[Mudhalaipatti]

Pedalpoint, did your car come with the synthetic oil or mineral oil ?
If it was synthetic oil, any reason why the A$$ would change it to mineral ?

[Jaggu]

I voted yes, ofcourse service is getting costlier for all cars including MUL. MUL labor rates are higher than Toyota is what i have seen in the recent past. But having said that its still is one of the cheapest too.

General service charge: 1150 . Some 12 point check up. Is this usual across all service stations?

Yup pretty much standard

Brake cleaning: 850. He insists that maruti has advised them to do this every 5000 KMS even though the manual does not recommend. Is this true?

This is not necessary every 5k, stick to 10k kms which is more than enough, unless you feel your brakes are weak or acting funny

A/C Vent cleaning: 650. For vent cleaning, why am i charged 650 Rs?

Fleecing

Misc: 150

Now he says that he wants to re-calibrate the injectors and will cost some 1500 Rs more. I just did a quick check up here in the long term DDiS reports and none of them seem to have done a re-calibration during their service. So i asked him not to do it. Is this something that has to be done at 30K service?

EGR has nothing to do with injector recalibration. Unless there is an issue with injectors or they are replaced/repaired.

EGR at exhaust end and injectors at inlet end, so whats the connect??

Gone are the days, where you buy a maruti and stay in peace. Now i have to cross check every item the SA says to make sure if they are not looting me! Where is peace of mind in this?

Yup but if you have a long term garage or SA chances are less that you will get fleeced. Mostly the new customers are the ones who really get fleeced

At the end of the day, costs of everything and anything are going up and business wants ROI. So if you are not well aware, chances are you will be taken for a ride.

[pedalpoint]

Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti

Pedalpoint, did your car come with the synthetic oil or mineral oil ?
If it was synthetic oil, any reason why the A$$ would change it to mineral ?

It was already with mineral oil. He suggested to move to synthetic, but i asked him stick to mineral for now.

Originally Posted by Jaggu

I voted yes, ofcourse service is getting costlier for all cars including MUL. MUL labor rates are higher than Toyota is what i have seen in the recent past. But having said that its still is one of the cheapest too.

...


EGR has nothing to do with injector recalibration. Unless there is an issue with injectors or they are replaced/repaired.

EGR at exhaust end and injectors at inlet end, so whats the connect??



Yup but if you have a long term garage or SA chances are less that you will get fleeced. Mostly the new customers are the ones who really get fleeced

At the end of the day, costs of everything and anything are going up and business wants ROI. So if you are not well aware, chances are you will be taken for a ride.

Yes, there is no connect between these two. Those are on two different notes. He said that there is no need to touch the EGR for now, for which i was ok. But he said that he wanted to re-calibrate the injectors. When i asked him the reason, he started blabbering some nonsense (actual reason is he wanted to fleece). And a quick research also showed that no one in the forum has done that at 30K, so i said no to that.

Hmm yes, as you suggested, I will try to build some long term relationship with a good SA or garage. That would help a lot.

Very true that every business wants ROI, but not at the cost of trust, authenticity and ethics! Every damn service you encounter right from the plumber, auto driver to the high end building contractor is trying to charge you more to make more profit for him. If you are not very vigilant, it is for sure that you will lose your hard earned money for paying some unwanted thing. I will end my rant here, thanks for listening!

[rock75]

I don't know why people should go to a MASS after free service is over. They grossly overcharge, I remember a guy being given an estimate of Rs 10000 for his SX4 while I was there to have some running repair. All routine and infact specialized jobs could be done at a good mechanic in your city at very cheap rates.

When they are charging of service why do they need to charge for coolant replacement? Infact any mechanic will replace all fluids (engine oil plus fuel filter, brake oil, gear oil, coolant, spark plug cleaning etc )in the car for just about Rs 200 or even lower. Just get the washing done at a good place and you are ready to go. Even the consumables are overpriced at MASS.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by rock75

I don't know why people should go to a MASS after free service is over.

Could not agree more. After the free services are over (and importantly the warranty coverage is over), shift to a reliable non-MASS garage, if your MASS is known to confuse service with extortion. Idea is to find someone who knows what he is doing, does not go about changing parts that dont need replacement etc. Not easy, but still possible - I trust Ignite @ Chennai and Gulf Automobiles @ Kerala for our cars.

