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**madhav766** · 11-15-2016, 09:00 PM

Re: Kawasaki to break ties with Bajaj for sales & service, assembly to continue though.

Woah. That came completely out of the blue for me. If kawasaki has done the required ground work for setting up sales and service, then we could get away with a moderately smooth transition of the same. I don't, however, expect it to be easy for the owners though. There will be a whole new league of kinks to iron out of the newly set up service centres, especially if the owners have built a rapport with the service mechanics at the KTM outlets. Quality of service, promptness of service, etc will definitely take a hit. If the prices for the Kawasaki bikes go down enough it could mean trouble for Yamaha. However, if Kawasaki decides not to slash the prices, or does a bad job of it, this could actually hamper their sales.

There is also that issue of 160 to 10. Although, I think if Kawasaki is serious about selling in India, they are bound open up more sales and service buildings.

**Kos** · 11-16-2016, 04:02 AM

Re: Kawasaki to break ties with Bajaj for sales & service, assembly to continue though.

Originally posted by Samarth 619 View Post

Bajaj could have also taken this decision as the money they make on a sale of a KTM motorcycle is much more than what they do on a more expensive Kawasaki.

i doubt this is correct, as the margin offered to a dealer is higher as the price of the vehicle goes up. kawasaki bikes for bajaj would always be a cash cow even if the actual volume of bikes is much lesser.
taking this news into consideration, i wouldn't be surprised if kawasaki starts its own local assy plant soon as bajaj will start creating problems with the assembly, as the main profit maker is sales and service, and not contractual assembly...

**sreehari_r1** · 11-19-2016, 09:53 PM

Re: Kawasaki to break ties with Bajaj for sales & service, assembly to continue though.

Is this a good for consumers?
Direct sales means less brokers/dealers in between. So an opportunity to sell for less price?

**Samarth 619** · 11-20-2016, 09:20 PM

Re: Kawasaki to break ties with Bajaj for sales & service, assembly to continue though.

Originally posted by madhav766 View Post

Woah. That came completely out of the blue for me. If kawasaki has done the required ground work for setting up sales and service, then we could get away with a moderately smooth transition of the same. I don't, however, expect it to be easy for the owners though. There will be a whole new league of kinks to iron out of the newly set up service centres, especially if the owners have built a rapport with the service mechanics at the KTM outlets. Quality of service, promptness of service, etc will definitely take a hit. If the prices for the Kawasaki bikes go down enough it could mean trouble for Yamaha. However, if Kawasaki decides not to slash the prices, or does a bad job of it, this could actually hamper their sales.

There is also that issue of 160 to 10. Although, I think if Kawasaki is serious about selling in India, they are bound open up more sales and service buildings.

Kawasaki does appear to be serious here. But if they have things their way, I believe quality of service will only be better, not any worse.
They're very quality conscious. Obsessive in fact.

And although it was out of the blue, but not really very shocking if you consider the recent chain of events...

Originally posted by Kos View Post

i doubt this is correct, as the margin offered to a dealer is higher as the price of the vehicle goes up. kawasaki bikes for bajaj would always be a cash cow even if the actual volume of bikes is much lesser.
taking this news into consideration, i wouldn't be surprised if kawasaki starts its own local assy plant soon as bajaj will start creating problems with the assembly, as the main profit maker is sales and service, and not contractual assembly...

I was talking about company margins.

Originally posted by sreehari_r1 View Post

Is this a good for consumers?
Direct sales means less brokers/dealers in between. So an opportunity to sell for less price?

Price reduction highly unlikely in short run, specially after recent news. Only the people involved will change, not the network chain itself.
That is because there is only so much a company can do, with their officials sitting at one place called headquarters.
They need a dealership network, for good reach to public via good presentation, advertising, etc. and preferably, native people who have great influence on the locals.

**dnewguy** · 11-21-2016, 12:06 AM

Re: Kawasaki to break ties with Bajaj for sales & service, assembly to continue though.

Originally posted by Samarth 619 View Post

Kawasaki does appear to be serious here. But if they have things their way, I believe quality of service will only be better, not any worse.
They're very quality conscious. Obsessive in fact.

And although it was out of the blue, but not really very shocking if you consider the recent chain of events...

I was talking about company margins.

Price reduction highly unlikely in short run, specially after recent news. Only the people involved will change, not the network chain itself.
That is because there is only so much a company can do, with their officials sitting at one place called headquarters.
They need a dealership network, for good reach to public via good presentation, advertising, etc. and preferably, native people who have great influence on the locals.

Don't you think that now when the bajaj is doing all the assembly for them minus the profit margins then the delivery time for the bikes will increase ?
Furthermore because of the same reason i was hoping for a price slash

More importantly now the long distance tourers would face more difficulty hunting for a decent service centre... no ?!

Cheers.

**madhav766** · 11-21-2016, 01:11 AM

Re: Kawasaki to break ties with Bajaj for sales & service, assembly to continue though.

