Thousands of vehicles, which lined up the submerged lanes of Mumbai on Tuesday are packing the service centres. These include top line models such as Hyundai's Santro and Getz, Maruti's Swift and Alto, Mercedes' C & E-Class, Ford's Ikon, Mondeo and Fusion, Tatas' Indigo and Indica.
Over 300,000 cars including 55,000 taxis ply on the city roads. On Tuesday, thousands of vehicles travelling back home were submerged in water while others were damaged as uprooted trees fell on the parked cars following the cyclone.
In Borivali East, the service centres of Tata Motors, Hyundai, Maruti, Mahindra's each had about 100 vehicles towed in for repairs on Friday.
"We hope to start delivering vehicles back from Monday, but there is a lot of paper work involved, especially on account of insurance claims," said Praveen Yadav, owner, J P Auto World, a service centre of Tata Motors at Borivali.
Terrible Tuesday: Mumbai copes with a calamity
Public sector insurance companies claim that the average cost per car would range around Rs 10,000. Private insurance companies place the cost per claim to be higher, but officials at service centres put the figure well over Rs 50,000 per car.
What's worse is the fact that insurance companies will not pick up the entire tab. Vehicle owners will end up with a fair share of the burden.
Most cars are insured but vehicle owners will have to pay significant charges such as Rs 500 processing fee for dealing with claims, and lose out as much as 50 per cent depreciation on all plastic and rubber parts.
This would include headlights made of fibre or plastic. This means if a spare part made of fibre costs Rs 1,500-2,000, the vehicle owner would end up having to shell out 50 per cent of the cost, and balance will be picked up by the insurer.
"We received 500 claims on day one for motor alone. Majority of these would be for cleaning expenses, as most new cars use the latest technology, wherein the engines are sealed, thereby not allowing the entry of water," said K K Gupta, general manager, New India Assurance Co. He predicted that average claims would be Rs 10,000 per vehicle.
Service centres disagree that the servicing is 'routine'. Eighty per cent of the vehicles are damaged, said service station managers.
"The cars that have come for servicing and repairs are far from routine. Seats are entirely wet, submerged in water and mud. We are trying to suck out water by using wet vacuum cleaners," said the service station manager at Hyundai's service centre in Andheri.
Dents, breakage of windshields, hub caps, bumpers, headlights are just some of the minimal costs that vehicle owners and insurers will have to bear.
Air condition systems are flooded, and the cost of repair or replacement could be around Rs 10,000-25,000. Water has entered engine resulting in hydrostatic lock, where the cost could shoot up to Rs 20,000-30,000 depending upon the model of the car, said a works manager.
Cost of spare parts for vehicles such as Toyota, Ford and Hyundai would be two-three times more than indigenous vehicles, said Yadav.
Under the comprehensive auto insurance policy, insurers would have to ensure repairs or replacement of the parts of the vehicle. Claims would need to be made at the market value of the vehicle in case of a total loss, provided that the originating cause of such damage is an accident, theft, earthquake, flood, riot, strike and malicious acts. There has been a change in the comprehensive insurance policy with the entry of private sector four years back.
Mechanics fear with cars having been totally submerged, battery could be short-circuited. Replacement of a battery could cost anywhere between Rs 1,800-2,000. With advancement in technology, new cars have computerised chips, called ECU units. These are being imported into the country and are very costly, said Yadav.
Most vehicles would require replacement of the catalytic converter, which is one of the most expensive part of a car, and when submerged would be the first to get affected, said service station chiefs.
