Take Car To Dealer For Repair Or Not?

[StrongView]

So we finally own a car in Bangkok and it needs a bit of tuning on the transmission and an alignment. Maybe an oil change too. I've been told "It's a Honda, so you should take it to Honda service." but it just seems like this would be more expensive than a smaller shop. At least that's the way it is in my home country. In any case, the car is almost 11 years old and I've heard very good things about a Shell garage on Chaengwattana Rd (if you're familiar with it, it's basically in the Makro car park). I was going to take it there as it makes the most sense to me (given my foreign experience) but I turn to you...the ThaiVisa guru's to help me decide. Should I take it to a Honda dealer for service or the smaller shops? What would/do you do?

[Maigo6]

So we finally own a car in Bangkok and it needs a bit of tuning on the transmission and an alignment. Maybe an oil change too. I've been told "It's a Honda, so you should take it to Honda service." but it just seems like this would be more expensive than a smaller shop. At least that's the way it is in my home country. In any case, the car is almost 11 years old and I've heard very good things about a Shell garage on Chaengwattana Rd (if you're familiar with it, it's basically in the Makro car park). I was going to take it there as it makes the most sense to me (given my foreign experience) but I turn to you...the ThaiVisa guru's to help me decide. Should I take it to a Honda dealer for service or the smaller shops? What would/do you do?

Strongview, has it got a Honda Service History ?

Maybe you should go to a Honda Dealer first, get it checked out properly by the guys that know their Hondas.

I done that witha Toyota Pick up a few years back, then took it to another place that was cheaper after that first time.

If it's got service history, it may be good to keep it up.

[mikethevigoman]

So we finally own a car in Bangkok and it needs a bit of tuning on the transmission and an alignment. Maybe an oil change too. I've been told "It's a Honda, so you should take it to Honda service." but it just seems like this would be more expensive than a smaller shop. At least that's the way it is in my home country. In any case, the car is almost 11 years old and I've heard very good things about a Shell garage on Chaengwattana Rd (if you're familiar with it, it's basically in the Makro car park). I was going to take it there as it makes the most sense to me (given my foreign experience) but I turn to you...the ThaiVisa guru's to help me decide. Should I take it to a Honda dealer for service or the smaller shops? What would/do you do?

If it was me id take it to the honda dealer, ask them to check it over and do a report for you, not an order to do the work just a report and estimate, if its cheap and no major work equired let them do it, if there a major problem get an estimate and look at other options ,ie smaller garages, but as a rule of thumb you can forget prices "back home ' as here its a major difference,a headlight new for a honda city was under $40 here,! "back home " $400 !

[Gary A]

My Nissan pick has been out of warranty for a while now but I still take it to Nissan for service. It only costs a little more and since it has never had anything other than normal (never a problem) service, I don't see any reason to change. If I were to ever buy a second hand vehicle, it would be worth more to me if it had dealer service records.

[StrongView]

Follow up: Honda service couldn't see the car today, so we brought it into the Shell service station for some minor work (alignment). The car has always been brought to Honda service on Rama 4 since it was purchased (almost) 11 yrs ago and the owner has passed on all records to me. So I guess it would make sense to keep it up. Is that what I'm hearing here?

[stingray]

So we finally own a car in Bangkok and it needs a bit of tuning on the transmission and an alignment. Maybe an oil change too. I've been told "It's a Honda, so you should take it to Honda service." but it just seems like this would be more expensive than a smaller shop. At least that's the way it is in my home country. In any case, the car is almost 11 years old and I've heard very good things about a Shell garage on Chaengwattana Rd (if you're familiar with it, it's basically in the Makro car park). I was going to take it there as it makes the most sense to me (given my foreign experience) but I turn to you...the ThaiVisa guru's to help me decide. Should I take it to a Honda dealer for service or the smaller shops? What would/do you do?

1.For Agliment you don't go to Honda Dealership. I'm not even sure if Dealerships have wheel agliment computers. Usally you go to a tire shop, where they sell tires and rims. Most of them have wheel aliment computers and will charge you between 200 or 300 Baht for wheel agliment.

2. Automatic transmissions can't be tuned anymore, exept the very old ones, wich have a mechanical kick down cable. But todays automatic transmissions are all controlled by computer boxes. There is no tuning anymore. once your automatic transmissions not shift correctly anymore you have to consider to change or overhaul it, wich is very expensive and only professionals can do this job.

[ballbreaker]

So we finally own a car in Bangkok and it needs a bit of tuning on the transmission and an alignment. Maybe an oil change too. I've been told "It's a Honda, so you should take it to Honda service." but it just seems like this would be more expensive than a smaller shop. At least that's the way it is in my home country. In any case, the car is almost 11 years old and I've heard very good things about a Shell garage on Chaengwattana Rd (if you're familiar with it, it's basically in the Makro car park). I was going to take it there as it makes the most sense to me (given my foreign experience) but I turn to you...the ThaiVisa guru's to help me decide. Should I take it to a Honda dealer for service or the smaller shops? What would/do you do?

I would stick with the dealer for any service because they do not charge 2-3 times more like they do in farang land.

[torrenova]

I would stick with the dealer for any service because they do not charge 2-3 times more like they do in farang land.

I think that is the key point here as whilst the difference may be large compared to the average Thai wage, it is miniscule compared to the value of the vehicle and is next to nothing for most western pockets.

At the end of the day, dealerships have a reputation to uphold and even though this is Thailand and not the west with real laws, you can inflict bad publicity upon the makers in your home country as well as in Thailand.

[Jareddiving]

So we finally own a car in Bangkok and it needs a bit of tuning on the transmission and an alignment. Maybe an oil change too. I've been told "It's a Honda, so you should take it to Honda service." but it just seems like this would be more expensive than a smaller shop. At least that's the way it is in my home country. In any case, the car is almost 11 years old and I've heard very good things about a Shell garage on Chaengwattana Rd (if you're familiar with it, it's basically in the Makro car park). I was going to take it there as it makes the most sense to me (given my foreign experience) but I turn to you...the ThaiVisa guru's to help me decide. Should I take it to a Honda dealer for service or the smaller shops? What would/do you do?

I would stick with the dealer for any service because they do not charge 2-3 times more like they do in farang land.

I wished it only costed me 2-3 times more back in Holland!!

Make it at least 10 times more!

Only 1 hour labour will cost you 60-70 Euro's.

[Thaiboxer]

One hour of labor in the States averages $70. Although not as pricey as Europe, it's crazy what these guys charge. Sometimes, they offer packages but you may not need half the stuff they do plus the prices are still high. It's very good if you know your cars and can repair them in the States.

[torrenova]

I think you'll find the UK prices are far more than their european counteraprts. Totally out of line with the job undertaken.