Garage sounds just like home

A Chinese Garage named after the proprietors' native province provides service with a familiar feel in Nairobi

A Chinese-owned garage specializing in engine service, bodywork and upholstery repairs has been serving Chinese motorists residing in Kenya and others for the past four years.

An Hui Chinese Garage, located in Nairobi's Hurlingham Shopping Center, has two Chinese proprietors, Wang Fengying and Jiang Xi. The two named the garage after their home province in East China's Anhui province.

Anhui's capital is Hefei and it borders Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Henan and Shandong provinces.

"This garage has changed names and ownership three times. When it was first set up, it was referred to as Dong Feng. Then it changed to Chinese Super Garage and finally a year and three months ago it was rebranded as An Hui Chinese Garage," says Muhoro Ciugu, the operations manager.

"I have worked in this garage for the past four years in various capacities and I have seen it grow to what it is today," says Muhoro, whose given name he cheerfully says means cowshed in the Gikuyu ethnic community.

The area around An Hui Chinese Garage would seem to be a tough one, with a lot of competition.

The garage is next to Concord Motors, a popular garage with motorists, but An Hui has its own clientele base and does not compete with its neighbor. Next to Concord Motors also is Hurlingham's Shell petrol station that, like other petrol stations in the country, also offers automotive services.

"At Shell, we offer the most competitive prices in the market since once you buy our lubricants and parts, we do not charge you for labor," says a service attendant at Shell Hurlingham who declined to give his name since he is not authorized to comment.

But Muhoro says the garage has a number of advantages.

First, the garage has an English-Chinese interpreter to help Chinese customers explain their service needs to the manager and to the mechanics whenever they bring in their cars for repairs, Muhoro says.

It has 14 staff, most specializing in paint jobs or engine service. He has enough employees to deal with many customers over the weekend, he says.

"Our garage has a state-of-the-art spraying booth and dryer with five paint job experts, bodywork specialists and mechanics," he says.

There is also equipment for wheel balancing, wheel alignment and hydraulic lift systems.

"We service all types of cars here at An Hui Chinese Garage. However, majority of cars that come into the workshop are Toyotas and other Japanese models," Muhoro says. "Among Chinese vehicles, we mainly service and repair Foton trucks, buses and pickups as well as FAW trucks," he says.

Muhoro says Chinese cars are generally strong and reliable, as are Japanese and European cars. He says the only problem is that they have not saturated the Kenyan market so availability of spare parts is sometimes a concern.

For China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 02/20/2015 page19)