[Resolved]  MARUTI - WAGON R LXI — Maruti Goes Wider Tolerance and compromise on Quality

Product - Wagon R LXI
Date of Delivery - 20-1-06
Dealer - Khivraj Motors, Chennai
Reg. No.- TN07 AH 3402
Engine No.- 4196808
Chassis No.- 373222
Mileage[protected]

Sir,
This is to inform the quality standard of Maruti Products and their personal handling the complaints.
I bought this Jung Vehicle from Khivraj Motors Chennai and during my second free service I noticed some abnormal noice and requested them to rectify the same.Their service Manager in Ekkattuthangal workshop noticed that and accepted the same.They convinced me by telling that, this will be taken care if it furher develops and suggested me to take care of fuel used.
When I escalated further, they checked the vehicle twice and requested Maruti service technicians to look into the same and everything in verbal.I belived them and after my third service also they kept it open. I continued my paid 4th and other services with them.
During my paid services they never showed interest in my vehicle and I thought of changing the service to MSM directly for the next service.
When my vehicle had performed 26834 KM in the month of Sept2009, I took the vehicle to MSM for the service and the vehicle started overheating on the way and I stopped it near their workshop.
They noticed that the enginee oil is mixing with the radiator coolant and gave a big list of activities to be checked for analysing the root cause of this problem.
To find out the problem of engine head micro crack, they took almost 10 days and told me the need for engine head replacement.
When I escalated it to the MSM customer Care Manager Mr.Velmurugan, he requested for the service details documents as it is not properly entered in their data.
I provided all the supporting documents for my free service and paid service detaisl from Khivraj.
While receiving the same he told me that this is a very genuine case of defective engine head problem and not noticed in general. He gave very good hopes for fair dealing with Maruti.
After a week time he called me and conveyed that Maruti is not accepting it as warranty and requested me to approve for the parts replacement.
I wrote to Maruti many times and spoke to their Chennai Territory Manager(Hopeless Technical guy) and all went in vain.
I requested them to show the crack in the old part and it is not visible at all and they have marked it with a red mark(Please refer my attached photo)
I paid a hefty amount of Rs.24416/- for the their poor quality standards.
When I asked for technical justification, no body replied from Maruti end and the way they replied was technically horrible.I wondered how Maruti Technical department is brain drained for the shake of rejecting a genuine claim and didnt have guts to accept their fault.
My Concerns and information to others who are planning to buy a vehicle:
# Due to the wider tolerance of quality standards of Maruti, the customer safety is a big question mark
# Due to the same quality standards, the maintenance cost for Maruti vehicles are on higher side.This was accepted by their technicians and territory manager
# Maruti wants to make big money in their parts business to compensate their overall sales competition
# Average income group people can't think of Maruti due to its expensive maintenance cost
# Better buy a used vehicle rather than buying a Junk from showrooms
# Engine is the heart of any vehicle and even for an preowned car within 5 years of age group, there is an engine warranty available.
# Even when I enquired with Cab operators of extensive usage, they never faced this type of engine problems.

In general I like this vehicle very much and with 5 years of dream and hard earned money I bought that vehicle.
But the way the complaint handling is followed by an automobile giant in India is very poor and third rated.
I request Maruti to take this feedback in a right spirit as an oportunity to improve on their customer satisfaction index.

A.Prabaharan, B.E.
Heidelberg India Pvt.Ltd.
Senior Field Service Manager,
Mobile :- +91 [protected]
Phone :- +91 [protected]
prabaharan.[protected]@heidelberg.com
www.in.heidelberg.com
No.1 Service Providers for the Graphics Arts Industry.