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-   -   FIAT Workshop - Gowri Automobiles (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/bangalore/84257-fiat-workshop-gowri-automobiles.html)

Services offerred :

• Servicing and repair of all FIAT vehicles (except Punto and Linea)
• Bodywork, tinkering and Painting
• Has good stock of spare parts and can arrange some with minimal idle time

What I like:

• Immense knowledge of all FIAT cars except Punto and Linea. Have seen and met customers who have been coming to the owner Venkatesh since decades. His workshop is new but he has 2 decades of experience with another workshop Hariprasad motors
• Down to earth, sincere team and honest.
• Works with the customers to identify root causes of issues and tries his best to solve them
• Has this knack arranging the infamous FIAT spare parts out of the blue. This speaks volumes of his network
• Have been visiting him for a year now and have never been disappointed

What I don't like:

• Expensive
• Car washing not of good quality
• His workshop was an ex-cowshed:D. It still smells like one.

Pricing: Expensive compared to to T.A.S.S but with no better options, have been sticking to him

Speciality / USP: Builds an immediate rapport with the car owner and tries to understand the crux of the issue. Amount spent on understanding the issue is laudable. Always insists on a test drive before and after problem fixing to understand if the solution is having its effect or not. Very honest and quite knowledgable on FIAT cars.

What I have used his services for : Servicing, accidental repair, body work and painting, routine inspections, battery issues, radiator fan issues, Timing belt adjustments.

Contact Information

- Name of the contact person: Venkatesh
- Phone numbers: 9379192193(old,probably not working), 9900779333 (new)
- Location

I can vouch for him! A Good FIAT Mechanic. The first person to even acknowledge there was a problem with my car! That turned out to be big, messy issue which is for another thread. The point being, a reliable guy to turn to if you own a FIAT and couldn't stand the TASS.
Also, like JVH mentioned, his workshop is a cowshed and doesn't seem like he going to know much about cars :) but looks can e deceptive and he does know a lot about cars! A bit expensive though.

JVH Sir, I didn't know he did Painting/Tinkering too. How was your experience with this? Please let know.

Plz don't call me Sir! Am not that old :)

For Body work and Tinkering, the results are available in the ownership thread of mine

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...78000-kms.html

He has his old contacts for Body work and electrical stuff. So, he invites his buddies and gets the job done.

agree: with whatever JVH said in his first post.
He is very much experienced with FIAT Palio mechanicals.

A brief about my service with him:

+ves:
-Immense knowledge of Palio mechanicals

-ves:
-Not sure about electrical
- Higher labour charges
- Garage still smells like cowshed

I also vouch for all mechanical knowledge that Venkatesh has on FIAT Palio.

I’ve given one my Palio 1.6 Sports for A/C service. One TA** said that estimation of around 10000/- to plug the leakage, as visually they said, they could not find any leakage externally (under bonnet), so the leakage must be inside and dashboard has to be removed. Since I was not ready to spend that much amount kept postponing and finally read JVH’s recommendation, then gave it to Venkatesh.

Along with this I’ve asked to fix other things too (which no one (2 TASS, 1 independent workshop) else were able to fix).
- Rattling noises
- Noise in RF whenever wheel went over potholes (metal sound)
- About removing a dent on the back

Everything JVH posted about Venkatesh turned out to be true and he is the best in mechanical things, but unsure about car electronics.

For A/C leakage, he said, first he will fill the nitrogen gas to check any leakage and then only they will look for the possibility of leakage in the dashboard. By this way he said, he found the leakage in a A/C pipe located near the radiator. Voila, after fixing this, everything is working so perfectly and now-a-days it is chilling inside the cabin whenever A/C is switched ON.

About the rattling noises, he said, he did the door settings for all four doors, voila the rattling noises gone.

About the noise at RF wheel well, he said in the beginning that, the plate that holds the brake pads was broken, and because of which the noise is coming. This turned out to be true, where in he replaced this broken plate and also the brake caliper pins (the previous service they did was to put a black-tape instead of the rubbery material. So, replaced all the brake caliper pins.

