Live in a small town? Buy your car from an established brand

Thanks to Sumit Tak for sending this in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP page!

Live in a smaller city / town? Always buy your car from a large + established brand (Maruti, Hyundai, Mahindra, Tata etc.). And here's why. Sumit from Shirdi has been explicitly told by Datsun that he now needs to travel 250 km to Mumbai for service / repairs, or 200 km to Pune. For a visit that requires the car to be left overnight, that means two full days spent in travelling (one to drop the car, the other to pick it up). What a nuisance. Making things worse is the fact that the Datsun-Nissan workshops aren't exactly in the heart of Mumbai. They are all in remote places, so it's additional travel time after you enter Mumbai.

Note: GTO has reviewed the emails between him & Nissan / Datsun.

I bought a Datsun Redigo from Jai Malhar Nissan, Ahmadnagar in 2017. After around 6 months, the showroom shut down.

I've got the car with extended warranty. After a year, I did the 2nd service at Magic Nissan, Nashik (which is 80 km away from where I live). I asked them about who takes the responsibility of extended warranty of my car. Magic Nissan denied any responsibility, saying that the first servicing record doesn't exist on their portal !

The idling level of my car has increased to 2,000 - 2,500 rpm. I called Magic Nissan and told them about the problem. Well, Magic Nissan is no more an authorized service center . I now have to drive the car down to Pune or Mumbai for the problem. I am living in Shirdi, how can it be possible to drive 200-300 km.

I emailed the concerns to Datsun's customer care. They are also telling me to contact their service centers from Pune and Mumbai. I must say...don't buy Nissan or Datsun Cars!

GTO's recommendation to customers stuck in such a situation = kiss your warranty goodbye, find a good local mechanic & get your car maintained by him.