The trustworthy Trident Chevrolet service centre in Bangalore has closed down.
BHPian Arayan5614 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Sometime back I shared my experience of the pre-owned car,
After driving the very same car for about 9000 KMs and owning it for a little more than a year, it was time to service the car.
As you would know GM / Chevrolet had exited India but luckily the brand had a trustworthy ASC in Bangalore – The trident Chevrolet
Sad news for Chevy owners, the service centre is closing from 15th Jan,22 🙁
I had the following options for servicing the car:
- Take the CAR to the ASC Trident and get it serviced there
- Get it serviced at Spinny since I bought the car from them and it has been almost a flawless experience with them
- Go to multi-brand service centres like BOCH, GoMechanic etc
- Source spares and get servicing done with a small scale auto mechanic
So, which one option did I choose?
I did a quick calculation of the cost of servicing at all these options
I had the following criteria for the servicing:
- Original Spares as much as possible
- Full synthetic oil
- As economical as possible
My priority was Trident ASC, given the good experience I had with the team there, BUT the ASC didn’t have the air filter so I had to look for some other options
My obvious next move was to reach out to Spinny for their estimate, they quoted around 5k cost for blended oil, but at the same time I estimated the cost of sourcing original spares.
So the total cost of spares is (Airfilter, Oil Filter, Engine Oil) – INR 2,765 (688+1713+364)
After estimating the cost I realised there could be more than 100% markup on the service offered by any of the branded / ASC service centres
Anyway I continued to look for an organised/branded service centre and stumbled upon ‘Automovill’ – their service packages are unbeatable and gave a feel that, this is the brand which is going to disrupt the service segment.
They offered a comprehensive service for 3400 and in a conversation, they promised no original spares and when I was just about to give them a pass someone from their office called and assured original spares
The next day I took the car to their garage when I reached my first realization was Automovill is an aggregator like Swiggy who just aggregates garages and your service quality is dependent on which 3rd party garage your car lands to
They took the car on priority and started servicing the car – while the mechanic was servicing the brakes someone brought the Airfilters and Oil Filters, but it wasn’t the original spares which I specifically had asked for, I insisted on the original spares but after some time, they told me about unavailability in the market and assured me of the quality of spares, given the time I already had invested I thought let’s go ahead with the spares and get it serviced
While the mechanic was still servicing the brakes I asked about the engine oil they are going to use and he showed me a tin drum of Shell oil, when I looked at it closely the oil was 10W-30 and my car needed 5W-30 – informed the same to the team and it was news for them
Now I was wondering, had I opted for a FREE car pick up and drop they would have very well poured in the same 10W-30 oil in my car.
Now the associate promised to source 5W-30 but now I had lost my trust and opted to take the care back, they charged me INR 450 for brake servicing and almost made the brake as hard as possible – I drove it for 5kms and went back to the garage to get this fixed
After this unpleasant experience, the first thing I did in the very same garage is I place online orders of spares from Boodmo and oil from Amazon
It took 7 days for the parts to arrive:
Packages from amazon
Also, I ordered Castrol engine shampoo to flush the engine, it cost me another Rs 364
Now it was time for action:
It took about 90 mintes of my investment and INR 450 to get the job done to my level of satisfaction
Learnings from the whole incident:
- Car schedule service isn’t rocket science and you don’t need space scientists to do this simple job.
- Invest a little time and understand what all job is needed in the particular service of the car.
- Don’t just trust any garage just because they offer you free pick up and drop, they might put in spares that suits and are convenient to them not good for your car in the long run.
- Invest time in your machine – Most of the cars need once a year service, invest one day if it takes so that you can drive it for the next one year with the peace of mind knowing what all job is done and what is put in your car.
- Don’t compromise on spares quality
Final Servicing Cost: Rs 3565
- Spares + Oil = Rs 2765
- Fee to Automovill = Rs 450
- Charges to Local Mechanic = Rs 350
Keyword: Serviced my car at a local mechanic: Disappointing experience