[Quadrant55]

Recently was on the lookout for a good FNG in Hyderabad for my Skoda Yeti. Scoured through multiple TEAM-BHP threads to no avail. So had to do it the hard way, called many garages and visited a few but none convinced me. Almost two weeks later a friend of mine suggested German Motors in L B Nagar. This post is about this FNG.

German Motors

The place is run by Srinivas, a 2007 batch mechanical engineer who has worked at Ford, Volvo and VW before starting German Motors in 2012. They have two branches, one in Mansoorabad near KBR Convention and the second one in Nagole behind Nexa Showroom (I visited this one).
It was pouring when I visited

I stayed at the garage from 11 am to almost 9:30pm on the first day and spent another couple of hours on the second day as my vehicle was getting fixed. During this time the garage had an assortment of cars being worked on, barring one or two Hondas most of them are from German car stable. Most of the things that these German ASC’s say can’t be repaired and only replaced were being repaired here. There were a couple of Skodas(a Rapid and a Laura L&K) getting their DSGs repaired, a BMW 320d was waiting for some EGR parts, An Audi was getting some coding work done, some Mercs and BMWs were waiting to be checked. And then there a few VWs(Polos, Ventos and the lot) getting there general service done and moving on. There was a continuous stream of cars coming in with small niggles like side view mirrors not working etc. Most of these get replaced at ASCs but here there are being repaired and sent on their way for probably 1/10th the cost.

Waiting to be fixed


The garage uses/sources largely OEM parts. They have stock of most fast-moving items – filters, lubs - 5w40, 0w40 oils, ZF DCT fluid et al. And the rest are sourced within a short time.

The coolant of choice for VAG cars

To my pleasant surprise they even had G12 Evo coolant in stock. And that is something I had not seen in any garage, most stock Castrol, Golden Cruiser or Hella.G12 Evo is easily available online on Boodmo or Gomechanic, sometimes even on Amazon but in physical stores it is never available. I have some personal experience with this because I visited multiple stores in GP Road, Chennai and Afzal Gunj, Hyderabad to purchase G12 but had to return empty handed every time.

My Experience

As soon as I entered the workshop Srinivas greeted me and took the car out for a spin. He listed most of the issues he encountered by the time we finished the ride. And then once we were back, he connected his tab via the OBD and ran a complete scan. After this he clearly told me which parts needs to be replaced, which can be repaired and which can be left alone. He left the choice to me to decide what I wanted to get done.

I had taken the Yeti to Skoda ASC for inspection just days before I visited German Motors. After a ‘preliminary inspection’ they gave me a quote running into a few lakhs, asking me to literally change every mechanical bit on the car other than the engine. But they completely failed to see that my drive belt and pulley were on the brink of failure. Srinivas identified this a couple of minutes into his inspection of the engine bay.

I wanted to get an engine flush done considering the vehicle has done 1 lakh kms but he discouraged it and told me it was unnecessary and stated that I can think of it after crossing 3 lakh km by which time there may be some carbon deposits. Same goes for brake pads and other bits which I wanted to change. He gave them a thorough inspection and said not needed for another few thousand kilometres.
I felt the A/C was not effective. And during the Skoda inspection they asked me to change the compressor and the blower. Srinivas told me the compressor was fine and just got A/C gas topped up. The blower has an issue at the highest setting but he suggested I continue using it for now.

Every time a part was removed or replaced it was photographed creating a photo log for future verification. Work was very professional and very neat. Car was checked thoroughly before hand over.

And at the end of the first day there was still some work left to be done on my car and it was raining heavily, Srinivas insisted and kindly dropped me back to my place.

Pricing

The Yeti was always serviced at Skoda ASC and never outside. It costs around 16k to 20k per service. Just for general service – the usual oil, filters (oil, air, pollen etc.) change and other fluid top ups – gear, brake, coolant etc. At German motors I was charged 8500/- for the same. And for the rest as I have already stated above things which get replaced at ASCs are being repaired here, so costs will be way lower. Even if parts were to be replaced, I expect them to be cheaper. For instance, during my conversation with him about the compressor the price he quoted for Sanden compressor was almost half of what Skoda had estimated.

