It has been proven and reported that the Japanese made cars like Toyota, Lexus, Honda and Nissan are more reliable cars with the least tendency of failing or breaking down that require workshop visits. However, reliability isn’t what every car buyer looks for. There are other aspects, and one other important aspect is the perception of luxury and performance that is usually synonymous to European made cars like Mercedes Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi and many others.
Being in Malaysia, these continental cars are highly taxed, making it even more costly and perhaps adding the numbers to the pricetag further increases the perception of wealth and well to do of the car owners. Not many car owners willing to pay more but to fulfil their dreams that’s the price. While revving your continental car and cruising down the highway over time, the second blow to the wallet to the continental car owners is the cost of maintaining them. Let’s face it, then tend to break down and have failing parts more often than Japanese made brands.
What’s the true cost of buying and owning a continental ride? Well, definitely the first will be the price tag of these cars. In Malaysia, taxes like import duty, excise duty and sales tax would inflate the actual price of these cars to about 65%. Nevertheless, this price tag is known and published as you walk into your sales showroom. What you don’t see is going to blow your mind.
Each trip of your to the workshop when it reaches its routine maintenance cycle will cost you somewhere between. Continental car owners do not expect their bill to be anywhere below a thousand ringgit like maintaining a Toyota. A standard continental car service centre will cost you somewhere between RM1,000 for the standard routine and close RM5,000 when it comes to major service where certain parts and fluids would be changed.
Why does it cost so much compared to the Japanese made cars? First and foremost, the parts of continental cars are usually the bomb for it made and designed in Europe and the conversion from Euro to our Malaysian ringgit.
Hence many continental car owners will try to skip their original car service centres and resort to the ordinary workshops to save cost. Now this where the other cost comes in, an unknown cost. The question is that when you maintain your continental baby outside of the original service centres, what parts do they use? Where do they source these parts? Usually, they would source from their usual suppliers who may or may not carry these specialised spare parts like commonly for your Proton and MyVi. So you could be probably quoted with a very affordable price for a part replacement, and you are pleased about it. And for what you know the next moment that you replace that particular part, it fails you almost immediately.
I had an experience of replacing an OEM driveshaft. Right after replacing that part, my car kept leaking auto transmission oil. Kept going back to the workshop and the problem persisted. Until I went back to the original workshop, and they identified the problem almost immediately. Their diagnosis is that this OEM part is out measurement by a small fraction of its original dimension and that causes the leak. In the end, I had to resort to 1. Going back to original service centres 2. Paying for the original part after thinking I’ve got a bargain for that OEM meaning at the end buying 2 drive shafts, what am I going to do with the other, the failed OEM?
Don’t get me wrong, and I am not suggesting that you can’t go to other workshops to maintain your continental ride and to go back to the original service centres. What I am suggesting is that if you do and to save cost, you need to do homework and study.
Where are the alternative workshops; today since the rise of European cars on the road even cars like Ferrari and Lamborghini, there are also more of specialised workshops to support the demand for growing numbers of European cars.
What kind of replacement parts are there when they do breakdown? It is unlike your Proton, MyVi or your common Japanese made car spare parts, certain continental car parts could be quite rare and difficult to find. Even if you may have found it, the cost of it may also differ. So as an informed car owner, you got to ask around probably on online forums as well.
And who are the workshop clientele; what kind of cars do they service and maintain. This is the easiest. To have the confidence that this car workshop knows their work can be done simply by observing the cars of their customers. I do know that there is a specific workshop in Sunway, Auto Reign that specialises in Audi cars. I happened to know one of their customers too. He said they are highly professional and skilled. They even know to diagnose and repair Audi better than the original service centres.
There are many specialised workshops in the market. But today I would like to talk about one particular specialist, IMS Motorsports.
IMS Motorsports is a specialised car workshop that provides high quality and comprehensive service to car owners. IMS Motorsport specialises in luxury and super vehicles such as Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Bentley, BMW, Volkswagen, Jaguar, Mercedes, Rolls Royce, Hummer, and many others. It is a one-stop centre which has expert technicians, equipped with state-of-the-art computer diagnosis testers. On top of that, they have a good inventory of all sort of spare parts and performance parts.
IMS also has an online shop that sells with these spare parts which they have in stock of more than 100,000 original, OEM, used spare parts and performance accessories making spare parts sourcing easier than ever, especially for parts that are quite rare in Malaysia.
For more information, you can visit their website or their Facebook page. Alternatively, you can also call their general line at 03-56110571. IMS Motorsports is located at No 1, Jalan PJS 7/19, Sunway Technology Park, 47500 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
References:
- https://www.reliabilityindex.com/manufacturer
- https://www.volkswagen.com.my/volkswagen-service/repair-and-service/service-pricing-guide/the-passat-range
