Posts Tagged ‘car service station’

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Tips to choose a better car repair shop

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

It is obvious that you have spent countless minutes before you bought your car. Your car, of course, is a prized possession and you wanted to make sure that you know all the important information before making the decision. Unarguably, you considered a lot of things before you zeroed down on a particular model.

But seldom, or perhaps never, you took too much care about the garage, service center or the workshop which will handle your car once the warranty period is over, and you no longer want to go to the company’s outlets. Why is it so?

Without doubt, you should take care of who handles your car. There is a lot of trouble if it falls in the wrong hands. Car owners in tier-2/tier-3 cities should be more careful about this. We will discuss briefly about what you should consider before you choose a workshop for your car.

The best way to start is to talk to car owners around your area. Ask their reviews and what they do while they have to choose a workshop. The word of the mouth rating serves as the best source to get your first list of good workshops around your area.

The second step would be to visit 2-3 workshops. If possible, try to get a small job done by them. This would give you access to their functionality and facilities. You should also try to talk to the service adviser and try to know the depth of his knowledge. The technical skill of the people who will actually execute the process is of utmost importance.

The third step would be about the convenience and the facilities. A good workshop should have a separate waiting room, restroom, availability of drinking water, and perhaps even the location.

Once you have finalized these preliminary checks, you can go for pricing. Of course, smaller and lesser known workshops would be cheaper. But make sure they have proper technology to handle the machine. There is no point in opting for a cheaper service while it leads to more damage than protection.

At the end, if you like a particular workshop, recommend it to others. This practice serves as a common pool of knowledge where some best workshops in the area are referred and recommended by people with each other providing some valuable information.

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About the author:

Vivek is a mechanical engineer and has more than 7 years of experience as a writer. He blogs about various topics; entrepreneurship being one. His interests range from poetry, music to photography and travel. He can be reached at sdkrdk@gmail.com

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Traffic Jam Dirty Rain. Prepare Your Car For Monsoon

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Traffic jams in clogged up area with dirty rain water and car broken down on the road, Monsoon is here to begin so take care of your car.

Here is a list of things which can enhance your car’s life.

Cover Protection
The experts suggest car owners to get a wax coating done just before the rains to protect the cars paint. If neglected within few months you will see the paint fading and peeling.

Arrange Mud Flaps
Mud flaps will help to keep the sides of your car clean.

Check the Car Headlights
During heavy rain pour, visibility becomes poor not only for you but also for the people driving behind you. Therefore check the cars headlights and taillights before hitting the road.

Dry Interior
Dry your feet before entering the car as wet feet can slip off pedals, which is very dangerous. If your car interior is wet, roll down the windows and let it dry. Ensure to vacuum the interiors and clean mud and dirt off them regularly. Do not forget to use a car perfume at the end.

Avoid Rubber Floor Mats
In monsoon floor mats tend to soil and get wet very quickly. Therefore get fabric floor mats from a reputed brand to keep the original carpeting dry and free from stains. Avoid rubber mats as it does not absorb water well. Or you can use an old set of floor mats and throw them always after the rains.

Change the wiper
Ensure that the wiper blades are functioning smoothly. Also check for the cracks in it, which will lead to uneven cleaning of the windshield, thus lowering the visibility level.

Check pressure in the tyres
During heavy rains, roads are usually submerged in water, making the drivers play a hide and seek game with pot holes. Therefore have a clear check on the pressure in all the tyres, including the spare – as lower tyre pressure means frequent punctures.

Anti-rust spray or coating
To avoid rusting, get an anti-rust spray or coating under the body of the vehicle.

Dry brakes
Accelerate the car while holding the pedal brakes, to dry them as wet brakes can lower efficiency.

Driving tips
Once on the road, always drive at a controllable speed because the vehicle takes far longer to slow down in wet conditions. Maintain three times the distance you usually would from other vehicles to avoid collision. Slow down as you approach deep water.

Check Your FM Radio
Last but not the least get a good radio from the nearest store. As monsoon means traffic jams in clogged up area with dirty rain water and all drenched up men. A good radio will slide you to the world of dreams and will surely suppress your road rage.

Check up at car service station
You can get your car check up at nearest car service station so that you should not face problem in heavy rain. Weak batteries or weak brake pads are common problems.

Related Links:
http://living.oneindia.in

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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Women friendly car workshop – A New Trend

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

With women playing an increasing role in household earnings and deciding how a family’s money is spent, International automotive companies are changing its service model to reflect the trend.

Women in India now participate in all activities such as education, politics, media, art and culture, service sectors, science and technology, etc. Globally women are rising at the top in the corporate. But it is hardly any car service station run by women workers.

Large car dealers are setting up women friendly service centres. Women are becoming independent in their choices, but few women prefer going to car service station for car checkup. Mostly ladies prefer pick and drop facility.

