Return of my baby after 52 days!

 It was on 11th December 2023 that my car was towed away to Cars India Ambattur Works, where all the cars affected by the recent cyclone were being attended to. I did not then realize that the works had 350 cars to repair and restore and my car was one of them. Though I was promised that my car would be back in 30 days, it has taken Cars India, Ambattur, 52 days to return the car, and that too after persistent & often frustrating follow up with the concerned persons in charge of my car.

I am a strong believer in the Maruti brand for their maintenance-free cars and good resale value. Have also had the benefit of their excellent after-sales service through Cars India, Adyar branch for the last 30 years. Starting with Maruthi- 800, I have owned an Esteem, Swift, Ritz, and now an automatic Ceelerio over the years. As an old customer of Cars India, I thought I would get a preference in dealing with my case. That did not happen.

It is interesting that in the last 40 years of my stay in the current house water used to enter my car every time there was heavy rain and there was flooding around the house. I never had a problem starting the car after the flood water receded. Though the water level was slightly higher than usual, I decided not to try and start the car because of the message from insurance companies going Viral on WhatsApp, warning car users of the severe damage to the Engines, if the car was started in a flood situation. When I contacted the Adyar Branch, the person in charge also advised me not to take the risk. He arranged for a towing service to tow my car to their Ambattur works, which cost me Rs 8000. I felt sad to see my car being towed away for the first time in 40 years. It felt as if a near and dear one was being taken to a hospital in an Ambulance.

I am very disappointed with the way that my case was handled by Cars India Ambattur. While I can understand that there was a huge pressure on them dealing with hundreds of Cars, I was upset that I was not being given the correct picture when I started following up with them after 30 days. False promises and wrong status reports were being given to me. Unfortunately, the work was so far away that I had no desire to go and physically check the situation.
Anyway, I am happy that the car is back with me. Needless to say, I was as happy as one feels when a near and one returns from a hospital after a successful surgery. After going through the final bill I realized that the car was not very badly damaged. In hindsight, I feel that the Car could have been repaired at the Adyar branch and I would have got the car without having to suffer the undue delay by the Ambattur works. That is the price I had to pay for overreacting to the viral message on WhatsApp.

The positive side of the story is that I got used to the idea of living without a car. Something which I intend to do when I go to Coimbatore. I am not taking the car with me but will use the excellent call taxi service available in CBE.

I must thank all my friends and family for providing me the ` CAR SEVA` whenever I needed it. God bless them!