Originally posted by Samarth 619 View Post

Kawasaki does appear to be serious here. But if they have things their way, I believe quality of service will only be better, not any worse.
They're very quality conscious. Obsessive in fact.

I've actually heard reports of Kawasaki guys misbehaving recently. There was an issue where a bunch of bikes just went missing and nobody cared till it got really serious. Kawasaki didn't even bother addressing the bikers who booked their bikes to the point that they told the bikers they were on their own, till one of them threatened to take it to court, apparently. They did own up, apologise and deliver each bike to the bikers eventually incurring about 1crore in losses, but the way they responded was quite alarming. The ONLY reason AFAIK, that Kawasaki even took the step was because of the social media heat it was getting. I signed the online petition asking Kawasaki to grow a pair and own up to it.

And although it was out of the blue, but not really very shocking if you consider the recent chain of events...

I really don't know what you're talking about here.. is it the same thing I mentioned up there?

Price reduction highly unlikely in short run, specially after recent news. Only the people involved will change, not the network chain itself.
That is because there is only so much a company can do, with their officials sitting at one place called headquarters.
They need a dealership network, for good reach to public via good presentation, advertising, etc. and preferably, native people who have great influence on the locals.

Hopefully, this means more events from Kawa for owners.

Replies in bold.

**Kos** · 11-21-2016, 04:33 AM

Re: Kawasaki to break ties with Bajaj for sales & service, assembly to continue though.

Originally posted by dnewguy View Post

More importantly now the long distance tourers would face more difficulty hunting for a decent service centre... no ?!

Cheers.

unfortunately, yes
fortunately, Kawasakis (atleast going from my 300 experience) are hardy bikes, they can absorb a lot of abuse before failing. plus, worse comes to worse, basic repairs can be done by almost any two wheeler mechanic...

**sreehari_r1** · 11-21-2016, 06:11 AM

Re: Kawasaki to break ties with Bajaj for sales & service, assembly to continue though.

Originally posted by madhav766 View Post

I've actually heard reports of Kawasaki guys misbehaving recently. There was an issue where a bunch of bikes just went missing and nobody cared till it got really serious. Kawasaki didn't even bother addressing the bikers who booked their bikes to the point that they told the bikers they were on their own, till one of them threatened to take it to court, apparently. They did own up, apologise and deliver each bike to the bikers eventually incurring about 1crore in losses, but the way they responded was quite alarming. The ONLY reason AFAIK, that Kawasaki even took the step was because of the social media heat it was getting. I signed the online petition asking Kawasaki to grow a pair and own up to it.

This is about Kawasaki's Palm Beach dealership in Mumbai. In fact I am happy that Kawasaki gave the bikes to the owners when the dealer was at fault. This show that they don't want to mess with their name and reputation.

**madhav766** · 11-21-2016, 11:19 AM

Re: Kawasaki to break ties with Bajaj for sales & service, assembly to continue though.

Originally posted by sreehari_r1 View Post

This is about Kawasaki's Palm Beach dealership in Mumbai. In fact I am happy that Kawasaki gave the bikes to the owners when the dealer was at fault. This show that they don't want to mess with their name and reputation.

Yeah, but that did not happen till a lot of the guys who had paid in full had called and emailed them for months, been ignored for months and instead of helping the owners out, Kawasaki tried to wash their hands off the whole situation by releasing a statement in the newspaper that they are no longer tied to the Palm Beach dealership. Palm Beach was not even a KTM showroom. It was a premium Kawasaki Showroom. Isn't it scary not knowing how the motorcycle giant will react to a situation like that if it happened to you?

Surely, Kawasaki India has learnt from the fiasco and won't make the same mistake again. The fact that they did deliver the bikes and even took on the payment of taxes for the owners shows they may care. They could have chosen only to deliver the bikes and be done with it, but they went the extra mile. Hopefully, this is the last we hear of such appalling behaviour from them.

**Divya Sharan** · 11-21-2016, 03:10 PM

Re: Kawasaki to break ties with Bajaj for sales & service, assembly to continue though.

Originally posted by madhav766 View Post

Isn't it scary not knowing how the motorcycle giant will react to a situation like that if it happened to you?

Was Kawasaki ethically wrong? Yes.
Was Kawasaki legally wrong? Nope!

Kawasaki never received a single penny from it's (now defunct) authorized dealership. So, they were legally entitled to say no, the way they did. Initially.
The ethics side was immoral and I'm sure they lost quite a few customers (in the immediate future at least).

**madhav766** · 11-21-2016, 03:34 PM

Re: Kawasaki to break ties with Bajaj for sales & service, assembly to continue though.

Originally posted by Divya Sharan View Post

Was Kawasaki ethically wrong? Yes.
Was Kawasaki legally wrong? Nope!

Kawasaki never received a single penny from it's (now defunct) authorized dealership. So, they were legally entitled to say no, the way they did. Initially.
The ethics side was immoral and I'm sure they lost quite a few customers (in the immediate future at least).

