Guru_007

Hello guys,

We were discussing the rust probelms occuring in GS 150R on the GS ownership thread. And at that time I was going through the net regarding this issue and I found one person who had the same rust issue in the GS and the rust was so much that he finally got 100% money back for his bike.

I had contacted this person and he told me he is into the business of NDT. It means Non-Destructive Testing. he told me its a high end technique & analysis to find out the flaws in metal before they breakdown.

He sent me one mail regarding the quality of bikes of international brand in India.
Below I am posting the mail. Any expert comments are welcome on it.
Well no offences meant. Just your feedbacks.
Below is the mail I recevied.



"I will give u a small example: When we put grill on our windows we get it painted and for at least 2 years you will not see a single spot of rust. Then how these new bikes are having so much rust. I have Bajaj Chetak Scooter purchased in 1984, till date I have never noticed any rust inside or at the mouth of its petrol tank. It is not so that they cannot manufacture rust free bikes but they are taking Indians for granted. They think Indians are fools and they can sell anything to us just by using International Brand. Can they dare selling such bikes in USA? No they will not because they will have to give heavy compensations to the customers there and apart from that US government will kick them out! I have heard that there is some Government organization in India which checks and certifies every new Motor vehicles in India before it is launched for sale. Until they do not certify no new bike can come on road. A complaint can be made to them by all who suffer. This is a very serious issue. How can a new bike have even a minutest rust? No bike should have any rust within its warranty period or its life cycle which ever comes last. Each manufacturer should declare the life cycle of their bikes / cars. A very strong message should go to all the Motor vehicles Manufacturers that Rusted bikes / cars are not acceptable to Indians. You may be shocked to learn but there is a strong possibility of these people purposely degrading the quality so that the vehicle gets naturally damaged early and they get customers again.

Technically it is possible to quantify the quality of everything in such a manner that it will fail in a pre defined time! You purchase a 200 rupees Steel plate to eat food and it will never rust in your life time and these bikes costing so many thousands of rupees Rust within first week of delivery. Forget about the paint coming out, what about the quality of steel used? Are they using the Recycled Scrap Steel? Don't you smell anything fishy in this? There are grades of steels which are rust proof or rust resistant, are they not aware of that? The reason they give about the rear lever of gear shifting pedal to be raised is due to the extra movement required for the 6th gear, do they have any knowledge about Ergonomics? How can they design such a gear lever which gives pain to the heels of their customers? Instead a simple Ratchet mechanism would have not required that raised gear shifting lever, as in Ratchet mechanism the lever remains at the same position irrespective of which gear is selected. Now, about the mirror, to have good coverage of the rear view you need a more convex mirror, and it is costly so they have put up a less convex mirror, as they do not care for your safety! If you find such type of faulty mirrors on all the bikes that does not mean that if everyone is doing something Wrong then it becomes Right, wrong will always remain Wrong. These people introduce 15 to 20 years old technology in India. They just do not want to raise the bar of technology in one go. They want to do it in steps so that every few years they can come up with something catchy for the customers. It is like if you quantify Technology from 1 to5, 5 being the latest and 1 the oldest, and if western countries are getting vehicles of technology grade 5 and India is getting the technology grade 2, then next year the Indian Manufacturers will not introduce the technology grade 5 in India but will introduce technological grade 3 so that continuously Indians can be fooled in the name of new technology. "


Experts kindly post their comments.
Thanks

ken cool

Controversial Topic Approved

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razorBlades

really thoughtful and the hard to digest thing is "it is true"..

which is that government org which handles this? may be we should start bugging them so that they can do their work properly!

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pulsater

you friend has some strong views about quality and I suppose that's how he managed to get 100% money back for his bike from the company, which sounds unbelievable. I agree the level of fit and finish of automobiles build in India is far low than the international standards but that no way means we can't do it or wont do it.

Each manufacturer should declare the life cycle of their bikes / cars.
agree, but a slight hint of the auto mobile reliability can be judged from its warranty period advertised by manufacturer. More it is, higher the confident buy it can prove to be.

