Think twice before entering Yamaha showroom. Review on Yamaha Gladiator

Yes, first visit, no problem. But second visit? Be careful. Either you have to purchase a bike, or be prepared to get insulted. Forget about a request for test-ride.

I am not generalizing this, but I had exactly similar experience on last Sunday, when I entered Yamaha showroom for the second time, to have a look at the Gladiator-125. The offense committed by me was that I had entered the same showroom sometime back to see the Yamaha Fazer model. The shop-owner was really furious, recognizing my face, and he just drove me out of his shop. His assistant was trying to resolve the matter politely, but I already decided by that time not to enter their showroom once again.

I stay at Jamshedpur (if anybody there from the same place, please take note), and showroom that I am talking about is located at Bistupur. I have a nine year old Bajaj 4S Champion, which has really performed like a champion, for several years, and still giving a mileage of about 75kmpl. These days I am planning to buy a new one, and therefore, quite naturally I am visiting all the bike showrooms of this small city, and I am completely open minded without any bias. When there are so many options now, why should I not have a look at all the available models? But this guy was so unhappy seeing me again !! He recognized my face after 2-3 months, that itself indicates how many people really visit his showroom.

As far as Gladiator is concerned, it is a cheating. The Gladiator-150 (I have seen the pictures only -https://xbhp.com/articles/autoexpo06/gladiatorandfazer250/page1.php) that was displayed in auto-expo is from a different world. But this 125cc version is the repetition of same old story – depriving Indian customers. Impartially thinking, Gladiator-125 is not bad, has the potential to give Discover a tough competition, especially due to its self start, fifth gear and disk brake (less than 50K on road). Not a bad choice at all, particularly when this will come with alloy wheels after couple of months. But, the attitude – a real concern. I do not know why Yamaha bikes are not seen on road as frequently as Bajaj or HH bikes. But one thing is sure, they are not possibly much concerned about customer. They are possibly not aware of the fact that gone are those good old days when people used to enter Yamaha showroom to blindly buy RX100, which was the best on road at one point of time. Now there is competition – the failure of Fazer-125 proves that, and now they need to change themselves. Insulting a potential customer is no way going to help them. I do not know if this message is being received by Escort-Yamaha or not, but they better be careful now. If this is the attitude of showroom, think what sort of treatment you are going to receive at their service centre after draining out your money.