You read it first on BikesIndia, recently you must have seen pictures of Suzuki Gixxer motorcycle with dual tone paint job, it was perceived as Suzuki is going to launch their best seller motorcycle in dual tone color following the foot steps of Yamaha. The story was prominently shared by many popular media houses, but few of them had expressed their doubts about the reality of the story. We also had our own doubts about the silent introduction of double tone paint options in Gixxer, our doubt turned out to be a reality when we investigated the matter further.
What we found is not only shocking but also interesting on the other hand, BikesIndia has got evidence that the dual tone option in Gixxer is not standard and provided by the company but in fact it is a job done at the dealers' level. We found out that at the dealer's end they take two brand new bikes with contrast shades; for instance one solid Black and the other solid White, since the panel opening job is so easy and can be done with a few radially available tools, they open up the panels including fuel tank panels and swap/ interchange them with each others, and voila!!! you got two dual tone (Black & White) motorbikes.
In fact the bikes we got to see were actually looking good in Black & White, and made us wonder why Suzuki did not do the same thing officially. Dealers are not doing this without any purpose, they are actually en-cashing the surge of exclusivity of our youth. They are charging as much as Rs 2000/ extra for this exclusivity.
Replacing the entire body kit of a motorcycle is not a new thing but what surprised us was the replacement taken place way before the bike has come out from the showroom or even get registered at RTO. Our concern was only to the legitimacy of the process and the affect of it on the registration process and finally the warranty of the bike, because after all we recognize our bike with its color as it is received by the dealer directly from the company. Every bike received is specified by its color only and when the color gets changed before the registration, what would happen to the color specified on the RC (Registration Card)?
To clarify our doubts we further asked to other dealers of different brands, and what we got to know was even more shocking. We came to know that at certain instances, even dealers of other brands also do the same practice, so it is quite normal for them. But the question remains same what about the legal point? We got our answer which partially satisfy us, as per one prominent dealer of another big brand, in case of body kit replacement of another color they issue a letter to the customer mentioning that they have replaced the body kit, which the customer is suppose to keep with himself because at any cost once the color of the bike gets registered it can not be changed on the RC.
On asking about handling issues like creating dual color, they said, however may be the bike received in different color, if we change the color before registration is being done we need to mention the actual color (which is dual in our case) on the sale letter and based on that the color of the bike would be registered as it is.
Now we leave it to you to decide whether the entire process is convincing or not or you want to take an official say on the matter from the company. Please do let us know your take on this.
By: Farhan Kashif
What we found is not only shocking but also interesting on the other hand, BikesIndia has got evidence that the dual tone option in Gixxer is not standard and provided by the company but in fact it is a job done at the dealers' level. We found out that at the dealer's end they take two brand new bikes with contrast shades; for instance one solid Black and the other solid White, since the panel opening job is so easy and can be done with a few radially available tools, they open up the panels including fuel tank panels and swap/ interchange them with each others, and voila!!! you got two dual tone (Black & White) motorbikes. In fact the bikes we got to see were actually looking good in Black & White, and made us wonder why Suzuki did not do the same thing officially. Dealers are not doing this without any purpose, they are actually en-cashing the surge of exclusivity of our youth. They are charging as much as Rs 2000/ extra for this exclusivity.
Replacing the entire body kit of a motorcycle is not a new thing but what surprised us was the replacement taken place way before the bike has come out from the showroom or even get registered at RTO. Our concern was only to the legitimacy of the process and the affect of it on the registration process and finally the warranty of the bike, because after all we recognize our bike with its color as it is received by the dealer directly from the company. Every bike received is specified by its color only and when the color gets changed before the registration, what would happen to the color specified on the RC (Registration Card)? To clarify our doubts we further asked to other dealers of different brands, and what we got to know was even more shocking. We came to know that at certain instances, even dealers of other brands also do the same practice, so it is quite normal for them. But the question remains same what about the legal point? We got our answer which partially satisfy us, as per one prominent dealer of another big brand, in case of body kit replacement of another color they issue a letter to the customer mentioning that they have replaced the body kit, which the customer is suppose to keep with himself because at any cost once the color of the bike gets registered it can not be changed on the RC.
On asking about handling issues like creating dual color, they said, however may be the bike received in different color, if we change the color before registration is being done we need to mention the actual color (which is dual in our case) on the sale letter and based on that the color of the bike would be registered as it is.Now we leave it to you to decide whether the entire process is convincing or not or you want to take an official say on the matter from the company. Please do let us know your take on this.
By: Farhan Kashif
