[arvind71181]

Originally Posted by ronline

Hi,

My both cars have got damaged in Chennai floods, namely - 2006 Santro Xing XL (IDV 1.2L) and 2012 Rapid Ambition Petrol AT (IDV 5L). After waiting for 2 weeks I've given the Santro to a local mechanic as its an easier car to fix and he estimated the repair at 30-40K. He has already fixed few simple (Santro/Zen/Alto etc) hatchbacks in my/nearby apartments.

The company estimate for Rapid is 15L which means they're obviously not in the mood to actually inspect each and every part and fix it only if required. So my question is, are there any good local service garages which can handle cars like Skoda/VW and automatics? It should have full availability of spare parts and skilled technicians for such cars.

Thanks,
RS

I have personally not been there, but have heard good things about Ignite garage which is on ECR just before the turn off to the ECR-OMR link road. Maybe you can try that?

Team BHP Link: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/chenna...e-chennai.html

[karts]

Originally Posted by ronline

Hi,

The company estimate for Rapid is 15L which means they're obviously not in the mood to actually inspect each and every part and fix it only if required.
Thanks,
RS

I fail to understand, how can the cost estimate be more than the value of brand new car even if they want to replace everything. Did you verify the quotation yourself? And with what in mind are they even quoting you such numbers which anyway you wont be convinced to get repaired.

[ronline]

I've seen the quote and they're saying its the company provided cost of parts. So its true that Sum(Spares Cost) > New Car Cost.

Costliest item is the 6-speed AT box which is 4.2L which has not been checked if its really damaged.

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by karts

I fail to understand, how can the cost estimate be more than the value of brand new car even if they want to replace everything. Did you verify the quotation yourself? And with what in mind are they even quoting you such numbers which anyway you wont be convinced to get repaired.

Sum of parts costs will always be greater than that of the car - you have to factor in things like shipping, storage, packaging, & other overheads

and to add to that the labour cost of putting together a car on an assembly line using specialized labour and tools in some remote location is the fraction of the labour cost requried to take it apart, troubleshoot, and fit it back together in a service centre in the city

[D C]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

recovery of flooded Polo.

I'm shocked that, in this country, a write off means, to the insurers, that when and if they sell the remains, then only the customer gets the money. I'd like to see those guys try doing business anywhere else in the world.

Originally Posted by GTO

I wasn't aware of this - what a bunch of rogues.

Originally Posted by speedmiester

This is not true. Once the car is declared total loss, the owner has to handover the documents to the insurer and get the IDV of the car in return. It is the insurer's headache to dispose off the car. They cannot delay the payment of IDV to the customer.

Take the matter to the higher ups in the insurance company marking a copy to the IRDA.

Completely agree with speedmiester. We have a recent experience where my Uncle's car was declared a total loss. He has to get the RC cancelled from the RTO and send the documents to the insurance company to get the payment. The payment was received in less then a month from the time the documents are submitted. It was a Zen insured with New India Assurance.

[Aceman82]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Sad to know that your Fiat car has been declared as total loss.

Before you tow the vehicle back to your place, please take in writing
1) From Insurance co, that the car is declared as total loss and the amount + time plan by when the claim would be settled in full.
2) Approval from Insurance co that the car can be kept at your place in view of lack of space at the garage + additional charges levied by garage which can be saved.

You don't want any surprises later from the Insurance co accusing you of self made total loss case.

Thank you.

I informed the same to Bharathi-Axa and they have sent a mail stating that the car (Linea) has been declared as total loss based the survey done at Ramkay Fiat and that i could tow it back my garage to wait for scrap dealers for saving on garage parking fees.

The timelines they are giving is around 20 days for the entire process to get over. As of now Bharati-Axa seems to be quite responsive and pleasant to deal with.

I got my nano repaired with my trusted local mechanic and it costed around 15k including new AC motor, Starter motor, all fluids and lot of minor things.At-least I have a car till things settle down and insurance claim is fully processed.

