Costs a bomb – if only you don’t care.

This was an eye-opener. For her. My friend owns a six-year old, 70,000km run Hyundai Santro and she’d committed the worst sin that a proper petrol-head can ever imagine. It is so sinister that even in the book-of-automotive-sins, it exists as a highlighted item. She took the car to a local workshop and got it serviced from a local mechanic because Hyundai’s authorised workshop was not accepting cars for service for a couple of days and she was in some sort of a hurry. It cannot go all that wrong that the car will not run, she thought. And she was right to some extent. The car was indeed running; only that you’d not feel like driving it – it was a mess.

I don’t know which all places the mechanic touched the Santro inappropriately, but the issues with this little car were just on another plane! There were vibrations, jarring noises from everywhere and the battery and electricals were working as if they had a mind of one Mr. Bean. My friend said that it was all well for a week or so after she got the car back from servicing, but after that, she started going mad with all the vibrations and purring sounds. And this episode happened a little more than one year ago! Beat that.

This time round, I advised her to be sane and take her car to an authorised service station. She did. Once there, the attendant checked up the car’s service history online and informed my friend that the car had last been serviced more than one and half years ago. Just that he did not know about the case of local mechanic getting dirty with the car, so for them – the car wasn’t serviced for an eternity!

A quick inspection revealed the sorry state of things. The timing belt was hopelessly out of shape, the alternator had overworked itself beyond imagination and all the filters and oils were filthy enough to have looked good in a garbage dumping zone. The normal servicing, with filter and oil replacements and usual tucks and tightening of bolts came to an astonishingly high Rs 8,500 – for a Hyundai Santro! And when the cost of parts (timing belt, alternator etc) was added up, it stood at a shamelessly stratospheric Rs 19,000! Nineteen thousand for a car that that’s made of what – 19 moving parts? Goodness gracious!

And then is my Honda City – a 7-year old, 110,000km run workhorse that still looks as if its just a couple of years old. There are (now) no unwanted noises, no rattles inside the cabin, the engine works smoothly and silently, there’s no suspension damage, aircon works brilliantly – heck, even the music system works without a glitch.

A couple of months ago I suffered a puncture and after inspecting the tyres thoroughly, decided to go in for a new set as there were cracks on one and another one looked as if it would walk the same path any day. The tyres had done their bit actually – they’d covered almost around 45,000km so I wasn’t complaining on buying a fresh pair of footwear for my car. But once I got the tyres replaced, there was a constant noise from the wheel that was quite annoying. The tyre noise can’t be this bad, I reckoned and decided to get it checked for I feared it to be a bearing noise or something. I even checked my engine to see if there were any holes around in the exhaust channel that was causing such an irritating noise, but was happy seeing no such thing in the under-body.

The servicing was due in a couple of weeks and this being a heavily done-in car with 110,000km on the odo, I was expecting the guys at Honda to give me a hefty estimate citing all sort of problems with the car that’s led to the loud humming noise that I’d complained about. But that did not happen.

I requested for a good workshop attendant, for I wanted to ensure that the car went in good hands. And I was given just such a person. After a brief test drive, he indicated at the problem with the wheel bearing; just what I thought it would be. So a general servicing estimate, including the change of oil and filters, was drawn as Rs 3,500. Then I asked about the cost of the wheel bearing and the guy said there was an offer going on wherein the part would be replaced free of charge. That felt nice! And even if I would’ve had to pay for it, it would not have crossed Rs 6,000. So in all, I would’ve had my 110,000km old car back in the best of condition for just about Rs 10,000. And it’s not a small-car either, it’s a mid-sized sedan and trend in India has it that larger the car, more expensive the things get.

However, since the special offer took care of the bearing, I ended up paying just Rs 3,626 with all filters changed and synthetic engine oil put in; that alone is about Rs 2,000! Had I opted for normal oil, I would’ve spent only around 1,600 bucks. How cool is that! Now, my point is not to prove that Honda is a superior car here. My point is that a well maintained car can save you from unnecessary expenses. Treat your car with care and it should service you without a glitch for years. Leave it unattended and abuse it while driving and you’re digging your own financial grave. That holds true for every car, body-type notwithstanding. Take care of your set of wheels – it matters.