Pampered to the hilt - Malay Mail 28.02.2007

By t.yogendra

With the weather these days being so unpredictable, the paint on your car can sometimes take quite a beating. Most of us in Malaysia, have in the past, opted for a complete repaint job simply because it was a lot more convenient. All one needed was the budget for it.

But many of us didn't know the existence of specialised car grooming centres in the country until quite recently. A car wash was all most people knew best and apart from that ocassional polish, there was nothing else to look forward to.

A long wait for the car to be polished or groomed can be quite cumbersome, especially when that's all the wheels you have, and nobody to fetch and send you back to pick up your car. Thus, many just hang around the area either grabbing lunch or a cup of tea while waiting for the car to be ready.

But with Carnauba Autospa now getting into top gear in the car grooming services industry, owners need not worry anymore. For one, Carnauba arranges pick-up services within a 20-minute radius of the centre.

And if you don't want to just leave the car there, there are several things you could do. You could read an array of magazines and have some coffee at the comfortable waiting lounge while watching the work being done on your car, or head on to the cinema room to watch a movie, listen to some CDs at the music room, whip out your laptop and surf the Net or do some work thanks to WiFi coverage or even get a full body massage at the spa.

Now, this is what you call hassle-free! And while you indulge in all of this, your car is being prepped up and before you know it, time has passed by so fast that your car is almost ready.

That's not the only good thing over at Carnauba Autospa. Their work is rather professional as well. They offer many different services including car wash, vacuum, polish, wax, interior grooming and a few others. But it is these services that the guys there are extremely well-known for.

After leaving off the car at the bay, I decided to have a cup of coffee while awaiting the arrival of Carnauba Autospa 'Man on Pole' Kumar Prabakaran.

There were magazines and newspapers around the lounge area and I watched intently as my car was being prepared for the full auto detailing treatment. They say the preparation is what takes the longest and true enough, it seemed extremely cumbersome but the guys looked like they had everything under control.

After interviewing Kumar about the facility, I decided to try out the facility's spa, where I got a full body massage. The massage treatment took close to two hours and so, it was apt for killing time. After the treatment, it was quite relaxing to catch up on some music as the sound system fitted there was simply superb.

The television room looked quite interesting as well but I didn't think of bringing any of my DVDs. It would have been perfect as the whole system did look rather sophisticated.

And then, it was downstairs again for another round of coffee. And before I knew it, my car had undergone a full detailing process that included interior detail cleaning, engine, wheel and windscreen cleaning, a three-stage polish and wax. It took slightly under five hours but it was worth it.

One thing's for sure. Car grooming may be big business with many different centres and most of them pretty much do the same thing, but feeling comfortable while your car is being worked at, including the fact that you get to see every process, is seriously comforting. And the massage was rather relaxing as well.

The only way you'd be impressed with their work is to check it out for yourselves. Your car, and yourself included, would feel a whole lot better.