CAIRO: Car owners are concerned about one thing: how to get their vehicle back on the road quickly if it breaks. Recent media attention has focused on the Egyptian auto industry's current developments: new dealerships, assembly deals and parts manufacturing agreements being implemented to help address the widening gap between supply and demand in the country's rapidly expanding automotive sector, but has commented little on the need for an expanding service industry to keep up with rising demand. In Cairo, where constant construction has created a city that can take hours to cross, what is the Audi owner living in Sixth of October, miles away from Cairo's sole Audi dealership in Maadi, to do if something goes wrong? Mohamed El-Kamony, marketing manager at El-Kamony Automotive, says that car dealers in Egypt are aware of this problem and are working to create more options for vehicle owners. "Dealers are eager to expand their servicing facilities to keep up with warranty requirements, and to provide better service for customers. Increasing services also makes sense business-wise, as servicing profits have the potential to far exceed gains from car sales. This is especially true given the industry's growth - 300,000 cars have been sold this year, up from 225,000 last year - a huge change, he said. Car dealers in Egypt are required to provide, at minimum, a three-year or 100,000 km warranty on all vehicles they sell to cover possible manufacturing flaws or other production-based problems with their vehicles. Until recently, few dealers had developed the infrastructure to deal with other servicing issues that customers may face, so car owners found themselves forced to go to different facilities for different services at great inconvenience. "Whenever anything happens to my car, it takes several days to sort it out. I have to go to the dealer to get certain things done that are covered by insurance, and then to another garage to take care of the rest. It's a huge hassle and sometimes they keep the car for three or four days, said Fouad Hassan, a Mercedes owner. With an expanding local parts industry and increasing awareness about the profitability of servicing, customers like Hassan can expect to see their car-related hassles decrease in coming years as dealers work to provide more services on location. The number and location of dealerships is another issue faced by car owners looking for quick, efficient service. For owners of brands not frequently found in Egypt such as Audi, Volkswagen or Volvo, servicing options are limited to a handful of dealerships around the country - an inconvenience that will be hard to remedy before sales of these brands expand. "If an Audi dealer, for example, is selling two or there cars a month, he really has no incentive to expand services. People who choose to buy an Audi or a Volkswagen in Egypt usually do so out of brand loyalty, and they know beforehand that servicing will be more inconvenient, especially if they live far from the dealership, explained El-Kamony. On the other hand, large dealerships such as Al-Mansour Automotive, the principal distributor for General Motors in Egypt, have a huge incentive to expand services and location offerings. "Right now we are very focused on expanding our network of dealerships to provide better service for our customers. We have 18 dealerships and are looking to add another 14 over the next two years to accommodate demand for cars and for servicing, said Mohamed Salah, development director at Al-Mansour. Despite these positive developments and 2008's high volume of car sales, Salah worries about the effect the current financial crisis may have on Egypt's auto servicing industry. "If sales drop off due to financial problems, we will have less capacity to expand services in the coming years, he said. Aside from financial strain, Egypt's servicing sector faces some problems that require action, namely customer service. "Before expansion of services and locations, dealers need to work on their treatment of customers. Too often customers experience rudeness and inefficiency when they come to have their cars worked on and it leaves them frustrated. Improving customer service is crucial and more important to most customers than having a dealer very close by, he said. For prospective customers, a dealer's servicing facilities are a major factor in their decision to buy. "When I buy a new car I will definitely pay more attention to the services offered by the dealer - having a car is a convenience, so servicing it should not be such an ordeal, said Fouad Hassan. If current trends in the automotive sector continue unencumbered by current financial problems, Egypt's growing auto servicing industry should follow suit, with expansion of dealership locations, servicing options and customer service quality some of the perks Egypt's car owners can look forward to in the coming years.
