Nearly 13 per cent of vehicle owners are forced to change their tyres within just two years of purchase due to poor road conditions, says a report by market research firm JD Power.
“Overall, 13 per cent of new vehicle owners in the country indicate having replaced their tyres within the first two years of vehicle ownership, primarily due to tyres becoming worn out or damaged due to road hazards,” says report.
The study points out that the rate of replacement is higher in case of utility vehicles, which run more than other models. “More than 1 in 5 owners of utility vehicles indicate having replaced their tyres within the first two years of ownership. On an average, utility vehicles are driven 35 per cent more kilometers than vehicles in other model segments,” the report said, adding the most frequently reported problems with original equipment (OE) tyres are issues related to road hazards, punctures and poor traction.
In replacing, over 57 per cent of new vehicle owners choose tyres going by the brand as according to them it is the most important factor influencing their replacement decision.
“Tyre customers are brand-conscious and have higher expectations of performance due to improvement in technology, such as self-sealing tyres,” JD Power executive director (Asia-Pacific, Singapore) Mohit Arora said.
According to government estimates, about USD80 billion (about Rs 3.76 lakh crore) is being invested over the next four years on development of highways. Of this, 50-60 per cent are expected to come from private sector.
Soon after taking charge last year, transport minister Kamal Nath had said mega projects of 400km each would be awarded to speed up highway development, following which the National Highways Authority had identified nine projects requiring an investment of about Rs 4,000 crore each.
Taking a dig at tyre manufacturers, JD Power report said nearly 1 in 5 customers indicated having experienced a problem with their OE tyres, and surprisingly over 30 per cent of them did not get the tyres repaired or serviced.
“Having even a single problem negatively impacts customer satisfaction with their tyres, and satisfaction level declines further if these problems are not rectified,” Arora said.
On utility vehicle tyres, he said as such vehicles are driven for long distances, on many instances on unpaved roads, the owners tend to have low satisfaction levels with the traction and handling of their tyres. “As this vehicle segment continues to grow, it is particularly important for tyre manufacturers to focus on improving quality,” he added.
On the customer satisfaction front, MRF ranks the highest among OE tyre brands with an overall score of 810 (on a 1,000 points scale), followed by Apollo Tyres with 804 points.
With the industry average for customer satisfaction is 798 points, Bridgestone (796 points), JK Tyre (795 points) and Goodyear (768 points) find places below the average, the survey said.
JD Power’s customer satisfaction index is based on responses from 3,874 new-vehicle owners surveyed between May 2007 and August 2008.