Of course, Kawasaki was legally bulletproof. I'm not denying that. But these were their customers and their plight was brought to Kawasaki's notice long before they decided to wear the proverbial bulletproof vest. It's the fact that Kawasaki asked it's own customers to take a hike, is what I'm worried about.

My point at bringing this up is simple - by hiring the man, Satyen Karandikar, without checking his background properly Kawasaki brought this upon themselves. After that, they responded poorly to the ensuing drama. Thankfully, it was only for one dealership out of the 11 they owned. Now Kawasaki is faced with the task of pulling all it's bikes out of the KTM showrooms and putting them into their own showrooms - most of which will be new. If their margin of error was 1 in 11 and we assume that they have to open up another 100 to keep their existing customer base happy, that's a good 10 showrooms that may take their customers for a ride. Of course, this is a very literal translation of figures - a la worst case scenario and I hope to god this doesn't happen. But all in all, the situation is not very confidence inspiring.

**xionite** · 11-21-2016, 04:04 PM

Re: Kawasaki to break ties with Bajaj for sales & service, assembly to continue though.

Originally posted by madhav766 View Post

Palm Beach was not even a KTM showroom. It was a premium Kawasaki Showroom.

Satyen Karandikar owns an SNK Bajaj showroom in Pune (Wakdewadi) too. He owned it before the Kawasaki dealership on Palm Beach Road.

Originally posted by madhav766 View Post

My point at bringing this up is simple - by hiring the man, Satyen Karandikar, without checking his background properly Kawasaki brought this upon themselves.

The whole issue with the Palm Beach Kawasaki dealership probably had a lot to do with Kawasaki choosing to manage Sales & Service.

There was probably a lot of good faith in that deal considering the fact that the guy already owned a SNK Bajaj (Wakdewadi) dealership.

There's actually pictures of the guy at the KTM factory in Austria. It was an official trip to the KTM factory that Bajaj paid for.

So the guy was involved with Bajaj, KTM and Kawasaki.

So this move by Kawasaki makes sense and was expected.

**madhav766** · 11-21-2016, 04:23 PM

Re: Kawasaki to break ties with Bajaj for sales & service, assembly to continue though.

Originally posted by xionite View Post

Satyen Karandikar owns an SNK Bajaj showroom in Pune (Wakdewadi) too. He owned it before the Kawasaki dealership on Palm Beach Road.

The whole issue with the Palm Beach Kawasaki dealership probably had a lot to do with Kawasaki choosing to manage Sales & Service.

There was probably a lot of good faith in that deal considering the fact that the guy already owned a SNK Bajaj (Wakdewadi) dealership.

There's actually pictures of the guy at the KTM factory in Austria. It was an official trip to the KTM factory that Bajaj paid for.

So the guy was involved with Bajaj, KTM and Kawasaki.

So this move by Kawasaki makes sense and was expected.

I really can't confirm this through a credible source, but back in 2014, SNK also had a Kawasaki dealership in Pune. By 2015, the dealership was given to Khivraj. This move was so quiet, even to this day, if you google SNK KTM kawasaki wakdewadi, the address is the same as the one that Khivraj lists on their site. Nobody knows this happened.

**Samarth 619** · 11-21-2016, 07:52 PM

Re: Kawasaki to break ties with Bajaj for sales & service, assembly to continue though.

Originally posted by dnewguy View Post

Don't you think that now when the bajaj is doing all the assembly for them minus the profit margins then the delivery time for the bikes will increase ?
Furthermore because of the same reason i was hoping for a price slash

More importantly now the long distance tourers would face more difficulty hunting for a decent service centre... no ?!

Cheers.

I believe profit is also a (maybe small but yes,) priority for them right now.

About tourers, see, this raises a question that's still in Grey area:- Will the existing Probiking centers continue to service bikes and receive spares from Bajaj for Kawa bikes immediately after April 2017?

The negative most answer to this question, would result in people having to travel upto 1000 kms to get their bikes serviced. Big reason to worry, right?
Kawasaki wouldn't want that after receiving so much heat anyways, right?

From my experience & thinking,
I believe this will happen in a transition phase, and not immediately...
For example, let's take Jaipur. They have a Probiking. Kawasaki will try to launch their service centre here ASAP. But, till the time Kawasaki does so, the existing Pbk centre should run normally, and service the bikes, and maybe even sell them for the time being...
When Kawasaki official SVC opens up, the Probiking will redirect customers to the new showroom instead & stop Kawasaki operations.

Again this is only my guesswork, influenced by my understanding of how modern businesses work....

Originally posted by madhav766 View Post

Replies in bold.

Exactly the event I was referring to.
Misbehaving, although wrong, but it is a different thing than the quality of product and service. SNK Palm Beach scam wasn't something Kawasaki could predict in advance, nor could we, could we?

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