Posts Tagged ‘car workshops’

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Car workshop charges for unnecessary work (Survey)

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

Notice your car repair bill next time, there are chances you may be charged for repair work your car may not require. In the recent survey in Canada, only 6 garages out of 19 those were able to detect the simple fault and rest charged for the work which was not required.

The Automobile Protection association, CTV’s W5 and our Consumer Specialist Lea Williams-Doherty put auto repair shops to the test. They did an undercover investigation to see if 19 garages could properly diagnose and repair a simple problem.

The problem should have been easy to detect and cheap to fix. The APA loosened one battery cable on two cars in otherwise perfect condition and took them to randomly selected repair shops.
A secret shopper told the garages that sometimes the cars just wouldn’t start. Of the 19 garages, only six passed the test by finding and tightening that loose cable.

It depends upon mechanics expertise and processes followed at car service centre. In Canada and other countries, you can find associations which monitor and is trying to standardize car repair shops, but there is no such automobile protection association in India. India lacks on trained manpower and scarcity of spares.

Providing reviews of car workshops are the solution to know the best car service centers. MeriCAR Reviews section is developed for the same purpose. It allows customers to review workshops based on certain criteria.

Source Survey:
http://calgary.ctv.ca

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Posted in car repair, car service center, car workshop | No Comments »

Roadside Car Repair Shops – Challenges and Problems

Sunday, April 3rd, 2011

Roadside car workshops, tyre puncture shop and small repair auto shops are very popular. Not only in India, globally people have made garages near the road to attract customers. It is not a new concept. It exists all over.

Gobally governments have problems with these roadside car repair shops. Some are built around residence to make noises for the residents and few are built out of the city on unauthorized land.

In other countries, mechanics have converted their house garages into car workshop. Do-it-yourself is very popular in other countries and people do minor check ups and car servicing using their own garages. Experience car mechanics run their garages commercially. Major issue with roadside workshops is storage of abandoned vehicles. Customers who leave their cars and storing them need bigger space.

In New Jersey, repair shops that store an abundance of abandoned vehicles on their property could start facing fines of up to $1,000 if the Borough Council pushes ahead with an ordinance to limit the storage and outdoor repair of vehicles.

Workshop owners claim that customers left their cars even they have repaired, so they should not be penalized. The problem with many of the cars is that they have been abandoned by customers who refuse to pay, or he’s waiting to collect from insurance companies.

Survival of these auto shops are not easy. Customers who use them are cost conscious and they also look for facilities available with them. Most of them are depended on voice based yellow pages and provide pick and drop facility. When they can’t make customer satisfactory showing them good shops, they have to provide high-end quality services of customer. Sophistication of car technology is another challenge. It is not a joke, but i have seen roadside car workshop in the posh area who attends his meeting sitting in the car because he has no space for sitting and runs his workshop on the road.

Can these roadside be organized? A big question for the after sales service car industry.

Source News:
http://www.NorthJersey.com News

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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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Don’t Pay For Your Car Mechanic’s Negligence

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

Once you believe your car mechanic and you do not bother anything next time until something wrong has happened. How many time you have changed your car mechanics or car workshop? Possible if you are paying for your car mechanic’s negligence. Here is a situation that may happen to you:-

I’ve been going to car workshop for a few years and up until now they’ve provided what I would consider to be a good service. Anyway, they serviced my car and I picked it up and took it home. The next morning, there’s a huge pool of oil under the car. I took the car back to the garage and they felt sorry about using wrong washer on the plug.

I took the car home, woke up next day to another pool of oil. I had to use the car to get to work, so I topped the oil up and set off with the intention of dropping the car off at the garage again in the evening. I got to the end of the road and there’s a loud clattering noise coming from the engine bay. I called the garage and they asked me not to drive and the car gets picked up.

Later that afternoon, the garage called back and said ‘It’s not the engine, it’s your steering pump; the bearings have exploded and there’s power steering fluid everywhere. It’s nothing to do with us, you need to pay for getting it transported over, new belts and a new pump’.

Okay, let’s think about this, because to me it doesn’t really make any sense. First of all, they have had two opportunities to spot the leaking fluid and didn’t. Secondly they lied to me about the ‘wrong washer on the sump plug’. Finally, and most importantly, if they had spotted the steering fluid leak in the first place, my pump may well have not died. After all, when I spotted what I thought was an oil leak the pump wasn’t making any bad noises.

I think they have been completely incompetent throughout and I don’t think I should be paying for any of this. As you would expect, the garage doesn’t agree.

Here are some suggestions to reduce chance you need to pay for your car mechanic’s incompetence.

Visit Authorized Garage:

You can not trust car mechanic even if you are using them for long. You must go to authorized car workshop, garages. There are Bosch Car Service centres. They have some standards/criteria to give authorization to small car workshops.

Check Out Car Workshops Reviews:

You can also check out if there is any review available. MeriCAR.com is providing reviews of car workshops and service centres and they are real customers experience.

Using any car mechanics who is just near to your home, is not enough to save your car (or bill).

Source: WeeklyGripe

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Posted in car repair, car service | 1 Comment »

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