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-   -   Trivandrum - Workshop Scam Alert (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/72403-trivandrum-workshop-scam-alert.html)

I used to frequent this workshop for minor face lifts for my Bolero. The owner is a very talkative man and after talking to him for 5 minutes you'll think that he is a great lover of cars and is all out to help you with your problem. He will point at the GM CADILLAC Stretch limousine parked in the workshop and will say that it is in for repair and he is waiting for the spare parts from abroad. A normal man will think that if he can take care of the hight tech CADDY, he sure can take care of any Indian cars. That is what I thought and when a friend of mine asked for a good workshop to overhaul his Ambassador, I recommended this workshop. All he needed was an overcoat painting, very few patch work, oil change, rear spring cambering, minor works in the upholstery and a wiper motor over haul with change of wiper arm and all that. For this the car remained in the workshop for a whole 3 months( my friend had to pay fine for late re registration and tax payment) and he charged my friend with a bill of Rs.32,900/- (I will try to get a scan of the bill and upload it). After some haggling my friend was able to reduce the bill amount to Rs.31,000/-. Now look at what he got for this huge amount. The paint is dripping near the bonnet and above the rear wheel arch it appears as though some hand tool has ripped the paint surface and was retouched without leveling. His head lights and horn would fail on running and come back when it wishes. The engine sump had only 5 litres of oil when the Amby needed 5 1/2 litres.The doors won't close and after fitting the sun visor (it is a must to see how it is fitted. I will upload pictures), the window won't close properly. My friend had to take the vehicle to another workshop to get his Amby back to condition. I feel very ashamed of myself to have recommended this workshop to my friend who loves his car very much and is not financially sound to afford another car. So I want no other fellow being to fall into the trap of this loudmouthed spider. I won't straight away shoot out the name of the workshop but will do it through P.M if any one requests. The clue is watch out for this car parked in his workshop. It is not there for repair. The owner has died and it is just parked there. Don't fall for this Caddy scam. He can't even take care of an Amby. This workshop is at Trivandrum. Any one out there who has similar experiences with this workshop?

thanks for the headsup. so where exactly is it ?

I don't know where the workshop is. But the Cadillac Limo is owned by the late G.A.Menon, an NRI based in Beverly hills, Ca. He was the founder of Toonz Animation and the promoter of USTGlobal, both have operations in technopark.

It's Kerala's first limo AFAIK; it created such a flutter some 10 years back that the police were forced to mild lathicharge near Chavadimukku to disburse the crowd who thronged to see the car.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._A._Menon

Mods, I am posting the owner info here, since the owner is no more and the car is unused.

I used to frequent this place and never had any problems what so ever. Yes, he does charge a little more than others but besides that everything went fine. BUT never got any painting done from there so cant comment on that.

This is the workshop near PTP Nagar. One of my friends used to give his 118NE regularly to this place and had been very happy with the work there. But its been atleast 8 months now since he has visited this place since he is out of country. If i remember it was Mr.Nagaraj who worked on cars here. Have seem quite a few high end cars (MErcs, Skodas, Opels etc.) parked there for repairs. Always had an impression that they were doing good work. Sorr to hear about your friends experience.

Well i used to get my cars repaired through them a decade back. Yes owner is a chatterbox, but ensure you explain clearly your expectation, you can get the job done well also. Cant say he is the best, but yeah not the worst also.

EDIT: sad to see the cady in such a shape.

Yeah the cadillac looks in good condition even now... if someone could buy it and get it restored it would be great... from the pics (not sure though) the paint on it seems to be in good condition even now.

OT: The owners are not ready to sell it, thats what i know off. But on the other hand, they can atleast clean it and cover it properly! The North star engine idles at around 400 and you wont even hear or feel it spin :)

@Jaggu et al, those who are interested should contact the current owner, whose details you can find in the Motor vehicle dept of Kerala:
MVDKerala - Home

Please search using the vehicle number (can be seen in the photo) and go to the 2nd page of the car's registration details. I am not posting a direct link here as it is against the forum rules.

Someone care to name the garage/shop. :)

Is it Auto mechanics????

Adrian, for the benefit of the others, i think its better you reveal the name of the garage here.

We are getting mixed reviews about the workshop and I think it won't be right to reveal the name of the workshop before the members evaluate the pictures and the copy of the bill that I will soon upload.

I am undergoing a training as a part of my job and I will upload the bill and the photos as soon as I am out of this whirlwind !
From the pictures you can see that a car seat is placed on the top of the Caddy and to the left of the vehicle is the paint booth. You can see that the walls are smeared from paint debri. So its anyone's guess what will be on the left side of the Caddy. I have personally seen the side stained from paint debri. It is a sad sight to see the beauty neglected like that.

Hello BHPians, here are the first set of the 13,500 paint job. Mud slides, asteroid craters and plateaus. When my friend asked about this the workshop owner said that the vehicle was all rust and even after scraping the rust is coming back overnight. What I know is that after proper scraping the rust should not come back and even if it does it will take say atleast 2 to 3 months to bulge out of the paint. These photos were taken just after the car was out of the workshop ! I request the attention of Amby experts like Rudra Sir on this matter.