Got up at 7.00 am, showered, had a bit of breakfast and left home at 0825 with thumri funk playing on the OE system sweetened by the Micro Precision 3s components and the IDQ sub, all powered by the Audison LRx 6.9 mothership amplifier. Flew over the Barapulla road, landed at Noida bridge and was at Oberoi motors in Noida @ 0915 for the Jet's 2nd service.
First car in was mine and the SA did a thorough check of the car (lights, fluid levels etc) and spotted moisture in the rear left tail light which he pointed out to me and before I could comment advised me that they would change it under warranty. Fantastic, what more could I want it was a great start to a Sunday. Nice drive, good music, an observant & conducive SA.
The Jet was soon on the lift for the ride to the workshop in the basement, time was 09.30 am. Soon the work started & a new air filter, engine oil (4 ltr can), oil and fuel filter were issued in a flash and two technicians went to work. One on the engine bay and the second one took off all of the wheels to clean the brakes. Got the tires moved around to ensure proper rotation and then stood aside watching the chaps go about their jobs. Air and oil filter replaced and the left hand side brakes having been cleaned, the vehicle was raised up, old oil drained out followed by the fuel filter being taken out. New fuel filter put back in place, there was a bit of petrol spillage but that was expected and it turned out to be a great way to reassure myself of the quality of fuel being dispensed from the bunk that we frequent. First there was no smell of kerosene or any other additive (not that I have a great nose) but in a couple of minutes it took the mechanic to slot in the new filter the spill had evaporated leaving nary a trace of the fuel, perfect that is pure enough. Back to servicing and all of the chassis and suspension bolts were re-torqued using the correct sockets and torque values. This job was done with the supervisor standing under the car and calling out the sockets and torque values to be used for the front and the rear bolts. Car was brought back to ground level, the brakes on the right hand side were cleaned, new oil was poured in and then the in cabin filter was taken out and cleaned and reinserted back in to it's slot. Next the electrician took out the left rear tail light and after completing the warranty paper work installed a new one, this process took about 10 maybe 15 minutes including the documentation. Post this all the fluid levels, lights, meters and AC, radio etc were given a check followed by a session with the diagnostic tool. No errors was the message and this was followed by service reminder cancellation which otherwise would have flashed come the 26th. Time was 11.40 am, the jet took another ride on the lift & went for a wash, I had a coffee and about 40 odd minutes later paid up 3782/- and was out on the road again.
All in all I had a satisfactory experience however the work atmosphere reminded me of a term related to dress code that I started to see on business invitations a decade or so ago "Business Casual"
While the workshop was very well equipped with a tool chest for every work station and the chaps knew their work, there was a whole lot of idle banter and chitchat. The w/s started work at 0930 and there was a tea break on site at 1030. This is a common practice at most workshops but has been done away with at places such as Maruti Service Masters (Maruti & Sumitomo JV)
However the comparison is unfair as MSM (Okhla phase II) handles in excess of 100 cars a day, more on weekends and runs on all 7 days with two shifts if required. The SAs use tablets to open job cards and snap pictures of the vehicles to record current physical condition. All of the data is wirelessly transferred in to the servers thereby generating job cards and work orders etc. The mechanics are provided breakfast before the shift starts at 0830 and have a tea break only after two hours followed by lunch and then another break, all at two hour intervals. The front desk staff do get tea on their seats but then they are hard pressed for time with car owners/drivers swarming around. However it was not always like this.
FIAT's A.S/C. today reminds me of a typical Maruti dealer's service centre in the early '90s . Then, with very few cars to handle on a daily basis the mechanics would fool around and were no different than a local garage except that the work clothes were overalls provided by the respective dealers. It was only as the numbers grew that things started to change. For them too it was not a smooth ride with the added pressures the service centres slipped and how. It was such a shoddy situation with pathetic customer satisfaction levels that MUL was forced to not only start training schools for mechanics but for the dealerships managerial personnel and these programs are now well entrenched in the industry as a standard offering by almost all manufacturers. In fact the afore mentioned MSM was a product of the slip up by the then service providers. A situation which was dramatically turned around by MUL and is now considered as a blessing in disguise. MSM was launched with well equipped work shops, trained personnel at all levels and quickly became the standard bearer of how a service centre should be managed and run.
In comparison to those workshops of yore FIAT's current workspaces are better equipped, spares are readily available and the mechanics are better trained. Though I believe this is true for any new entrant and is due to the overall change & maturity that the automotive market has undergone in the past 30 years. Things will improve further as the numbers of FIAT cars increase on the road and the workshops are pressed for more efficient use of time. This in fact can be felt and seen in FIAT workshops like Balaji Motors in Thane and Tuli Motors in Raja Garden(now Wazirpur). These two are located in the middle of their respective cities and have a largish number of cars coming in on a daily basis. Here again, I found the workshops to be very well equipped and stocked with even odd ball spares and the mechanics more focussed on their jobs given the work load. My Jet had a few jobs undertaken under warranty as well as it's first service at Balaji in Thane and later on another warranty replacement job was carried out at Tuli motors. In both instances the required parts were readily available despite being parts that are not commonly required. Sun visors with light assembly & dust caps for windshield trim at Balaji Cars and hydraulic supports for boot lid at Tuli Motors. This is very different from the stock situation for trim parts at say Honda or even Maruti for accessories.
My visits have been during and after the Fiat Tata transition period and I have had satisfactory experiences at all three FIAT workshops. In fact the warranty jobs and the first service at Balaji were done while I had to comeback to Dilli and they kept my Jet with them for almost three weeks before a friend (also a Tbhpian) flew it back to Dilli. While the car was with them they even shifted their workshop from their old premises to the current location, all the while ensuring that the Jet remained in pristine condition and there were no storage charge at all. This kind of service is unheard of and would not have been possible at any other brand's A.S.C. at least not gratis. I can only hope that FIAT's dealers retain such levels of customer satisfaction as the numbers grow and give us an additional reason to smile as we turn the keys from MAR to ON.
Before I close, let me inform you guys especially those of you who own the older models that FIAPL has started to actively support the older models manufactured earlier. They have already started to advertise regarding the same for the Palio. It is good to note that as they move forward FIAT is not forgetting their older products. Per the GM of Oberoi Motors, Wing Commander (Retired) Gopalan, they have been supporting the owners of Siena, Uno and Palios actively including importing parts from FIAT's stocks in Italy and now they are hopeful of better and ready availability of service & running repair spares given FIAT's own push in this direction