[shahsingh]

Finally the CCI (Competitive Commission of India) is investigating anticompetitive practices of car manufacturers that don't sell their parts outside of their dealership networks and force car owners to pay high prices for car maintenance.

Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen come under CCI scanner - The Economic Times

This is hopefully a first step towards having the "right to repair" act here in India, similar to that in Europe, that will ensure free competition, choice to car owners, lower costs and greater level of service.

[ajmat]

International car makers, Honda, Hyundai and Volkswagen, have come under the scanner of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for allegedly abusing dominant market position by selling parts to customers at high prices.

The CCI has asked its director general (DG), investigations, to probe a consumer’s complaint against the car makers. The charge is of making available spare parts only through their authorised dealers, who in turn sell these at high rates.

More here

I have had experiences of trying to get a mere gasket for my Honda - refused, stating part not in stock

There is no direct parts retail counter in most dealer (maruti being the exception0 where one can procure parts. Gray market dealers need to import and cannot buy locally supplied items.

Jaggu is facing issues with his Hyundai.

Team-bhp has always had various cases but the competition commission that has come in to force is slowly showing its teach.

The consumer can now win on a more even palying field

[ghodlur]

Thats good news. Thanks Ajmat for the info. Atlast the consumer can realize he is the king.

One question though, how does an owner ensure that the parts sold to him by the authorized dealer as as per market value. Would the car manufacturer then publish the MRP of the spares.

[Sowmya]

Why only this three company ? How about others ? Finnaly the moves come but will this be implemented ? May be some under table work from this Big player will ruin the scanner eyes

[aniketi]

Originally Posted by Sowmya

Why only this three company ? How about others ? Finnaly the moves come but will this be implemented ? May be some under table work from this Big player will ruin the scanner eyes

+1

Why not others? Are other manufacturers not cheating there customers like Skoda, Toyota, Ford, GM etc. One of our family friend is also fed up with Skoda costs. Whenever they service there Octavia from the dealer, they are in shock by seeing the bills. You have to get parts & service from them only as no other mechanics entertain Skoda generally. Even normal servicing costs are very high. Government should look into this & make sure that normal people are not getting cheated here. Having costly car from imported buyer has become a crime here as people are scared of the maintainance costs. No body wants to waste there hard earned money for free.

Lets hope that government will take action on all companies.

[Aroy]

One of the more cost effective methods of getting spares for the German makes, is to import these parts from the authorised resellers in Europe. In fact even after adding the customs, insurance and inflated air freight charges, the parts are generally half the price compared to dealer prices. The best part is that the dealers charge VAT on the MRP, which is sheer robbery, as the MRP includes all the taxes. (this seems to be favourite ploy of shop keepers, where ever the customer is either helpless or not vigilant enough - drug stores, appliances etc).

I am extremely satisfied with my Maruti cars, as genuine parts are available freely in the market, generally at a discount to the MRP. MASS charges the full MRP though.

[greatmana2000]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Thats good news. Thanks Ajmat for the info. Atlast the consumer can realize he is the king.

One question though, how does an owner ensure that the parts sold to him by the authorized dealer as as per market value. Would the car manufacturer then publish the MRP of the spares.

Normally manufacturers have a dealer portal and the billing is done from the manufacturer portal .

[sgiitk]

Good news. Hopefully, they will be forced to make spares available on the open market. Also, (fingers crossed) the workshop manuals, though i will much prefer the Haynes ones. Better for the layman, and a minimum of specialised tools required.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Good news. Hopefully, they will be forced to make spares available on the open market. Also, (fingers crossed) the workshop manuals, though i will much prefer the Haynes ones. Better for the layman, and a minimum of specialised tools required.

Most of Haynes states "reassembly is the reverse of dismantling!" but to be fair, they are less complicated than the official manuals which are geared for process time = more labour costs

[greenhorn]

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...le-spares.html
finally the initiative gets some teeth

[SDP]

There is another angle to this.
I was recently told by my mechanic that the slave-brake-cylinder from TVS when branded by Maruti-Genuine-Parts costs almost twice. Not sure to what extent this is true. But if it is, then don't you think its just too much of a premium that you need to pay even for the over-the-counter spares, just because they are branded/certified by the car-manufacturer. I do understand that Maruti might be having more strict acceptance-criteria/tolerance-limits for the spares they sell through MGP. So a TVS brake-cylinder procured from MGP might be more reliable than one procured from non-MGP sources. But still, a 100% premium for reliability (which in my opinion should be a basic requirement) seems like daylight robbery.

[devarshi84]

I have started getting my Lancer serviced outside of the the Authorised center.

Company slits customers wallets with high prices and the same are not provided in the open market.

Why blame only Honda Hyundai and VW?

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by SDP

There is another angle to this.
I was recently told by my mechanic that the slave-brake-cylinder from TVS when branded by Maruti-Genuine-Parts costs almost twice. Not sure to what extent this is true. But if it is, then don't you think its just too much of a premium that you need to pay even for the over-the-counter spares, just because they are branded/certified by the car-manufacturer. I do understand that Maruti might be having more strict acceptance-criteria/tolerance-limits for the spares they sell through MGP. So a TVS brake-cylinder procured from MGP might be more reliable than one procured from non-MGP sources. But still, a 100% premium for reliability (which in my opinion should be a basic requirement) seems like daylight robbery.

SDP, the costs for testing and QC are much higher if you want to ensure OEM level quality. Well, you have a choice, and you are willing to tolerate lesser quality. If the manufacturer sold parts like that, they would be looking at a lot of irate customers

[iSpoke]

Originally Posted by Sowmya

Why only this three company ? How about others ?

Originally Posted by aniketi

+1
Why not others? Are other manufacturers not cheating there customers like Skoda, Toyota, Ford, GM etc. One of our family friend is also fed up with Skoda costs. Whenever they service there Octavia from the dealer, they are in shock by seeing the bills. You have to get parts & service from them only as no other mechanics entertain Skoda generally.

Lets hope that government will take action on all companies.

I too have the same question, Why not Skoda? Did they include them under VW group?

[ACM]

To the question about Skoda,

Skoda has shops outside of the authorized centre where we can buy skoda parts. Am aware of a sole Skoda shop on Lamington Road (inside lane), (prices min 10% lower than at Authorized centre with official bill and warranty) besides there are at least 3 other multibrand shops selling skoda parts along side Toyota and Chevrolet. Besides this ofcourse there is an even cheaper grey market.

TATA (at lamington road Sunco, SS Enterprise etc.) and Mauti too have a lot of these shops that sell products exlusive to their brand. (that is in addition to the spares shop at the service centre)

Possibly the notice to VW, Hyundai and Honda probably implies that they do not have these type of Service centre outlets.