[moralfibre]

Products Sold:

• Cosworth, K&N, Koni, etc Performance Products

Services offered:

• Servicing / Routine maintenance.
• Accident repairs.
• Performance modifications.
• Ground up restorations.

What I like:

• Abhijit Lonkar has been trained under rally veteran Mr. Dilip Desai.
• Years of proven experience.
• Excellent diagnosis of problems.
• Always eager to repair than replace and thereby keeps costs down.
• Very good service experience
• Very clean and spacious workshop with experienced mechanics.
• Works on everything from a M800 to top of the line Mercedes' and imports.
• Runs the workshop with passion and honesty. Is a car guy himself.

What I don't like:

• Paint jobs are a little expensive.
• The location is a little far from my current residence.

Pricing: Cheap and reasonable for most of the regular maintenance. Always gives an update on pricing before replacing parts.

Services availed so far:

• Routine service.
• Paint job.
• Miscellaneous repair job.

References:

1) Amey's lancer.
2) Recommendation by other t-bhpians.

Contact info:
Tune Up Plus
Abhijit Lonkar
Survey No.19/3/B
Baner Balewadi Road
Balewadi Pune-411045
Ph #:- 27292262

[ajay_satpute]

Hey moralfibre

I was actually looking fot Tune Up Plus on TBHP. I found lots of info of this place on Facebook. Tune Up Plus | Facebook. I got the number of Abhijeet also on the Facebook page.

When I posted my query on this page, i DID get a reply.

When I called Abhijeet and asked him whether he can do denting and painting job on my Vista, he said YES immediately. Infact he is the only one who said that he can match any colour and no need to replace the bumper. Tata had told me to replace the bumper which costs like 6.5K.

I will update this thread once my job is done.

Could you please mention approx cost for the paint job?

[S_U_N]

I am in the market for used cars. Will they be able to evaluate/ check cars and provide honest recommendations?

[GTO]

I've heard many, many good things about Tune Up. Nice to see a Directory entry on the place. It's one of those garages that has been recommended by so many BHPians, I'd trust them with my car (even though I haven't visited the place).

Thanks for sharing, Moralfibre.

[jraj]

I dont want to spoil the party here or mine was a one off.I did a whole body repaint of my Fiat Petra in 2007 December at Tuneup plus.I heard about the name from one of the TBhp-ans at Pune.

The paint started chipping off within 3 months itself.I sent some pics to Abhijit by mail showcasing them.He offered to get them rectified.But by then the car had been sent to my parents place in TN and I didnt pursue it any further.Got the whole paint job done again at TVS,Coimbatore in May2009 as the paint started peeling off at so many places.TVS did a wonderful job.

Before I left the car for painting at Tuneup,I did ask Abhijit about the paintbooth and he mentioned that since they didnt have one,he would be renting one nearby as he normally does.But when I went there one afternoon to check the progress on the car,saw the paint job being carried out at the workshop itself.

Maybe they are very good in doing denting\painting minor parts than a whole paint job.My 2 cents

[GTO]

Added a public poll so that every Member who has used Tuneup's services can vote. Please do, it greatly enhances the value of our Directory section.

[Amey]

A few things I would like to mention which I have observed and like about Tune Up Plus,

1) Abhijit himself is well trained and has strong basics and as mentioned by Moralfibre above,has been trained under Dilip Desai.

2) Disciplined workmanship. No 'Chalta Hai' attitude.

3) Disciplined staff,no shouting,yelling,etc. Whatever work is carried out, is done in a systematic way.You will never hear too much banging,hammering going on.

4) The premises is kept very clean,no oil,grease stains.Won't find trash lying here and there,like spare part boxes or replaced parts and so on.

5) The primary approach is to fix the problem.Replacing is always the easy option but these guys atleast try to fix things,if it doesn't help then they replace parts,that too after prior approval from the customer.

6) A few cars require special tools for dismantling few parts.Unfortunately these special tools are available only in Dealerships.To overcome this,I have seen Abhijit 'make' these himself.I admire this approach.He is willing to take the extra effort.

Now coming to the painting part.The way I see it, Denting,painting is just one of the services offered and in my opinion they do a fairly good job.I got my lancer painted from him and I think he did a fairly decent job.After which I started my project and decided to change the colour from silver to white and told him that I want it painted in a booth,for which he said,we shall get it done from outside,not a problem.

