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Originally Posted by Harbir  Skoda should not try to use indian laws to try and supress the power of the internet...Going around making threats in such a clumsy fashion out of a misguided idea that Skoda can stop internet discussion is going to backfire on you |
Quote:
Originally Posted by mohit Big surprise on which link comes up top! |
Disclaimer: As i type this my car (vRS) is being serviced by Autobahn. We will know by April 2nd (I return to India at 4am April 2nd) what the results of that service are.
That said...
Meghna,
As has been explained before the internet is a viral 'organization'. Some (like the present President of the US) have used it effectively to propogate a positive message. The impression Skoda has created so far has not been very positive.
Let me share my history with Skoda
I bought a Octavia vRS in Sept 2004. All wwent well till I was caught in the 26/7 deluge. I remember 26/7 to be a Tuesday. When I got home I found that the EPC light was on. I let the car dry out all of Wednesday and did not drive it becuase the manual said that if the EPC light is on, the car needs to be taken to a servce center.
On Thursday I called Autobahn. The person who answered told me that since they were deluged by cars could I be kind enough to bring the car on Monday or Tuesday the following week. Perfectly understandale. On Monday morning I sent the car to Autobahn's service center. I did not recieve any call so after lunch I called Autobahn and finally was put in touch with someone who claimed to be looking after my car. His diagnosis was that the
Automatic Transmission (or some part of it - I forget exactly what he said) needs to be replaced. That was news to me - all this while I thought my car was a
Manual. Needless to say I asked for my car to be sent back.
I took the car to a friend who had a VAG who cleared the EPC error and told me that it was the airbag sensor that was dead and needed to be replaced. I called Autobahn with this diagnosis and they sent someone with an airbag sensor to my office (mahybe becuase their garage was still full of cars being repaired from 26/7) and the same was replaced in my office.
Why did Autobahn not use a VAG to diagnose my car? I dont know.
Thereafter I dropped the idea of getting my car serviced at any Skoda dealer. It was scary. Skoda did not even know that my car was a manual car. How did I expect them to service it correctly.
Then sometime in 2007 a friend of mine told me (Kavir Shahani) that I should not be so afraid and if push came to shove he could help. So despite all my apprehensions I sent my car to Autobahn for service. The car was returned without the floor mats. I called Autobahn who told me to return the car so they could put the floor mats. I sent the car a second time. They did put the floor mats but the wheel nut covers on one wheel were now missing. So I called Skoda again. Again Skoda said they can put the wheel nut covers and that I should send the car to them a 3rd time. The 3rd time different wheel nut covers were used (different from the other 3 wheels) and the Skoda emblems from the rear 2 wheels went missing. I gave up. I had better things to do with my time that chase Skoda. I talked with my wallet.
1. I took my car to a local garage for the regualr oil/filter changes and tyre rotation and body work (dent and scratches).
2. never recomended a Skoda again to any of my family or friends
3. Drove my care very carefully and bought a spare car (another make) for long journeys where reliability of the car was important so I am not stranded.
My experiences are not as bad as some mentioned here. For that I am glad.
Just from the sheer number of complaints I would have expected Skoda and it's dealers to have taken corrective action to resolve customer complaints in a fair and timely manner. I believe it is still not to late.
If I were Skoda I would be using ALL my energies to correct this image. That is what sells cars.
So why have I sent my car to Autobahn again now? Well after many assurances from one Mr. Sudhir Srinivas at Skoda and one Mr. Liyakat Chajju at Autobahn I decided to give Skoda one more chance. Oh damn! maybe I am her eternal optimist!