How Can G.M & Skoda Improve in India?

[Akash1886]

Friends,

The above mentioned brands i.e General Motors and Skoda(now with VW) have been attracting attention of owners and public for all wrong reasons in India. All of us are aware what type of assistance Skoda and GM have provided to its customers and how reliable are their respective products for Indian consumers.

Having said this, What steps do we suggest as a reputed automotive community that can help these 2 brands to establish themselves positively here in India?

Both brands have come out with undoubtedly some real good cars but some way or the other these cars have not survived for long. So, what suggestions you all have that can help in increasing product sustainability for both brands?

Please share your thoughts over this. Looking forward for a good discussion on this topic.

Regards

Akash

 

[Mr.Boss]

Dealerships / A.S.Ss give the first impression to any potential car buyer before having the hands on experience with the product. Improving that should make some magic.

My 1st impression with Skoda:
When I was looking out to replace my Fiat Linea, I considered Skoda Rapid as one of my choice. Dealership experience was so bad.
- When I entered the dealership (Millenium motors, CBE) around 10:00am, nobody was there to greet me until I reached the vehicle myself and had a quick look at it.
- Then came the Sales executive taken me to the discussion table, AC wasn't working (I'm speaking about the month of March / April)
- I was explained the features & pricing of Rapid Ultima. When I don't wanted the Ultima version and I opted for regular variants, answer I got is "Ultima is good sir, it comes with blahblahblah" (I knew all those blahblahblah, I asked for the availability of regular variant)
- When I asked for a TD
Me: Can I have a TD?
S.E: TD car went out just when you came sir.
Me: Ok, let me wait (assuming some other customer taken for TD)
S.E: Ok sir
After 10 minutes
Me: When will it come back?
S.E: It will come by evening only sir
Me: What?
S.E: It went out for a road show
Me: ??? (why did I wait then?)
Me: Ok, I will come a couple of days later
SE: Ok sir, thank you. (He is least bothered to collect my contact details)

Apart from this, Skoda & VW doesn't have a complete product portfolio in India. They aim only a selective segment / people. Entry level HB, compact sedan & entry level SUV should attract more buyers.

Another worry point is spares cost. I'm not sure about the localization ratio of VW/Skoda, but higher the number, lower the spares cost.

I don't have much experience with GM to comment.

 

[Akash1886]

I have experience of both and unfortunately really bad one.

Skoda:

August 2013, Went to purchase a Champagne Color Rapid and the SA was so cunning that he gave all wrong info to me about the availability of the requisite color and its availability. Dealer was Nawab Motors Noida. Their staff is least bothered to inform customers and that SA left his job a night before when the next day the deal was to finalize.

Here is the Name and Quotation I had received from them.



Moving ahead with Chevrolet (G.M), Sir, I faced same situation with Shiva Motors Noida. I had got my father's Optra serviced at their workshop in Sector 8 Noida. While parking the car inside the right corner of the front bumper rubbed the pillar. When my driver saw this, he immediately called me up and I asked the SA about it. He said it must be an old dent. After listening this I got so furious and spoke to their GM. That bugger said please read our job card which says that in case of any damage which occurs in the workshop to a customer's car the owner should inform us and it will be set right as insurance company shall be paying for it and we don't charge the customer. My question to him was why will insurance agency be involved?

I did not budge as I told him it is your mechanic's fault and not mine. The executives apologized and tried to convince me but I warned them not to cheat me. Finally, The GM paid for the damages and got the bumper painted from their Sahibabad Workshop within 24 hrs.

Here is a copy of the job card



Really sad state of affairs! I know for a fact that Skoda does not intervene much with its dealers and I have told this to my brother too who works for VW Mumbai in parent company. I feel Skoda and GM should chalk out a proper mechanism where in they are more involved in the dealership's activities.

Regards

Akash

 

[Karthik Chandrasekar]

The cheapest way is to get the dealerships to respond properly to walkins. There is a casual attitude by the staffs of Skoda,VW, GM and Honda dealerships. Honda manges with reputation and premium brand image, VW just about survives with polo. Skoda and GM do not have proper brand image, on top of it there are lots of horror stories about skoda a.s.s that i have learnt. IMO both the companies need to have better channel management strategies and dealership engagement programs. The company is rated by the reception and attention one receives when he/she enters the showroom and that too with family. My suggestion is improved dealership experience.

 

[Akash1886]

Friends,

It is a rough time for General Motors in India. Their dealers are not finding it viable to run the dealerships of the Brand pan-India and have started to disassociate themselves from the brand.

Dealers dump GM, say it's not viable to operate
General Motors is finding it hard to keep its dealer flock together. The company now has 223 sales outlets, down from more than 280 a few months ago

link

Regards

Akash

 

[Crazy cat]

GM. They need newer models that are suited to our market. Sail hatch, Sail sedan, Enjoy and their recent trailblazer(expensive, less features and only AT) aren't up to the mark. The chinese models are really bringing the image of GM down. When we bought out Sail U-Va, service interval was 15000kms but now they changed it to 7500km and still use synthetic oil. And the only car we have owned, right from Amby to Jetta, which got stranded in the middle of a long distance trip.

Skoda. Both sales and service need to improve. We had a Fabia which used to give higher service bills than Vento, both car bought around the same time and Vento clocked 25000kms more than Fabia when we sold them. I wanted the Octavia, made an enquiry but they didnt seem quite interested in selling car. On the other hand, VW dealer's response was very good and we went the Jetta way.

 

[Tornado]

For Skoda :
They should provide good roadside assistance in case of breakdown within 2 hrs.
Skoda need to open sub dealerships /ASS at all district headquarters or every 100 km.
Maximum localisation of spare part production.
They should not enter into sub 8L car market just to gather sales volumes otherwise there would be serious quality deterioration like hondas (see Amaze, Mobilio, brio).

 

[TSIVipul]

Very simple answer to this question is:
An uphill task(For GM and Skoda only) of turning their customers into their brand ambassadors.

This will require providing exceptional support to the customer even at the cost of margins at places. They do this and their customers will love being under their umbrella. Before both of them concentrate on making new customers, they need to turn their existing customers into their brand ambassadors and the mouth marketing will be enough for both the brands to slowly build up the volumes.

We have examples like Toyota, MSIL and Honda who have build this reputation. No matter what volume they sell, the customer is happy and so are the other people out in market.

 

[Tornado]

But I hope skodas do not follow hondas AFA cost cutting & refinement is concerned in an attempt to improve sales figures.

 

[rselva]

First both GM and VW should be interested in Indian market. The way the top management are neglecting India, it seems they are not bothered much about India. Unless impetus comes from top, there is not much the Indian arm of these companies can do.