Mumbai Finally Gets A New Kawasaki Showroom

The infamous Kawasaki Palm Beach or SNK Palm Beach dealership in Vashi closed a couple of months ago on account of cheating its customers.

India Kawasaki Motors Pvt. Ltd. has finally opened a new dealership in Mumbai, located in between the Triumph and Benelli outlets in Hubtown Viva on the Western Express Highway in Andheri East. Mumbai is one of the most important cities for the company in India. However, there wasn’t a single Kawasaki dealership for a couple of months after the termination of the SNK Palm Beach showroom. Not only did it affect the company's sales in the market, but Kawasaki fans in and around the city also faced a lot of problems in buying their favourite superbike.

All this happened after the company’s SNK Palm Beach dealership in Vashi, Mumbai, cheated a dozen customers, who, in spite of paying in full, had not got their bikes delivered, even after waiting for six months. However, following a long legal tussle and after facing a lot of negative publicity, India Kawasaki Motors successfully redeemed itself with affected customers finally getting to ride home the bikes they paid for.

When India Kawasaki Motors got involved in the issue, Satyen Karandikar, the owner of the dealership, assured customers of the bikes being delivered or of a full refund with interest before August 31, 2016. However, Satyen soon went missing and Kawasaki released a public notice stating SNK Palm Beach was no longer an authorised dealer and India Kawasaki wasn’t liable in any manner for the acts omissions, transactions, assurances, processes, representations and defaults of the SNK Palm Beach dealership.

The notice worsened the woes of the dozen customers, earning a lot of bad press for India Kawasaki Motors. But the Japanese major was silently at it, trying to resolve the issue through a long legal battle. And, finally, after around two months, Kawasaki India invited all the beleaguered customers to Pune and delivered the said motorcycles to them, along with a compensation for all the trouble caused.

The new Jogeshwari dealership of India Kawasaki Motors is said to be better than the previous one. It replaces the Indian Motorcycles showroom which is now going to a bigger and better location. Looking at the previous incident, the new Kawasaki dealership has been given in the hands of a more experienced and trusted group which has already started taking booking for the entire range of Kawasaki bikes available in India at the following ex-showroom prices (Mumbai).

• Kawasaki Z250 - Rs 3.68 lakh
• Kawasaki Ninja 300 - Rs 4.34 lakh
• Kawasaki Er-6n - Rs 5.66 lakh
• Kawasaki Ninja 650 - Rs 5.99 lakh
• Kawasaki Versys 650 - Rs 7.92 lakh
• Kawasaki Z800 - Rs 9.82 lakh
• Kawasaki Z1000 - Rs 16.63 lakh
• Kawasaki Versys 1000 - Rs 17.10 lakh
• Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R - Rs 23.99 lakh
• Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14R - Rs 25.06 lakh
• Kawasaki Ninja H2 - Rs 44.05 lakh
• Kawasaki Ninja H2 Carbon - Rs 52.58 lakh
• Kawasaki Ninja H2R - Rs 76.67 lakh

The Japanese bikemaker seems all set to revamp its marketing and dealership strategies and is reported to break its current sales and service tie-up with Bajaj from April 2017. Bajaj currently retails Kawasaki bikes up to 650cc, along with the KTM bikes, through its Pro-Biking outlets in the country. On the other hand, larger Kawasaki CBUs are exclusively sold through India Kawasaki Motor dealerships. If the reports turn out to be true, all Kawasaki bikes will be sold only through IKM showrooms, limiting its reach in tier-I cities of the country.