Congrats to Toyota and as an owner of multiple models (across the family) I wish them to stay committed to Indian market. Also, as fellow BHPians mentioned they should launch more genuine 'Toyota' cars and not economical / profitable rebadged versions.
A related point which needs to be mentioned here is how the service network of Toyota (for which it is known for) is under pressure due to huge volumes they have to cater to. There are few reasons to the same, listing the same down along with background.
Recently experienced huge delays in TAT from a service centre (in Mumbai) on a pre-booked service. My vehicle (2010 Corolla VL AT) was scheduled for annual service on a Saturday, pick up was done on time (a paid service off late) and vehicle reached service centre on time. It took couple of hours (and follow up) for Service Advisor to call me, acknowledging the vehicle is being attended to. Later by afternoon (say 2pm) they called up suggesting some more work (mainly checking up the status of shock absorbers) to which I agreed to considering the need. Around late evening, when I called to check on delivery of vehicle post service, I was informed that certain work could not be attended to today and can only be done on Monday (as on Sundays the service centre only does basic stuff like cleaning etc). It was an inconvenience as these days I drive to office but decided it’s better to get it done right away (as I plan to keep this car for more time). Later I gave feedback to dealer, Toyota (they call up as a routine) and also emailed on VOC. They responded and I highlighted the TAT issue. On the shock absorber, they suggested replacement of rear shock absorbers (front was optional), battery was cleared for another year of use.
Later (few weeks later) I had to do a follow up visit for shock absorber replacement (had to be ordered first). Unfortunately, prior to that I had faced a battery issue (due to an over enthusiastic parking assistant near office, whom I used to give keys to move the vehicle around due to parking constraints, the battery got drained) As its an automatic, did not want to take chances on battery and replaced it (did soon with an FNG and later went to Toyota to do shock absorber replacement, rear only).
This time I went in person and requested them to return the vehicle on same day, which they did but I was regularly following up. I could see the huge queue of vehicle for servicing and could very well understand the volume and time pressure they were under.
Subsequently decided to replace front shock absorbers too (as ride quality was still bit poor despite replacement of front shock absorbers. The decision again was driven by the fact that the car otherwise has been trouble free and I intend to retain it (maybe as a beater car for years to come).
This time around I booked service with a different service centre (Mumbai has 4/5) but the situation there was similar. Since I could pre-empt possibility of a delay, I followed up regularly to ensure same day delivery. Again, this time there an another unpleasant surprise, when I saw the car, at first sight I noticed the hanging tail /exhaust pipe (the connection from chassis was broken and was hanging loose but not fallen down fully). My immediate step was to call up the Service Advisor (SA), who immediately agreed to rectify it next day and did so, fortunately my outstation family trip was a day after. I had also personally visited this time around to ensure no further mess up.
I had also asked SA to check the video footage at service centre to notice the time of tail pipe damage, which eventually was estimated to have happened when the vehicle was delivered back. It was quite shocking as for anyone to cause damage to tail pipe in city roads, say by getting rear portion into a large pothole or speed breaker hitting rear portion... (this too I feel are rare possibilities, any other possibilities?). Anyways, I did not pursue the tail pipe damage much as they had welded it back and did not want a contract driver (who might have been at fault) to suffer.
Just noticed that the background / anecdote was long, hope it was not soo long
. Now coming back to the original observations on Turn Around Time (TAT) and Toyota Service Centres.
The following are the main reasons which I feel has contributed to the current woes faced by Toyota Consumers and increased TAT (and dissatisfaction) at Toyota Service Centres
1) Toyota Vehicles are mile munchers: Though the number of vehicles on road may be less, the actual Kms covered by Toyota passenger vehicles will be substantially more. Naturally this will require regular servicing as well as more detailed servicing
2) Toyota owners to regularly service at Authorised stations: In general they prefer taking the vehicle to authorised service station than FNG
3) Toyota Vehicles do remain on road for long: This results in more vehicles for servicing at any point in time.
4) Toyota has not expanded dealership / service centre network much: Possibly due to lower sales (than they anticipated ) due to few failed launches and lack of new products (original Toyota made) slated for India market
These are few points I could think through, request fellow BHPians to share their anecdotes / observations.
Best,