[chakri400]

Glad to know the service was to your satisfaction. Do you mind sharing your bill amounts?
I have a good list of things to get done - I am just procrastinating, reluctant to shell that kind of money

[sandeepmohan]

Adding to this but this is a garage you have to be very careful with. If you have a unlimited budget to fix a problem in your car, then you can go here. Located on Stephens Road in Frazer Town. The garage does not really have a name. The person who runs it is Mr. Masood. A very polished gentleman but is supposed to be knowledgeable. A lot of cars come here. Ranging from a Fiat Palio to older BMW's and Land Rovers. To identify the place, assuming you are travelling from MM Road and then taking a left on to Stephens Road near Bangalore East railway station. Head down Stephens Road and the garage comes on the right just before you reach a tiny round about. The garage doors are painted dark green and it is a part of a independent house.

I was introduced to this place when a good friend and colleague picked up a used silver Fiat Palio Gtx. The first owner, a well to do architect advised my friend to maintain the car with Mr. Masood as the car has always been attended by him and he is more capable that any TASS. I will not doubt this as the Fiat my friend bought was immaculate. However; I noticed this place to be very expensive. Every time my friend gave in his car for service, he would end up with a bill no less than 10k and part replacements were taking place before there was ever a need for it. My friend and I fell for Mr. Masoods smooth talking nature and said knowledge and experience. We liked the guy without realizing we were being ripped off. The car ran without a hitch though.

I took my car, then a Ford Ikon 1.6 to Mr. Masood to get a kink fixed on the front fender. I was given a bill for 15k. It should have cost no more than 7K in my opinion. I paid and left having decided not to go there ever again.

Now, when you see the garage, its all nice and clean. There is just core mechanic who does all the work and Mr. Masood over sees things. I doubt if he ever gets his hands dirty.

Another colleague who wanted more power out of his 1.2l Punto took his car there. It was my mistake. I pushed him there and finally, he got ripped off too. Mr. Masood claimed he could get the Punto to deliver better power with a small ecu tweak. We were not expecting day and night performance but something that can be felt. Around 15k went down the drain and the Punto felt totally stock. So there you go.

I won't rule out this garage's capabilities. When I got the dent fixed on my car, it was done really well and my friends Palio ran beautifully. All I can say is, be careful with the man running it. He talks so well that you will fall for it and then be slapped with a expensive service bill.

[mahadev_kc]

Hi,

My Palio 1.6 Sports ran 65Kkms and has not been serviced from last year.
Gave it to Venkatesh for service for the following:

* timing belt replacement
* general service
* ratteling fixing
* lubrication for gear smooth

Venkatesh is now recovered from his leg issue. Good to see him hands-on on the Palio.

Regards,
Mahadev

[mahadev_kc]

Originally Posted by mahadev_kc

Hi,

My Palio 1.6 Sports ran 65Kkms and has not been serviced from last year.
Gave it to Venkatesh for service for the following:

Regards,
Mahadev

Serviced vehicle delivered on Sunday with all the issues fixed. Total bill came upto 12K.

Included were:
* timing belt and bearing change (itself cost around 8K including labour)
* general service (engine oil change + coolant change + other issues fixed)
* minor issues (which later known as loose connections for rear-windows, headlamps) are all fixed.
* engine oil put is WURTH 20W40, as I could not source Castrol Magnatec 10W40. Though the spec says 15W40 to be put in Palio 1.6.

It was a nice experience after a long time, as pick-up has been improved, gears are smooth, clutch is smooth, no rattes...

Since my running these days is less, I intend to service once in a year to save some money

[ravikn]

Dear All,

I wanted to share my latest experience with GTX.

The car started emitting lot of black smoke while running at low rpms and fuel efficiency dropped to 5kmpl in city limits.
I took the car to Gowri Automobiles(venkatesh) and explained him the problem. As the first set, he checked lambda sensor and car started behaving normal (no smoke from exhaust)
However, within another 200km round trip, the problem started again,
Took it to him, he replaced something called fuel return valve and told me it is fine.
It looked alright when I took the delivery but within couple of days the problem cropped up again
I was really loosing my patience but asked him to fix it properly.

This time he checked all the sensors and also cleaned up and refitted the MAP sensor and Throttle body.
To my bad luck, even this could not fix the issue as car started emitting black smoke again within 2 days.

This whole process has taken about 2-3 weeks of time and I did not want to give up considering the knowledge that we all have on FIATs.
This time, he too was frustrated and asked me to leave the car for couple of days with him in the garage as it was challenging him in terms of his technical competency.
This morning I got the call from him saying the car is ready and went to do a test drive.

To my joy, the car is back in immaculate condition.
There is absolutely no black smoke and idling is rock study and at 800rpm. I can hit the 5000rpm within 5-6 seconds in the lower gears easily now. and the pick-up is fantastic.
Thanked him to have fixed my car perfectly.

The total cost of repairs: 3500 INR (Labor + for fuel return valve as what he calls)

I have always had a good experience with him so far. This was an exception in the tenure of 9 years of my car service with him.
He took it as a challenge and brought my car to glory with his experience in FIATs.

I'm happy for one simple thing. He did not ask me to go and get any new parts. He was ready to spend his time to analyse and try to isolate the problem by taking one part at a time and fix it.
However, I had the patience as well as trust in him that he can fix this problem.
If I had taken my car to anywhere else, donno might have got ripped for 10-30K INR depending on the list of parts to be replaced.

Will post my experience after a long drive this weekend. planning to take my love for spin on National Highway

[TorqueyTechie]

Updating this old thread. I recently gave my car (Palio Stile) for service to Venkatesh. Happy with the outcome. I have shared my experience in my ownership thread here. Suffice to say that my car will be regularly serviced from him going forward.

[JVH]

Originally Posted by TorqueyTechie

Updating this old thread. I recently gave my car (Palio Stile) for service to Venkatesh. Happy with the outcome. I have shared my experience in my ownership thread here. Suffice to say that my car will be regularly serviced from him going forward.

Great to hear. Is Venkatesh still around the VV Puram area? I lost his number sometime back. Would love to pay a visit.