My honest experience with CarMed Bangalore including pros and cons

I have gone to them with extremely complex problems, which other workshops, including the authorised service centre could not solve, and they excelled in it.

BHPian Bsilver recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello everyone, after thoroughly searching for the reviews section, I am here, starting a new thread on Carmed Bangalore. I have taken out time specifically to type out this thread after being a customer for almost 8+ years.

Firstly, a little bit of history, there was this FNG called Bay6 Engineering Private Limited off Haralur, at Hosa Road. It was owned by a BHPian, and my father used to visit this as his go-to workshop back in 2015-16. Code6 Tuning also was in the same workshop, and rather Bay6 as an entity was a performance upgrades workshop. I have done almost all major work for my vehicles at Bay6 back in the day. I have personally not visited this workshop, but every time we sent our vehicles there, the overall experience was of the highest standards.

Carmed is owned by the same BHPian and is a full-blown workshop and is a one-stop solution for vehicles of all make. I first went to this workshop in 2022 for a paint job, after my father insisted me of giving it a try. The overall experience was excellent, and I immediately was convinced that I would revisit them in the future.

Forward to 2023 August, I thought of tuning my Rapid 1.5TDI, which I thoroughly researched on the forum. After almost one month of reading reviews of most of the tuners, I came to the conclusion for either Harmonixx or Code6. I paid Carmed and Harmonixx (located in Peenya) a visit and was not very keen on the latter as the experience at Carmed and the history was already instilled in my mind. Both had remapped a considerable number of 1.5 TDIs and I zeroed down to go for a Code6 tune. I will leave the tune till here and now cover on the services which they offer. I have personally done about 7-8 works on my car from them in a span of 1.5 years, and even higher from Bay6 Engineering.

Location:

3MQ5+C4H, Kannuru, Bengaluru, Karnataka 562149.
Link here: https://g.co/kgs/uR5ivKL.

It is far away for the people staying specifically in the South of Bangalore and the travel times from the South would not be less than 1 hour during any given time of any day. But if you are the one who appreciates the sheer workmanship and quality, then there should be not many things stopping you from visiting this place.

Area: It is spread across a parcel of 1 acre (exact not known), and can comfortably house around 80-90 cars inside. It is really spacious and the workspace does not feel cramped at all.

I will first cover the entrance of the property. Once you enter there is a parking space for cars which are not yet assigned a job card, and the guards will direct you to the same. There is a customer lounge and this is where your job card is started and you need to dictate what you want them to do to your vehicle. The first time I went, the spokesperson was very professional and noted down the niggles which I had pertaining to the vehicle. This space is chilled and has refreshments for the customers, along with magazines, wrap booklets, and is a good place to be if you are planning a quick service.

A picture of the same is here:

The entire area is divided into 3 segments, one in which they service the vehicles, and all the major repairs are done here, this also houses the Hunter Wheel Alignment and Balancing along with Nitrogen Filling as well. All this is neatly kept near the entrance for ease of movement. They test the vehicles after alignment multiple times before achieving perfection. This is a plus point and the chances of a second correction automatically reduce as well, compared to an untested job.

There are a total of 10 lifts in the main area and a dedicated engine bay work area where the rebuilds take place. Each lift area has its own dedicated workspace, from dustbins, and shelves to keep parts, air guns, and tool sets. All this paired with a large space ensures that the works on all the vehicles happen quickly and seamlessly. There is plenty of space leaving the lifts, for working on cars which do not need the lift, such as small electrical works, software issues etc.

The main parts area, where all the fluids, a few regular change parts, tires, lighting upgrades, and performance upgrades are housed at the corner and the billing counter also is under the same area.

The second segment of the workspace is where the exhaust area, where they work on performance exhausts. All of the things from welding, tapering, fitment related to the exhaust are done in-house. They have a welding station, and a shelf which has various parts of the exhaust system, in stock, every time. There are 3 entrances to this space, 2 large ones, and a small one connecting the main workshop to this exhaust space.

All the exhausts which are custom-made from Code6 are extensively tested and then put on to customers' vehicles. Not only the exhausts but also the tunes are also tested thoroughly as well, I have been driving and testing their tunes for quite some while now, and have completed around 16,000kms on it (may not sound a lot, but I drive aggressively as well). When choosing a tuner, I strongly suggest people to have the history of the engines the tuner has done, and go with them accordingly. I felt that they were good for the 1.5 TDIs and went with them. But if I had to tune a BMW, I would have preferred Harmonixx as they have extensively worked, especially on the 340I. Back to the topic, this area also serves as the parking for the owner's vehicles and is a paradise for enthusiasts. One would only want to have a dream space like this.

