Opinion: Quality of two-wheeler service in India needs to improve

Purchasing an automobile is one of life’s special moments in India. After all, you are not only paying a lot of money but also laying significant faith into a manufacturer’s ability to have properly engineered a safe, reliable and enjoyable product. There’s also the fact that you are entering a long-term relationship with that manufacturer when it comes to service. With three-year warranties becoming common and extended warranties being sold for just a few thousand rupees, the duration of said relationship is now longer than ever. Unfortunately, a lot of customers these days don’t feel like they are being given the treatment they deserve in this ‘relationship’.

While the quality of products coming from domestic two-wheeler manufacturers has grown tremendously in recent years, the same can’t be said for the service support. While some manufacturers fare worse than others, you will find plenty of reports of shoddy work or general ineptness when it comes to authorised service centres. The reasons behind this are multifold.

The first is that motorcycles today are far more complicated than they used to be. Electronics are everywhere, and even the simplest of commuters now have ECUs, electronic fuel pumps and fuel injectors. 150cc bikes and above are constantly increasing the amount of performance, tech and gadgets on offer, and all of this brings in more complication. Caring for more advanced motorcycles requires a more technical approach.

The “chalta hai/chalega sir” attitude that is a universal truth in India presents a challenge when the job gets more technical. Another cultural aspect at play is that people are far more proud of how quickly a job gets done (or with how much ‘jugaad’) rather than how well the job gets done. Case in point, I once insisted on a torque wrench being used on my KTM 790 Duke at an official service centre a couple of years ago. This led to a stool being brought out to reach an overhead cabinet, from which a dusty torque wrench was liberated. Clearly, that tool was almost never used, and the fact is, most mechanics in India simply use their biceps to decide how much force needs to go into tightening a bolt. 

Money is the other big challenge. Time is money, so the more vehicles that are serviced, the better. More so, most junior mechanic salaries are very low, which results in high job attrition. It’s also difficult for dealerships to have enough trained staff and sufficient workshop space for the amount of money that is earned per service. With automobile sales records being broken every other month, there is a big strain on the system.

The ideal scenario is that big cities need more workshops, staff should be trained better and workshop managers need to be more diligent about implementing proper operating procedures. At the end of the day, quality work can only be provided by someone who has been trained well and is remunerated fairly for the job. And that will increase the cost of service for the customer, primarily in terms of the labour cost. 

It is inevitable that service costs in India will rise, as does the constantly improving standard of our motorcycles and the ever increasing cost of living. The big challenge for manufacturers is to ensure that customers get their money’s worth for these increasing costs.