Maruti Ignis: Steering too hard & my saga with Nexa Hi Everyone,
It's been a while and I'd like to share my experience with all about my experience with a brand new car. Apparently, it's a bad one and I hope others can stay careful and learn from it.
@Mods - didn't find a relevant thread, so pls feel free to merge with something else. Car - Nexa Ignis Alpha AMT Petrol Dealership - Automotive Manufacturers, Navi Mumbai Car purchased - July 2018 About
We purchased this car about 4 months ago and it's been a series of incidents that the dealership, service center and the escalation - none of them have done anything. Incident 1
Wrong info on RC Book. We received the RC book, but there was error in the address mentioned. We gave the RC book back to dealership for correction, but we haven't received it yet. 2+ months now. Even after follow ups, no info. That includes escalation to L4 as well. Incident 2
Car number printed on the plate was wrong. I only realized it late. Weird. Incident 3 - Steering, beginning of the horror story.
Within 7 days of delivery of the car we complained of hard steering. We test drove a demo vehicle and it was smooth. We were promised for the fix in the 1st service. We thought it was fine. I'll come back on this shortly. Incident 4 - The 1st Service.
Car goes to service. Comes back with a damage! There was a dent on the front right fender. It was night so we didn't spot it. But the next day we called up and the dealership disagreed. After a lot of back and forth. They decided to fix the car. Incident 5 - The Accident
The car had a small accident within our society and we gave it for repair.
- Delayed delivery by 3 days.
- The day car was delivered (late night, late again), the car was in horrible shape. Misaligned headlights, Damage on front bumper, white spots all over the car and more misalignments around body. We had to blast these guys and escalate the matter. After 2 hours of freak show the entire team and manager shows up at house and we make them fix everything.
So far, the L4 escalation, Pratik Bisht, promises to keep things in check for future. And promises for steering fix also. Incident 6 - The Steering Saga
In the first service, they tightened up some bolts that made the steering better but was still hard. After escalation, they decided to do more diagnosis and figure out the issue.
1. The first step recommended by RTL (regional tech leader), Prashant, was to check damper settings. The Damper is a small unit that controls how hard or loose the rack needs to be. There is a way to check that. You open the rack, put the device on the pinion and read the torque that's being applied to make the pinion rotate. Anyways, the reading was lower that what's in the book. The mechanic calls up RTL he also is clueless. Either ways, he approves replacement under warranty.
Here's the funny part. Damper values:
As per manual - 1.5 to 1.8
Factory Rack - 0.07
New Rack - 2.0 to 2.5 Now the steering became double hard!!
2. I come the next weekend for further checks. I also had asked them to reconfirm the damper values from R&D (or wherever) and why it's higher in the new rack. No one has a clue!! Even today, no one has the answer.
3. Then the service center decided to exchange the steering column assembly from the demo car to inspect changes. This was yesterday. Guess what? They damaged the car lock system. Why? Because NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO DO THIS JOB. They damaged it because no one knows the procedure to open and close the steering column.
As of now - the car is parked in the service center, because the new steering lock needs to be ordered.
I call up the L4, Pratik, again and he's assured me the fix for all. I don't know how! According to him it's escalated to CEOs and Managers and what not. The Manager - Sandeep (useless, false promises)
The Mechanic - Praful (arrogant, no knowledge, apparently Team Leader at service center).
The RTL - Prashant - Never bothered to talk to me despite the long escalation.
The Sales guy - Sunil. Clueless about my RC Book.
I had been going to the service center for 3 consecutive Saturdays and barely anything is moving.
I will be sending an email to higher authorities on this and see what's the response. The reality is that, Nexa is not delivering the premium experience that they promise. The quality is awful. And I regret buying a Maruti. I've been driving 2014 Fiesta and the only thing I replaced under warranty yet is a power window switch. I wanted the 2nd car to be a no-nonsense city car for wife - but hey! I am now in a lurch! Warning to all BHPians, do not buy or get your vehicle serviced from Automotive Manufacturers, Navi Mumbai. They are careless and arrogant.
I'm reaching out to everyone, if someone can help me with contact/emails for higher authorities. It would be a lot of help.
PS: No update on my RC book still!
Thank you!
Here's the damaged car. Sitting at the service center.
Last edited by Zappo : 5th December 2018 at 13:40.
Reason: Please use a spellchecker before you make your next post. Also, keep your language civil, even if targeted at a 3rd party.
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