I was reading up on some new and older popular car models over the internet. I came across some websites where reviews about these cars and the reliability issues popped up. On top of that, the major complaints were related to the cars after-sales support service centers, mainly indicating poor service, delayed warranty issues and careless attitudes. In some cases, some unscrupulous service centers did not change the original parts, although it was billed for.
Quite often, you can come across service centers recommending additional fuel, engine oil and cleaning additives that are really not needed, but if you do not check the recommended service list properly, you will easily be over-billed with three or more additional items. I gave the benefit of doubt and checked on some reviews from websites in other countries. Not surprisingly, similar negative issues were also highlighted.
Recently, major car manufactures have been ‘firmly encouraging’ small-time dealers to either merge with others, or go big with a 3S status, providing sales, service and spare-parts. Existing bigger players is pushed to 4S status, where body and paint services are included to the existing 3S providers.
This is indeed a good move, as the dealers can focus on a larger customer base instead of just depending on pure sales revenue. The challenge is also to gain maturity in their respective localized market, to gain support of existing clients and returning customers. The common norm that keeps quite a large percentage of customers from bringing their cars to authorized service centers is the inflated cost of service and spare-parts.
Depending to which car model you had purchased, most new cars have a longer service period. In fact, compared to a petrol and diesel engine cars, hybrid, and fully electric vehicles have an even bigger difference in their general maintenance service cycles. At the moment, quite a lot of mid-range and premium series cars have 12 to 18 month gap between for basic services, as they are able to stretch out the use of higher-grade engine oil and filters. Change of spark-plugs and gear-box oil can easily do 100,000 km before the next due date.
Energy efficient hydrogen-powered cars are truly environment friendly.
Maximus @ MaximusPrimo.com
Why are we still digging this Earth for electric cars?
In the next decade, a major change of cars on the road is taking place, where movements to ‘energy efficient cars’ are being strongly promoted and sold. These cars, mainly powered at the moment by lithium-ion battery cells, are electrically rechargeable and able to travel an average of 350km and better. They are more popular than hydrogen-powered cars, which in reality, are environmentally friendly in multiple scale. Why are we not going for hydrogen-powered cars?
This is something you should be thinking about, as it is not a mystery, but the clue is ‘capitalism’, a never ending greed for control of global resources at any cost. As you probably know, manufacturing of lithium-ion battery cells requires rare-earth minerals, with large scale mining. This in return becomes environmentally unfriendly as a vast area of land are cleared during the mining process, trees destroyed, and the extraction process of these minerals also becomes hazardous.
The by-products from the rare-earth minerals manufacturing processes are not able to be used and most of the time, buried in special containment areas. They seem to have a high level of radiation and also damaging to health. Unless your car is totally solar-panel built body, in reality, the use of electric vehicles is not environmentally friendly, as per the reality I had prevailed.
Have you noticed that you hardly can see anything from your rear-view mirror in the new generation cars? The view glass at the back of the car, became smaller and smaller that it really becomes impossible for you to park your car, unless it comes with park-assist. Maybe this is one of the reasons, autonomous driving is becoming popular. The add-ons of new features in cars, including 360 view camera, lane-assist, blind-spot monitoring, forward collision warning, traction control and adaptive headlights, overwhelms the traditional airbags and antilock braking system.
The long-term reliability and serviceability of these critical and additional features are also essential at the authorized service centers. Coming to think of it, airbag have expanded from passenger’s front airbag to side, steering-wheel and knee airbags. One of these days, I will not be surprised, the ‘surround-airbag-system’ just pops to secure the whole-car externally, protecting passengers from impact and rollover. Maybe, my imagination ran wild here but do not be surprised, someone read this post and are thinking about implementing it.
Competitive marketing strategies is healthy,
Maximus @ MaximusPrimo.com
when competitors do not sign up for cartel pricing.
With business partnership of the car dealerships and manufacturers, competitive marketing strategies for after-sales support and services will be strongly marketed. Some provide you warranty status based on fixed mileage, whilst others provide you with five-year warranty with unlimited mileage. Most recently, I have noticed cars being sold with the regular interval service package, for a period of five years with limited mileage, all cost built in. What this means is that any repairs, service and maintenance for the car, is said to be free, if it follows the terms and conditions of the warranty.
By the way, they also write in print, that it is ‘Free Maintenance – including labor, parts and lubricant’. Well, unless the car manufacturer or their distributor is really charitable, nothing is absolutely free. It is called, Added-Value Cost which means, the cost of after-sales service during the whole period of warranty, is included in the cost of your purchase.
There are benefits to Added-Value Cost, of course. When you are purchasing the car, the financing package includes all these cost into their valuation. Only later you will realize that the annual cost of insurance and road tax for the following years will be borne by you. That is ok, as you should be able to afford it. To provide greater value benefit for the car owners, renewing the insurance and road tax is also offered by the car dealers, via their preferred insurance company.
A lot of sugar and savories are bundled in for you, which means, higher insurance cost. You will buy into the idea and marketing given, that by purchasing the authorized insurance package provided by the dealership, you are assured trouble free repairs, quick assessment and regaining your car for use, compared to conventional insurance schemes. What remains in question is that, are you really a terrible driver that you bring in your car frequently for accident repairs and damages?
The feedback that I had received from new car buyers varies. Some say, they buy into the offered package, as the loan processing is easier with certain dealership or their bankers and thus, they are alleviate of unnecessary headaches. On the insurance package, they seem to either remain with the car dealership for the period of warranty, or decide to go rogue after the second year of use. As for the car dealerships and the manufacturers, they generally have sufficient data to substantiate their cost benefits given to the clients.
The risk analysis for existing models, along with newer models will provide sufficient analysis on the direction they need to take. This means, they need to maintain reasonable stocks of consumable parts. They will also need to plan for quick access to ad hoc parts, that deemed not necessary to be on the local shelf. As usual, as much as there would be sufficient data with the manufacturers on meantime-between-failure (MBF) of certain parts in the cars, Catch-22 situations will arise time to time. How they excel and gain the trust of customers, is their respond time to these failures and ownership!
It’s Murphy’s Law. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
However, this is not a reasonable excuse for anyone just to get off the hook and find an easier avenue to not take responsibility. The manufacturers and their reliable partners, mainly distributors and dealers make a composition of planned and strategic responsibilities between each other. It becomes pointless to represent a manufacturer when they push out unreliable products, whilst their resale partners get to bear the brunt of their frustrated customers. When the symbiotic relationship is prevailed between manufacturers and resale partners, the end-results will easily be extracted from the existing and future prospects.
Customers are looking for great deals. They are willing to pay the price, even if it stretches their affordability, if they can trust the product.
Genuine after-sales and service establishments are true and trustworthy,
Maximus @ MaximusPrimo.com
when authentic customers, promote your business by word-of-mouth marketing.
