Tata Safari's 15k km service: Good experience with one small exception

While 90% of the work was done well, the remaining 10% is something Tata service centres must definitely address.

BHPian Varunmohan recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

1 year / 15000 service done at Sagar Motors, Noida

My car celebrated its first birthday on the 21st of April and to treat it, I scheduled the service at Sagar Motors, Sec-5, Noida. I thought of writing a post to recount my experience and what was done in the service so that it can help my fellow owners.

I reached at 9.08 AM and there was already a long line of cars waiting outside the service centre but in another 15-20 minutes, I was able to get the car inside the centre and hand over the keys (had to get down once in the middle to ask a person to not enter the line in-between but rather get to the end of the queue..not sure why people do that).

An SA was allocated to me and he promptly opened a job card asking me what problems I have faced and wanted them to fix. He knew his job well and was courteous. He took the car in and handed it over to the floor technicians for the service schedule.

Work Done

Quoting below the work undertaken / parts changed and their roundabout prices:

• Engine Oil – 5 Ltr – 4950/-
• Oil Filter – 900/-
• Fuel Filter – 2960/-
• AC Pollen Filter – 540/-
• DEF – 8 Ltr – 1250/-
• Alignment – 600/-
• Balancing – 500/-
• Wheel Weight – 420/-
• Start/Stop Switch – most of the paint on the switch was gone and so I asked it to be replaced in warranty and SA happily agreed. Costs around 1700 + labour
• Brake Pads – On removing the front wheels, the front brakes were completely covered in Carbon. The technician removed the brake pads and showed them to Service Manager. It was changed under warranty free of charge. Looks like there is some circular from Tata on this based on the brake pad conditions and km drove. Also heard a rumour (not sure how true) that there is some change in the material on the new brake pads and so they may last longer. Generally costs around 8500/-
  Some oils were topped up.
• The plastic cover under the driver’s seat came loose on one of my recent trips and it was promptly fixed.
• There was an issue with one of the belt slots in the rear seat, where the slot used to go down and the seat belt could not be put was fixed. This has been there since the delivery of the car and I was assured that this time it has been fixed properly.
• Battery checking was missed but when I reminded, they promptly checked and confirmed that all is okay.

Experience:

1. SA Gaurav Kumar was very helpful and courteous. He helped a lot in moving the car fast through the whole routine and made sure that all checks were done.
2. Floor Service Manager Satvinder Singh was extremely knowledgeable and knew what he was doing. He managed the things well on the floor.
3. Post wheel alignment which was the last thing that was done on the car, the alignment person took the car out to drive and checked that the alignment is okay, which I think is a good process. I was allowed to accompany him.
4. After that, the car was pushed into the washing line. Everything was going on well till that time but that’s when the trouble started.
5. The machine that was used to wash the cars was not working and the workers were doing it all by hand. They used pressurized water to clear the dirt and one person quickly shampooed the car which took less than 2 minutes. Post that the car was washed again with pressurized water and then 10 more people took over to clean it from the inside out. But the result was extremely bad. I went on a trip to Dehradun recently and the whole front of the car was marked with black spots (poor insects that met their end by taking a fast-moving car head-on). The washing could not remove any of the black spots because no one bothered about it.
6. After SA Gaurav showed the car to me for delivery, I complained about multiple things:

• Very visible black spots all over the large white bonnet
• Mechanics/cleaning guys dirt handprints left all over the inside of the car – seats/doors/dashboard
• The chrome of the car was not cleaned at all and looked all rusty

SA immediately started asking the cleaning guys/supervisor to look at and fix the issues, but they only made a very half-hearted attempt. I could feel as if the cleaning guys were not bothered at all. SA even suggested that he can try to get the black spots removed by using petrol but I wasn’t sure if that could damage the paint and so I stopped.

I understood then that cleaning is not something that this Service centre takes seriously and so I made up my mind to get the car thoroughly cleaned inside out from some other detailing shop and left the service centre as is.

So overall a mixed experience. 90% of the work was done well but the 10% work on cleaning which was right at the end, left a bad impression and a sour taste in the mouth. This is something that the service centre should address. I am hoping to pass the feedback to them.

Sorry for a long post and unnecessary ranting but was just trying to share my experience and something that may be useful to other owners too.

Here's what BHPian Sreejith V had to say on the matter:

Happy that they are taking up the brake pad issue seriously and doing the replacement under warranty.

I feel the washing SC does is a normal wash, not the detailed one. You may need detailed cleaning with special cleaning agents to remove those black spots of tar and others. Even the detailing studios charge separately for this kind of cleaning. So better to get this done by a specialist rather than getting it done from SC.

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