“The power of choice regarding where a customer can go for service is going to be a major trend in the automobile industry. We only want customers to use genuine spare parts,” said Anurag Mehrotra, executive director for marketing, sales and service at Ford India.

 

Ford India is setting up retail sale network of spare parts in markets of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Delhi. It is setting up warehouses in select cities/districts of these states to cater to wholesalers, retailers and garage owners.

 

Consumers of car makers, whose spare parts are not available in the open market, have no choice but to purchase them and get their vehicles serviced through the company’s authorised service stations only. In August last year, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had imposed penalties of Rs 2,554 crore on 14 car makers for failure to make spare parts available in the open market.

 

CCI found that companies charged a high mark up on spare parts due to lack of competition. Most companies have secured stay on the CCI order and haven't paid the fine. Asked if the exercise is being driven by the CCI case, Mehrotra said, "If that was the case, many manufacturers would have done that." It is in the interest of customers, he added.

 

Other than Ford, the Indian arm of Japanese car maker Toyota has also taken measures to make spare parts available to customers.

 

In August this year, Toyota launched an online portal to let customers buy the company’s genuine spare parts and accessories. The ordered parts will be delivered to the address of the customer, who can choose going to the company authorised service station to get it fitted or a local mechanic.

 

Initially, around 400 Toyota genuine spare parts such as brake pads, clutch plates, wiper blades, oil filters, air filters in addition to around 30 Toyota genuine accessories will be sold through the online channel.

 

“Sometimes a customer may feel that he is being charged more at the dealership. It is in our interest to make it available. The world is full of spurious parts. There were complains of dealer hiking prices. Now, you can see prices online,” Shekar Viswanathan, vice-chairman and whole-time director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, told Business Standard recently.

 

This also happens be the first such online exercise to sell spare parts by a car maker in India. The facility has been made available to customers of Toyota in Bangalore and will be expanded to most other parts of the country by next year.