[GKS]

dear studdocs,

I had a similar experience with my dealer when I took my car, couple of things I learned from my experience is that when you are going to put your hard earned cash never ever deal with a sales man, go right to the manager of the showroom and deal with him. Mr.Sunil is under pressure to get a sale, and once the sale is finalized his job is over period. He gets his commission for the sale and the company gets close to meeting their target.

Very very nice to know that Maruti has taken care of your problems. But one question remains unanswered here,

Who is supposed to test the vehicle before giving it to a customer, is it Maruti or is it your dealer??

[ImmortalZ]

The dealer has a PDI checklist they have to follow before letting the customer take delivery.

[supercars]

Good Luck and hope all your problems were solved.

Please refrain from going on Very Long Drives in a New Car.

[studdocs]

Originally Posted by GKS

dear studdocs,

I had a similar experience with my dealer when I took my car, couple of things I learned from my experience is that when you are going to put your hard earned cash never ever deal with a sales man, go right to the manager of the showroom and deal with him. Mr.Sunil is under pressure to get a sale, and once the sale is finalized his job is over period. He gets his commission for the sale and the company gets close to meeting their target.

Very very nice to know that Maruti has taken care of your problems. But one question remains unanswered here,

Who is supposed to test the vehicle before giving it to a customer, is it Maruti or is it your dealer??

Hi PDI was done properly and i personally went through the T-bhp PDI List at the dealer. The car was infact running well for the 400 odd kms i drove it. It was only on 26th Morning that the "Service Vehicle Light" came up and i noticed a drag while driving. So probably the problem with the ECM was not there on delivery and happened afterwards.

After this incident I feel these indicators provided by the manufacturers in the new cars may actually be beneficial because had it not been for the error light staying on, I might have driven a few more kms bfr realizing the problem because as a matter of fact the car was not giving any major problem till then and it actually took me a while to realize that there is a drag too in the city drive!

[sgiitk]

Reminds me of Hyundai service. A colleague had the cooling fan motor go bust. He was in a small town with an A$$ and no dealership. Called the dealership (200km away). They promised to send a man with a new fan and will reach tomorrow. A couple of hours later he gets a call that his car will be done in two hours. Hyundai discovered that the A$$ had a carawaiting delivery. They asked him to take the fan from that and install. The next day when the mechanic came he replaced the fan in the stock car.

This is service.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Hyundai discovered that the A$$ had a carawaiting delivery. They asked him to take the fan from that and install. The next day when the mechanic came he replaced the fan in the stock car.

This is service.

Definitely will NOT agree to this service attitude, heck if i pay $$$ for a new car, I expect a brand new untampered car and wont accept something like this! Can accept it if it was dealer demo car or something but otherwise

[Sawyer]

@Jaggu - can understand the passion, but is it really that big a deal? It is not as if they are using the car. If the fan is a simple bolt on, how does it really matter if it was bolted on at the factory or the dealership?! You do know that PDI throws up minor glitches sometimes, on electricals, for instance, that are fixed at the dealerships? Does that mean the car is now a used tampered car?!
Sometimes, ignorance really is bliss, and one should trust the system!
Now if this was done by keeping another customer on hold, it is a different matter, but I did not read that in the example cited.

[sudev]

Originally Posted by supercars

Please refrain from going on Very Long Drives in a New Car.

Why? If you are buying a new car the only caveat is not to overload engine during running in. (in most modern cars that is also not strictly true). The vehicle is meant for use and so it should be. Only thing I agree to is that familiarize yourself with the vehicle before driving off.

I would like to share my experience with an Opel Astra which I got as hire in Germany. The spanking new car, with freshness smell to it, just had 25 odd Kms on odo when I picked it up at Frankfurt airport. I was to drive it from there to Hanover, Antwerp and back again to Frankfurt. Slightly out of Frankfurt the ECM warning light came up. I pulled in at the next layabout I called up Avis. They requested me to continue to Hanover and there the car was taken and a replacement given from the city rental outlet (I had to drive in there). There was no other symptom or power loss though.