Edit: They have not said the final amount yet and will update once I get the inputs. The IDV is 7.2 Lakhs with Zero Dep cover.

[sukarsan]

Originally Posted by karts

I fail to understand, how can the cost estimate be more than the value of brand new car even if they want to replace everything. Did you verify the quotation yourself? And with what in mind are they even quoting you such numbers which anyway you wont be convinced to get repaired.

Cost of spares can be upto 3 -4 times the cost of factory fitted parts. Common industry practise not only in automotive , but also with any mass manufactured item. Same with computers and laptops.

[polopm]

My Vento was inspected by TVS and I have a repair estimate of Rs. 17.99 lakhs. I asked him if it was for a Jetta or a Vento and the guy says that's for the VENTO TDI HL. OMG.
He charged me 7500 Rs for preparing the estimate and a quick enquiry showed this practice is there everywhere.

I am not able to open my car as the door seems jammed and can now see tadpoles becoming frogs inside my car. That is a bit terrible.

Now its in the hands of M/S Bajaj Allianze.

[ronline]

Hi polopm,

Are you considering taking any 2nd/3rd opinion of an outside garage?

Thanks,
RS

Originally Posted by polopm

My Vento was inspected by TVS and I have a repair estimate of Rs. 17.99 lakhs. I asked him if it was for a Jetta or a Vento and the guy says that's for the VENTO TDI HL. OMG.
He charged me 7500 Rs for preparing the estimate and a quick enquiry showed this practice is there everywhere.

I am not able to open my car as the door seems jammed and can now see tadpoles becoming frogs inside my car. That is a bit terrible.

Now its in the hands of M/S Bajaj Allianze.

[Thad E Ginathom]

My experience with my Polo says, If VW can't repair these cars because they can't get the electronics, that means that a dead ECU means a dead car... whether it is six months or six years old.

Why would we buy these cars?

[humyum]

Originally Posted by polopm

My Vento was inspected by TVS and I have a repair estimate of Rs. 17.99 lakhs. I asked him if it was for a Jetta or a Vento and the guy says that's for the VENTO TDI HL. OMG.
He charged me 7500 Rs for preparing the estimate and a quick enquiry showed this practice is there everywhere.

I am not able to open my car as the door seems jammed and can now see tadpoles becoming frogs inside my car. That is a bit terrible.

Now its in the hands of M/S Bajaj Allianze.

How can the repair cost be more than the cost of the car ? Let's assume they want to replace the entire engine, entire gearbox, entire ECU, would that still make it upto 18 lakhs ? These things don't need replacement, but I am just assuming if say they can't be bothered to try and fix anything and want to replace everything.

Don't know who is smoking what but this clearly looks like they telling you 'We won't fix it, we can't be bothered to fix it, so I am giving you a quote which will make you ask us not to fix it'.

Okay, Since there are lots of you guys from Chennai who have their cars submerged till Bonnet, Top, Gear Level etc levels, let me give a little explanation about how some of you might be getting conned into declaring your car as total losses.

Whatever the level of the water that has entered your car, unless you have not started it, it's fixable, more so in case of petrol cars.

- First step would be tow it to the service station.

For Petrol Cars:

- If the water level has been more than the intake of the airfilter, ask them to drain the oil, remove the oil sump, open the head and blow dry everything and keep it open for a day or two for everything to dry. Again Blow dry it the next day to remove muck if any which is still present. Manually insert some oil in the combustion chamber between the cylinder and piston and move it up and down just to make sure no muck or water still remains in between.

3) Similarly, dismantle the gearbox, remove all the gearbox oil and blow dry it. At the same time, remove the clutch assembly and let it dry too otherwise the pressure plate will stick during operation and gears won't change. The release bearing if remained in the water for too long must be

4) Injectors would need to be cleaned too, Service stations have an injector cleaner. Same for spark plugs, clean or replace. Whatever the situation demands.

