YASIR ASHRAF:
A vehicle is really a valuable possession for an owner, and, buying it, is something very special for a man. A new car is always smooth and enjoyable along with new looks. “A brand new car may still require some accessories to be complete in both looks and performances,” says Vijayaraj, owner of Xylo, who is fitting new accessories to his car.
For putting Seat Covers and music system you can approach Shree Choice Decors at General Patters Road in Chennai. Owner’s name is Dilip Tripathi. Music accessories are very popular with teens today, which include Mp3 Players, DVD Players, Speakers, Woofers, Amplifiers and Bluetooth Kit. “There are accessories available to riders on their iPod into the stereo, and other inventory that can be mounted on a dashboard of the iPod connector,” informs Dilip about the features of this product.
General Patters Road is a hub of car accessories in Tamil Nadu. There are other places to cater the needs of consumers, but this is the most preferred one here in Chennai. One would find number of vehicles lined to get installed with latest automobile accessories available here. “This is the oldest--some shops are more than 50 years old--and the most visited area by car owners in this state,” says Maaran, a car owner who has come to install a music system in his car.
Sarthy, 33, skilfully and keenly holds the seat and fits a cover to it with a screw driver in his right hand. “Whenever I get a contract of any fitting, I keep a log of time I spend at each step in my work, because we work according to contracts we get,” Says Sarthy. Different rates are there for fitting different car accessories like Rs. 200 for bumper, 100 for carrier, 75 for horn and 50 for bulb.
Kumar Auto Accessories, a major car accessories dealer in the General Patters Road market. A large number of automobile accessories are available at this shop like a variety of Bumper Guards, Mat, Neck Pillows, spoilers and wheel covers.
Dawood is working as a salesman in Kumar Auto Accessories, situated in the narrow lanes of General Patters Road with two floors in an old building. A large hall is full of automobile accessories. He provides every detail of accessories, enumerating the features of the products to his customer. “Floor mat prevents your car from getting dirty.” This 19-year-old boy knows how to engage and motivate customer to buy the product as he gives them detailed description of car accessories, which they needed. “Car liners: prevent your car from sand, stains, dirt, mud, etc., which are bound to accumulate in the interiors.”
Besides all these features there are other things as well to attract the car owners like Power Windows, Gear Knobs, Reverse Sensors, car cameras, Alarm systems, Central Lock, and multimedia navigations.
“Sometimes a significant calls or essential messages are missed while travelling. Or may be it requires a time to pick up a call when you are driving a vehicle as you have to look around where the mobile phone is positioned,” says Vijayaraj. “Such conditions could be prevented with a car holder in car.”
Kumar Auto Accessories get their accessories from a firm called R.P Autostyles, which is located in Delhi. Most of the car accessories come from cities like Delhi and Mumbai. Arvind Kumar, a marketing executive for R.P Autostyles, says that Kumar Auto Accessories is dealing with them since 2002. “These are our old buyers, we provide services to all seven branches to the dealer,” confirms Arvind. There are seven other branches of Kumar Auto Accessories working in different parts of the country.
In this high competing world of today, market place for car accessories parts is congested with gadgets for all kinds of automobiles.
Opposite to Kumar Auto Accessories other side of the Road is G.N.Car Audios run by a Sikh, Tarjeet Singh, he has seen lot of changes in this market. “When I started, 25 years ago, there were three times lesser the number of shops than today. Increase in vehicle numbers gave the birth of more shops here. There are now more than 300 shops including big as well as small shops,” says Mr. Singh.
As Sarthy has done his job, Vijayaraj hands him the money which he deserves for his work. “There is no excuse, now, for having a car with poor interiors. Well it is the time to make up for it,” suggests Sarthy.
