Maruti to Mercedes, spark plug to steering wheel, repairs or just servicing. Whatever be your car or its crib, there is, finally, hi-tech help under one roof.

With competition in the car market hotting up, Bosch now wants a slice of the Calcutta pie. The German company, with 9,200 workshops across the world, launched the city’s first “multi-car service centre” in Taratala on Sunday.

And though Calcutta is a late starter — tailing Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar — the acceleration promises to be swift. After Taratala, another five Bosch Car Service workshops, “at least”, are on the cards in the next six months, with about two dedicated just for emergency breakdowns, says R.S. Pandey, area manager, Mico Bosch Group.

“Calcutta has about a lakh non-Ambassador private cars, which is huge. We are targeting only 10 per cent of that initially,” observes Pandey.

Bosch’s confidence that the workshop will be a hit here is borne out by figures — Blaupunkt, its car stereo system, is sold in greater volumes in other cities, but Calcutta tops the list in the high-end variety sales. “Calcutta customers are fewer, but they are choosy, since they are more quality and brand conscious,” feels Pandey.

Armed with the 10,000-strong database of Blaupunkt buyers, Bosch unveiled the 17,000-sq-ft workshop at Topaz Motors, on Budge Budge Trunk Road. It will service “all problems of all cars because the systems are all computerised and all parts are available”, with the technology developed in Singapore.

“Almost everything in cars is electronic these days, and this will increase by 25 per cent in the near future,” adds the Bosch man.

Membership to the Taratala workshop club comes for Rs 2,000 per car per year, with “four free services and the rest with free lubricants, filters, car washing and cleaning”. The prices, too, are lower than individual company workshops, claims Pandey.

The Taratala address can service up to 1,000 vehicles, with non-members allowed to avail of the “diagnostic facility” for around Rs 250 to find out what exactly is wrong with the car. The main mechanics are trained at the Bangalore centre.

In the offing are loyalty programmes, with free tickets to entertainment parks, and service discounts for family memberships. Door-to-door demonstrations start Monday.