maintain the overall quality of this forum.

Please read our rules before proceeding any further.

[FlyingSpur]

Wow, I wasn't aware of this thread. It's quite sad that Audi has to sort out dealership issues in a highly competitive market where they're already not doing well inspite of having some brilliant products. If it wasn't for the SUVs I'm pretty sure Audi India would have been in trouble till now. Even the awesome new A4 isn't selling anywhere close to what they would have liked in comparison to the C/3, and at a time when Audi's response time should be lightning quick to counter the CE / EE effect, they've having to sort out dealership issues. Things ain't lookin' good, Audi.

[PlatzdaTurbo]

Originally Posted by flyingspur

Wow, I wasn't aware of this thread. It's quite sad that Audi has to sort out dealership issues in a highly competitive market where they're already not doing well inspite of having some brilliant products. If it wasn't for the SUVs I'm pretty sure Audi India would have been in trouble till now. Even the awesome new A4 isn't selling anywhere close to what they would have liked in comparison to the C/3, and at a time when Audi's response time should be lightning quick to counter the CE / EE effect, they've having to sort out dealership issues. Things ain't lookin' good, Audi.

Hope they sort it out soon and the outcome is positive. We wouldnt want an Audiless Mumbai would we now ?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by fx45

The company recently opened its first pre-owned outlet at Worli where it will display several luxury marquees including Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Porsche. Graeme Jackson, general manager, said that this outlet is the first in Mumbai to sell luxury pre-owned cars.

Its USP will be trained staff to carry out maintenance and refurbishment of luxury cars. He says the company will also open a service outlet for luxury cars in South Mumbai that will be equipped with a paint booth, bodyshop and diagnostic systems.

Smart move. They've heavily invested in the showroom & workshop, why let it go waste? Plus, we need to remember that margins on used cars are thicker than that on new cars. 30 lakh rupee Audi A4 = Margin of 2 lakhs (tops). Used 30 lakh premium car = Can manage 3 - 5 lakhs easily.

Shreyans can become the "choksi" of south bombay (business practices included ).

Originally Posted by flyingspur

Even the awesome new A4 isn't selling anywhere close to what they would have liked in comparison to the C/3

Look at it this way:

1. Merc C Class & BMW 3 series available off the shelf. Audi A4 - sometimes, the wait period can extend to over 3 months

2. Audi has the thinnest dealer network

3. It doesn't necessarily have the mass badge value (that the other two Germans enjoy).

Audi seriously needs to get its sales & service channel in order.

Originally Posted by PlatzdaTurbo

Hope they sort it out soon and the outcome is positive. We wouldnt want an Audiless Mumbai would we now ?

A new Audi dealership has already opened up in North Bombay.

[FlyingSpur]

Originally Posted by GTO

A new Audi dealership has already opened up in North Bombay.

Ya that's where Platzda bought his car from AFAIK.

[PlatzdaTurbo]

Originally Posted by GTO

2. Audi has the thinnest dealer network



A new Audi dealership has already opened up in North Bombay.

Yup flyingspur is right, i bought my 3.0tdi from Audi Mumbai West itself. I meant, a single dealer monopoly for a metro like Mumbai is just not happening & as you stated, Audi has the thinnest dealer network of the 3 already, with the A6's next to zilch sales etc , they have problems of plenty.
They need a replacement for Shreyans in South Mumbai and soon

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by GTO

1. Merc C Class & BMW 3 series available off the shelf. Audi A4 - sometimes, the wait period can extend to over 3 months

hardly over 3 months, lol a friend on mine booked his 3.2fsi i january and is yet to receive it. he hopes to get it early july. absolute bs if you ask me.