Ambassador and Fiat were considered very good till the arrival of Maruti. Maruti was considered the best till other cars arrived. Tatas are enjoying the same wisdom. **They have taken sizable share of passenger cars despite crude, unrefined cars as they had almost no competition in small diesel cars. Secondly most of their buyers are first timers and cost conscious buyers not looking for quality but low running cost.
I was also fool enough to fall in the trap despite being a satisfied user of Maruti and Hyundai. I bought my INDIGO in July 2004. Since then till March 2007, the car had spent more than 50 days in the workshops of Authorised Dealers of Tata Motors. The Engine failed three times since then within the warranty period. All the three times I had to get the car towed for many kilometers. I have written More than fifty mails to Tata Motors who have no idea why the engine is failing again and again. Last time they got it repaired locally at their dealer’s workshop. The car was there for more than 8 days but they are not telling why it was there and what they did with it. May be they do not want to admit what went wrong. Due to frequent failures of the car, I had to purchase another car to take care of my family needs. My small children are too afraid to enter this ever failing car.
After facing these hardships, I have noticed that more than 60% of the cars breaking down on roadsides belong to Tata Motors. You all also please take note and inform your experiences.
Apart from the noise like a truck, my car would give intolerable vibrations and black smokes. Refusing to start at signals(if you want to save fuel in the National Interest) is most commen problem I have noticed with many Tata users.
The Dealer(Him Motors) from where I purchased the car lastly refused to repair the car telling me that since its engine was opened at other dealers(Dhingra Motors, Gurgaon) it has developed serious flaw beyound their repairing capacity. I then went to other dealer who said that fuel injection pump is not developing enough pressure and quoted me around Rs.12, 000/- for its repair. When I requested to repair it under extended warranty which is still running, he flatly refused. I then approached Shrinathji Motors, Ghaziabad(I had to move to many dealers even for repairs) They repaired the car as per their own wish and methods and charged me aound Rs.13, 000/- for various maybe existing or non-existing repairs. They also confirmed me in their mail that there is **some warpage of the engine head but despite their comment they are reluctant to repair the car as they unofficially say that the repair shall not be compensated by Tata Motors under warranty.
Even writing to The Esteemed Chairman of the company Mr. Ratan Tata has not produced any results. The replies from his office are as vague as from his irresponsible managers. I feel he is too busy squeezing us Indians to fulfill his aspirations of international Mergers & Acquisitions.
The emissions are not meeting the pollution norms. The Tata Authorised dealers issue fake certificates without even checking the emmission to cover up the issue. I had to approach Transport Department of Delhi to catch their dealer red handed while issuing Fake Certificates. Later the Authorization of HIM MOTORS to issue Pollution under control certificates was cancelled.
For my car problems, I was left with no other option but to approach consumer courts. The consumer court decided the case in my favour but TATA’s shamelessly appealed in the State Commission. The State Commission also rejected their appeal but once again the TATA’s(bent on troubling the customers) have appealed in the National Commission. They have the money Power and they would go to the last level to test the capacity and tolerance of the consumer. However the car is unusable since March 2007 and I have been patiently waiting for the outcome. Anyone wanting details of the correspondence can write to me at asetia@eth.net. I shall be pleased to send you all the copy of the complete correspondence.
I previously had cars from Maruti and Hyundai. I never needed to interact with them as I never faced any problems with their cars.
I feel that is the reason that Tata Motors is never in the race of having higher number/percentage of satisfied customers. The customer support is as good as dead. If the customer is really lucky to have no faults then fine otherwise he is left in midstream. Probably you all might be aware how Tata Motors recently had to pay compensation of around Rs.7, 00, 000/- to one of its customers. I shall be glad to share the copy of that newspaper cutting with you all.
I also welcome suggestions from all of you to handle this issue. You can even write to me directly on my above email id. **In case any of you can help me on this, I shall be grateful. Who knows this experience may get repeated with anyone.
Last year I bought Hyundai VERNA and am very happy with its performance which should be rated 10 times better than TATA INDIGO in my view.
Regards,
Ashwani Setia
98910 42944