As some of you know, I've been going to *** for work from my early days in Dubai 3 years back. Since then, I have had nothing but excellent service from Marc Radley, and now I have Shakil helping me with the RS4.
Although *** is well-known to be a BMW specialist, what sets them apart from other garages (in my honest opinion) is their commitment to get the job done right, at a fair price, no bullshit.
Two weeks back, I had a strange clunking/thunking sound coming from the front end every time I make a left turn of 90 degrees or more. Instead of sending it to Al Nabooda Audi, who typically take several days to diagnose such problems, I took it to ***. theshadow, from evolve.ae, sent his R32 in to Al Nabooda VW for the same problem 2 years back, and despite changing his CV joint covers, wheel bearings, and other bit and pieces, they not only failed to solve the problem, but dismissed it as being 'normal'
Shakil spent a good hour going through the front end with me in the car, on a lift, 5 ft up in the air, turning the wheels left and right, trying to isolate the problem, and found that my upper links/wishbone bushings were dried out and cracked after 55,000 km of driving in this climate.
Within 24 hours, he had OEM parts ordered at almost half of what Audi were asking for the same parts, and had them installed in half a day. I picked up my car 2 weeks back with the new bushings and not only was the clunking/thunking issue resolved, but the car felt more pliant, with much less road noise coming into the cabin. Ride quality was noticeably improved, and I nearly caught a ticket for doing over 140km/h on SZR, so quiet was the cabin now.
Just 48 hours ago, on Saturday, I dropped my RS4 off to Al Nabooda Audi for 60,000 km servicing. Thanks to Roshan there, they started on my car first thing in the morning (I dropped it off at 7 am, before they even started work) and to my pleasant surprise, were done at 5.30 pm (it's typically a 2 day job), and that included flushing the coolant, steering fluid, and even repressurized the complex Dynamic Ride Control (DRC system, also used in the last and current RS6). However, they pointed out that my left front headlamp washer was not working -- up until then, Shak and I had assumed that the cutouts were simply blanks, on account that we could never get them working anyway.
At 5.30 pm, I took the RS4 to *** with both sides half hanging out after we (the Audi service advisor and I) were not able to get it back in flush with the bumper). Shak had Kartik look over the car and I left the car there with them overnight for urgent rectification.
At 10.30 the next morning (yesterday), I got a call from Shakil confirming that the problem was fixed. Seems that a hose was blocked up with gunk from over 2 years of not being used, and they were able to clear the blockage and all was well again. This was excellent news, especially after
a. Al Nabooda Audi had confirmed that they would need the car for a few days to isolate the problem
b. Al Nabooda Audi confirmed that despite my Gulf Warranties policy, the headlamp washers were not covered. *** confirmed that this was covered.
c. Al Nabooda Audi suggested that this was a pump failure and that I would probably need a new pump. Shak suggested that it was a blocked hose, and was spot-on with that diagnosis.
That, my friends, is excellent service from a garage that is supposed to be BMW specialist, and is why I will continue to take my car to Shak/*** for work. If not for the fact that I need to continue to collect service booklet stamps from Al Nabooda Audi, I would get *** to do all the maintenance work on my RS4.
Although *** is well-known to be a BMW specialist, what sets them apart from other garages (in my honest opinion) is their commitment to get the job done right, at a fair price, no bullshit.
Two weeks back, I had a strange clunking/thunking sound coming from the front end every time I make a left turn of 90 degrees or more. Instead of sending it to Al Nabooda Audi, who typically take several days to diagnose such problems, I took it to ***. theshadow, from evolve.ae, sent his R32 in to Al Nabooda VW for the same problem 2 years back, and despite changing his CV joint covers, wheel bearings, and other bit and pieces, they not only failed to solve the problem, but dismissed it as being 'normal'
Shakil spent a good hour going through the front end with me in the car, on a lift, 5 ft up in the air, turning the wheels left and right, trying to isolate the problem, and found that my upper links/wishbone bushings were dried out and cracked after 55,000 km of driving in this climate.
Within 24 hours, he had OEM parts ordered at almost half of what Audi were asking for the same parts, and had them installed in half a day. I picked up my car 2 weeks back with the new bushings and not only was the clunking/thunking issue resolved, but the car felt more pliant, with much less road noise coming into the cabin. Ride quality was noticeably improved, and I nearly caught a ticket for doing over 140km/h on SZR, so quiet was the cabin now.
Just 48 hours ago, on Saturday, I dropped my RS4 off to Al Nabooda Audi for 60,000 km servicing. Thanks to Roshan there, they started on my car first thing in the morning (I dropped it off at 7 am, before they even started work) and to my pleasant surprise, were done at 5.30 pm (it's typically a 2 day job), and that included flushing the coolant, steering fluid, and even repressurized the complex Dynamic Ride Control (DRC system, also used in the last and current RS6). However, they pointed out that my left front headlamp washer was not working -- up until then, Shak and I had assumed that the cutouts were simply blanks, on account that we could never get them working anyway.
At 5.30 pm, I took the RS4 to *** with both sides half hanging out after we (the Audi service advisor and I) were not able to get it back in flush with the bumper). Shak had Kartik look over the car and I left the car there with them overnight for urgent rectification.
At 10.30 the next morning (yesterday), I got a call from Shakil confirming that the problem was fixed. Seems that a hose was blocked up with gunk from over 2 years of not being used, and they were able to clear the blockage and all was well again. This was excellent news, especially after
a. Al Nabooda Audi had confirmed that they would need the car for a few days to isolate the problem
b. Al Nabooda Audi confirmed that despite my Gulf Warranties policy, the headlamp washers were not covered. *** confirmed that this was covered.
c. Al Nabooda Audi suggested that this was a pump failure and that I would probably need a new pump. Shak suggested that it was a blocked hose, and was spot-on with that diagnosis.
That, my friends, is excellent service from a garage that is supposed to be BMW specialist, and is why I will continue to take my car to Shak/*** for work. If not for the fact that I need to continue to collect service booklet stamps from Al Nabooda Audi, I would get *** to do all the maintenance work on my RS4.
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