Team-BHP - Days of the mechanic over?

How often have you gone to a company service station and asked for something to be repaired and the standard answer is - the part has to be replaced! It is annoying and at times frustrating that auto vendors are driving this mentality and making more money by not providing spare parts for minor things that go bad often. Examples

1. Recently a motorcyclist hit my side view mirror and the mirror came off and broke. Took it to a maruti service station and they said - change the mirror fitting (including the motorized adjustment et al though it works fine). Cant seem to get just the mirror!

2. My car cleaner yanked at the door handle and the spring came off - same story - the whole handle has to be replaced.

With insurance coverage these days, the service centres are also encouraging this as they get more revenue.

Frustrating!!!

You don't (often) get the parts in open market. If you get it then outside/roadside mechanics are not competent enough (again often) to do the job properly.

Most of the service stations don't advice repairing..unless it's body dents and such.

part of the reason is also inventory management and supplier efficiency. If the RVM unit has 9 sub-parts, it may be inefficient/more expensive to stock those vs a few complete units. Also, a different vendor may be supplying the unit from time to time and it may be designed to fit as a 'black box' with possible changes in the assembly details within the unit.

That said, Whitefield Honda once asked me to replace the rim - almost 2k incl labour - for the tiniest of bends in the rim. I said I assumed their OEM was good quality material and the 'centimeter wide' bend could be trvially hammered back into shape - they said no sir it can't be done. When I asked them to leave it as is so I could get it done elsewhere - they did it - at no cost - and you wouldn't be able to say where the bend had been! Had I not insisted I'd be needlessly poorer by 2K and helped LN mittal or Tisco in the process, one way or the other :)

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Quote:

Originally Posted by rangaraj

1. Recently a motorcyclist hit my side view mirror and the mirror came off and broke. Took it to a maruti service station and they said - change the mirror fitting (including the motorized adjustment et al though it works fine). Cant seem to get just the mirror! quote]

The original Tata Outer Rear view Mirrors ( without the body and the mechanism ) of the Tata Indicas are available as an individual unit. Thats really great. However these are not yet available for the Safaris or the Top end Victas.

@soccer: nope, the ORVM inner units ARE available as individual units; well, at least for the safari. don't know about the sumo, though.

@rangaraj: well sir, i'm assuming you have the baleno vxi, as it's the only model from the maruti stables to sport power mirrors other than the vitara. but if my memory serves me right,the inner units for the power mirrors ARE available as separate units. i suggest you check the spares market for availability, if they aren't available at the maruti ASS.

and as for the original topic; well, i do not think so. there are some pretty good mechanics out there who do their job efficiently, but most of them do not work at the ASS's, that's all....

Quote:

Originally Posted by rangaraj

I have been lucky twice with my Siena...when the motorcyclists brushed it..

The Side View Mirror just folded in & the Mirror flew into my lap lol:
Just paste the Mirror back into the Slot with some QuickFix !!

I guess this mechanism is quite a good one..else replacing the entire Motorized adjustment is quite expensive

Something similar happened to our Accord and Palio.
In the accord, our a.c. vent broke and we had to replace the whole centre console at 16K.
In the Palio, it was hit by a bike and the tail lamp got chipped a bit and we had to get the full thing replaced by the Fiat people wheras from outside they were only going to replace the cover.