In India, nobody can imagine having separate facilities for women, but it exists in other countries. In Australia, there is Galmatic Workshop. It runs by women and provides training for do-it-yourself services. Galmatic empowers women to be road savvy and confident behind the wheel and educate women to know how their car works and save $ in costly repairs.

It is very common women are afraid of going to any car workshop which is not organized and found herself cheated. One woman explains her situation like this “whenever I take my vehicle to garage without husband, i found my mechanic always giving higher cost estimation for small repair jobs”

Recently, Victoria Transmission & Auto Care is the first vehicle repair facility on Vancouver Island to adopt standards for making their workshop women friendly. They are trained best to serve female customers and communicate with them more effectively, offer regular information clinics to women on everything from changing tires to engine repair and have women working in the shop. And there are finer details, such as comfortable waiting rooms with beverages and showroom-like restrooms. The owner took serious interest to paint shop in designer colours, equipped with bright, modern lighting and has a decidedly sweet scent from a vase of fresh-cut lilies.

SOURCE:
http://www.timescolonist.com/technology/Repair+shop
+goes+female+friendly+green/4271834/story.html#ixzz1ICRB80e5

http://www.galmatic.com/know-your-car-workshops.aspx

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Who is the best, Independent car workshop or car dealer?

Sunday, March 20th, 2011

Globally car manufacturer has setup car dealers to provide car service during warranty period to all new cars. Getting extended warranty is easily possible depending upon the condition of car. You have no choice but visiting car dealer ensures car service as per car manufacturer standard guidelines. Not all car dealers are the best as quality service varies depending upon the skilled labour and processes.

After warranty expire, car servicing bill raises and mostly prefer visiting independent car workshop to reduce their bill. Even if you visit to nearest car workshop during warranty, you do need to be sure that nothing is done to the car that expressly voids the warranty. Some warranties, for instance, may prohibit specific cosmetic changes.

Few days back I visited to Sai Service, Maruti dealer in Mumbai. They claim retaining 45% customers even after warranty. These customers are more of quality conscious and believe in paying more for quality. Since the demand of car servicing is increasing and dealers are out of capacity to serve them all. For instance, if a car dealer is selling 250 cars in a month, they all coming back in the next 3-6 months, they have no capacity to serve them all. Car owners have to wait for their car service bookings. It is obvious, customer satisfaction at car dealers also gets affected.

As per survey 60% car owners visit to local car workshop after warranty got expired. Every car owner wants to save on car servicing bill. Choosing good independent car workshop is another challenge.

There are corporate like Bosch Car Service is trying making independent workshops organized by providing them authorization. Bosch has a network of over 260 car service stations in India. Carnation, MyTVS and Mahindra First Choice Services are building their car workshops to organize servicing industry at par with dealers.

So how do you decide? Dealer or independent? Not surprisingly, the answer to some extent depends on whom you ask.

Car owners who prefer going car dealer say …“I’m a firm believer that you should return to the dealership. Parts are installed by rigorously trained technicians. Nobody knows the car better than these technicians”
Even they acknowledge that the initial labor costs were often higher than independents because of steeper overhead, but argued that the dealers’ greater expertise and state-of-the art equipment meant the repairs would go faster — and in the end cost less.

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/your-money/26shortcuts.html?_r=1

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The after sales service the primary reason for car owner satisfaction (Survey)

Sunday, February 27th, 2011

In the recent survey, Maruti wins over customer satisfaction in a survey by TNS Automotive, but Maruti owners expect better car servicing even if there is a good network of car service stations in India.

The owners of Tata Nano expect more in terms of design and Maruti 800 owners expect better servicing as the years go by.

Apart from after sales service, the customer evaluations were taken in the key areas of sales satisfaction, product quality, vehicle performance and design, brand image, and cost-of-ownership.

Car owners in Northern India are relatively less satisfied compared to those in other parts of the country. The after sales service seems to be the primary reason particularly as the age of the car grows. At the national level, the customers in the relatively larger cities are more satisfied than those in the smaller cities. This may be a reflection of the growing expectations in the smaller cities. The manufacturers will do well to understand those. The customer expectations even at the bottom end are rising.

Due to the high growth, there was also a pressure on the supply of components and the workshop capacities.

According to Auto Serve 2010 Report, spare parts and components demands are increasing. The demand for parts and services set to double over the next 5 years. Roughly, 30 per cent of the market comprises spurious parts. Market interviews and analysis indicate that owners of older vehicles often migrate to independent service networks for cheaper and faster service. With OEMs more focused on vehicles in their warranty period, offering higher levels of service for older cars will be necessary for independent players to attract customers.

According to current scenario, customer satisfaction depends on quality of car servicing. There is a need of good car workshops which has trained car mechanics and has follow good processes for customer satisfaction.

Source:
http://www.tnsglobal.com/news/news-B617D2D0071A4CE195B138D70676706D.aspx

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