Following are the scheduled service costs for my 2005 Baleno till date. I stuck with MASS till 5th service and if you notice, the 4th and 5th service cost reasonably low for a car of that segment. I shifted to non-MASS because at 30K service, the SA said I needed to change brake-pads as they have become weak, which was not the feedback I got from the car's braking. And infact the same OE pads do service on the car even today at 67K kms.

1st Free Service at MASS @ 1020kms - Rs.604
2nd Free Service at MASS @ 4218kms - Rs.0
3rd Free Service at MASS @ 9705kms - Rs.634
4th Paid Service at MASS @ 20224kms - Rs.2919
5th Paid Service at MASS @ 30767kms - Rs.2385
6th Paid Service at Elektra @ 38357kms - Rs.4337
7th Paid Service at Ignite @ 50100kms - Rs.3800
8th Paid Service at Ignite @ 60100kms - Rs.4183

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by pedalpoint

Brake cleaning: 850. He insists that maruti has advised them to do this every 5000 KMS even though the manual does not recommend. Is this true?

Originally Posted by Jaggu

This is not necessary every 5k, stick to 10k kms which is more than enough, unless you feel your brakes are weak or acting funny

I got a call from Sai Service Maruti the day before yesterday asking me for the current mileage on the car. I told her that it was just about to touch 35k kms. The customer service person on the other end of the phone asked me to get the car to the service station for "Brake cleaning" and "Clutch setting". I denied reading any of this in the service manual or anywhere else while trying to act dumb about the matter. She continued to persuade me and said it is recommended that brakes are cleaned every 5000 kms and the clutch is set. She went on to say that oil change intervals are 10,000 kms but the aforementioned jobs are compulsory. I said I wasn't interested in getting the brakes cleaned and will call her when I wanted to schedule my next service appointment.

Be careful, there is no such thing as brake cleaning required every 5,000 kms or even at 10,000 kms unless you feel any kind of shudder, squealing from the brakes, lack of bite, etc.

This is a new scam run by the dealers (I feel), to cover up their current losses in sales due to market conditions.

[supremeBaleno]

Apart from the brake/clutch scam that moralfibre mentioned above, the "checkup-at-5000-kms" that all MASS try to push is another big scam. If the car manual says scheduled service is to be done at 10000kms intervals, that is when it needs to be done - no need to have a checkup at 5K kms. The manufacturer knows what is best for the car, not the dealer.

[fiat_tarun]

A friend told me the same thing. They have a Fortuner and a Swift D and both cars have done an identical 55k km, yet the service cost of the Fortuner has been lower than the Swift !

[Trust_In_Thrust]

It is a well known fact Maruti is not cheap to maintain. Also Maruti spares do not last as long as its competitors .
I feel in ownership cost Honda and Toyota are leaders .
Maruti was cheap in old days when it was all carburettor .

[akshay4587]

From what i have heard,Maruti Recommends EGR cleaning every 30K kms for DDIS engine,where as there is no mention of EGR cleaning in Service Schedule for Fiat MJDs,I had a discussion with Service head at Fiat regarding this,and he mentioned that EGR cleaning isnt really required if the car is performing normally without any excessive smoke.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by Trust_In_Thrust

I feel in ownership cost Honda and Toyota are leaders .
Maruti was cheap in old days when it was all carburettor .

Toyota Yes, Honda a big NO. From my experience Hyundai is costliest, next is Honda and then MUL. Cheapest so far has been Toyota but its a brief period right now, but from what i have seen at Nandi they are darn cheap!!

[pedalpoint]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

This is a new scam run by the dealers (I feel), to cover up their current losses in sales due to market conditions.

And they are wickedly smart. They target the most sensitive part in the vehicle, brakes. All of us know that brakes are an important aspect in vehicle safety. So the moment he mentions 'brakes', there is this hesitation going behind my mind (and other's mind too i suppose) to refuse.

Mind voice - "What will i do if brakes fail, we need to keep them in the best condition. Lets not take the risk and accept the brake job". Easy money for them.

Add to it, there is no way we can verify if the mechanic has actually cleaned the brakes

I also overheard a conversation, one SA was proudly claiming that he was responsible for a revenue of 75,000 Rs. today and that he can leave early for the for the day. Are they appraised on the basis on how much revenue they earn for the workshop? Who wouldn't want to fleece an unsuspecting customer and make more money for the workshop thereby increasing his appraisal rating?