So ECM failing is something that happens but these are actually dual circuits. If one of the circuit fails the other can keep working albit with warning lamp glowing.

Hope your problems get resolved. I am impressed with Rana and Maruti for attending to it so promptly.

[NutsNBolts]

Good that problem with your car was rectified efficiently. ECU failing in a brand new car is a worrisome thing so Maruti was bang on in having a senior engineer assisting in the wiring harness change. All is well that ends well. I have a doubt here. If something happens on a brand new ECU and it requires re-working, does it come under warranty anew or the older one continues to be in force, especially since your key also had to be re-configured.

[studdocs]

Hi friends, this is to update you that the problem in my vehicle has finally been solved.

As enumerated earlier also, the ECM had to be changed. I'll post a few pics and the problem chronology and the lessons learnt ...

1st the error started with the following light staying on in the central console:



The engineers at Rana Motors connected the following device to find the error codes:


The device indicated injector No. 3 is not getting power:


The maruti Engineers team zeroed in on the ECM as the culprit.


The ECM costing arnd Rs. 20000 was replaced under warranty.

After changing the ECM, the real process of recalibrating the vehicle starts. For this various codes, etc have to be detailed from the factory. An interesting point was that the ECM change also disabled the AC and other electronics and all had to be recalibrated.


Also the ECM change necessasitated the recalibration of the car keys with the ECM ID. The ECM ID keeps changing every few hours. So the codes sourced today will not work tomorrow. (happened with my vehicle as the codes fetched by the workshop from the factory for Key calibration failed to work today and had to be resourced by sending the new ECM ID.)


So in short, the ECM is the brain of your car and doing a brain transplant is hell lot of work (and costly too though in my case warranty took care of that!)

I appreciate Rana Motors and Maruti for the efficient and quick handling of this problem and for maruti taking all the pains to send their senior engineers in. The dealers usually dont handle such problems very often and hence their boys arent well trained at handling such issues. But in my case, Rana Motors acted as good facilitators and kudos to them for that. They kept the TSM regularly updated at gurgaon and did as he directed.

And yes maruti followed up on my complaint done on 18001800180 with the dealer and the dealer requested me to sign a specific "satisfaction Feedback" form on completion of work which they were supposed to send to Maruti immediately (this wasnt the usual feedback form. their customer care manager took specific interest in this and its photocopies were done and kept in my vehicle file and original immediately faxed to maruti in gurgaon)

[tj123]

Originally Posted by studdocs

Hi friends, this is to update you that the problem in my vehicle has finally been solved.

Congrats on getting your vehicle fixed, hope every thing is back to normal now. Good to see Maruti responding well & fixing the problem on priority.

Maruti is serious about customer satisfaction & a bad c-sat rating for a dealer is sure invitation for trouble.
I know of a friend who had a power steering failure on his 2.5yr Old Wagon R, the dealer was acting smart by not replacing the faulty unit (the Vehicle was under extended warranty).
He shot a letter to Maruti & the dealer came running to him & his faulty unit was completely replaced ..no further questions asked.

This commitment towards customer satisfaction keeps Maruti head & shoulders above the competition even though they don't have best of products in there portfolio.

Studdocs do keep writing about your experiences & Live the Moment Ritz style.

[vijaythacker]

studdocs, good to hear your car's back with its heart transplant and rana motors as well as maruti served you and your problems with new car promptly, which is why maruti is still no1 in indian car scene.Your call on its customer service centre means a lot to company and was the result seen by you.Keep updating on your ritz ownership.

[rkbharat]

Very good to see your car back in shape.

And yes, maruti services are still the best. And believe me they are really scared about any complaint and even a little low score on feedback form

[rageshgr]

Well! It was a very bad experirnce to start with. But the quick turnaround by the dealer and Maruti ended in a good note. All is well that ends well!

[nsbhagwat]

Congrats on the car problems being solved promptly.

This is a good lesson to learn for all from Maruti when it comes to customer focus. And this kind of support from Maruti to its MASS is a direct result of company management preaching and practising customer satisfaction.

Enjoy your drive.

Nikhil