You may be shocked to learn but there is a strong possibility of these people purposely degrading the quality so that the vehicle gets naturally damaged early and they get customers again.
No way I will buy the same brand bike/car if it (hypothetically) gets rusted away, no matter how fast or economical it is. Atleast I will think twice and making customers think is not a golden rule in business.

You purchase a 200 rupees Steel plate to eat food and it will never rust in your life time and these bikes costing so many thousands of rupees Rust within first week of delivery.
plates dont do the mileage of lakhs of kilometers in real world.

Are they using the Recycled Scrap Steel? Don't you smell anything fishy in this?
unless and until the recycled scrap is of good grade, I don't think scrap metal shouldn't be used to build new bikes and cars. It saves loads of manpower, energy and manufacturing cost for good, that could be pass on to the customer.

Now, about the mirror, to have good coverage of the rear view you need a more convex mirror, and it is costly so they have put up a less convex mirror, as they do not care for your safety!
I think this is the only thing to note and is indeed true that generally bikes don't have a convex mirror which allows better rear view than a flat mirror, but this has less to do with the quality and more to do with functionality.

It is like if you quantify Technology from 1 to5, 5 being the latest and 1 the oldest, and if western countries are getting vehicles of technology grade 5 and India is getting the technology grade 2
I hope you just talking about Indian Automobile industry

I have heard that there is some Government organization in India which checks and certifies every new Motor vehicles in India before it is launched for sale.
tell him its called ARAI

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Samarth 619

@ Pulsater: You are right in every point. Reading your post, it's in an entirely different point of view ...

But still, Bikes rusting quickly are not acceptable, even if they are by mistake and unintentional.
I mean, even mistakes incur serious costs, right?

Although, even my Pulsar 180 UG3 has rusted a bit, near handlebars, but that's after 2 years.. Any money back for me?

antz.bin

will ARAI listen to complains about "unusably useless mirrors" (Actually they cant be called RVMs, so i had to invent the term..) on P220s? Rest all i feel is okay..

What is the max action it can take?

Where do we make the complain?

outworldly maniac

Good topic Guru ! .
This may be hard to digest but it very true . Rusting issue on that bike is simply shocking and not acceptable . There are bikes that cost much lesser than it and rust after years . You are right in saying that we are always being taken for granted . But who allows them to do so ? . Our govt .
There is no basic standard set by them , are busy in obvious things . Talk about US , there is a standard set for everything or any consumer product out there and the co cannot make false claims which happens in under-developed or developing countries to lure the customers . And there is quality inspection agencies and blah blah other govt organizations for the welfare of the customer .

The Customer spends his hard earned money to buy his dream machine and gets trapped in a series of vicious things and finally gives hope and tries to adjust . Only some selected give up a fight .

Its for some trapped people to tell us that some particular product is useless and not worth the money .

Anyways I dont see things improving here anytime !! , only falling down .
But I would like to say that the customers are also responsible for not fighting for their rights or buying that particular crappy product .
For Eg : If people dont like the way Automobile industry here is progressing , people throughout the country should stop themselves for buying a bike only for a month and you will see the results . Well even if its very small.

Anyways even my post is not going to help in anyways so will end it here.

Devilpulsarian

I would agree with most of what is being written over ther....


My personal experience with one of the Foreign Brand (twice) also leads to the same...!

Its a fact that foreign manufacturers consider us as a third world country and they sell whatever they feel like...

The irony is the fact that we people accept it ....

For example, a 1980s engine technology will have issues during 2-5 years....after 5 years it becomes an error free engine (practically) with all the reported problems solved
So its nothing out of the obvious it is doing in 2009...!
But we are buying those very engines and cherish "quality"

A bigger irony is the fact that "We have started accepting the fact that we are third world county and can be treated like one"....

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outworldly maniac

Absolutely spot on brother

antz.bin

Feel free to name the foreign brand. This is not a political platform... this is a forum for free xBHPians...