Thursday, April 17, 2008

Air Cond oh Air Cond ...

Yesterday I had a surprise of my life. I guess my face looked just like the monkey in the picture on the right. Terkejut beruk !

Do you know that car owners not only have to service their engines regularly, but also its car airconditioning system as well ? To be frank, I didn't know. Due to my own ignorance, now I'm poorer by RM1,600 :(

According to the mechanic (Sato AirCond Service Center) I went to at BBB8, any car aircond system has to be serviced regularly at least every 9 mths, or at most once a year. And each servicing will cost you around RM350 approx. Of course, I do send my car for aircond gas top-ups, only when time requires (like the air is not cold enough), but not on the regular annual kinda servicing.
The RM1,600 includes a complete replacement of APW aircond set (cooling coil, valve, filter, oil, gas) & workmanship. At first, of course I was really upset with myself for not knowing and therefore failed to send my car for the annual aircond servicing.
But after doing some simple maths, I thought may be it's not that bad. You see, I've been driving my Terrano for almost 7 years now. No major problems arised, especially with its engine. May be because I've been sending her for regular engine service & maintenance at every 4 mths interval (approx 5000 km) - without fail !
Now, let's say if I were to service my car airconditioning system every year (as suggested by the mechanic), that will cost me roughly RM350 x 6 yrs (assuming the 1st yr the aircond system is still excellent as it's brand new), that'll easily boils down to RM2,100. Not to mention the cost of the annual "pilgrimage" to the Service Center ...
Isn't that gonna cost me much much more ? And with "only" RM1,600 I get to get a brand new complete set of the aircond system ! Hmmm ... may be this what people call "blessings in disguise" ?

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