MOTOR

Motor tips from the Pits:

Finding a family doctor for your car

We are just coming off a very successful race weekend, where our EZY Racing drivers managed to win their respective events comfortably. Having watched the cars perform against many other competitive cars, I couldn’t help thinking that our win was predominantly based on how meticulously prepared our cars were, that ensured its “race worthiness”.

Ensuring the road worthiness of your vehicles is the responsibility of every vehicle owner. In most countries it is compulsory that a vehicle goes through a road worthy check, without which the licence of the car would not be renewed.

This not only ensures a road car well prepared to run a full year, but also ensures worry free driving as the engine, tyres, brakes and many more critical aspects are well taken care of, in order to eliminate situations of regret.

“A car is no different to a human body”, is a sentence that is frequently acquainted by our performance partner, Auto Force.

Over many races we have come to realize that it is critical that your performance partner understands everything about our drivers and their cars.

This is no different to your family doctor knowing everything about your health history as well as your family’s health history.

Therefore as a motorist, it is vital that you find yourself a “doctor for your car”. Many people refer to this as a garage, which in my take is an inappropriate word for a “doctor”, as a garage is a place we patronize when our vehicles break down.

So this is more like going to the “hospital” when we get sick.

A car doctor is an “Automotive Workshop”. Although these workshops are frequently found in other definitely are few places that are professional Automotive Workshops in Sri Lanka. The key difference between the two lies in their professionalism.

While a garage will focus on how to repair your broken car, a car doctor would advice you how to maintain your car without breaking it.

This in our performance partner, Auto Force’s terminology is referred as “Preventive Maintenance”, which certainly would help you minimize expenditure on the long run and ensure your performs at its peak every time.

Next week in our segment, we will share with you some essential tips on how to find the correct workshop, which would be the doctor for your car.

Valvoline conducts Regional Conference in Anuradhapura

Valvoline the lubricant division of United Motors Lanka PLC (UML) rewarded its top performing dealers at the recently concluded Regional Conference at Heritage Anuradhapura.

This conference recognized and rewarded the best dealers for overall performance and sales excellence for Northern and North Central Provinces. The company also recognized the efforts made by dealers at the district level.

Further UML announced the names of dealers from the Northern and North Central Provinces who performed extremely well in the recently concluded Champion Club Promotion which entitles them to attend the annual Valvoline Dealer Convention in Philippines in September 2011.

The conference was attended by Valvoline International Country Manager Mahesh Verma.

India’s Maruti second quarter profits halve

India’s biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki posted a 59.8 percent fall in its quarterly net profits due to labour unrest and strikes at its plant on the outskirts of New Delhi.

Maruti, 54 percent owned by Japan’s Suzuki Motor, said last week it had resolved the labour unrest at its plant in Manesar that had crippled production.

The company’s profits in the second fiscal quarter stood at 2.40 billion rupees ($ 49 million), down from 5.98 billion rupees a year earlier.

It also saw a drop in net sales with 75.37 billion rupees registered, down from 15.7 percent over the same period last year.

The company also announced its expansion plans as the board of directors granted an approval to purchase land in the western state of Gujarat for a new manufacturing facility.

Maruti has the largest market share of cars sold in India, but in recent months it has seen a sharp fall in output due to a series of labour disputes — to the advantage of rivals such as Toyota and South Korea’s Hyundai.

The recent stoppages due to the industrial unrest at its Manesar plant has cost the firm at least 19.50 billion rupees ($400 million) in lost production since June, as it produced 28,539 less cars. Manesar, which employs 2,000 workers, normally produces up to 1,200 of Maruti’s top-selling Swift and A-Star hatchbacks and SX4 sedans daily. Fast-growing India is critical to the Japanese firm’s fortunes because it is the company’s biggest foreign market.

New Delhi, AFP