During testing of the A/C, Venkatesh pointed out that battery is weak and car did not start. I told him to charge the battery and he did the same. But he could not point out that battery was not charging. If he could have told me about battery not charging, I’d have arranged to give it for service. Because of this, lot of painful things happened, that lead to purchasing of new battery, alternator overhaul etc...

Removing of dent, he was so confident of it and it turned out to be true, where as TASS and other service station were saying that after tinkering it has to be painted. Venkatesh said, if it is a factory painted, then paint will not break and now the car’s back is back to its original days..

Cost breakup:
A/C gas filling – 1500
A/C pipe – 1800
Brake caliper – 950
Brake plate – 450
Labour – 1300

Total came upto: 6000/-

@Mahadev - Its because of him that I'll not sell the GTX and upgrade any sooner. As long as we can avail his services, we should have no issues with our cars.

The other thing about him is that he's not best in articulating and suggesting you something in totality. You need to fire questions at him, ask him about every detail of why he is doing it and after the job ask him to show and demonstrate what he has done. We just need to find out a way to extract information from him.

I am not from Bangalore, neither do I own a Palio, but boy am I glad to read about this guy. In this day and age, it is so hard to find people "really" good at anything they do.
I also appreciate the fact that you took the time out to recommend this fellow.

No Sweat:). In fact, would like to thank the forum for dedicating a section for this topic which can help many people who are fed up with A.S.S.

Would need his services for my palio for the 90K service.

Will pay him a visit during the weekend to find a suitable time and date

Photos will show the dent that is fixed. Very good job indeed without any cost from Venkatesh.clap:

My Palio is due for service too. Also, it has been long since I visited "food street".

Is this garage a good place to get the timing belt, aux belts & idler bearing replaced? I am assuming that changing these parts would call for specialized tools and would he have access to those?

Also, would he be able to source these spare parts of do we have to hunt for them at TASS and hand it over to him?

My 1.6 S10 is approaching 59K and am planning to do a preventive maintenance at 60K by replacing all these.

Considering the good reviews, I am tempted to try him out -- though the concorde mysore road TASS is just 1 KM from my office and Green Tracks is just 2 KMs from my home.

Where do you usually service your Palio. Is it Mysore road Concorde.? It is better you give them a miss. The SA there, Ranjeeth shetty is a nincompoop and utter disregard to the way he handles the cars there.

I usually will be present the whole day when my Safari gets serviced there and I'm witness to many of their antics . (Safari service engineers and SA is lot better). I have few incidents which I have witnessed and it would be OT to discuss in this thread.

So even I'm planning to get my palio serviced at Gowri Auto.

Venkatesh has the tools, skills and the manpower for the above jobs. Though I haven't got the above replaced from him, one of my friends on my recommendation has got the replacements successfully done through him.

Yes, he can source the parts. Normally his lead time to source is anywhere between 4-6 days (based on my experience with him so far). If its getting delayed, he'll tell you well in advance.

He's good mechanic and a judge for the Palios. Rest assured, he will proved a good assessment for your car once he peaks through the bonnet and test drives it.

I haven't tried Concorde motors, mysore road for servicing but my experience in dealing with spare parts and test drives for Linea and Punto haven't been pleasant. I have tried Greentracks once. Compared to Babu or any other service advisor over there, I can confidently say that Venkatesh is 100 times better.

I'll once again state a disclaimer as I have been telling everyone who has been contacting me regarding him because the first timers will be surprised visiting him after they have seen relatively better service centers. His garage is very humble and reminds of the old workshops which housed the old FIATS and the Ambys. In mechanical jobs and repairs, he can get everything done at this garage. For electrical and A/C related work, he takes it to an acquaintence not very far. About 5 mins drive. For Body work, he again gets it done through his acquaintence at his garage.

But overall, he gets the job done and upto your satisfaction and I think thats what matters at the end of the day.

I would like to know how much expensive?

For example, TASS has quoted Rs.1000/- for repairing a scratch in my car front bumper. How much would Venkatesh quote?

One can never know until one sees this particular scratch.

In terms of paid labour for servicing, he charges Rs. 1200. I've noticed that he's atleast Rs. 100-200 more expensive than the others in various jobs. Others can chip in with their experiences.