Dear members,
I got the delivery of my XUV 500 W8 in moondust silver color on 30th November 2011 amidst pomp & splendour. My family & I were proud of the fact that we were one of the earliest owners of this excellent car. A lot was anticipated & said about the car. On the contrary, I was also advised to be careful by fellowmen stating "afterall its a Mahindra car". However my counter-arguement was always that why cant an Indian company be given an opportunity if they build a world-class product? I was assuming that after making a world-class car loaded with features & yet contained when it came to the price tag, the service standards too would drastically be upgraded. I was to be proved wrong in times to come.
The trouble started from day 1 wherein there was a noise in tail door. I called up the dealership in Malad, Mumbai & they sent a gentleman by name of Devilal who tried making some adjustments. However the noise continued & on 10th Dec, I was told to take the car to the workstation at Malad. My RM was to be one Mr Hussain. I called him on 9th or 10th of Dec and was told to get the car on 14th Dec.
On 12th Dec, my USB drive of the music system stopped functioning. On 14th Dec, I took the car to the workshop with the following complaints:
1) USB drive in the music system dysfunctional
2) Tail gate noise
3) Cabin noise
4) Gearbox was hard especially when down-shifting
5) Chiller box lid was not proper
While a time was given of 10am, Hussain reached only at 1045 hrs. All problems were explained to him and he assured me that the car would be ready in the evening. However it was not & I was told it will be ready the next day morning (15th Dec) and later in the evening (15th Dec). All this while, not even once did I get a call from Hussain and it was I who was following up once the timeline given exceeded.
On 15th evening, I reached the workstation and Hussain told me that the car was ready & all the problems mentioned above were sorted out. To my utter amazement, the car was dirty both from inside & outside. At around 1730 hrs when I had called Hussain, I was told that the car was ready & had gone for washing. At 1830 hrs when I reached the workstation, it was parked there with no sign of washing or cleaning. When I pointed this out, Hussain took a cloth & started cleaning the car.
This was just the begining. When I switched on the system, USB was still not working. I was told that it was working & that everything was checked before my arrival. When I asked Hussain had he inspected the vehicle, the answer was negative. I lost my cool and asked to see his senior. A one Mr Baiju was called who seemed really busy with multiple phone calls & enough crisis to handle. I explained to him the problem and he said that people from Nippon will have to be called for fixing the system and that I could take the car for the time being and he would send someone the next day to my office to replace the system. It took another 20 minutes for the exit procedure. The end result being that none of my complaints were sorted inspite of keeping a 10-day old car in the service station for 2 full days.
On 16th morning, I realised that the cabin noise & tail gate noise issues still continued & infact the noise had increased. I took the car to the service station and a couple of technicians came with me for a test drive. Amidst all these problems, fog started coming out from the air-conditioning system by which even the technicians were surprised as this according to them was first-of-its-kind problem. This resulted in me leaving the car yet again with the service station.
I had to go to Ahemdabad on 17th Dec & had planned to take my new car. The same was communicated to Baiju & Hussain well in advance. However on 16th evening I was told that the car needs further inspection & that a team from the plant in Nasik is coming down as the coolant pipe was ruptured?!? Meanwhile an Innova was arranged by G3 as a replacement wherein I had to bear the fuel cost which was agreeable by me. On my return from Ahemdabad on 19th morning, the car was still not ready & I was given a loaner car which was an XUV W6.
On 20th Dec too, I was given the same reason that the plant engineers were still inspecting the car which ticked me off. I demanded to speak to a representative from M&M and was given details of one Mr Jay Gandhi. After explaining my case to him I requested for his intervention. However at one point of time, I was told by him that the work was on & he wants to ensure that the car is delivered to me in "perfect condition" & that if I insisted, they could deliver the car and wont be responsible if it still had problems
Thats when I twitted about my continuing bitter experience & when I sent a twit to Mr Anand Mahindra, I immdtly recd a call from the Head of Customer Care, Mumbai. The car was delivered to me after repeated assurances from him & Jay that it was in perfect shape and multiple test drives, inspections etc. had happened by the plant engineers, on 24th night (exactly after 10 days). On 25th morning when I took the car out for an early morning drive, to my continuing annoyance & disappointment, the chiller box had started creaking, the touch screen of certain functions not working, tiretronics not installed, noise on driver's side door, a certain noise coming from the engine while the car gathers speed..............etc. etc.
My previous cars included a Maruti Vxi and Honda City Automatic. I am appalled with the service standards and proficiency of M&M engineers vis-a-vis the other two cars I have owned in the past. The people around me were right, no matter what it does, its Mahindra afterall! I feel like I did not upgrade myself to a Rs 14 lac SUV which has won lot of accolades, but have downgraded myself to a car which has been giving me problems from the word go and an inefficient & unprofessional team who are ill-equipped / trained to live upto the buzz XUV 500 has created in the market.
Its great to make a world-class product but to support it with equally proficient team & service is more challenging!
As I write, Jay Shah with his team is expected to yet again inspect my car and take it back to service station, this time hopefully not for 10 more days.
This is my personal experience & probably I am the unlucky one who has received a defective car. I am glad for other members here who have picked up XUV and thoroughly enjoying their spins. Am not here to discourage the prospective buyers as well.
As mentioned earlier, this is what I have been subject to and while the car is excellent, its the service that will decide the fate of this car & M&M.
As I write, I have also got to know that some of the cars are having problems in terms of getting heated up and some car-owners have complained about the gearbox!
Will keep you posted on the developments!
Cheers,
Rup