THE E HAS YOU COVERED

Contrary to perceptions, maintaining an E-Class is not difficult, courtesy Mercedes-Benz’s service packages

EVO INDIA’S EDITOR, SIRISH CHANDRAN, RECENTLY WENT on a tour of the Mercedes-Benz plant in Chakan, just outside of Pune. The objective was to find out if owning a luxury car like the Mercedes-Benz E-Class was really as expensive as it seems to the outsider. While we all know about Mercedes-Benz’s three-year warranty programme, which speaks volumes about the company’s confidence in its products and manufacturing processes, what Sirish learnt from Santosh Iyer, head of after sales operations at the company, was that Mercedes-Benz has made huge improvements in the cost of ownership of a luxury car like the E-Class. The company offers a whole host of service packages that allow owners in India to run their favourite luxury sedan without having to worry about how expensive maintaining it will be. With these packages, the company has also set the benchmark in make luxury car ownership affordable, accessible and viable for a wider audience. The quality of the service network has also gone up dramatically and owners can now book the service online and get the car picked up and even dropped back. They can talk to the service advisor using the App. SMS alerts are sent out at each stage during the service. The system also monitors the car’s health over a long term and can send service reminders.

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