In case a customer chooses to return the truck, the ex-showroom price of the truck will be refunded after all the requirements are fulfilled as per the terms and conditions.
Key points to note –
- Mileage guarantee is being offered on the entire BS6 truck range from 3.5 tonne till 55 tonne, including Blazo X HCV, Furio ICV, Furio 7 LCV and Jayo LCV.
- Mahindra had first offered a similar guarantee on it’s HCV truck Blazo, launched in 2016. While more than 33,000 units of Blazo have been sold till now, the company claims not a single customer has returned a truck.
On the face, initiative looks very exciting and disruptive. The guarantee implies a significant confidence of Mahindra on it’s technology and product quality.
Fuel comprises over 60% of the running cost of a truck and with continuing increase in fuel costs, this kind of guarantee should ideally excite the customers and hence get strong demand.
However, I consider it more of a marketing gimmick. Reasons –
- Terms and conditions are the key and even if those terms and conditions are met, getting the claim from the company of a complete refund of ex-showroom would not be that easy. There can always be lots of ifs and buts with this kind of promise.
- More importantly – why would a truck owner return his truck for merely some mileage issue?
- In best case scenario, he will only get back the ex showroom price and will have to forego other charges or manage the process of getting the return of certain charges from the government authorities; and
- Even if he manages everything, he will have to replace the returned truck to continue the operations. Even then the mileage would be similar. So he may not gain anything by going through the whole process, if the overall experience otherwise compares with the industry standards.
I therefore consider the announcement as a good marketing strategy that should ideally draw customer’s attention. However, unlikely that he will not see through it. Though, if everything else remains same, there is a possibility that some of them may go for this added comfort.