Aug 02, 2006 07:47 PM
2643 Views
(Updated Aug 02, 2006 09:38 PM)
I'm a week old to Mouthshut and I have scanned through entire bike section. I have noticed following,
1> 50% reviews are from excited new experience(both bad & good)
2> 20% are genuine and experiential based.
3> 30% are crap & biased+ possibilty that employees of some companies are sneaking as well in guise of MS members.
1> Owners of HH, Honda, & Suzuki review least, for them decision to buy their bike was based on his trusted friends' advice and to some extent b'cos they are reliable brands. World's largest seller HH Splendor has reviews less than 120 but they are roaming Indian roads in Millions!
2> Bajaj : Anyone is proud to own a bike made from desi co. Many adopt Bajaj for their Indianess, looks & loads of features. Most reviews in Bajaj sections are concentrated on cosmetics and pick-ups. While lauding looks they forget to talk about mileage & reliability which are important to an average biker in India. Pulsars & Discos have serious gearbox & clutch problems compounded with inconsistent mileage and reliabilty. Their big points are ready availabilty of bike with good offers & false mileage claims. Disc110 is claimed 108 KMPL. don't expect it to give even 60kmpl. One important aspect of Bajaj bikes is that you'll not face any issues untill 10, 000-15, 000kms, but after this honeymoon.even god doesn't know !
3> TVS, there has been a huge downtrend in Victors. Victors' image went up due to Sachin. Unfortunately TVS have not backed him by not concentrating on reiiabilty issues. In fact by fixing cons of Victor, TVS had fair chance to muster volumes in the market. Instead they have gone for an option of introducing new Victor by naming it Star. TVS created huge hype ahead of production and launch of Apache. With few hundreds sold, there already compliants of vibration, mileage & reliabilty. Apache has been reviewed more than 62 times but is only two months old and few hundreds are on road who are not even serviced 2 times. Beware of people who simple talk great about bike after a test ride or after 600 kms.
4> For a new bike buyer, who is serious not to have head aches & is interested in long term association with the bike say 5 years, then the best options are HH, Honda, Suzuki & to some extent Gladiator. These bikes are built for atleast 5-10 years, spares & good quality service will be guaranteed. Their customer focus is good.
5> Having put my 4th point, you have another option, that is to zero in on any model of your chioce. Talk to atleast 10-15 owners who have done atleast 10K kms. You'll get ONLY truth.
6> My above lines, may indicate a slight inclination towards HH & Hondas. Bajaj & TVS have had lot of time to take on stiff competition with major tie-ups. What Bajaj & TVS have failed is building overall good quality bike & backing customers with good service. Typical middle class should avoid booking new models from TVS & Bajaj. Victor, Avenger, P180, Disc125, Apache are all getting poor response and are plagued with serious problems. HH & Hondas also produce bikes with glitches and problems, but they effectively keep customers happy by ironing out problems during service. Bajaj & TVS will not do this and instead they line up lot of feature packed bikes for market with far-sightedness towards'good quality' bike. HH in future will face problems from within, Munjals didn't have a Union untill recently, but now there are unions and workers feeling insecure due to Honda's lock-out. Hondas will not compromise on quality, but HH in it's race to maintain marketshare lead may overlook minor problems especially from their new plants.
Happy Bike Hunting.
