Eterno, Activa, Scooty Pep Plus ranked highest: STCS 2007

New Delhi, Dec 19 (UNI) The Eterno and Activa from Honda stable and the Scooty Pep Plus rank highest in their respective segments, according to the Scooter Total Customer Satisfaction Study 2007.

The Activa topped the ranking within the ungeared segment on the back of good performance on sales satisfaction and product design aspects. The Hero Honda Pleasure, which debuted at the top of the chart last year slipped to second position, primarily due to a relatively poor performance on after sales aspects, the study said.

The TVS Scooty Pep Plus retained its number one slot in the scooterettes segment. The model performed well on the sales experience, product design&quality aspects.

The trend across genders remained similar to that of last year with women consistently rating the products higher on satisfaction than their male counterparts.

Comparing the companies, which manufacture motorcycles as well as scooters, Bajaj's scooter customers were much less satisfied than its motorcycle customers. Hero Honda after defying this pattern last year followed suit with its motorcycle customers rating the company higher than its scooter customers.

However TVS scooter owners, unlike their Bajaj and Hero Honda counterparts, were more satisfied than its motorcycle owners.

In the ungeared segment, the Pleasure dropped score whereas the Activa held its ground.

In the Scooterettes segment, the TVS Scooty Pep Plus ranked highest in satisfaction among the entire scooter industry.

Comparing the regions, West led the satisfaction ratings among both ungeared and geared category of scooters. Satisfaction of North fell significantly among all the three categories.

''Rising fuel costs have become an accepted fact in the country, so the consumer expects manufactures to help him rationalise his ownership costs by improving on the charges that are levied for repairs and maintenance,'' senior vice president TNS Automotive Pradeep Saxena said.

Easy Paperwork processing post service has become a motivator for consumers and hence manufactures need to critically examine this process. Today consumers also want their scooter to be designed in such a way that all members of the family are able to use the model, the study added.

UNI