Life comes full circle and I actually realized what this means in my experience with Continental Motors. I had decided to buy a new car (my first) from them in 2004. And I must admit it was a thrilling experience everything delivered as per the promise and frankly there was nothing I could have asked for additionally.
As years went by I was happy to get my car serviced at their Kurla workshop, though I had an incident where the service advisor billed me for parts that were never replaced, latter I was informed that the service advisor was running a fraud and that he is now been sacked, but having said that there was no response for the loss I had suffered the amount was not huge hence I decided not to pursue the matter further. I realized a trick after the incident always get hold of one service advisor, tip him generously and most of the times they ensure good care of your beloved car.
Everything was fine, as such Hyundai Santro is not a car that requires lot of maintenance but in general found them to be okay while they may not be the best. What moved me was that all of sudden they shut their Kurla workshop and transferred all their work to existing Mulund workshop what it meant was that Mulund workshop was over flooded with cars and gradually started noticing decline in standards of service, this was after paying the generous tips. Also one day while watching my car getting ready, I noticed that an another car which was been driven to the garage crashed with a pillar.
The service advisor promptly informed that the pillar is tricky one and many cars have been damaged in past. When I inquired what would they do he smiled and mentioned we will do touch-up and give it back to the customer. He proudly mentioned that in the mean time customer will be notified that car spares are not available that will give them time to repair the damages. Poor customer would never realize that his car was mishandled by those on whom we lay lot of trust leaving our cars with them. Off late I was interested in buying a new car I tried calling them for details and was shocked to know that they didn’t care about selling cars. Whenever I used to call them they would note my details and never bothered to call me. Generally I have observed that over years quality of Hyundai dealership in Mumbai has deteriorated to new lows. Visit their showroom in Continental in Khar first impression is that they have converted some shady place into a showroom. It is in front of busy junction there is no parking and the place is so small that you can never expect a decent delivery from the location. I have seen Hyundai showrooms in other cities and I am shocked to see that have given dealership in Mumbai even without due consideration to location and space utilized by dealer. Not something once expects from top 4 car manufacturers in India. My parting comment would be to avoid Continental till the time they upgrade their services or Hyundai wakes-up and takes necessary action such dealers.