[cyclops]

Hmmm.. Maybe the place is very good, but my experience was pretty average. The reason for that must be I went there for a routine service of my humble Alto, never got any specialized task done.

Probably they are good at specialized jobs like performance tuning and all. I must appreciate the workshop setup, it's pretty good and we can freely see the work being done.

But few observations from my side which made me decide that its not worth to drive all the way to this place for getting the routine service done.

1. I had to insist the way I have to do at any other place - for thorough washing, faster movement, cleaning greasy stains, etc.
2. They used normal tap water for coolant dilution with the usual chalta hain attitude, charged me more than hundred bucks for some windscreen cleaner additive (without confiming).
3. I follow the owner's manual for all routine service checklist and I had to insist them to cover majority the tasks.
4. When I was getting the remote boot lid opener fixed, the labor charges quoted were double of what I eventually paid elsewhere. Labor charges in general seem high.

[SankalpDesai]

Here's my experience with Tune Up Plus.

Took my car to them with some badly scratched front left door, damaged during a risky parking manouvre. The damage was significant as the pillar had left deep marks on my car. So it required some work to be done. Though it wasn't spread in a large area geographically, it covered the front left door, little bit of the left rear view mirror and some portion of the front body, close to the door.

My car being a Tuscan Wine Punto, I was sure the damage to my pocket too would be significant. And so it was.

Positives

Excellent paint and body reshaping job.
Complete colour match.
Good car wash and polishing.

Negatives

E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E.
Do contemplate on breaking a bank before you approach them.
Door latch didn't fit properly and passengers weren't able to open the door from the inside. Got it rectified the next day.

Overall, a good experience in terms of work delivered.

[Nilesh5417]

I had bought a used 2004 Esteem VXI with about 44k on odo about an year ago and had a few issues that wouldn't get fixed:
1. Front right wheel would make a constant noise
2. A/C wouldn't work at the lowest setting
3. Hard gear shifts
4. Shuddering clutch at low RPMs
5. Hard steering that required muscle (something i realised after the service when the steering became so light)
6. Poor brakes inspite of changing the front discs/pads.

Didn't want to spend a bomb and wanted a reliable job so looked up T-BHP and found tune up plus. I stay in Viman Nagar and drove all the way to Baner across town to get there on Friday i.e. 9th Dec'11. When i got the car on 11th, it was worth the drive.

Every single problem was fixed and i was suggested a clutch plate/pressure plate replacement for completely fixing issues 3 & 4 but i didn't have the budget this month so i skipped. I was okay with the improvement that service and oil change would give. Everything else was fixed and how! The car feels nice and light to drive. My wife who occasionally takes it around (drives a getz usually) didn't crib on Sunday when she drove it. That is a big testimony to a job well done.

Here is a breakup of charges. Wanted to scan the bills but the damn office scanner doesn't work. Sorry for the slightly messed up numbers.

Bill 1
--------------------------------------------
1. Servicing Rs.675
2. Blower resistor assly changing Rs.150
3. Elec. check up Rs. 50
4. Wheel noise checking Rs.200
5. Clutch cable service Rs.175
6. Service Tax @10% Rs.125
7. Education Surcharge Rs.3
8. Higher Education Surcharge Rs.1 ( )
---------------------------------------------
Total Rs.1379
---------------------------------------------

Bill 2.
------------------------------------------------
1. Windscreen cleaner - Qty 1 - Rs.25
2. Distilled water - Qty 2 - Rs.30
3. Air filter - Esteem mpfi - Qty 1 - Rs.325
4. Oil filter - mpfi - Qty 1 - Rs.85
5. Engine Oil - HD 20 W 40 - Qty 3.5 - Rs.788
6. Carburettor spray - Qty 1 - Rs.150
7. A/C Blower resistor - Qty 1 - Rs.475
8. Consumables - Qty 1 - Rs.75
--------------------------------------------------
Total Rs.1953
--------------------------------------------------

