Re: Product vs After-sales: If you had to pick one? If possible I'd like to have both, a good product and service too. Today I have a VW Polo and a Ford ecosport, VW has excellent and reasonably priced service in Pune, in fact my first cousin from Bangalore who drives to Pune twice a year gets his service done here, and even though recommended interval is 15000 he averages only about 12000 to 13000 km between services as he doesn't trust the Bangalore dealer.
The Bangalore dealer had made him change brake pads disks etc at 30k km service even though disks were good, and pad wear was below 20% (11.5mm remaining against 14 mm new) Thats the last time the selling dealer saw the car. The next change was done in Pune at about 1.5 Lakh km (with about 6mm remaining).
For the Ford which is mostly used by my dad the average use is below 10K a year, and we drive to a service station on the city outskirts 25km away instead of one in town as the service there is better A few hrs lost one day a year is better for peace of mind.
There was a time when my average daily travel was above 200 km, and in that era the priority was service. That's when I trusted only Toyota for myself and Tata for my staff, in 2012 my 3.24 Lakh km Indica with no brakedown and only preventive maintenance done (Including suspension replacement brake pads etc) was sold as the dealer who did major maintenance on it (minor work at a local mechanic) moved away from the Tata dealership.
Rahul |