Location/place: Chennai
Name of company/service: Hyundai Motor Plaza, Chennai
I have been taking my car to Hyundai Motor Plaza, (HMP) Chennai, since the last 3 years. Each time I have gone there with a problem I have come back with a new one. This is the level of service.
For every complaint, you have to go to the garage at least two to three times before it is fixed. The first two times they take the car in, apparently do something, and return it – but the problem continues to exist. Only when you repeatedly take it to the garage for the same problem is the issue addressed.
I had an issue with the power steering in my i20 (registration number TN 22 BW 8212). The steering used to freeze when driving! It was so risky. You take a turn and the steering will not straighten out! Or you are driving along a straight road and you try to turn into a road to the left or right but the steering is jammed and will not turn. For a serious issue like this I had to take the car to the garage 3 times before it was fixed. The first time I was told that the connection was loose and it had been fixed. The problem persisted. The second time I was told that the battery was weak and because of that I was having problems. What a big lie. Once the car has started it works on the alternator. Do the service centre staff think all people are fools. Just because they have done some good for nothing course in fixing cars do they think they know better than the car owners some of whom could be engineers? Anyways, to give them benefit of doubt I replaced the battery. The problem persisted. After a couple of days the steering just stopped moving. Fortunately it happened when I was trying to leave the parking lot at my office. HMP then sent a technician to disable the power steering and took the car to the garage in manual steering mode.
It took HMP a week or so to fix the issue. They told me that they had replaced the power steering assembly but can one really trust Hyundai or its service centres? That was one issue fixed. But Hyundai loves you so much that it will not let you go. So they did something when fixing the power steering assembly and now the engine idling is not consistent. When I’m driving, if the AC is on, and I put the car into 2nd gear, the car stalls. Can you imagine the nightmare of the car’s engine cutting off in the midst of traffic? I have reported this problem 4 to 5 times and taken the car to the garage twice but nothing has been done. Each time I’m told it has been fixed.
A few days back a rat got inside the dash board and got hit by the AC fan. It died in there and was stinking. So I took the car to HMP to have the problem sorted. Firstly I do not understand how a rat can find it’s way into the dashboard. How can there be gaps unless the service centre didn’t put some packing to block any opening when they repaired the power steering. When I checked with the service centre how a rat could get in to the dashboard, I was told that there are a lot of openings for wires, the steering column etc and rats getting in is a common problem! Is this true? Is the design of the car so stupid? Is everything that hidden from open view in Hyundai cars crap? Yet I had no choice but to leave the car for 3 days at HMP, Alandur, Chennai, for removal of the rat. I once again complained that the problem of the engine stalling when the car was in 2nd gear.
The car was delivered to me yesterday. It still smells of rotting flesh when the AC is turned on, though the smell is a lot less. Why wasn’t it cleaned out properly? When I received the car, I called Mark Pinto, the service representative, and asked him if the problem with the car engine stalling when in 2nd gear had been fixed. Mark Pinto informed me that they had changed the connector on the negative terminal of the battery as that was rusting and causing the car to stall. When I told him that if the battery terminal wire was the problem, the engine should stall regardless of which gear in it was in, he told me that it was a peculiar problem with Hyundai cars and that this problem happened in some cars when the 1st gear was engaged and in other cars when the 2nd gear was engaged! Do Hyundai service reps think the world is full of fools? What stupidity is this? The irony is that the problem still exists. For all the changing of the battery cable – which I think was done only to make more money, the problem of the car stalling in 2nd gear when the AC is on continues. The service centre personnel have no clue about identifying problems much less resolve them.
The problem for which the car was taken to HMP hasn’t been resolved, but they have gifted me with a new one! Now the rear windows are jammed – you can’t roll them down. Every single time you take the car to the service centre it comes back with a new problem. I have seen this time and again.
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