Female mechanic who repairs luxury vehicles

Had someone asked Beejal Pandit to check her fathers’ car brakes 14 years ago, she would have laughed it off.

Despite being born into cars, Ms Pandit did not have a clue about them. Little did she know handling cars would become her full-time job.

Today, her garage in Nairobi’s Parklands is full of Jaguars, BMWs and vintage cars, brought in for repair or restoration.

Ms Pandit has three bachelor’s degrees, all outside mechanics, among them in business management. She has also worked for organisations that are not related to mechanics including the Red Cross before she decided to join her father.

So how did her interest in cars and mechanics start?

“When I was in university, we started working hand in hand with my dad, where he could teach me all these trends and how to do things. In 2009 when I got my degrees I decided to put more concentration on the garage, and that’s when I semi-retired my dad, but he taught me little tricks about cars, thereafter I started working on my own,” says Ms Pandit.

“I then decided to quit my job and join him, not knowing that I would be business oriented. Now I am running and managing Arun’s Auto garage,” she says.

“At first, it never crossed my mind that I would develop an attraction towards cars. It all started with my dad’s passion, which grew into a hobby. In matters of cars, my father is a ‘Jack of all trades’. Even after retiring, people still came home asking for Mr Pandit. As you can see my garage is full of vintage cars that are his pride and joy,” says Ms Pandit.

“I also started learning online during lunch breaks. Now everyone comes asking my dad, 'Where is your daughter?’ That gives me joy and hope.”

The 40-year-old is not only an established mechanic but also owns and runs the garage that she inherited from her father, a veteran mechanic since 2002.

“I can now diagnose a car without even seeing what has happened to it because of all the experience I have had. I will know how to face myself when I get stuck anywhere.”

For Ms Pandit, the garage is not just a usual one as she values it so much. She says it is their only source of income that puts food on the table. “I also took this garage to ensure my father’s legacy lives on.”

“When we started we used to do one car in a day, a month, or maybe one car in four months. As we grew, I saw that there was a potential and we would handle five cars a day up to 20 cars in a week,” she says.

Ms Pandit says her degrees have helped her to get to where she is currently.

“I learned that this world is very vicious and business oriented, you need a mindset with personalised skills,” she says.

Arun’s Auto services cars and does painting. She says she test drives the vehicles despite having an employee. If not, her father does.

“We do personal services. Sometimes I would be on my phone from 6am just messaging everybody one on one to ask about their experience with our services.”

To keep up her standards high, Ms Pandit says she would rather have fewer cars than take more than they can handle to do a proper job.

Aside from repairing cars, Ms Pandit says they also help their customers who are interested in purchasing new cars by carrying out diagnostics before they make a decision.

“We have a clientele who will come and ask me Beejal look, I am looking for a car, could you help me how to go about it?’”

By so doing, she has earned the trust of their customers, some of whom communicate on the phone or WhatsApp.

“Some of our customers, we have not met with one-on-one, only on the phone but have now grown trust in us and are giving us cars,” says Ms Pandit.

Every business person works to earn an income. Ms Pandit says in her case, every car is different.

“We don’t have a major or minor service as we check the whole car and do a complete 360-degree check.”

“If you are looking at just a service and you know you won’t change your brakes, we might be looking at something between Sh10,000 and less. If it’s a Subaru it will cost up to Sh20,000 or less. So it depends on the clients’ option to spend like Sh30,000 on servicing a car then come back after a year or choose to come every two months.”

Tough economy

Most car owners are now resorting to packing their cars on their compounds due to the increasing pump prices. This, Ms Pandit says is negatively affecting the business.

“The economy is tough. We are currently doing four to five cars a day. Sometimes no car in four months. Having three cars in a day is a blessing too since business is going up and down,” she says.

Experience and challenges

Being a woman in a field dominated by men, Ms Pandit acknowledges going through several challenges including discrimination even as she got many experiences.

Ms Pandit says running your own business in this age is tough. When you do good to somebody and make one single mistake, the mistake will always be remembered more than the good deed. “The pressure is so real.”

“One lesson I have so far learned is that women can do anything that men can do. We undermine ourselves, and women are rising to different prestigious posts. Mechanics was not something taught in school to be a woman's job. It was cooking. But look around, most men are great chefs and women are doing well in other fields like engineering,” says Ms Pandit.

“At first I would feel inferior when someone called and instead asked for my dad,” she says.

Another challenge she says is ‘dirty’ jobs from fast-moving services which she says nobody seems to understand might be pocket friendly but after a few months, the car owner will realize how damaging they are to the car.

However, she notes that “as a woman in a man’s field, you can do it. Research first. A car is like the human body, and you are like a doctor. Never give a wrong diagnosis, but if it happens just admit that you made a mistake.”

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