Car Servicing - Recommendations Please

[Thensome]

Hi All,

I see in previous threads that Total Tuning (Martin) on Kowloon side looked after a couple of posters quite well.

I'm looking for someone to service a 2006 Audi. Let me know if people could give me a few suggestions. Not too fussy on location (don't need to drive most days). Audi main dealer garages are most likely going to be very pricey.

Also how do you know if a garage is actually doing the work they bill you for. Checking to see if they changed the oil, wiper blades is easy but being honest I wouldn't know if they did or didn't do other work. Thanks

[Skyhook]

Hi All,

I see in previous threads that Total Tuning (Martin) on Kowloon side looked after a couple of posters quite well.

I'm looking for someone to service a 2006 Audi. Let me know if people could give me a few suggestions. Not too fussy on location (don't need to drive most days). Audi main dealer garages are most likely going to be very pricey.

Also how do you know if a garage is actually doing the work they bill you for. Checking to see if they changed the oil, wiper blades is easy but being honest I wouldn't know if they did or didn't do other work. Thanks

Is that a how long is a piece of string question ?

Personally I watch all complicated work that's performed on my cars, when I had more time I used to do majority of the work myself.

A number of Australian Cathay pilots use Martin, he's well known around prestige/performance car circles, you will see why when you speak to him.

I request to have all removed parts to be left in the boot of the car wrapped in plastic bags, when I come to collect the car. I've also been known to scribe parts prior to dropping the car to the workshop and checking later, to prove that they were in fact, replaced lol.

[rani]

If you're on HK side we use this garage. Guy speaks a little english

Tin Wan Auto Service
Just below Tin Wan Close,
Tel: 2873 6150

There are also a few garages in Wong Chuk Hang on Yip Kan St.

[Skyhook]

Wow a little english..

Martin is a native English speaker, as he did his mechanical apprenticeship in Australia. ie properly trained.

You'll see when you visit Total Tuning the types of cars that they have back logged to work on, 3 million dollar Rolls Royce Phantoms, R8 Audi's, usually a Ferrari and Lamborghini, or two. From memory Martin did his apprenticeship with VW, or Audi ( I forget which ) so he knows Volkswagen Audi Group stuff very comprehensively. Tin Wan are NOT the same thing.

Geo Steve has used Total Tuning and can attest you aren't dealing with a typical local garage operation and their prices are very fair.

[rani]

Have seen the same high end cars in Tin Wan including a Rolls. Just cos he's not a native English speaker doesn't mean the mechanic is incompetent.

[shri]

So there is only one competent mechanic in town? Sounds like that endorsement you gave that german nutter.

I've happily used the Tin Wan guy for well over a decade and so have many expats in Baguio Villas. I'd think that endorsement would matter more than some random employee who has used them once.

The guy we take our car to does not do Ferraris and other boutique cars, but he's ok with everything else that I've seen in his shop - Mercs, Bentleys, BMWs etc...

Seriously need to review your attitude towards slamming local businesses AND over zealously recommending expat businesses. We all know how it turned out the last time around.

[Skyhook]

I see you are like a dog with a bone with this.

Why lie . I never endorsed Wolfgang, have never used his work, so please STOP inferring otherwise. I own 3 companies in HK in 3 different sectors, ( Small home construction, Aviation via an FBO and OEM automotive parts ).

I had an interest in what Wolfgang was doing at the time early on when he didnt have a bad rap. What part of that doesnt compute with you? I also know the brother ( John ) of the owner of your competing expat website that had an issue with Wolfgang, who like you started the whole lets get wolfgang brigade.

If you want to keep associating me with WPE engineering and put what I have typed in the past out of context to make yourself feel better, then go right ahead. I know both sides of the story and was in John L's discovery bay apartment, looking at the mistakes wolfgang made.. Were YOU ? SO sit down and stop speaking from 3rd or 20th hand experience.

I dont need to review my attitude around the likes of you that has never turned a spanner in your life and doubt you have ever got grease under those academic fingernails of yours...

Two other GEO posters have used martins service and given him the thumbs up, or did you decide to ignore that, one of them being GEO Steve.


I use Martins work shop for complicated technical repairs like wheel alignment/geometry setup, he isnt the type that's going to use a string line around the car and do it by eye like majority of the locally trained HK mechanics........lol MArtin is HK Chinese, he isn't an expat btw....

The OP asked for a Kowloon based mechanical workshop, Total Tuning is who I recommend.

For HK Island, I'd have no problem using Fookie Motors in Chai Wan, or Eddie at Grand Motors in Happy Valley. Both good at what they do, Fookie better set up to tackle more complex mechanical/electrical repairs. Eddie is great for simpler general maintenance stuff.

Anyway... Get over it

[GeoSteve]

I see my name has been mentioned a couple of times so I am going to give my impartial view.

First of all, I will continue to use Martin at Total Tuning because I know where he is, know how he works and can trust him. Also I live on the Kowloon side so convenience is another factor. I thank Skyhook for this very useful bit of advice.....However,

The OP asked for a Kowloon based mechanical workshop, Total Tuning is who I recommend.

I'm looking for someone to service a 2006 Audi. Let me know if people could give me a few suggestions. Not too fussy on location (don't need to drive most days). Audi main dealer garages are most likely going to be very pricey.

No where in the above post did the OP ask for a service to be in Kowloon and actually states not too fussy on location. If you look at the OP's location he states Pok Fu Lam and Rani replied with a perfectly respectable answer based on location and convenience to the OP and also warned him that his English wasn't so good.

Wow a little english..

Martin is a native English speaker, as he did his mechanical apprenticeship in Australia. ie properly trained.

This reply I find was out of order. You can't go around judging someones abilities just because they do not speak a language not native to them. What if Rani said he only spoke a little German, would you have still replied in the same manner?

Also the quote mentioning he got trained in Australia ie properly trained, that also is a bit condescending and both quotes together can be seen as quite racist. I am pretty sure, if not dead certain that people who took their apprenticeships in Hong Kong, Japan, UK or Timbuktu would be just as competent at doing a quality job. It is down to the person not where they got trained or which language they speak.

End of the day the OP asked for other suggestions and he got a reply of one based on experience and a more convenient location to the OP. It is up to him which one he goes for.


After saying this, could we now get back to assisting the OP with any further suggestions and recommendations for car mechanics.

Thank you.

[Thensome]

Many thanks for the suggestions so far. Finding a garage I can trust is the most important factor. Location is way down the list. I was previously spoiled back home as a friend of the family worked on cars for me.

I have had a run of bad luck in a short space of time with this car: paint damaged while parked, bad puncture in cross-harbour tunnell (new tyre needed), parking sensor broken - reversed into while parked again.

So hopefully a good garage can get this poor car back in shape.