Hey guys, another few of the points I missed in the main review post -
The Remote for the music system. I don't quite know whether it should be a part of the pros or the cons to be frank. Yes there is a remote with the HU and has seek, FW/RW, volume, SRC controls. But, its microscopic!! The remote is so small that if kept with the control surface down, it will look like a small mobile battery! And it doesn't have any menu controls on it.
Doors auto-lock at about 15km speed, which is excellent. Driver door lock is master and controls all other door locks along. Individual doors can be locked and unlocked overriding the master. Rear doors have manual child locks.
Power windows do not have auto up/down or anti pinch. Driver has a master lock & control for all power windows.
Before we walk to the service experience, the
Fuel Efficiency as I promised. All numbers are with around 50% AC at half cool setting (It chills at that. The AC has been changed since the older Vista for sure). Have done 3 tank-full to tank-full tests. And the minimum I got was 21kmpl. This was when I went to Murud in Konkan, and simply couldn't get her in higher gears due to the bad roads.
Otherwise, the FE is 23-25 kmpl right from the beginning. It is exceptional given these are numbers are before 1000kms/1st service. I hope some of it goes to my sedate driving style as mentioned earlier. Daily running is exactly 50kms 2 way for office. 15 of these are b2b traffic through Kothrud and Hinjewadi (most Pune IT guys will wince at that thought). Rest is on NH4 bypass highway where I can cruise at around 80. Its so good that my friends thought I was exaggerating to show my car to be great! The engine is really tuned to perfection in my case I must say. When I handed her over for service I clearly mentioned (Ordered would be the right word here) the SA not to touch any engine parameters or try to "tune up". Didn't want to ruin the setup. He agreed and mentioned it on the job card. And seems they really didn't touch it. After service tank-full is still running. I've done some 300kms now and the needle hasn't yet reached the 3/4 full mark yet!! So good FE on its way again...
The 1st Service –
I’ve been driving a Maruti for last 4 years. So the “Getting your car into service” part has always been butter smooth. I always got appointments at my convenient days, super soft spoken attendants and executives. This time around, I expected it to be a bit rough, and it was. Mainly since 2 major TASS dealerships have pulled shutters in Pune, Pandit Auto is the primary dealer cum service left. I casually called up to book an appointment when the odo read 1416 kms. I was paralyzed when the CSR informed me that I could bring the car for service after about 20 days since all appointments were booked. Okay this is not all that bad. They are taking very limited cars a day so as not to rush through the work. They gave me the number for the 2nd service station they have – at Satara Road. I called up there and already the executive sounded very rough and arrogant. I just asked whether I could continue driving now or whether I should keep the car parked since it had already reached 1416 kms. The lady on the other side got really pissed at this question. I don’t know why! In Marathi-Hindi-English, she said “how can you ask that to us?? Don’t know you the service is at 1000k? We give a grace over that and still you are asking if you can continue driving?? I won’t answer that. If you drive now, your 1st service will be void and we’ll use your 2nd coupon.” I was actually laughing on the other side and letting the lady continue
I generally feel its no use teaching these people that the 1st service is 1000 to 1500 kms etc. So I asked whether doing that will void the warranty as well? “Sir I cannot answer that”. LOL! So I anyway told her to book an appointment for the available date. She sounded as if being forced to do this role. “Name??” “car??” “Number??”, “Mobile number??” and she was so not bothered about it at all, that she moved to next details when I had told only 8 digits of my mobile number!
I politely asked to speak with her supervisor for some explanations. She got very pissed at that as well.
So I told her to forget about the appointment, and called up the Tata CRO liaison with Pandit Auto.She apologized and also confirmed about the rush at service center. But she did tell that Pandit Auto has 1 more service center in Pune. – the biggest of the 3 at Sahakar Nagar, besides the Shahu College grounds. And it was possible to get an appointment at Sahakar Nagar after 5 days and gave the contact details. I thanked the lady and called them up. The booking experience there was very good. CS staff well trained and professional. They booked an appointment and also told me to continue using the car without worrying about the running. Nevertheless, I kept her parked. Just moved her twice over 5 days to keep everything in order.
