I have a Zen 2001 EURO I carburetor model that has done 76000+ km. The car has been always serviced at a Maruti dealership, the last regular service being on 15.03.2008 at Apra Auto Gurgaon. The mileage that I was getting was about 12.5 kmpl(tankfull to tankfull) at this time.
On 05.05.2008 I got AC servicing done and Thermister changed at Apra Gurgaon. The problems with the car started immediately after that.
After about a month the car started stopping suddenly while in motion. The engine and electrical indicator lights, horn would just stop functioning while the car is being driven. The mileage dropped to 9 kmpl.
I immediately took the car to Apra Gurgaon. They said the battery is drained, recharged the battery and sent the car back.
The problem continued and on 18.06.2008 the car stopped again on the road and would not start. I had to call the MOS van. They jump-started the car. I took it to Apra Gurgaon and met Mr. Sunil Chauhan, DGM. He inspected the car along with his electrician. They checked the alternator and battery current leakage and said everything is ok, there could be a problem with the fuel pump. They recharged the battery and sent the car back.
Two days later on 20.06.2008 the car stopped on road again. I had to call the MOS van again. They jumpstarted the car but it kept stopping, finally they had to tow the car to Apra workshop.
I met Mr. Keshavan, GM, he inspected the car and checked the alternator and battery leakage. He said the alternator is weak and needs to be replaced and there is battery leakage through central locking circuit. He replaced the alternator and disconnected the central locking. Total cost Rs. 4421.
The car did not stop any more after this but the mileage dropped to 8 kmpl.
I took the car to Apra again and met Mr. Keshavan. He got the mileage checked. They did not have the mileage checking machine to fit this model so, their service person did a tankfull to tankfull test after driving the car for 20 km. The mileage came as 8.25 kmpl.
Mr. Keshavan got the car checked by a technical advisor. He said the EGR is not working and a wheel-bearing needs to be changed. They did not have the EGR on stock, so they asked me to come back when the part comes.
I was asked to come and get the EGR replaced on 09.08.2008. They changed the EGR and a wheel-bearing. Total cost Rs. 5400.
The mileage did not improve at all and was still 8 kmpl.
I spoke to Mr. Keshavan again and he got the car checked again at Apra workshop on 17.08.2008. They cleaned the carburetor and adjusted tappets.
The mileage did not improve at all and was still 8 kmpl.
Mr. Keshavan said they have done whatever was possible and can not do anything more to rectify the problem.
On 25.08.2008 I lodged a complaint at the Maruti Zonal service office, Delhi. . I was told that the TSI Shobit Kumar would get in touch with me. However, I did not receive any call from him. After numerous calls to the ZSO I finally managed to track down Shobit Kumar on 26.08.2008 afternoon. He told me to bring the car to Apra Gurgaon on 28.08.2008 at 10 AM in the morning and he would check the car himself.
On 28.08.2008 I kept checking with Mr. Keshavan at Apra but Shobit Kumar never came to Apra. My entire day was wasted. I tried to contact Mr. B S Soni at the ZSO but he refused to speak to me. I left my contact number and the complaint number for him to call back. However, he did not call back.
In more than a month and after 3 visits to the dealer workshop Maruti has not even been able to identify the cause of the problem and I have already spent more than Rs. 10, 000 apart from the continued low mileage.
This continued for another week before I gave up and got the car serviced from Qutab Auto, an authorised service center. They managed to rectify most of the problems. They also said that while servicing they found that Apra Auto had not actually done the service jobs they had mentioned in the service invoice.
Never visit Apra Auto Gurgaon for service. They are rank incompetent and they charge for services they have not actually done.