I extended my ten year old Nissan Latio COE by five years for about 29 grand. Before I did that, I got my Singapore mechanic to do a check. He said new shock absorbers were needed and that it was worth extending the COE. He quoted me about a SGD 1,000 for the repair.
A number of the church members, especially the golfers, have been doing their car maintenance and repairs in Johor and urged me to do so. One member had an uncle there that ran a car repair workshop. He asked his uncle to give a quotation for shock absorbers replacement and it came to RM850(SGD283) with labour charges . I wanted to change all my tyres to Michelin 185/65/r15 which in Singapore would cost SGD$105 each and this is regarded as a good price. The Johor quotation was RM250(SGD 85) for each tyre.
With my Garmin hooked up, my wife and I picked up my brother in law and wife, and together we headed for Tebrau City area via the Causeway. The workshop was a minutes drive from the shopping mall. We wandered around a while because my Garmin Malaysia map was not updated and the highway was new. I should have listened to my friend and used Google Maps navigation offline. Anyway we finally reached the workshop and their clerk gave us a lift to the mall. We arranged a time for them to pick us up. Then we had a late breakfast, window shopping and a good lunch and more shopping.
As the church member had already informed him of what I wanted done, he had already prepared the authentic parts and the tyres. This speeded up the work and I rode the car home feeling satisfied with the smoothness of the ride, even over the bumps. I asked him to check the engine mountings and he said only one needed replacement. Mostly I was satisfied with the substantial savings. The hassle (the jam and finding the place) was minor compared to the cost benefits. The rental and labour costs over there in Johor is much cheaper than ours and the Singapore dollar has the advantage of a strong exchange rate.
If you need more information and want to go to this workshop and get a few other quotations from around that area here is the name card with address and map.
Michelin 185/65/r15 which in Singapore would cost SGD$105 each and this is regarded as a good price. The Johor quotation was RM250(SGD 85) for each tyre.
this price included balancing and tyre alignment?
Sorry Lyn, I cannot remember. It was too long ago.
Ok noted with thanks!
Hi blogpastor what was the issue with your transmission?
I’m driving a near 10 year odyssey and sometimes at low speed (ESP when the car is just started) it will jerk as it picks up from 1st to 2nd gear. I went to my mechanic and he put in a bottle of transmission protectant and it worked for awhile then came back. He say it is likely to be a transmission issue and repair would be 2k+.
Hi underdogs, I was driving home one day when it started jerking and I quickly drove back to office. I was about to drive to my mechanic when it gave me even more problems and so I drove back again. This time it died as I entered the car park. So I had to pay for a tow truck to bring it to the mechanic and get it done. Got a reconditioned auto transmission for $2000. So far so good.
Hi, would you recommend the workshop as a reliable value maintenance workshop for others? The member’s uncle is Ah Soon?
Jason, I went there based on trust in my church member’s word. I found him reliable. I did not check with other workshops around the area. I would recommend you first try the workshop with less expensive works, small repairs, servicing etc.
Jason,
This morning ( 25/08/2018 ) 09:12
I emailed to Ah Soon you called him uncle. I asked him the prices of a pair of suspension for my car Kia Cerato , he seem not likely to quot me the $…!
He said he not entertain from email and ask me to drive to his workshop .
See, as we need to know how he charge and off course we have our budget too. If he don’t/can’t give at least a cost how to convince us to drive from far distance to his workshop if the price is not match my budget!? Especially, they saw you from Singapore sure they will charge you more.
Dickson
Hi Dickson
Mechanics need to see the real problem before they quote. It may be also emailing quotes is not something the workshop is willing to commit manpower to do. There are many other workshops in that area against which you can get competing quotes and that will help you decide.
Did you eventually need to overhaul your engine / transmission for your latio? my coe coming up, thinking to renew 5 year + overhaul engine / transmission
Hi Gerald, the mileage of the Latio I purchased was close to 200,000 km. I serviced it and asked the mechanic whether it was worth extending the COE for another 5 years. The mechanic said, It should be okay. The car indeed worked well after the repairs done as mentioned in the blog post. However, I later had problems with the auto transmission and my car had to be towed and I could not repair it in JB. So that set me back SGD$2000 for a reconditioned auto transmission purportedly from Japan. If you google you will read something about the average lifespan of Latin’s transmission. Hope this helps.
Hi, may I ask where did you get your auto transmission done? I’ve same problem with my Latio, I went to Tan Chong Motor and they say it’s the transmission problem and quoted for about $3000.
Joanne, my autotransmission problem happened in Singapore. The car had to be towed to the only mechanic shop I used in the past. Monggo Motion in Pandan Loop. I couldn’t go to Johor to get it done. In the end I got a reconditioned auto transmission from Japan for $2000 plus labour. I heard there are mechanics who specialise in auto transmission repairs and the repair may cost from $200 to $20000 depending on the parts that required change. Most mechanic shops like the one I went do not have the skillsets or the time to do such laborious work and rather replace the whole transmission with a reconditioned one. Hope this helps.
Hi, for the shock absorber that you did for RM 850 is for 1x set or 2 sets?
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Cheers
John
Hi John, It only for a set. My other set was okay.