A Jeep dealer quotes a staggering Rs.12 Lakh! Luckily, an intervention from the Insurance Company saw a reduction and the final bill was for Rs.1.1 Lakh
A family’s dream trip through Ladakh comes to a disappointing halt after their Jeep Meridian suffered damage to the undercarriage. A Jeep dealer quotes a staggering Rs.12 Lakh! Luckily, an intervention from the insurance company saw a reduction and the final bill was for Rs.1.1 Lakh.
The story begins in June when a family embarks on a journey through Leh-Ladakh and all the other famous landmarks around these regions. They drive in 2 vehicles, a Jeep Compass, and a Jeep Meridian, through most places like Zoji La, Padum, Kargil, Leh, Nubra, Turtuk, Pangong Tso and Chumthang. These vehicles were driven by an elder brother and his cousin who have travelled to these places multiple times on different vehicles and they both have even cycled from Manali to Khardung La, which basically means they have enough experience in driving on these roads.
The event happened at Tangtse, where the 2 vehicles were trying to navigate through a dirt track, one behind the other. Both the vehicles were travelling at speeds of 25-30 kmph with the Compass at the front and the Meridian at the back. The Compass puttered its way through the small rocks and once it passed, they were guiding the Meridian through the track when the occupants heard noises under the car.
Initially, there were no warning signs and no noticeable damage when they glanced under the car, but just after a few kilometres, the Meridian’s driver saw the dashboard lighting up like a Christmas tree with warning signs. They parked the car on the side of the road and once they got some signal, called up Jeep Srinagar for assistance. The folks at Jeep Srinagar requested them not to drive the car and it will have to be brought to Srinagar on a flat-bed truck.
The flat-bed truck came from Srinagar, picked up the Jeep Meridian, and took 4 days before reaching the Srinagar workshop. The initial assessment of the Jeep technicians in mid-June resulted in a long list of parts that needed to be replaced and the overall cost would be around Rs.12 Lakh. As soon as they heard the amount, the insurance company was informed.
As expected from insurance companies, they took their own sweet time and after multiple follow-ups, sometime in mid-July, a guy from the insurance company visited the service centre and went through the damage in detail. He removed many parts that were deemed unnecessary and approved only a few of them because of which the cost came down to around Rs.4 lakh.
Once the parts were confirmed, the usual shenanigans of the service centre started, and they had to order most of these parts which took 2-3 weeks to reach them. Once the parts arrived, they realised it was the wrong parts and had to order them again while also sending back the incorrect parts. This took another 3 weeks and by the end of August, the correct parts had arrived.
Jeep Srinagar takes 2-3 days to fit the parts and repair the vehicle. The bill finally was reduced to Rs.1,10,000 and the insurance company paid the entire amount. The elder brother went to Srinagar and drove the Meridian from Srinagar to Gurgaon after which they got it checked at a regular service centre and was given a thumbs up with no issues faced after that.
