Ford India opens Quick Lane service centres

Ford India has just opened the first Quick Lane service center in Bangalore. These are specialized service centres, which specialize in offering a limited range of services or quick services that don’t take too much time.

What’s new in this? Many carmakers have “Quick Service bays” or areas which cater to cars which come in for routine service jobs that do not take much time, do not need an expert mechanic, special tools and diagnostics and the like. But Ford India has taken this concept to a new level by launching a completely separate outlet for such customers called “Quick Lane”.

The Quick Lane service outlet is officially called Quick Lane Tyre and Auto Centre and is a concept that Ford has been working with in the US since 1997. In India, Quick Lanes will perform 16 types of services on all Ford cars. These include: Periodic Scheduled Maintenance, checking and replacing belts and hoses, wheel alignment, cooling system check and repair, tyre check and replacement, oil changes, suspension and steering fixes, fitment of accessories, check up of the A/C system, replacement of wiper blades, service replacement of transmission fluid, and some selected light jobs. Also read: Maintenance tips for old cars

Quick Lane is for jobs on a car that are estimated to take a maximum of 2 hours or less. Any job that is estimated to take any longer will be sent to the main dealership. Quick Lanes, hence will work on hub and spokes model across the country. Quick Lanes will not handle any warranty replacements. These quick lane service centers will function six-days a week (except Sunday) between 10 am and 6 pm.

Since most service will take a maximum of two hours, Quick Lane outlets will have customer lounges. One does not need to book a service appointment at a quick lane outlet, but just drive in for service. Customers can see work performed on the car from the lounge and are also allowed on the shop floor to discuss issues with mechanics. The other features that all Quick Lanes will have are free Wi-Fi connectivity (a boon for customers who would like to work while their car is being serviced), a car washing area for the under body, and an LCD screen (digiboard) that will display the progress of each car periodically. Also read: Tips to enhance resale value of your car

To speed up work, each work bay at the quick lane will have commonly used spares stored in cupboards, which will save time as mechanics don’t have to run up to the spares store and back for small parts such as filters, washers, bulbs etc.

These Quick Lane service centers are part of Ford’s plan to expand its service network from 241 outlets in 127 cities to over 500 by 2015. Ford will also stock and sell accessories, merchandise, batteries and tyres at Quick Lane outlets making them a one-stop-shop for most things a car would generally need.