Do you love your car ?
Hi friends,
If you are reading this, I assume you love your car just like me. I posed this question at you to know your experience in car-care in Qatar.
I drive a Nissan Maxima 06 and take good care of it. But initially when I bought it, it had small issues with it and gave it to a well-known garage in Qatar. To my surprise, contrary to my expectation to get a good work done, all repairs were temporarily fixed which returned back more than before in a few months. Now I do the analysis myself and I am better-of with it. This is not just my story but am hearing a lot about it from many others.
A few points on how this could damage you ...
* Change spare parts unnecessarily just because they guess what could be the problem (lack of technical knowledge of workers)
* Bloated bills for spare changes (price at shop - QAR 1250 but on bill of the same shop given by garage - QAR 1550)
* Lack of responsibility (garages do not take the responsibility of recurrence of the same issue which was repaired if it happens even in a few months of repair)
* Technical blackmailing (threaten customers with major consequences if repair not immediately even for minor issue for the risk of losing the customer to someone else later)
Is this only my experience because I expect more or is this a common issue?
What is your experience in this area ?
Can you share it with us ?
In reputed or authorized service center, they have good and expert mechanics for servicing.So they can find out the problem very easily, within short time and gives perfect solution for customer. In small car shop they are not export or trained person, so they are not able to trace proper problem.
German auto repair
Zipo, r u trying to export bananas to Philippines ? You are advertising about your car-buy-and-sell-site in Qatar's most popular buy-and-sell zone ... Qatar Living ! But ... I like your confidence for that !!! Cheers
It's not always the money which is a concern, chevy ... it's what the money gets for you. You expect at the least, a good service if the worth of work they do does not match the pay.
The good news is that after some time of straying around, I could find someone who does a good job on a Maxima where surprisingly he has a back-yard-garage kind of place but does a pretty neat job.
Now, the bad news is that he is in the middle of the industrial area and he is charging me a fortune for the trust I have on him.
Also, i have an experience in getting stuck in the middle of industrial area after i dropped my car for service and my good 'ol friend who promised me a pick up did not turn up and i stood for about 45 minutes before I could find a taxi back to Doha.
Service matters, buddy ... especially like the pick-n-drop in induatrial area !
it's always better to bring your car to it's own service center, if money doesn't concern the owner...
Honestly, I wouldn't mind paying a little extra if it was worth it i.e. the job is complicated enough to merit the price tag OR you/your car are actually taken care of but alas, that isn't the case. They are meant to have drop-off services but 2 out of 3 times, their driver wasn't around. If I pay as much as I do, the least I can expect is not to be stranded in the middle of industrial area especially after getting an appointment and checking about the drop-off service.
zakria, i like the idea of going out of Qatar for getting the job done but this involves time and money ... yaani, if the work needed is not really considerable, thats not an option, right ?
I mean, more in the lines of the Porsche Girl ... like fixing a blown fuse, a small noise comming from the bonnet or something like that ...
108 riyals for fixing an 8 riyal fuse !#@%$&!
This I why I always go to the KIA approved mechanic ... And YES I love my car
garages are only good in fixing dents and scratches, nothing else.
Well most of the garage people charge according to the car...i think ?
and Porsche Girl, i am sure u hav Porsche car tats why they hav charged u tat high....:)
How about QR 108 to replace a QR 8 fuse? QR 100 labour for a job that literally took 30 secs - I kid you not! The fuse was in an easily accessible place that not a screw had to be touched and they didn't need to even assess what the problem was because I knew exactly what the problem was and categorically told them 'please replace the fuse'! :|
It's not just garages, most businesses employ unprofessional staff and this place is full of greed business owners. I feel very sad as these people are destroying the image of the country. It is better to buy a new car with 3 years free service. Also u can cross over to Dubai or Dammam and have all ur repairs done.
This is exactly the plight of a common man in Qatar.
No one to depend on ... no garages, no experts ... not even the agencies.
Agencies charge their labour not in total but calculate individually on every single problem we tell them even if these problems are co-related and are from the same source.
Why don't customers react ?
These guys will keep taking us for a ride until we collectively react ...
These car dealers, service centers and garages are there to do business. An unknowing driver could easily fall to their nice words and even unwarranted advices. Maintain the car according to the schedule and I do not think thre will be problems.
Don't mind in paying a little extra if the service is good. But unfortunately, here in Qatar, even agency guys mess it up big time. I had a friend who fixed the inner door handle of his car and paid 270 riyal for the service and the funny bill goes like this ... QAR 70 for spare part and QAR 200 for labour ! Can you beat that ?
I got a not fully flat tyre due to a small 3/4-inch length screw punched on the right rear tyre. Since I am at industrial area vicinity, I decided to have it fix at near by vulcanizing shop before the tyre get totally damaged. After a while, the guy showed me the tyre with a 6-inch length cut to my dismay and anger. I asked what happened when all the guy have to do is pull out the screw and insert a tyre hole filler and it will be okay again for a couple of trips. This is suppose to be a simple work but I ended up buying a new tyre and the manager have the guts in charging me 20 riyal for fitting my reserve tyre which I did not obliged. Well experience in earning money rather than doing the proper work.
most of the mechanics and car technicians out here and specially in the small car maintanance shops are a bunch of untrained and learn by trial and error repair guys. They would fix one problem and then would create another problem because of their lack of knowledge on the vehicle and its proper sevicing and maintanance procedures. They work more for the money then on offering you a proper service
I am one of those had a very bad experienced with the Garage here all of them are making money and don't care about the quality of service they provide. I put my Car in garage for minor accident and found out later that the full body is rough and full of spray paint.
Be careful in selecting Garage here.
even the dealer itself have their own tricks.
Maxima should be repaired only by professionals either repair with Nissan or Garages / Mechanics who only deal with Maxima