Carmakers gear up to repair flood-hit vehicles

Companies are using additional service workforce and offering part waivers on charges to affected car owners.

Car makers are gearing up to repair and service about 12,000 cars, impacted by the Chennai floods.

Companies are mobilising additional service workforce and offering part waivers on charges to the owners of affected vehicles.

Insurance claim process is also being simplified with the insurance companies.

Country’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki may have to service and repair a total of about 4,000 cars based on initial estimates and the number could increase further to 6,000.

Pankaj Narula, executive director (Service) at Maruti Suzuki said it is going to be a ‘humongous’ task to attend to these vehicles when there is no luxury of time.

Maruti estimates an expenditure of Rs 10 crore in the exercise that will also include 50 per cent burden sharing of the depreciation charge customers need to pay to claim insurance and 50 per cent waiver on cleaning and polishing charges.

“Since we are expecting a huge rush, we will prioritise and categorise the cars depending on the degree of damage. There will be a huge demand for the spare parts depending on the damage. Moreover, some of our workshops in Chennai were submerged during the floods and additional effort will be required to make them up and running,” said Narula.

Maruti has already dispatched two truckloads of spare parts to the city.

To attend to the large number of affected vehicles, Maruti has deployed 150 people from other parts of the country to Chennai.

Chennai dealers who have dealerships and service stations in other southern states are also deploying additional 150 people.

Since workshop capacity is limited, Maruti is trying to identify grounds where the affected vehicles can be parked and then brought for service as per availability.

Companies are working to deliver the vehicle requiring the least repair first.

Advisories are being sent to customers not to crank the engine in case it has been submerged in the water.

Roadside assistance is being roped in to bring vehicles to workshops. One of the key challenges for most companies is the low staff turnout at workshops. 

“Based on our estimates, over 3,300 Hyundai cars have been affected due to the floods. A task force with help of personnel from the Chennai plant of Hyundai has joined to attend vehicles at our 19 workshops and make vehicles roadworthy,” said Rakesh Srivastava, senior vice-president (sales & marketing) at Hyundai. 

In order to reduce the financial burden on the customers, Hyundai is offering free 30 point check up at camps, support package on spare parts and labour charges, discounts on roadside assistance and so on. 

A Honda Cars spokesperson said a total of 1,200 cars are estimated to have been affected.

Of this, 500 cars have already reported to work stations and 200 vehicles have been repaired.

Customers, however, will still have to fork out Rs 8,000 to Rs 20,000 depending on the car model and manufacturer since they will have to pay half of the depreciation charge being imposed by insurance companies both in case of Maruti and Hyundai after discounts.

Companies will also organise free check-up camps once the exercise is over to check the roadworthiness of the vehicles.