VW India Improves Aftersales Package

Volkswagen India has announced affordable ownership experience across its entire product line- up in the country. The service cost has been reduced by 24 per cent to 44 per cent across all cars in VW's India lineup, along with the addition of two free services up to 15,000 km or 1 year. Additionally, Volkswagen is now also offering four years of roadside assistance and the standard warranty has been increased to four years or 1 lakh km.

Speaking on this occasion, Steffen Knapp, Director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars said, “Volkswagen is determined towards providing the best of our offerings to the value-driven Indian customers. The brand has been making conscious efforts towards addressing its key requirement of the customer - high maintenance costs. By adopting an India centric approach, there’s been an overall reduction in the total cost of ownership while retaining the same quality, safety and value-for-money proposition that is expected of a Volkswagen. Thus, it gives me immense pride in announcing an affordable ownership experience for the aspirational Indian customer.”

Volkswagen has been introducing a number of initiatives since 2017 in order to address customer concerns related to after- sales and spare parts availability. The German carmaker has now placed a standard menu pricing across its dealer workshops in India, to maintain transparency between the brand and its customers. The menu comprises of all the costs that a customer could potentially incur, depending on the service required on the respective model. In addition to introducing service value packages and extended warranty options, the manufacturer revised its spare part pricing as per industry standards in 2018. VW customers in India can now avail more benefits on value- added services along with the option of extending their existing warranty by buying add- on warranty options for 1 year / 20,000 km whichever is earlier. The maximum limit of availing add- on warranty is till 7 year or 125,000 km, whichever is earlier.

Effective 1st January 2019 all Volkswagen carlines will have warranty, RSA as below:

Till 31.12.2018

From 01.01.2019

Standard Vehicle Warranty

2 year / unlimited km

4 year / 100,000 km

Free Road Side Assistance

2 year

4 year

(RSA)

 Free service

Free service at 7,500 km / 6

3 Free services (In 1 year or

month

up to 15,000 km)

Paid service at 15,000 km / 1

year

The 4 year warranty, RSA and 3 free services will be applicable to all Volkswagen carlines sold in India effective 1st January 2019 across the dealership network.

Currently, VW is working on their much anticipated India 2.0 Project, under which the manufacturer plans to roll out four new heavily- localized models starting from 2020. The first model to be launched under the project will be an all- new SUV by Skoda Auto based on VW’s sub- compact MQB A0 platform. This new SUV will be launched around 2020 and will get styling cues from the Skoda Vision X concept that was unveiled earlier this year. According to the reports, a production version of the SUV for European markets will be showcased at the Geneva motor show in March this year. The second vehicle will be the much awaited VW T- Cross SUV. The third and fourth model under the VW India 2.0 plan will be a pair of sedans. In the second phase of the project, Skoda will be examining the possibility of exporting vehicles built in India. Stay tuned to V3cars.com for further updates on the India 2.0 Plan by VW.