Dec 19, 2013 09:10 PM
4978 Views
Dear Car owners, may I please have your attention for I have something to say to you. I have owned a car since 2006. It was maruti 800, my first car, then it was an alto and now I own a maruti Ritz vdi, which I purchased on 2012 for 6.35 lacks, if I might add.
And all I use this car for is to go to my work place, which is around 12 km from my home and for occasional visits to my spouse’s and friends home.
From the moment I got the car it started showing issues. The first one was that the horn wasn’t working as it should have. After 5 to 6 visits and several bouts with the dealer I had that replaced and not far since then another issue arise. The door wasn’t closing completely.
I went back to the service station and got that fixed up. After about 5000 km I started to hear thudding sounds when I drove my car. I was like “oh no! What could have possibly gone wrong now?” I went to the service station and registered for yet another complaint.
And you know what the brilliant technicians had found out as the reason for the thudding noise, the door flap of the door, I got them to fix the last time around, had come off, great. From then on it was kind of funny so to speak, they’ll fix it and some days later it would come off, again they’ll fix it again it will come off, haha.
Funny right! And you will be amazed to know what the technicians did to tackle the issue that they were having with the door flap; at the second service they had the gaps around the door flap plastered with sponge, great work!.
And from then on, I am positive it was December 2012, till April 2013 I was a frequent visitor to the service station. It was like visiting a temple praying to solve my car’s issues. And when I understood that many of the locks of the plastic parts had broken off and they were many scratches due to over repair.
I just gave up and drove my car with the volume of my music loud enough so that I wouldn't be bothered by the thudding noises that my car made. What else possibly could I have done,
I preferred to have a car at least in running condition rather than break it off due to over repair. And after my car hit 15000 km, I noticed that there were water leakage from my car’s ac. I must say that the problem was there from the initial phase itself.
I just mistook it as some water leakage from the water bottles that I had in my car. And the fact that it actually occurred only during long distance travel, just made it easier for me to misunderstand it. Around June, 2013 the water leakage became more prominent and frequent and the amount of water leakage also kept increasing.
As usual I took my car to the service station and the technicians told me that the ac coil needs to be cleaned and it would cost me Rs.1600. After a bit of struggle I did get the work done under warranty, I have to say. And when I go my car back it was dreadful, my car was making so much of noise.
I couldn't figure out from where and what was causing these noises and as if to add fuel to fire, my ac was not working. This time instead of taking the car back to the service station I took it a local technician and made him have a test drive.
He did an inspection of the car and told it that the noise is ‘cuz the technician who worked on the car earlier just did not fix the things back up properly and it would be better if I would take the car back to the service station and have them fix it up. I did the same and they finally fixed all the parts up properly and returned my car.
After one week while I was washing my car I noticed that the paint in my car was beginning to come off, actually there was some bubble like formation in some parts of the car. On close examination, one part of the door had tiny amount of paints peeled off and it was getting rusty.
On thorough examination I found out that the doors and the bottom side of the bonnet had that bubble like formation of the paint. And more, the dickey and the place where we fill the diesel was starting to get rusty. And I reported this to the service station, and as always I was disappointed with the response I got from them.
They said it was ‘cuz of the water that got hung up in the car(which is in a car porch most of the times and a fairly new one, if I might add). And the experts there, without showing any sign of shame or embarrassment, just said that they would do a patch work of my new car. In fact I don’t blame them.
I just feel sorry for them for having to put up with these low quality cars and be at the firing line of the customers for all the issues that comes out of it. What can they do, it’s just bad quality product, that simple, and frequent issues are to be expected from a low quality product, I believe.
My friends, all I would want to say is don’t be fooled by the mega offers that the Maruti put up to increase their sales or may be, I don’t know, it’s just to get rid of some defect cars, I suppose.
Don’t go in assuming that you would get a good car, just because they used to make some quality stuff in the past, well they don’t anymore, you know that now. Don’t you? I am certain that they are heading in the pathway of self-destruction that Hindustan Motors(Ambassidor) once did.
In the past 20 months that I had with my car, I had to visit the service station at least 30 times, that in itself should speak volumes about the quality. I hope this will serve as a lesson to all of you and you will think twice before purchasing a maruti car.
Ask yourself, do you need to “Buy a lemon”? I say no, what say you? Ask yourself whether you are ready to visit the service station twice a month with your car’s issues. I say no, what say you? Ask yourself whether you are ready to be fooled and looted by maruti, I say no, what say you?
I am not a propagator for any company or any model but jus sharing my experience so that things come to limelight. I feel the new car experience has been a DISASTER for me ripping me of fun and happiness. After putting lakhs of hard earned money to fulfill the dream of buying a car.
In fact I WAS one of the biggest fans of the above said company(Maruti) but now.not any more.and after all this my final advice to Readers is that Please look at other options instead of BLINDLY buying z maruti car.
I requested many options to territory service manager Mr Midhun, like extend my warranty for another two year, give me promise that it wont happen any more. Replace my vehicle if rust issue is recurring after patch work. Maruti is no more ready for any promises.
They will patch work it and paint it till the warranty ends. Any help from your side will be highly appreciated. I have created a website for educating customers about this issue.
You can watch images of my car and more details from https://pradvi.com https://pradvi.com/ritz.html.