Grand Total - Bill 1 + Bill 2 = Rs.3332.00

Am guessing that a regular service then would have cost:
1. Servicing Rs.675
2. Elec. check up Rs. 50
3. Clutch cable service Rs.175
4. Windscreen cleaner - Qty 1 - Rs.25
5. Distilled water - Qty 2 - Rs.30
6. Air filter - Esteem mpfi - Qty 1 - Rs.325
7. Oil filter - mpfi - Qty 1 - Rs.85
8. Engine Oil - HD 20 W 40 - Qty 3.5 - Rs.788
9. Carburettor spray - Qty 1 - Rs.150
10. Consumables - Qty 1 - Rs.75
----------------------------------------------------
Total Rs.2378.00
Serv Tax @ 10% Rs.238.00
----------------------------------------------------
Grand Total Rs.2616.00
----------------------------------------------------

I was speaking to Azhar all the time and he even made arrangements for me to pick up the car from the garage on a Sunday.
Not sure how these costs compare to MASS but sound reasonable for a Maruti Esteem when i compare to what i pay Hyundai for my 07'Getz. I've never been to MASS since i've only read horror stories about those around Viman Nagar. My car is mechanically brilliant having been driven by the wife of an ex-airforce group caption so didn't want to hand it over to any of these. Guess am pretty happy after all with my decision not to!
Hope this helps!

[S_U_N]

^Nilesh: Good to hear that you are satisfied. I have interacted with Abhijit and he was able to identify one issue with my car too - so my experience has also been positive.
Off-topic:
BTW: For Maruti, Santoor Car Care on Nagar Road is much closer and good too - I have taken my Zen a couple of times and they were prompt in solving the issues. You may try that next time just to save 20KM + 20 KM drive across the city.

[ajay_satpute]

My Vista completed 25k KMs and so was due for its 5th service. I had already changed engine oil to Fully Synthetic Mobil1 oil along with fuel filter. So there was not much work except the following 2 major issues:

1) Front suspensions were making "karr karr" sound while going over a speed braker
2) Power window switch on the driver's control panel for the rear LHS window was not working.

I called Mr. Lonkar on 28th Feb and he said that I will need an appointment. So I asked him for one and got Tuesday's (6th March) appointment. I did not like the first question he asked me on the phone when I asked for an appointment. The questions was LOUD and clear "Which car is it???". When I said Indica Vista, he paused for a few seconds and then said get it next week. It might be my imagination, but did not like the tone of this question. Probably, if I had said Audi A4, he would said "Get it now!". Anyways...

Problem # 1:
I reached the place at 9:30 AM sharp as scheduled. There were two guys and one guy started filling up the job card, with not very useful information. He filled up my name, car's reg number and mobile number. When I started listing the issues to be tackled, he was like "Sir sab ho jayega, dont' worry". He did not write down any of the issues I reported.

Problem # 2:
Mr. Lonkar first told me he will reach the garage by 9:45. He did not. I called him up again at 10 and he said he will take another 15-20 minutes. So I left and told him to call me back.

Problem # 3:
He never called me back till 2 PM. So I called to check status. The car was not ready and the required part had to be ordered and Mr. Lonkar was not sure whether it will reach him by today evening. So he said he will call me back by 5 PM to update the status. He did not call me back. I again called him at 5:30 and said that "why do you never call me back, when you say you will?" His response "Sir, today i do not have my mechanics and so I am busy". When I left the garage at 10 AM in the morning, there were at least 7 mechanics already at job.

Problem # 4:
The car was not to be ready by EOD 6th March, as expected. So he tells me that he will call me by 11:30 AM next day (7th March) and will update me the status.

Problem # 5:
He called me today morning (7th march) at 10:45 itself saying that the car is ready to go. It was unbelievable. How did he manage to get the part so early in the morning and fit it and get the car ready??? Anyways, so I told him to send the car ASAP, if its really ready. He sends it.

The car reached me in 10 minutes, checked everything as per the list and he had not resolved the power window switch problem. He had informed me that his electrician is looking into it, but at last he tells me that the whole power window assembly needs to be replaced and that assembly can come only in 3-4 days.

Problem # 6:
So the driver leaves after I take charge of the car. I take it to the parking and while I am parking, I had to reverse the car a bit to get the right angle and boom... The reverse sound not working. FINE...I still parked the car. Got out and I try to lock the car with remote and BOOM! Remote lock not working. I can not lock the car AT ALL.