Attaching pictures of this space here:

The other segment is where the bodywork happens. They have a dedicated paint mixing and storage room and can create the paint which you would like. The very first time I went for the paint job, everything was matched perfectly, and the finish also was of very high quality and can be paired with OEMs. I do not have a picture of the before and after, but there are many posts of them on Instagram for the paint jobs and overall services.

There is also an area dedicated only to pre paint process like tinker work, body filling, stripping etc. The polishing process is also done in this segment of the workshop itself. There is a car wash at the corner of this segment, and also a dining room as well, and at the other corner is the management office.

At the entrance, the place where work-in-progress cars wait for parts, there is one more space and a detailing studio here. This space is primarily used for electrical/electronic upgrades. The pictures of which are attached here:

The overall workshop is setup in a very industrial type of layout, making connectivity and mobility easier, which is the main focus for a workshop handling such a number of cars.

Now would like to share some positives and negatives of the same, let me start with the pros first.

Positives

The garage is well equipped to handle all sorts of problems, and since they have years of experience, one will get a kind of peace of mind when handing over their expensive vehicles to them.

They also feature performance upgrade parts as well, so if someone wants to purchase say performance suspension, rotors etc, they have it all plus they have done multiple builds for many customers so they know exactly which of the performance parts pairs with the other at the best.

Staff is really well mannered, polite, professional and keep customer satisfaction at the highest degree, be it from all the workmen, managers, coordinators or the owners themselves. I have seen many workshops throughout owning multiple vehicles, but they lacked passion in their work, which I found in abundance at Carmed.

Pricing

I would not say that it is a positive neither would say it is a negative. Quality and excellence do not come cheap. The pricing is a little higher than other FNGs who also deal in the same area. For instance, a full body detailing for the Octavia would cost around 23k-25k, which I personally feel is a little high. There are shops achieving close to the same results in about 20-25% lesser amount. Plus there is a markup of performance parts as well, which I felt is too much. I had purchased performance brakes from a well-known dealer in Kerala for an X price, and at Carmed I was quoted around 35-40% extra. Knowing that the dealer whom I bought the parts also will be having some percentage of markup and both Carmed and the dealer would order from the same manufacturer, then this 35-40 % figure can easily reach 50% as well.

Negatives

The location feels far even if you are put up in Central Bangalore, or even East Bangalore for that matter. But as I said earlier in my post, it will bring you to Carmed, if you expect quality service.

Communication gap is one letdown for me, I do understand that they work with a high volume of vehicles every day, but always I needed to initiate the communication from my end. Timely and regular updates, especially if the problem is complex were not done. Hope they rectify this and improve this negative.

A suggestion is to make a universal platform, from which the customer knows the status of their vehicle, I am not saying it is mandatory, could be done over WhatsApp push messages, but there should be timely updates over it, and I personally feel it is not that much of an effort for a workshop operating at their level to implement such a thing.

As I said at the top about the cost, I at my personal level feel, they should bring down and rework their markups on some parts. I have known multiple instances or people who have not gone for the performance parts from them and only prefer fitting from them, just because of this extra percentage of markup. It is not on all parts, but on a few which I have peculiarly noticed. If this is done at their management level, then customers would be more than happy to buy and fit it at Carmed itself. Just an unbiased suggestion that I am expressing, and not any analysis of PNL.

I felt their website lacks data, and could be more engaging for the end user, when I was going through it, it felt like it was done just for having a website, and does not reflect completely about them. There are old-school people, who would prefer to see the websites, rather than the fancy social media handles. These are the small things which can be easily fixed by them, they can try to include more details, customer experiences, project builds, parts availability and a note from owners as well. This would really make them stand out as well.

That's all for the negatives at Carmed.

Overall it is a delightful experience to be on the customer side with them for 8 long years. I have done rebuilds from them for one of my vehicles. The expectations were matched and the vehicle is running without any problems as of now, touchwood. I have been lately visiting them quite frequently as well, for even the minutest of the works, and with every visit the bond/trust factor with me and the staff deepens as well.

I strongly recommend VAG/BMW owners specially, to have them as an option on your FNGs, as they have worked on numerous of them, and continue to work on them. It just adds to more experience and the result is an impeccable job from them. I have gone to them with extremely complex problems, which other workshops, including the ASC could not solve, and Carmed excelled in it.

Hope this helps fellow BHPians to gauge this FNG, and would be happy enough to read more reviews on them from others. This is what I felt about Carmed, and the entire review was unbiased and my personal experience. Thanks!

Workshop Contact:
+91 63663 00616
www.carmed.in

A few more pictures of builds and works done by them:

Happy Motoring!

Picture Credits: A few pictures from their Instagram handle, a few self taken, few from friends. I did not have many pictures of the workspace, as I am engaged with the staff most of the time. If I have not given credits to anyone, please PM me for the same, and I will mention you in the post.

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