One more point, i think the quality of SAs in most of the MASS workshops are dismally poor. The moment i start asking questions, they go silent and transfer me to another SA (who is supposedly good in handling 'probing' type customers) or he simply gives a dumb answer. Recent example

Me: "The manual says that we need to do EGR cleaning at 30K, why?"
SA: "Sir, that is engine decarbonizing, we will do it sir"

[akshay4587]

Originally Posted by pedalpoint

And they are wickedly smart. They target the most sensitive part in the vehicle, brakes. All of us know that brakes are an important aspect in vehicle safety. So the moment he mentions 'brakes', there is this hesitation going behind my mind (and other's mind too i suppose) to refuse.

Mind voice - "What will i do if brakes fail, we need to keep them in the best condition. Lets not take the risk and accept the brake job". Easy money for them.

Add to it, there is no way we can verify if the mechanic has actually cleaned the brakes

I also overheard a conversation, one SA was proudly claiming that he was responsible for a revenue of 75,000 Rs. today and that he can leave early for the for the day. Are they appraised on the basis on how much revenue they earn for the workshop? Who wouldn't want to fleece an unsuspecting customer and make more money for the workshop thereby increasing his appraisal rating?

One more point, i think the quality of SAs in most of the MASS workshops are dismally poor. The moment i start asking questions, they go silent and transfer me to another SA (who is supposedly good in handling 'probing' type customers) or he simply gives a dumb answer. Recent example

Me: "The manual says that we need to do EGR cleaning at 30K, why?"
SA: "Sir, that is engine decarbonizing, we will do it sir"

I know how to handle these people.
Simply tell them,will you follow my instructions or should i go and find another after sales outlet.

[supremeBaleno]

^^^And ensure you clearly cut out all the "crap work" from the job-card before you handover the car to them for service. Esp. the engine-decarbonising, brakes cleaning, clutch-adjust, balancing/alignment (best done at a dedicated tyre shop) etc etc. I infact have them clearly mention on the job-card "No testdrive to be done" since I dont want their inhouse Schumachers to practice dare-devil driving on my car.

And like with every other such situation, it really helps us from being conned if we do proper homework before landing at the MASS.

1) Take time time to look at the manual where they have all the stuff listed for each scheduled service - this will give you an idea of what needs to be replaced (R), what needs to be only inspected (I), or Adjusted (A) or Tightened (T) or Lubricated (L) or Cleaned (C) or Rotated (O) etc. It's all there in the manual without any ambiguity.

2) Apart from this, the night before I am to give the car for service, I remove everything from the car that is not needed - spare-wheel, jack, tools, ICE-facePlate, cash/coins, documents, sunglass.

3) Also, I time the service just before I am due for fuel-up - so fuel would be in reserve (with price of fuel what it is, no point letting them get some free for their cars/bikes courtesy us).

[audioholic]

Agree with Akshay. Whenever my cars go for service, it is me who tells them what they must do. I also give them an estimate and not the vice versa. First time I did it for my SX4, they were acting as if in case we refuse to get all the additional things done my car will break loose sometime. Bluntly refused and stated I will send all my cars to another service center, and after that, till date for both cars, those guys know what kind of a person I am. So they dont play around. I had once written myself on the job cars "No Injector cleaning/decarb/additive" before signing.

I am not sure if I had mentioned here earlier, but my dad was once conned by this method where they will scare you off a weak brake pad. The SA told my dad "Sir the brake pads have worn out very badly, and in this condition if you had gone on a highway drive they would have failed" and my dad immediately agreed for replacement.

It is much apt to say that it is the money hungry dealers who are inventing all ways to fleece customers more than maruti itself. Even if labour rates are hiked by around 10 percent, your bill will change by a few hundreds. But compare it with these additional stuff, which can even double a normal service bill. During the first year service of my wagonR, there were some leaves stuck in the blower. I had told them to clean it up. The SA called me and stated that it would cost me 350 rupees. Gave a good round of lessons to him, called up the TSM. The SA called back after ten minutes and apologised and promised the work would be done. That is just a five minute job involving three screws and a connector. Normal service and spares are still one of the cheapest.