[Resolved]  Tata Indigo — TATA Indigo, Kulathunkal Motors, Trivandrum

Prefix: All my emails to [protected]@kulathungalmotors.com, [protected]@kulathungalmotors.com and [protected]@kulathungalmotors.com returned as FAILED DELIVERY. If these are fake email IDs, why they display this in their Contact Persons List.

Hello:

I am Naiju and is a TATA Indigo owner, KL42-6091 that was purchased from Kulathungal Motors, Trivandrum in Dec-2006. I am more or less a satisified user of the car and the car has now clocked more than 55000 kms. It runs around 20 kms per litre of diesel which is very economical for me.

Please read the below narration.

-Main Story

A couple of weeks back, I was on a pleasure trip with my friend Anoop in my car. Anoop with his one year old daugther was in the front seat and back seat was occupied by my wife Nitha along with his wife Lakshmi. We were on Kovalam bypass road and the clear road persuaded me to push the pedal; the needle slowly rushed up as to touch 3 digits. I spotted a picnic van ahead and managed to overtake the vehicle forcing an oncoming autorikshaw to stop for me to pass. My friend made a sigh giving me a sign of his displeasure in my maneovure. Sensing his discontent, I slowed down and started cruising at a steady 60-70kmph. Naturally, our focus turned to his young daugther who got up from her sleep and made the cab lively. She seemed to be enjoying the ride with her lovely smile and warm chatters.
All of a sudden, I felt something wrong with the steering wheel; it has got stiff and was not obeying my commands. "Steering is not responding", I briskly told Anoop, "It seems front tyres have blown out…, lets stop and check". I applied brakes and to supplement my worry, the brakes did not respond, "the car is not slowing down…" I yelled. I applied the brakes with great force. To my great disbelief, the break pedals have got hard. "Hit Brakes ! Hit Brakes !!", Anoop shouted. I looked ahead, there is a struggling trailer laden with massive concrete pipes going in front o[censored]s. "Brakes ! Brakes !!", he screamed holding his daughter firmly to his chest. Pushing the brakes down with all my strength, "Brakes are gone! No brakes !!", I roared in panic. A lot of things went through my mind in a flash of seconds. Nitha and Lakshmi screamed in terrific trauma from behind, "My God, Help ! Help !!". I looked at the speedo- it read 60 kmph…; just infront of the windscreen, the rear of the trailer with huge concrete pipes magnified my fear. I tried to keep my cool, held the steering wheel with all my grip and turned the wheel towards the right ! To my good luck, milliseconds before an impact with the trailer, the car moved towards the right edge of the road, just groping the rear right corner of the trailer…, "Left ! Left !! Straighten the wheel !!!", Anoop shouted. I did all what I had learned, I don’t know what happened but saw the trailer towards my left side… oncoming motorbikers beamed past through my right side; and Oh God !, we overtook the monster !!
It was complete silence in the car ! Nobody speaks out. The car is still moving at nearly 50kmph. "Use the hand brake…", Anoop broke the silence. I shifted to neutral, slowly applied the hand brakes and the car came to a halt ! I looked at Anoop, he kept holding his daughter to his chest and the young girl murmuring something lovely. In the back seat, Nitha and Lakshmi sat speechless of the shock created by the drama. Without notice, the trailer slowly approached from behind and moved past us, its co-driver staring at me in anger in retaliation to my adventure. I was really taken aback on what has happened to the car. Anoop and I got out to inspect the tyres…, they are okay, then…? I did not understand why it happened. I tried to recall each and every incident and finally I made out that the power assistance to steering has died out due to some reason along with the brake functionality that caused the trouble. I requested for TATA Highway Assistance and they discovered that a belt connecting alternator to engine broke that stopped power steering function and brake.
Luckily none o[censored]s was hurt and we were able to stop the car without any disaster. A wild thought instantly flashed my mind…, … if there were any oncoming bus or truck when we negotiated the trailer truck….

-End of Main Story

When I asked my Service Advisor at Kulathungal Motors why the belt failed, he had the simple answer that it broke since the belt was not replaced at 40000kms. My car is being serviced at Kulathungal Motors right from its purchase and none of the services advised me to replace it. I have done the fault of not checking these myself and I trusted the workshop expecting that everything required would be advised to me.
Again, when I took my car for wheel alignment to another shop, then only I came to know that my tyres are never rotated properly that makes my sparewheel almost untrodden.
My car was orignally serviced two weeks back. Since some of my complaints were not addressed, I was advised to take the car to workshop once again and last week it was serviced again. Yesterday I was directed to bring it again to workshop to address my unresolved compaints.
I had the same experience for most of my services done. I have even some complaints pending right from my second free service in early 2007.

Just to add, the story scripted above did not happen exactly as narrated; but is not an impossible one to happen. (My car was very slow when the belt broke and I was able to stop the car immediately using hand brake.) I narrated it this way to highlight the impact of a neglience from your side.