Car Servicing

How many people know that the automobile companies will make more money from car parts than selling their cars?

Singapore is one of the world's most expensive places to own and run a car. Whether it is for convenience or as a status symbol, is it a boon or bane in your life? The people who save the most money are those who do not own a car or that some folks are slave to their cars? I see neighbours who have their vehicle washed at least twice a day - before they left for work and when they returned, regardless of the time, I have seen their domestic workers doing it. Would they have done the same without their maids? Is it because everybody has such a good life that since they have paid so much for a vehicle that they have to spend such enormous resources on it be it time or more money? Could it that Singapore is such a boring place that we resort to this?

Someone asked me before - is the Blackberry good to have? My reply was that it depends on whether you are slave or master. It is very much the same for cars isn't it? There is no place on earth where there are more new or relatively new vehicles per square inch than in Singapore.

The fact of life is simply that when we have everything so good, we stop learning, we got pampered and served. Of course there are folks who are tinkerers out there who like to do things to their cars but these are enthusiasts. How many of us knew the parts of the car other than the doors, steering and wheels? The engine compartment?

When I bought my first vehicle I was just starting out in life out of necessity for the job which required travelling on the road. Of course it was a second-hand one that cost $12,400 damage for a four year old Toyota Corolla DX. It was blood, sweat and tears and worst there were breakdowns here and there which cost me more $$$, time and being stranded on the road. After many years and several old vehicles later, I begin to learn because I needed to.

When I learned more plus what my dad taught me, I have even done my own car service such as changing the oil filter, air filter, engine oil, brake oil, spark plugs, etc. all basic servicing and getting the hands dirtied. I have also attempted adjusting the timing every now and then. Let me share with you a brief history of that evolution:

http://gforce-guru.blogspot.com/2008/09/evolution-of-transportation.html

I enjoyed the learning but the lessons were at times painful$$$!! I knew few mechanics can be trusted or are reliable. I have enjoyed purchasing an old car and then giving it a new life. I have take care of the engine compartment at first, then do a good paint job, selecting the colours, changing the interior like the seats, change the sports rims, convert the old tyres to Michellin tyres and then invest in a solid sound system which is quite pro but not yet pro. Then there came a time where my car has reached ten years (after driving for two years) and due to the start of the COE system I was robbed of my hard earned savings of $2,500 just to register that I was keeping it for another ten years but in all these hardship, I have learned much.

As only luxury marques that time has ABS brakes, I have even experienced drifting and had one car spun around facing oncoming traffic on one rainy day. Fortunately there was no oncoming vehicles! I have experienced seeing things like rubber trimmings flying off my car when I was at the car wash and when the machine was blowing dry the car with a huge blower. I have endured leaking roofs, floor, bonnet and boots to boot and leaking wallets too. There was an occasion where one wiper flew off during a storm.

After reading my story, you will now know that you should have no complaints in life. And so my cars got newer and became new such that I have no alternative but to go the agents for service and that was the beginning of the decline of my knowledge. The technology was newer, you can't go in and watch how they do it nor do you have the time and if you do not send it to the agents you will be facing the threat of your warranty not being honoured. Everything these days is outsourced and sub out. As we became better, we learn less and got worse. We have less tolerance.

Sometimes we should go back to basics again. To discover and rediscover again. Be it your golf game or renewing ties. So with the spiralling prices of vehicles here and in re-engineering cost savings due to the looming bad news of the economy worldwide, I decided to go to a mechanic in Sin Ming to have my Geoffmobile serviced.

This is a place I have frequented. Besides, learning about car's engine compartment, I have also learned much about panel beating. How a vehicle is being stripped and repainted or how a damaged bonnet, boot, doors, mud guards are repaired or replaced. You will get to see many damaged vehicles due to road carnage, some totally smashed up. Once, I saw a small hatchback car with the back smashed and caved in to a V from bumper to roof and I said to the repairman that a huge vehicle must have collided into it. To my surprise he told me that it was hit by a motor cycle. Goodness me! It reminded me that no matter how well built a vehicle is, it can only do so much. Life is fragile.

It was only occasionally that I make it a point to check my engine oil or fiddle with the dip stick but I still remember where it is. I got to see the engine again.

I have always been told by many about the benefits of Chemlube. So I went to get my own purchase of Chemlube from a distributor nearby which I got for less than a hundred dollars and paid $50 for the mechanic to get his hands dirtied. All these for half the price if I went back to the big boys. It may cost a bit more if you add new spark plugs, etc. Now the Geoffmobile is purring again. Meantime, I am dreaming of a Jaguar, a Land Rover, maybe a Porsche or should I go back to basics and go for a Leyland or Volvo bus or the MRT? Lately, it has been splashed all over the front page of the newspapers they suck big time leaving commuters stranded and exasperated. We should go back to horses. No one can fool you on the horsepower. The richer ones can get their horse carriages while the rest wait for their fairy godmother. By the stroke of midnight, we need to rush home and who are we? Singarella of course.