And finally, after my car was serviced, I drove down to Chennai from Hyderabad. Sometime during the trip my horn and steering wheel controls stopped working. So took it to a nearby garage in Chennai who said that the clockspring was gone and needs to be replaced. Took it to another garage and they said the same thing. Called Srinivas and told him the issue, he asked me to recheck saying that the VAG clocksprings don’t fail so easily and second he checked it during service and it was completely fine. He insisted it would mostly be an electrical issue. So I requested the garage to recheck and after sometime they reverted back saying it was indeed an electrical issue. It was fixed for 1800/- instead of the 8K they quoted for a used clockspring and 30k+ for a new one.

FNG Details
German Motors - L B Nagar, Hyderabad.
Contact Person - Srinivas
Phone - 63098 40143, 80963 06290

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[GForceEnjoyer]

Thanks a ton for this informative post. I found it very helpful, since our 2006 Fiesta has a couple of very strange issues which nobody seems to be able to diagnose for sure. The Ford service centre asked us to replace nearly the entire rear suspension (we got that done a year ago) and the power steering pump, which would go into a very high five-figure cost. We did not go ahead, since the symptoms were not related in any way whatsoever.

Anyways, I shall pass this information on to my parents. Thanks once again.

[RaviKBobba]

Thanks for the information.
Most of the times, such FNG give value for money compared to the ASC's for vehicles which are out of warranty.

[ads295]

Hello

If you are in Hyderabad then I would definitely recommend Man and Machine.
They get to the root cause of everything and specialise in European cars.

Below is the link to their Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/mandmachine/

I've been following them for some time now, and while I've never been there, they post deep technical solutions to the problems they face.
They're even unafraid in calling out OEMs for their callousness when it comes to quality - they once wrote a post on how BMW X1s were seeing their engine mounts fail at 50,000km. Man and Machine was getting nearly 1 car every week with that issue.

Of course, this is just a suggestion.

[sudipta]

This is a very nice piece of information and thread which I can use to a great extent. I am specifically looking for some details on FNG at Hyderabad which are good for Mahindra vehicles. I have a 2009 Scorpio which I intend to continue with me and would like to hear from members on suggestions as to where they have experience of maintenance and small repair works. Till now I have always used VVC Hitec city which is a MASS (Mahindra Authorized Service Center) but off-late parts availability has become an issue there. Also the newer vehicles have put in a lot of rush into the schedules which is not great with the older vehicles which needs patient testing and time to cure the age issues. Looking forward to your suggestions.

[Sen]

Thank you so much for your in depth take on this FNG. I was looking for a potential Hyderabad-based FNG for any work I don't trust the official service centers with, and this just may be it.

[Restart]

I came across a workshop called CAM'S AUTO CARE in Kukatpally, they also had many german vehicles with them for service.

From what I've been told, it is run by its chief mechanic with 20+ years of experience in german vehicles and it opened 11 months ago from scratch with zero customer base. Right now, it's full with luxury cars when I visited them.

I went in for inspection for my Laura which has A/C, Suspension issues etc as expected of a 12 years old car. They scanned the vehicle, put it on lift, took it on a trial run and gave me the list of repairs to be done and estimate, far better than the one I got from Mahavir Skoda Sanath Nagar.

I'll create a thread after I get my car serviced with them, they seemed very knowledgeable and trust worthy.

Here's some contact information of their personnel,

Website: www.camsautocare.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/camsautocare

Contact Person,

Advisor - Charan
Phone: +91-8977522880

Chief Mechanic - Murthy
Phone: +91-9948310483

[RaviKBobba]

Originally Posted by Restart

I came across a workshop called CAM'S AUTO CARE in Kukatpally, they also had many german vehicles with them for service.

Here's some contact information of their personnel,

Website: www.camsautocare.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/camsautocare

Contact Person,

Advisor - Charan
Phone: +91-8977522880

Chief Mechanic - Murthy
Phone: +91-9948310483

Good information. From the posts, they seem loaded with lot of luxury cars. Also, they seem to be giving a free inspection for used cars, so that customers can make informed choice.

Note: No affiliation with them.

[Comrade]

Contacted German Motors (Srinivas) after Man & Machine ignored my message on Instagram! I had many concerns about the car like front suspension, brakes, DSG oil change interval etc. Srinivas concluded that I just need front brakes pads after checking the car. Seems like a honest guy who recommends only service/repairs necessary.