Re: Mahindra Scorpio : Issues & Solutions This is sad story of my friend in Botswana who made the mistake of being a proud Indian and buying 3 4WD Bolero pick ups for the exploration operations he runs there.
My Indian friend runs an exploration venture in Africa. His first choice was M&M's Bolero partly because it is Indian and he says his mechanic back home was raving about its sturdy built and performance. He bought delivery of 3 nos 4X4 double cabs. He deliberately avoided those sturdy and well tested Toyota Hiluxes to prove a point that we Indians are there. For good measure, he also bought a Toyota Hilux that had done about 75,000kms for about 3/4th the price of a new Bolero.
He told me this in April 2010:
Tail lamps regularly blow out.
Dashboards rattle.
Suspension collapses ("is Bolero a sturdy vehicle?").
Brake drums wear out fast ("are they made of wood?").
Stuck gearboxes that left the vehicles stranded.
Vehicle waiting in the garage for over a month for a gearbox. Bursting injector pipes! No parts available - my friend comes shopping for MM parts every time he is India, started carrying them as part of check-in baggage from India as if he is carrying noodles. Lost over 6 vehicle months since he bought them first in late 2009 that cost the almost Rs 4,50,000 equivalent in hiring alternate vehicles. Second hand Toyota Hilux performing well even after doing 60,000 additional kms in the same rough terrain. It just needed a couple of oil change. 2011 year's update: MM service quality is pathetic. MM local dealer promised 24X7 help when they made their marketing pitch; but no problem ever fixed in less than 30 days, all blamed on tardy supplies of spares from India. Complaints to MM India senior management elicited response that these vehicle complaints are quite common, management is aware of them, they used the Chinese analogy that since their product is cheap and sells well, why bother about these minor matters?
"Looking to dump these vehicles under the sand dunes without the number plates on them so that they don't get delivered back to us!" Jan 2012 update: My friend is back again in India in Jan 2012, 1 Bolero has bust its differential, he is searching for crown pinion, etc, for last 3 months, another has bust its gear box, and he is unable to get even brake pads and brake shoes locally in Africa, in a market where MM takes pride in saying they are doing very well!
With the help of our friend M.Khanna, we searched all dealers and spare parts shops in MM HQ city of Bombay, nowhere are parts available, There is confusion on specs of the parts in the vehicle. They say the vehicle is too "old" since it was sold brand-new in the year 2009, parts have been redesigned, old-design parts not stocked by anyone. Manoj virtually scourged the dust bins of Bombay and after 3-4 days of trying, some 100 calls later, located the parts yesterday evening with a spare parts (maybe used parts?) dealer in central Bombay. My friend who leaves Bombay tomorrow ran and got it thankfully, never mind he has to carry some 15 kgs in his baggage in an international flight.
Price of the parts was 50% of what was quoted by MM dealer who was unwilling to commit any timeline for procuring it. MM warehouses did not have the part anyway. My friend was already contemplating "cannibalising" parts from each of his 3 Boleros which are stranded now for want of parts, switch between good and bad parts! In the meantime, he has bought one more second hand Toyota Hilux, and the first second hand Hilux has run 1 lakh kms since he bought it, needing just a few litres of engine oil!!!
Thank you, Manoj Khanna, my friend is frustrated with Indian products & their quality, but he is impressed with your Indian "jugaad" in procuring the parts he wanted in break-neck pace!
This analogy of a Mahindra vehicle in Africa applies anywhere in India, I face it daily for my 2005 model Scorpio - no parts available, MM & dealers not bothered about servicing "old" cars & new cars face bigger problems anyway! Do we still say WITH YOU HAMESHA? or say AH SHAME??!
I have a brilliant marketing idea for MM – Buy 1 car, Get 2 at 50% less price. Lock away the second car so that you can start cannibalizing its parts later when the first one fails one by one. Cheaper than the down-time and the effort and cost it takes to get parts later!
P.S. I am not a Toyota salesman. I gain no mileage or Padma Bhushans from damning MM, am simply recounting a real-life experience, a story which I can also empathise with since it is also partly the story of me & my Scorpio, so the resemblance with characters is not fictional but real.
P.S. 2. Why talk of Bolero in a Scorpio forum? Bolero or Scorpio, the story of MM is the same.
P.S. 3 Q. Why am I being critical of MM now? A. Look back at my posts since the year 2005, what I have said about my bad experiences with the Scorpio can fill a quality control handbook!
I own a Scorpio of 2005 and it is a great vehicle. It is just 2K kms short of completing 3 lakh kms. I maintain my car reasonably well and I know it can run many more 000s of kms. But I maintain it against several odds - a MM which seems to be American and not Indian the way they want their customers to discard even cars that are not old - or at least that is what their attitude of starving their older models of spare parts, not helped by frequent design changes necessitated perhaps by not getting it right the first time - and dealers who are totally unscrupulous in the manner in which they diagnose and repair the cars. I have a huge list of parts for my Scorpio that are either not available or difficult to get and every time any part fails, I shudder at the prospect of having to run around to get the parts. Luckily, I have stopped depending on the ASCs and find my own solutions in the open market. |