Went to the Shahu College workshop and got plenty indirect "traffic safety messages". Right at the entrance, there are literally piles of accident damaged cars that have come for repairs! I was just glad to see that there were not many where the impact had penetrated or destroyed the cabin. This facility is full fledged with express bays, body shop, paint line etc. The security staff joined hands, bowed a bit, and greeted with a “Namaste sir!” and smile. Definitely better than my Maruti experiences so far.
Anyway – taking the car into service was fast. The CSA – Aneesh Desai is a real professional. Explained the off center steering, lose windscreen grab strip problems to him. I ordered for –
- 3M paint protection
- Anti rust coat
- Engine protection
- Non accessible body cavity treatment.
This was all due to psychological impacts only. Personally I don’t believe these all make much of a difference. I didn’t give any such treatment to my Omni and after 4 years, she is still gleaming and shiny (The trick being no cloth rubbing car-wash. Just water and hands).
Already I could see a huge pressure with loads of cars in for service before 9 AM. Plenty Safaris in the bunch was a pleasing sight. Many had very recent registrations. Still Aneesh was very attentive and alert. Thanks to all of you team bhpians, a lot of tips were in my mind. Things to pay attention to during service – especially from our very own Late Dr. Rajesh (TRRK)’s detailed posts. I mentioned him not to touch the engine setup. The CSA asked if I was okay with a delivery of next morning, since there was rush. I was okay with it anyway, since I couldn’t easily travel from office to the w’shop in the evening to pick her up. So agreed on a delivery at 9 AM the next morning. Got an SMS from Tata (Not Pandit Auto) that the car was ready on the same day around 4 pm. And got an sms from Aneesh on the next day around 8 am, saying I could come to take the car at 9. Pretty nice.
Reached the station before 9 and was greeted at the gate the same way. Aneesh was already delivering a Manza to its owner so requested me to wait at the waiting lounge. It is pretty good with magazines, TV (Tata Sky of course) and drinking water. If it was MUL, you’d get regular tea-coffee etc. I don’t know whether it was followed here. I was in very early and had to wait hardly for 5-10 minutes. I don’t give a damn about the tea-coffee really. When I visit a service station, it’s to get my car that’s all. With my Omni, I generally drank at least 3 coffees. The fastest I ever got my car from service was after a wait of 30-35 minutes – this was for first service. This is why they need those plush waiting rooms.
Then the CSA walked me to my car, parked in a well covered shade. (Omni used to be under open Sun.) And did she look a stunner! I had already missed her for a day, and just kept looking at her for some minutes. He showed & explained all the things that were done on the car. And as a pleasing blow, there was no need to go to our TBHP checklist in my head. They had checked all fluids, air pressures, hoses, filters etc. But simply put an “OK” on the job card. No stupid top-ups and “Supplements”. His remark was “you’ve kept your car with care sir! We didn’t have to do anything”. I didn’t have to pull a stick to beat them after checking the oil dipstick. Showed me the 3M, engine, anti rust and body cavity protection jobs done – they were really done and the engine now literally shines!! Handed over the warranty and free-followup treatment coupons for all these and explained the charges – which matched the estimates.
Total costs –
Car 1st service = INR 0/-
Combined all coatings (3M, anti rust, engine, body cavity) = INR 7000/- inclusive of VAT.
He offered for a test drive. But since he had confessed they hadn’t changed anything at all, I simply took her for a ride within the workshop campus. Some things that pleased me like never before –
- Both issues I had were fixed well.
- The CSA personally made sure that everything in the car was as it was when I gave the car. Checked all floor mats, boot mat, mud flaps, spare wheel etc and confirmed with me for each of them being mine. They had actually written the car number on underside of all mats and wheels.
