Terrifying Experience. Review on Choosing a Car Dealer

I am writing a review on MS after a long long time. I thought I should share my harrowing experience for repairs on my Fiat Palio car. No one can forget the deluge of July 26, 2005, when entire Mumbai was submerged when the century’s heaviest rains hit the city.

My car which was parked in my building was also not spared from the rain waters which entered my car almost till the bonnet level. After couple of days I managed to find a towing van who agreed to tow my car to the service centre not before I agreed to pay a premium for his services. I got my vehicle towed to the authorized service station cum dealer M/s. Angad Automotives in Chembur.

I had to change almost everything right from floor carpets to the ECM (computer chip) which included spark plugs, clutch plates, speedometer sensors, gear shaft etc. For the first 20 odd days, my car lay there unattended. After my repeated requests, they atleast dismantled the seats and let the car interiors dry. My car was amongst the first to reach the service stations and still there are no spare parts available at their stores. For every smallest of the spare parts they used to raise a requisition form to their stores who in turn used to raise a purchase order to the Fiat factory in Kurla. The story does not end here ...... since the Fiat factory at Kurla was also submerged in waters, they in turn used to import the spares from Brazil. Partly it was a problem from Fiat’s end, but Angad was pretty laid back, it little to ensure that the spare parts are fitted as soon as possible. I do understand that a calamity of this magnitude was not anticipated and everyone was caught unaware and unprepared, there was problem with almost most of the car manufacturers.

Practically every alternate day I used to call up Angad and follow up on the progress on the repairs, I used to get the same reply that spare parts are awaited from Fiat factory. One of my friend who also owns a Palio, got his car repaired within 45 days from M/s. Fort Automotive in Thane. Then I discovered that Angad, for whatever reason, is not able to or is not keen to procure spare parts. While I almost decided that I will take my car in ”as-in” condition and give to Fort Point, I realized that my car was still not in working condition and I need to spend a bomb to tow my vehicle to Thane from Chembur and also the insurance survey was done at Angad and thus decided against moving my car. But I was determined to step-in and do whatever was possible to release my car. By this time it was already October, 2005 – 3 months from the time I had given it to Angad. I took a list of spare parts to be fitted in my car and then ordered the same from Fort Point and gave the same to Angad to be fitted. Finally I got my car in November, 2005. Had I got it repaired from Fort Point, I would have got it much earlier. I also made it a point to complain about Angad to Fiat, but no response received till date.

Though Fiat Palio is great car, the service is quite disappointing baring a few good service stations like Fort Point. Fiat has now tied up with Tata for service and I sincerely hope that this problem would not persist.

Do RRC my review.

Love

Vijay