A sample survey of Promised Performance Monitor (PPM 2001), an independent customer watchdog on the performance of two-wheeler vehicles promoted by the city-based Metric Consultancy, has revealed an alarmingly high rate of problems in the quality of vehicles manufactured by the two-wheeler industry in the country.
As per the sample survey data released by Metric Consultancy in the city on today, 'Select' scooter of the LML stable ranked top with the least number of problems on a scale of 100 vehicles surveyed of LML with a Promised Performance (PP) per 100 vehicles of 59, while 'YBX 125' of Escorts-Yamaha ranked second best performer with PP of 93 and 'Winner EZ' of Hero Motors coming out third.
'Marvel' of Kinetic with a PP of 97, 'NV' of LML with PP of 98, 'Legend' of Bajaj Auto with PP of 116, 'Passion' of Hero Honda with PP of 121, 'YD 125' of Escorts-Yamaha with PP of 121, 'Spirit' of Bajaj Auto with PP of 127 and 'Scooty' of TVS with PP of 128 ranked fourth to tenth in that order.
However, the survey has not revealed the top worse performers with only top 10 best performing two-wheeler models being disclosed on the ground that this being the first survey of its kind, the industry practice globally is to give time and scope to the manufacturers to improve.
Metric Consultancy plans to reveal the performance of all the models when it conducts a fresh survey next year. Metric plans to make it an annual exercise to rate the best performers so that the consumers get the insight about the vehicle they plan to buy.
The PPM is the first ever study of two-wheeler industry conducted in the country which covered 41 models with 3,229 consumers who had purchased the vehicles between 1 week to 3 months during November 2000 to April 2001. These consumers were interviewed in 5 major cities -- Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, New Delhi and Vadodara, which have a high usage of these two-wheelers.
"We feel the consumers have been taken for a ride by the two-wheeler manufacturers as the vehicles produced have several problems that a buyer faces soon after buying a vehicle," S Dharmadikari, director, client servicing of Metric Consultancy said.
While choosing a vehicle, the survey points out that consumers have no professional advise as 73 per cent checked with friends, colleagues and relatives, 7 per cent checked with mechanics and auto consultants, 5 per cent with dealers and 15 per cent decided on their own.
The consumers faced 55 per cent of their problems in the area of engine and transmission, 13 per cent in lock, control knobs and lights and lights and another 13 per cent in the silencer, shock absorbers, stepney and 11 per cent in dash board and handle.
In the motorcycle category, 'YBX 125' of Escorts-Yamaha had the least problems with a PP of 93 which meant that on an average every vehicle by the company had close to one problem. 'Passion' of Hero Honda and 'YD 125' of Escorts-Yamaha ranked second with a PP of 121, while 'Fiero' of TVS ranked third with a PP of 144.
Hero Honda's 'CBZ' (PP 149) and 'Splendour' (PP 154), Escorts-Yamaha's 'Crux' (PP 160), LML's 'Adreno' (PP 160), Hero Honda's 'CD 100 S' (PP 185), Bajaj Auto's 'Caliber' (PP 188), Escorts-Yamaha's 'RX 135' (PP 192) ranked fourth to tenth in that order.
In the mopeds category, TVS came out a winner with two of its models 'Champ' and 'XL-50' being the only one putting up above its category average. In step-through category, Hero Honda's 'Street Smart' and Bajaj Auto's 'M 80-4S' were above category average even though PP indices are far below all industries average of 187.
In the scooter segment, LML topped the list, while Kinetic's 'Marvel' came 2nd (PP 97), LML's 'NV' came third (PP 98), and Bajaj Auto's 'Legend' stood fourth (PP 116) which reflected that every vehicle produced by these 4 top ranked scooter manufacturers had at least one problem for every vehicle produced, the only exception being of LML's 'Select'.
In the scooterettes category, 'Winner' of Hero Motors tops the list as the best performer, followed by 'Spirit' of Bajaj Auto, 'Scooty' of TVS.
