Toyota’s goof up in the US

I’m not sure if we can brand Toyota’s protracted inaction and denying the existence of the problem with so many cars in the US as arrogance, they were caught completely unawares and the recent departure of a top executive from the west coast added to the organization’s woes. A chance to regain customer loyalty appears to have gone down the drain for Toyota now.

TATA Motors wasn’t a manufacturer with a spotless reputation for manufacturing passenger cars. When I selected the TATA Indigo amongst many other choices that were available in 2005 I heard tons of criticism from various quarters. TATA were reeling in negative publicity given all the problems with the Indica which customers were so pissed off at. For the money that one had to pay for the Indigo one was getting a far spacious and decent car than what was on offer from other manufacturers for the same price.

The ownership experience wasn’t without problems. The first was a problem with the fuel injection mechanism which was detected in the first year of owning the car. What was promised to be a 3 day work went for over a month, because the defective parts were replaced under warranty and took it’s own time to be dispatched from the factory. I was frustrated, I vented out to the head of works in Coimbatore and there after to the regional head of customer service in Bangalore.

I was pleasantly surprised when I was given an alternative car to use while mine was being repaired. To top it off the costs for the repairs were close to Rs.40,000/- and I didn’t spend a penny out of my pocket, warranty covered them all. I wasn’t charged labour charges for all the delays caused for this repair. I was happy at the service levels provided by the authorized service center, however I still would like them to attend to many small things that need attention when a car goes for service.

The second was an accident after midnight on a highway in April 2008 caused severe damage to left side all the way from the front fender to the rear boot. One look at the car would send shivers down one’s spine, the damage looked menacing. However nothing happened to the three people who were travelling in the car, not even a scratch. That was a sterling testimony to the way the car’s structure was built. To imagine what’d have been the case if this was one of the Maruti’s was shuddering.

If you are evaluating a new car don’t miss checking out the TATA Indigo Manza.

India is on Twitter?

We are living in a chaotic period in the modern India. Telangana, Naxals, Inflation, Kashmir, Terrorism, Liberalization … buzzwords that are heard everyday on TV, in the papers, on the internet and at bus stops in our country. Last year particularly was the coming of age of Twitter in our country. We saw a whole gamut of famous people get onto to Twitter and started using it mostly to promote their own personal agendas.

Shashi Tharoor, by far the most followed and eloquent amongst the newest twitterers from India keeps hitting media headlines for a casual remark he makes to his friend or commenting about aspects of foreign policy. The media which erstwhile played the role in bringing the message from the establishment, film starts and other avenues was finding it hard to cope with the fact that all these people now were directly talking to their target audience. Given this new channel established the media then had to report what was going on in Twitter which most often was a tad stale for the one’s that follow all these celebs on Twitter in the first place.

You have prominent personalities from the electronic media like Rajdeep Sardesai, Vikram Chandra, Sagarika Ghosh, Prabhu Chawla, Barkha Dutt …. on Twitter. You have reporters from these channels on Twitter. You have Vir Sanghvi, N Ram, Pritish Nandy and a whole gamut of professionals from the print media on Twitter. The film industry is there on twitter. All these folks promote their own articles, shows, movies on the medium. The folks from the media sometimes encourage debate, my favorite is Vir Sanghvi who never seems to have a problem calling a spade what it is. Go on, tweet to your hearts content and if you get a reply from one of these celebs do make a big deal about it.

Last week I was standing in a long line at a railway booking counter. The counters open at 8 AM and if you are one of those hapless one’s hoping to get a Tatkal ticket on a weekend train you better get to the booking counter by 8:15 AM or you don’t stand a chance in hell to get a confirmed reservation. Being the 17th person in the line I was slightly worried. As the crowd moved with only 10 more left an officer in Army uniform turned around:

Officer: Tatkal ticket?

Me: Yes sir, Saturday’s train, just 17 tickets remaining.

Officer: Aagay jao, mera tho utna jaldi nahi hai. (Go ahead, mine isn’t as urgent)

Me: Bahut shukriya sirji. (Thank you sir)

Don’t we need more people like this officer to make this world a better place?