Quote:
Originally Posted by rr_zen Sorry to hear about the mishap. I fully understand what you would have gone through and glad that you chose to retain the car. |
Thanks rr_zen, it was sheer mental agony and am glad too that I chose to retain the car.
Meanwhile, the Civic zoomed past 60,000 km mark a couple of weeks back and, quite fittingly, the milestone was reached while on a long drive in NH 45 (Chennai-Trichy Highway). After all, that's the road in which this car has experienced everything in its time with me.
I got the 60K service done in January when the odometer read 56,970. Apart from all the regulars (Engine Oil, Air Filter & Oil Filter), I had also asked them to rotate the tyres, align the wheels, replace the wiper blades and repaint the running board which got damaged when a speeding biker came and hit the car in an intersection. On his part, the service advisor recommended AC disinfection, battery check and interior cleaning for which I obliged. The total service cost was INR 13,042.
I had also asked for replacement of the remote key as the existing one stopped working after the casing developed a crack. Unfortunately, the part wasn't in stock and the dealership couldn't get one despite me asking them to place an order a week before the car went for service. It highlighted a problem that will probably haunt Civic owners across India, I thought then. It turned out to be true, atleast in my case. Most parts are not stocked and the dealership wants us to come back to get them fixed. Over the last 6 months or so, I have got this response from the dealership on several occasions for the following parts - Brake Pads, Wiper Blades, Mirror Assy and Evaporator Coil. More on this later.
When the car came back after service, the AC didn't work. I raised a complaint immediately and said that I didn't have any problem prior to that. The dealership feigned ignorance and suspected a problem with the evaporator coil. The same thing happened once before but it turned out to be a problem with the relay, which I wanted to be checked first. This time though, the AC wasn't working even after replacing the relay with one taken from another Civic. Unsurprisingly, the part wasn't in stock and the dealership quoted approximately INR 22,000 and 10-15 days for the evaporator coil. Since I had a long drive planned shortly afterwards, I scouted the other dealerships in Chennai and the open market. Finally, I managed to source a Keihin evaporator coil (against the OE Denso part) in two days just less than half the quoted price.
The service advisor agreed to install it as they couldn't source the part in time for my scheduled long drive. They charged INR 2900 including taxes for the labour involved. In the meantime, the remote key was also available and I was charged around INR 6600 for that.
To summarize, I spent around INR 32,000 to bring the Civic back to its good old self at the 60K km mark.