- The car’s interiors were in pristine condition. Even the beige was as clean as it could be. Wonder if the engineers and mechanics work in a clean room with space suites!
- They hadn’t run the car much. Just 1 km was added in the odo, and diesel mark stayed where it was.
- No setup was changed in the music system. Everything was just as I had left.
- 2 tiny marks on the front bumper. No other damages to the paint or anything else.
- Nice overall wash and cleanup job.
- The CSA never looked towards the feedback form.
Now you guys will find these as “Expected things from service”. But this isn’t the case with me. NOM to Maruti owners, your experiences may be a lot better than mine, but compare with my MUL experiences with Chowgule for the Omni as below –
- Horrendous billings and replacements charged. For each service, unnecessary parts were changed without asking me and I was charged for them. Suspension bushings were changed for each service, and the used ones that they gave me back, were in excellent conditions. They changed the spark plugs, coolant, transmission oils at 15k service ??!!
- Always insisted on phony oil supplements and top-ups.
- Could never fix the rattling, uneven tire wear or the LPG level indicator problems that I always had. For all these I wrote to MUL management, and always got well formatted letters, phone calls, and gifts ranging from shopping vouchers to Parker pens. Did I want them? Not at all. I wanted my car to be looked after well. Never did this happen.
- Every time I had loads of oil stains, oily surfaces, grease finger marks on the interiors of my Omni after service.
- Once the cover on driver’s head-restraint was torn and TWICE, the seat recliner lever – which is of steel – was literally broken into 2 pieces. Do they use JCB’s to work on our cars? And beyond this, they were shameless enough, to ask me pay 900 rupees for a full replacement of the recliner assembly. I was just short of punching the manager for this. Solution? They screwed the lever from someone else’s Versa/Omni in there. (How the hell do we have this as our largest selling Auto maker?)
- Thrice, I left the Omni with ľ tank full, and received it back with the needle at the red E! Excuse being testing, engine tune-up and relative long Idle running. Two of these occasions “earned” me MUL badged Parker pen sets – which I promptly gave away. On the last one, I was so fed up that I didn’t bother complain.
- Only once did I forget to detach my Pioneer ICE HU front panel. On getting her back, all the settings, equalizers were changed! So they entertained themselves well.
- At least 2 new scratches on the paint every time. Okay they were never more than 2 CM long, but WHY?
- Pathetic washing quality. Almost no underbody wash. I complained twice for this and have “Complimentary free wash” coupons now at home. I’m no nut to use them.
- The biggest joke. Even after frankly telling “This CSA is an idiot and doesn’t know anything about your cars” I always used to get the same one and then had to fight for a change. Many blokes at Chowgule’s would actually be shameless enough to hand you the feedback form, grin saying “Sir, 10/10 please” and ask it back!!!
Other user’s experiences may be a lot different and better with MUL. May be being an Omni driver, they didn’t expect me to know more than their engineers or I wasn’t entitled to good service at all.
So even if the “Customer service” voice & accents training to the Tata staff was poorer compared to MUL, the actual car service was A+ to MUL’s “Z” in my records. No Offense meant to MUL. Yes MUL has an unmatched service network, anywhere availability and all. But in my experience not all are very genuine or realistic about your car’s requirements and expenses. You have to be on the lookout and with a stick to question them always. They’ll try to extract some more money out of you for unnecessary replacements, since we are always worried about our dear car. They are well trained on customer facing service, sweet spoken and make you feel good that’s all.
I always wanted to mention these experiences on T-BHP but was denied the permission to register when I had tried long back.
Okay back with my Vista. Have already done more than 200kms after service. Everything is fine as it was. As I mentioned earlier, the engine tuning isn’t changed and FE seems to be as it was. Will update after I reach the “E” about the exact FE I got after service with tank full method. Still no chance to shoot pictures. But sure will post them before weekend.
Mods, I think you’ll ban me some day for regular long posts…I feel like sharing all my feelings with fellow BHPians that’s all…