I called Mr. Lonkar immediately and he said he will pick the car and rectify the issue ASAP. So the car goes back to garage.

Problem # 7:
I have having lunch at a place far from the drop off point of the car. He calls me and tells me, that the car has already left the garage and it should reach me in 5 minutes. I told him that I am not there right now and will take atleast an hour to reach. So the car goes back to garage for the 3rd time. WHY could not he call me before leaving the garage???

Problem # 8:
He never called me for the next 2 hours. So I called him at 3 to ask about delivery. He says no driver is available to drop the car. He called me after 20 minutes and said that he will himself drop the car now. So he reached me and I checked everything. He handed the keys to me. I checked whether remote lock is working and it was, thank God. So i told him to wait and let me check the reverse music. When I slotted the reverse gear and turned to tell him that its working now, he had already crossed the road and was on the other side entering some car. WHAT THE HELL?

Overall, very disappointing experience from customer relationship POV. He may be knowledgeable, experienced, but needs to learn to talk to customers, be it an Indica Vista customer or Audi A4.

Now, I will have to visit TASS to fix the power window problem, which I did not want to do in the first place.

[Twinn]

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

He may be knowledgeable, experienced, but needs to learn to talk to customers, be it an Indica Vista customer or Audi A4.

Ajay I completely agree with you. Just by reading the reviews here in Tbhp I had taken my Gypsy. My experience was even worse. I was there at his time but 'No Saab' was present there. After an hour he comes in, but doesn't even acknowledge a customer who is waiting for him.

I never bothered to go back to him after that day!!!

[moralfibre]

Hi Ajay, sad to know that you weren't pleased by your experience with what 100% of my friends have been so far. This includes all family cars that go there often. His labour charges are higher than the local run of the mill road side garages. But, I always manage to convince my friends and family that costs depend on the facility that an independent garage maintains. Whether there is enough parking space, the surroundings are clean and conducive to carry out repairs, the quality of tools used, etc.

Since I recommended this garage to many others and most of them have been satisfied I have passed on your concerns to Abhijit or Mr. Lonkar as you refer to him. He might respond to you here. However, I found a few things that I should address and I hope you wouldn't mind me commenting on them.

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

... I did not like the first question he asked me on the phone when I asked for an appointment. The questions was LOUD and clear "Which car is it???". When I said Indica Vista, he paused for a few seconds and then said get it next week. It might be my imagination, but did not like the tone of this question. Probably, if I had said Audi A4, he would said "Get it now!". Anyways...

I found your tone totally judgemental here. You started off by having a very negative impression of a person by speaking to him over the phone. I am not advocating for Tune Up Plus but he does service everything from a Premier Padmini to a top of the line Mercedes at his garage and he has no air about it. I have seen him personally wash cars at his garage when he has troubles with his mechanics like if they are on mass leave. He takes great pride in his work and I am sure he wouldn't discriminate a customer based on the car he/she owns.

Asking the brand and make of a car is a pertinent question any service station asks. That includes your authorized service stations too.

Problem # 1:
I reached the place at 9:30 AM sharp as scheduled. There were two guys and one guy started filling up the job card, with not very useful ..........like "Sir sab ho jayega, dont' worry". He did not write down any of the issues I reported.

I fail to see the problem here. Correct me if I am wrong but:
- You were not left unattended or asked to stand in a long queue.
- Secondly, the details you found not useful are done at every reputed garage.

Did they make you sign on an empty job card which just had information that you found so not useful?

Mr. Lonkar first told me he will reach the garage by 9:45. He did not. I called him up again at 10 and he said he will take another 15-20 minutes. So I left and told him to call me back.

I guess you wanted to meet the garage owner personally and he couldn't make it in time. Not sure if it was pre-decided whether you had to meet him personally at 9:45 or was it just understood that he would be there at 9:45.

He never called me back till 2 PM. So I called to check status. The car was not ready and the required part had to be ordered and Mr. Lonkar was not sure whether it will reach him by today evening. So he said he will call me back by 5 PM to update the status. He did not call me back. I again called him at 5:30 and said that "why do you never call me back, when you say you will?" His response "Sir, today i do not have my mechanics and so I am busy". When I left the garage at 10 AM in the morning, there were at least 7 mechanics already at job.

