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-   -   Authorised Service Centre or Independent Garage (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/13297-authorised-service-centre-independent-garage.html)

Hey there Team-bhpians. When servicing your car, where would you go? An Authorised service centre or an independant garage? Would love to know about your experience at both.

Drifter

While the car is under warranty its definitely The ASC. The bigger the dealer , better his capacity to stock a wide range of spares parts. His infrastructure to procure parts from the Company is also stream lined. All warranty parts are replaced by the dealer at his cost first, later after scrutiny of the damaged part the amount is reimbursed to them. Sometimes it takes them upto 3 months to recover their cost. So I stongly recommend that you take the car to ASC during this period as Smaller Dealers would not like to invest time and money on expensive Spares.

Other than what is stated above I personally feel that other reputed Garages are as good, provided they use Genuine Spare Parts bought from the main dealer. In fact there are few private Garages that have better facilities, special Tools & man power to do a far better job. Many a times they may even repair the damaged part while the ASC would just blindly replace it. I think if you have the basic elementary knowledge then one can use his discretion and decide who is better for that particular problem or situation.

One thing is sure that the private garage would deliver your vehicle much faster Post-repairs.

So long....

Thanks Varun. Common people...surely there must be some enthusiasm. For what sort of jobs would you rather go 'Pappu' the local mechanic and when would you take the car to the ASC.

For example...dare i say what if you own a merc...would you even think about getting it serviced outside?

Drifter

It depends on which dealer you buy the car from, and which company the car is from.

If it is a not-well-known dealer who does not have a proper service center, or if it is company who is knwon for it's high spare parts prices, then I guess one should go to a good established outside mechanic who will get parts for them at reasonable prices and do clean and proper work in time.

But dont we shell out unnecessary amount of money at an authorised place? I've had quality work done on my car from the local garaga at almost half of what it would have cost me at the ASC.

Drifter

I have the Honda City ZX Vtec.
For general washing and cleaning, I go to the local garage. When the work is major, like a couple of months back when I had to fill her up at the highway and got adultrated fuel, I took my car the to ASC to get the injectors checked and cleaned. Although they didnt do anything about it and just asked me to burn the adultrated fuel and fill her up again, it was the local garage guy who asked me to put Injector cleaner to tackle the problem. And then another local garage people tuned my car.
What my experiance has taught me is, till your car is under the warrenty and you have the free services left, go to the ASC first. If they cannot help you out, take it to a reputed local garage.

Exactly...

It seems the ASCs are out to make a big buck, while the local garage is the one that is better able to help you out.

Drifter

Depends really on how well maintained and equiped the stand alone garages are.. I used to stick to ASC's but now i have found someone in Pune who does an even better job than the ASC's.. I wud stick to ASC's till the warranty period existed after that I wud choose to shift..
Cheerssss

At 32000 Km service I had the front wheel bearings of my Sumo Victa GX TC greased at Manipal Motors. They charged me Rs. 500 for Labour alone. I carried my own grease, petrol for cleaning the bearings, White fluff free cloth for wiping. The entire job took just one hour. The same job would have cost me 100 bucks at my fovourite Garage. My bad luck, the vehicle is under warranty.

So long....

its very simple
if you have lots of dough authorised dealer where labour cost is more than spare parts, if the dough is limited the local garage of course.
this is practice followed world over.
and if ur car is company owned then asc is better option.
u certainly cant get critical jobs like chassis jobs done at "pappu" garage in that case its only the asc.

My axles have almost packed up...the showroom says it will cost 26000 bucks. Yikes! What do you guys suggest...should i get it done outside?

Drifter

nice topic drifter

i personally feel that till the car is under warranty it is a good option to prefer ASC but the local garages where you can build up a good rapport would be a better option to get minor repairs and washing done.

the major difference between the charges of ASC and local garages is becoz ASC are bound by all kind of taxes like VAT and service tax which increases the cost of labour and parts together by 25 %. the local garages do not fall into the service tax till they are below certain amount in their turnover. secondly they are bound to charge you for the parts along with the sales tax but that will not include high amount of profit like the asc's have while using spares procured from their own manufacturers.

also in case of accidental repairs asc's have these exhorbitant charges and as far as i have experienced they have minimum profit of 100% in these kind of repairs.

if you find a good local workshop who are good at denting painting jobs, who use good paints and have manpower who will do decent jobs then they would prove to be quite cost effective in comparision with ASC's

i feel that asc's or local workshops can give equal amount of quality service if you know how to handle them.

Shubbhi

Complicated electronics and computers on modern cars means you have to unfortunately go to an ASC otherwise you are inviting trouble in the long run

v.nice topic fm u dear drifter.Most of ASC charge on time consumed in your car and my experence in long run is ASCs always cheaper than other garages.So I vote of ASCs.In MUL dealer will cost u more than ASC(on time consumed)so I always take my car to MASS rather than the Dealer fm whom I have purchased it.

Hyundai Service is quite good Drifter. If you are satisfied with their service till now , I see no point in going outside unless its the M factor.


:OT - You are driving to Goa on almost packed up axles ?? :Shockked: