WAYSIDE AUTO WORKSHOP VS A DEALERSHIP GARAGE.

WAYSIDE AUTO WORKSHOP VERSUS A DEALERSHIP GARAGE

Maintenance of a vehicle has always been a headache due to constraints in sending it to the service garage. The pain of waiting for your vehicle to be completely worked on is another hurdle with joy beaming on their faces when a clients car is delivered to him or her.

Getting a customer oriented mechanic or dealership who understands how the client feels and how fast they want their vehicle is another challenge. And these factors influence the decision of vehicle owners to send his/her car to an authorized dealership or a wayside garage for the vehicle to be worked on.

This brings me to my core point of argument. What are the pros and cons of a wayside garage and an authorized dealership service centre?

WAYSIDE AUTO WORKSHOP

As the name goes, a wayside garage is an automobile service garage with no proper set-up. They mostly don't have accreditation from any manufacturer and are mostly setup by an experienced mechanic(s) who has learnt the craft . Some have little or no formal education but are very good with the job.

A Typical wayside workshop

This is different from a well set up auto garage with no affiliation to a dealership (freelance sort of) but have the technical knowledge to work on most vehicles.

With a wayside auto shop, your car is worked on quickly. Most of the time it is the problem complained that is rectified. Nothing more nothing less.

The charges of the wayside auto shops are very cheap and you can easily bargain with the mechanic for discount and sometimes free services.

These mechanics are also easily accessible and can be called upon anytime. Upon all this there are question marks with their services.

Most of the mechanics use inferior and used spare parts hence their cheap rates. This affects the life span of your vehicle.

The safety of your vehicle is not assured because vehicles are mostly parked in unsecured open places.

DEALERSHIP GARAGE

One of the factors that scare most people from servicing their vehicles at dealership garages is the cost. They are very expensive with respect to the wayside auto shops.

This is because their charges in taxes and other industrial levies. Also, all spare and accessories used are new from the manufacturer (except in rare cases) hence their price build up.

A KIA AUTO GARAGE

Notwithstanding, a dealership garage assures you of quality service with the use of genuine spare parts, accessories and correct procedure of work.

For every time you visit a dealership garage, proper documentations are done for your vehicle. So even if you want the information for your vehicle 2 years back, it can be retrieved. This helps in diagnosing and rectifying of recurring problems.

On the issue of warranty, any part of the vehicle within the permissible years will be changed if defective and conditions are met. A challenge in our jurisdiction is that most of the cars on our roads are old and used vehicles from Europe and America hence most of them are out of warranty.

Another benefit is the use of proper diagnostic tools and equipments from the manufacturer which fits your vehicle. Update of software on your vehicle is one essential thing that can only be accessed through a dealership.

Below is a table numerating their difference.

Table: 1

Advantages

WAYSIDE	DEALERSHIP
Affordable service	Proper documentation
Work done in a short period of time	Genuine spare parts and accessories
	Correct tools for the right job
	Quality control
	Warranty
	Proper diagnosis and updates from manufacturer
	Assured safety of your vehicle

Table 2

Disadvantages

WAYSIDE	DEALERSHIP
No vehicular safety	Too much bureaucracy
90%  inferior parts and accessories	Takes too much time for vehicle to be serviced.
No technical support from manufacturer	It is very expensive
No proper documentation

Each of them has their pros and cons and also serves different clientele so it boils down to the car owner or user.

Ideally, it is better to service your vehicle at the dealership garage. If not, insist on quality service with genuine parts from your mechanic (if you can't afford the latter) so that your vehicle can last longer.