A karr karr noise from the front + power window problem surely takes more than 4 hours to diagnose. So obviously your car wouldn't have been ready by 2PM. Not sure what you mean when you said "So I left and asked him to call me back." Sounds like a little too demanding for a person running a full time garage attending to probably 20-25 cars a day. Usually a service advisor from an A.S.S. calls back with details at end of day so I think it was expected of him to call back.

Problem # 4:
The car was not to be ready by EOD 6th March, as expected. So he tells me that he will call me by 11:30 AM next day (7th March) and will update me the status.

Again, I fail to see the "Problem" here unless you were promised that you'll get the car on the 6th.

Problem # 5:
He called me today morning (7th march) at 10:45 itself saying that the car is ready to go. It was unbelievable. How did he manage to get the part so early in the morning and fit it and get the car ready??? Anyways, so I told him to send the car ASAP, if its really ready. He sends it.

It should not be unbelievable, from what I know is that he collects pending part requirements from his vendors when he heads home at end of business and returns with them the next day morning. This is because of the fact that there are no spare part vendors around his facility and you might agree that it is a little difficult to source parts every 15 minutes for a car.

The question I have is whether your problem was fixed or not by the part replacement? If not, you have full authority to doubt if the part was replaced or not.

The car reached me in 10 minutes, checked everything as per the list and he had not resolved the power window switch problem. He had informed me that his electrician is looking into it, but at last he tells me that the whole power window assembly needs to be replaced and that assembly can come only in 3-4 days.

So if the electrician diagnosed that a part has failed, it is obvious that he'll recommend a part replacement than repair? Or were you expecting that he should have mentioned a replacement upfront without diagnosis? At the same time would you like the car waiting at the service station for 3-4 days as against getting it fixed when the part is available?

Problem # 6:
So the driver leaves after I take charge of the car. I take it to the parking and while I am parking, I had to reverse the car a bit to get the right angle and boom... The reverse sound not working. FINE...I still parked the car. Got out and I try to lock the car with remote and BOOM! Remote lock not working. I can not lock the car AT ALL.

Oh no! Reverse horns!! . This is obviously his fault and it should have been fixed by him, no two ways about it. Perhaps they disconnected it while checking the power windows wiring. Just guessing.

I called Mr. Lonkar immediately and he said he will pick the car and rectify the issue ASAP. So the car goes back to garage.

Corrective action offered no?

Problem # 7:
I have having lunch at a place far from the drop off point of the car. He calls me and tells me, that the car has already left the garage and it should reach me in 5 minutes. I told him that I am not there right now and will take atleast an hour to reach. So the car goes back to garage for the 3rd time. WHY could not he call me before leaving the garage???

Miscommunication by Tune Up Plus. They should have called you up before coming to deliver.

Problem # 8:
He never called me for the next 2 hours. So I called him at 3 to ask about delivery. He says no driver is available to drop the car. He called me after 20 minutes and said that he will himself drop the car now. So he reached me and I checked everything. He handed the keys to me. I checked whether remote lock is working and it was, thank God. So i told him to wait and let me check the reverse music. When I slotted the reverse gear and turned to tell him that its working now, he had already crossed the road and was on the other side entering some car. WHAT THE HELL?

Wasn't that a good gesture that he personally came to deliver the car to you when drivers were not available? Not sure why he left without waiting for you to check everything, perhaps he was equally pissed at the way you spoke, etc. But I can't be judgemental since I wasn't present at the place. I'll wait for him to clarify if at all he wants to.

Overall, very disappointing experience from customer relationship POV. He may be knowledgeable, experienced, but needs to learn to talk to customers, be it an Indica Vista customer or Audi A4.

Still trying to find out what your "conversation" was?

[1self]

My experience with Tune Up plus has always been positive. Mr. Lonkar has worked on both my vehicles for small jobs (noise from the boot which turned out to be a loose rear suspension link) to very big jobs ( taking out the entire engine & gearbox assembly & boxing it back). All this done to my complete satisfaction.

Mr. Lonkar is quite a reserved man & that may send the wrong signals to people who do not know him personally. He may come across as 'unfriendly', but that is far from reality. Rest assured his work speaks for itself.