In the aftermath of my recent little interlude with wet tiles and a concrete barrier in which I did my car no favours, I took her for a scheduled service, but was also hoping to fixed her (and my) battered pride – after all, in my expert opinion there were no major damage and it was simply a question of replacing a few plastic rivets… ha!

I went to the Perodua Service Centre (the makers of my car, I trust them) for one of their infamous 1-hour-or-its-free services. I can’t actually remember ever getting one of those and today, after a nearly two-hour service, it was no different. But I don’t complain as I’m sure there’s some fine-print somewhere which says “1-hour or it’s free, unless we have to do more than open the bonnet and look at it“.

And, it’s probably in Malay so whilst waiting a bit doesn’t make a fool of me, arguing in another language, which I don’t command, might – and who wants to be made a fool of while he waits for his car to be serviced, right?

Anyway, after real experts had a look at my ding’ed car, the prognosis wasn’t as optimistic as my own. The good news was that for a mere RM300 they could pull the panel that had shifted 3 millimeters (how many inches is that?) and replace 8 or so rivets costing RM5 or RM8 each.

For another mere RM 300 they could respray (respray what?) to make it look good as new – or as good as fixed at least. The bad news, which they discovered after a more thorough inspection, was the one of the brackets on the head-light has snapped and… the entire headlight would have be replaced at a cost of RM450.

At this point my eyes glased over and started to roll up into my head, which I could luckily control with some deep breathing. I declined any such action until I could a second opinion.

I service my car at the manufacturer’s service facility on the premise that they know my car best and thus, she is in the safest hands possible. What I also know is that they charge a premium for exactly this reason. But when it comes to replacing plastic rivets and shifting a panel 3mm (how many inches is that?) , probably with their bare hands, then my wallet might not be in their best interest – or more to the point: my wallet might be their only interest.

Now I have to identify a suitable shop to work on my baby. I have to find such a shop, because it’s not like I’ve ever required this service and yes, there are in fact parts of KK that I haven’t been to and so might not know the location of the best shop for the job. This is when networking with friends are really handy.

I just joined the MyVi Club, my type of car is quite popular, so I’ll find some good deals, or places for it, on there and can hopefully save some money without compromising quality.