4) While doing all this, if the ECU too was underwater, it should be blow dried and kept out in the sun to dry itself. Hopefully it will fire back.

5) Remove dashboard and get it cleaned, if it was above the level of the dashboard. Also usually the cabin fan motor is at the footwell of the front passenger. Open that, remove water from that and let it dry.

6) Get the brake cleaned and brake oil replaced. Clutch oil too if its a hydraulic clutch. The brake pads should be fine as long as they din't come in contact with oily contents, then they will need replacement too.

7) Now you should be ready to start the car. If all goes all. It should puur back to life. Run it around for a few kilometers, take it back to the service station and change the engine oil and gearbox oil again.

Now it should hopefully run as good as new. When you are done with all this. Go for a highway drive of 100 kilometers around. Rev it, gun it, check if there is any coughing or abnormal hickups in rpm rise. Change the gears and see if they are downshifting, upshifting properly. If the clutch judders initially, its all right, by the time your 100 kilometer drive is over, it will stop juddering. Gears too might seem a little tight initially, but over the duration of the drive, they should ease up.

Diesel -

Things get a little complicated here, but nothing to fret. The turbo should have taken in water and I would assume, that because of the tight tolerances in the bearing, it is unsalvagable. So mostly you are looking at a turbo replacement if the water did get into it or if the water level did rise to the level of the turbo.

Opening the head and perform the same procedure as I had mentioned for the petrol car.

I am thinking, the service stations are giving such big quotes for cars which have not been attempted to start too just because they don't want to go through the hassle of all this long procedures for each car. It's not that these cars can't be fixed, its just that the service stations can't be bothered to fix them.

PS: I have assumed that whoever is reading this will be replacing the airfilter, fuel filter, AC filter and consumables anyway, so have not mentioned these tine tiny things.

[sukarsan]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

dead ECU means a dead car... whether it is six months or six years old.

Why would we buy these cars?

Welcome to the future. Everything will soon be inter connected and everything will be complex. I heard there are cars which are having upto 5 ecu( engine, vehicle, abs, esp, steering, T/M)...and am not talking of merc... Regular cars... As long as nothing goes wrong it's all good... Once something goes wrong, it all goes for a toss. ECU ,once shorted due to water entry, is a brick. The ABS ecu I guess sinks first and are never water proof.

Lower end models, particularly those cars made for India, have a better chance for survival in such cases. Fewer electronics means less re work and better chances for revival.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by humyum

Whatever the level of the water that has entered your car ... it's fixable

Originally Posted by sukarsan

... Once something goes wrong, it all goes for a toss. ECU ,once shorted due to water entry, is a brick.

And that's the problem. So It's fixable if the necessary spares are available.

And they are not. And VW is not even prepared to fill a container in Europe and say, give us a couple of months.

[virage]

Hi,
Could anyone tell me, what exactly happens if the cars are going to sold to a scrap dealer.
Are these cars gonna be put back on the road?
Is that possible? ( can the reinsure it?)
Can the owner take the car back by paying the salvage value himself ?( by offering to match the highest bidder)
I have this feeling that there are a lot of deals going on behind our backs. My car was declared a loss without a service center estimate. I'm pretty sure I can get a better deal if I scrap the car myself.

[Aceman82]

Originally Posted by polopm

My Vento was inspected by TVS and I have a repair estimate of Rs. 17.99 lakhs. I asked him if it was for a Jetta or a Vento and the guy says that's for the VENTO TDI HL. OMG.
He charged me 7500 Rs for preparing the estimate and a quick enquiry showed this practice is there everywhere.

I am not able to open my car as the door seems jammed and can now see tadpoles becoming frogs inside my car. That is a bit terrible.

Now its in the hands of M/S Bajaj Allianze.

For my Fiat I was not charged anything for preparing the estimate or for parking. I got a zero bill only. I guess Ramkay Fiat is one of the better dealers in Chennai.