The nearly ubiquitous damage done to vehicles across the city during the recent floods have resulted in a virtual gold mine of business landing into the hands of service centres across the city.
So high has the influx of damaged vehicles been, that these centres have had no choice but to refuse to accept vehicles — both due to the lack of space and the lack of personnel to deal with the influx.
Almost every major service centre in the city, both multi-brand and exclusive are sporting waitlists that would be the envy of any exclusive club. “Our waitlist is almost three weeks long. We stopped taking cars and are redirecting people to take their cars to our Poonamallee service centre,” said an employee of one Ford Service Centre in Ambattur. The situation is the same for almost every service centre and garage in the city — be it Maruti Suzuki, ABT, Carnation, Ford, Nissan, Hyundai or Renault.
The result of this overcrowding, coupled with the expensive consequences of getting repairs done in authorised service centres, has seen a majority of jilted would-be customers take their cars to their local mechanics. “I can’t let my car lie there for three weeks. I would rather get it repaired and checked here,” said Ravi Shanker from Chinmaya Nagar.
The situation has seen insurance companies advise their customers to not wait until they get a slot in a garage to make the call to them. “We would advise customers to get in touch with us immediately. We will try and arrange a garage for their car,” said Vijay Kumar, CTO — Motor, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.