Phoenix Car Spa: My review of a car accessories shop in Trivandrum

I've got multiple things done on a variety of cars over the years & they've never cut corners.

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Location: Bang on MC road, to the left side when you are coming from Mannanthala, towards Vembayam.

While there is no shortage of Car accessories shops in Trivandrum, and the scene isn't as vibrant as it used to be 15 years ago, this is a shop I haunt frequently because:

1. The installers are competent, and usually do not take shortcuts, and even if they do, they will tell you before they do and why. Most of the other shops I've been to, won't hesitate to cut your wires while you are not watching, or other parts of trim etc and then defend that this IS the way to do it, and I am a stupid amateur for asking for things like wiring harnesses or spacers to be used.
2. Not too much sales pitch. While they tend to gravitate towards the brands they stock (and more on this later) - they are fairly objective in terms of recommending what to do etc.

Plus Points:

1. They make all their seat covers in-house
2. Good and competent (but not exceptional) wiring skills
3. Willing to try out new things
4. Good warranty service
5. Objective advice

Negatives:

1. Not really an ICE specialist - They are more into setting up dashcams, android stereos, other electrical accessories etc
2. Limited ICE brands selection - But they are willing to procure stuff on request
3. Pricing for ICE items is not in line with eCommerce rates - but this is true for most ICE shops.

For me, this works fabulously because finding an electrical guy who does not cut corners is half the battle - Most of the ones I have seen in Trivandrum are either incompetent or have rather oversized egos.

(Disclaimer: I've not been to all of them if you know a guy here who's neither, Probably one of the shops I've not visited). I can fill in all their gaps - arrange equipment, take care of tuning, etc, and they are fine if I bring in my own parts (a lot of ICE shops will refuse to install stuff from outside, or at least tune them like crap and then sell you an upgrade from their own stuff)

Their floor mats and seat covers are pretty good - If you're in the market for those - that's one of their main competencies

What I've done for them:

1. Installed my UTE 73BT in my Indica which I had bought in the US. Was literally plug and play as my old CDE 9870E had the same connector
2. Installed a Sony XS- AW8 in the Indica - Pricing was on par with eCommerce prices at the time, they reused the wiring kit that was already on the car
3. New rear parcel tray and installed infinity ovals from Amazon - they didn't have any interesting brands available so went with Amazon.
4. Seat covers and 3D floor mats for Etios, Installation of Toyota OEM footwell lighting kit - For some weird reason Nippon refused to install a Toyota OE part I had sourced from Boodmo, so these guys stepped up. The Etios was new to me, they found a literal rat nest behind the stereo, cleaned it up, fixed some of the wiring and got my radio running too
5. Indica Reverse sensors - This is an ongoing saga where my weak alternator, dying wiring etc make the sensor control unit act up frequently - they have been very helpful in swapping out other units, and recommending solutions from their end. This is almost sorted, but the car keeps coming up with creative new issues
6. Blaupunkt Underseat sub installs in Etios - Sourced one-off OLX, it went kaput during testing, and I repaired it myself, swapping some power supply capacitors - Got a wiring harness from them, and got it wired up and running.
7. Horn install - My car had a pair of roots windtones, and since they are mounted low in the bumper, would die every monsoon. My electrical shop swore by roots because they were repairable, but paying 500 every time for a repair was beginning to make me reconsider my choice - Got a pair of their Preferred brand "HoD". I'd never heard of it, but they offered me an unconditional 2-year warranty which I frequently use. Sounds good enough, and having working horns is very important!
8. Power mirror upgrade - got them to do the wiring through the door for my DIY power mirror kit for the Indica - went smoothly and they were very interested to see it and happy to play along with my experiments
9. Dashcam installs - Did the hardwired setup for my Nexdigitron dash-cam on my Etios
10. Swift OE reverse camera install - this is part of another project for my friend Swift, where we have gotten a ZXI+ HU but were missing the camera. We bought the camera kit online, and had it plugged in, but turns out the seller had assumed that the reverse light/parking harness was available, but it was not. This is to be continued.

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