Tuesday, December 23, 2014

How to Service Your Car

So, it happened and as it usually happens ... I wanted to get my old car ALTO LXI that has run for around 60K KM for regular servicing. So, I called somebody that is Motorcraft in Noida Sector 63 (as they keep bugging me for car servicing due date approaching tamasha) to pick and drop my car for car service. The driver came up and took my car and after half an hour someone called me from Motorcraft detailing me that it is going to cost around 7000 INR for same ... and I was like hell... I wanted them to do it for around 2K bucks therefore I asked them what all are they going to do and requested them for cost breakup and there you go:


Engine oil and Oil filter = 1200, Castrol Normal

wheel balancing = 1300 rs
200 rs for packing (dont know what that means) and 650 rs for some special kind of cleaning
450 rs injector cleaning
Gear Oil = 1000
Break Oil , Coolant = 850 rs
Spark Plug = 250 rs
Air filter = 500 rs
Servicing charges = 1305 rs
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7705 + taxes = ~7500 INR
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I started begging them to leave few things so that I may hit that 3000 INR target atleast. But, the guy started taking me into confidence that he will try his best to wrap in 5000 INR and will not replace or put anything that is unnecessary. But, still it was too far away from my original estimate.

So, One of my colleague Gaurav who overheard all this conversation told me to ask these guys return back my car and we decided to explore the car market itself (let me tell you that Gaurav had certain idea about DIY of a car), so I asked them to return my car and they came down to 4000 bucks but still I wanted my to take control of my car service now and pressurised them to abide, therefore they returned it with 250 bucks charges for car pick and drop that was otherwise free.

We went to the market, where while surfing a guy appeared asking that he will do all the servicing for my car and will take 150 bucks, we agreed as we really don't wanted to go beneath the car. He checked all those different kind of Oil and filters and plugs and told me that only thing I need was coolant and Engine Oil, Oil Filter, and Air Filter and buy fro any shop. So here are the MRP price of these things at the shop:

Castrol Engine Oil = 850 Rs (3.5 ltr)
Oil Filter = 60 rs
Air Filter = 250 rs
Coolant = 250 rs
Servicing charges = 200 rs
Break Oil, Gear Oil, Spark Plug, Injector cleaning = not required
Denting charges = 100 rs (my front and back bumpers were bit out of location)
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Total Sum = 1710 rs with Taxes :)
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I also got petrol filled for 2000 and at Dolly Motors I got 50% discount on wheel balancing.
Now, decide yourself how are they running those customer support and free driver pick and drop service at Motorcraft.