My experience with Skoda-Autobahn (as promised)

[ajayr]

Did you try to meet Ms.Meghna Choksey while at Autobahn?

[Mpower]

I have got 100K+ clutch life on every one of my cars. Even after tracking it.
Ask for your old parts. That clutch can be sold to someone who will easily use it for another 50K.

[Perakath]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

I'm not sure where you draw that conclusion from, but I think most people here know what brand charges low, what charges a reasonable amount and what brand specifically runs an extortion racket.

I meant everyone will agree that an A.S.S. will charge more than an non-authorised mechanic for a given piece of work.

As for your statement on brands, I prefer not to make such generalisations.

Originally Posted by Steeroid

BTW, EVERYONE here puts their money exactly where their mouth is.

Did I say they don't? Navin himself said that one of the reasons he went in for a Skoda service just now was to put his money where his mouth is, as a moderator of this forum and given the extreme anti-Skoda sentiment on other threads. I was merely applauding him for that.

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Talk may be cheap elsewhere, but out here people speak from their own experiences therefore you might want to reconsider that statement.

You could try assuming good faith on my part.

[ramie2400]

I think 65k is worth spending on the car which needs genuine spares after its used time-period,with all the mentioned servicing done properly the car will become as good as new,and vRS is obvious fun car,its absolutely not worth selling a 4year+ used car for 35-40% of the price paid.

[Jaggu]

Am just out of words!

Clutch replaced for tightness, without trying out other options? !!!

AC radiator + etc etc coz AC cooling had gone down, if its a leak it will die down completely!!! How did they diagnose it was leaking?

Navin this went a lil too far for my liking.

[ajmat]

My Vrs has done 31k
I bought at 16k km.
20k service cost me around Rs 7000 (need to check). It needed new pads which I sourced
30k service cost me Rs 20000 as the water pump failed and the fuse box needed changing
My clutch is fine
There have been hiccups due to throttle body clogging up and the fans failing (fuse box shorting).
Vinayak ensure I have the option of replacing the part. They take my consent before ordering. Since I have the diagnostics and give them the fault codes - there is very little leeway with me!!

Going forward, I need to be strategic and ensure the right jobs are given to the dealer and the right jobs to the specialists whilst also procuring parts in advance

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Perakath

Everyone is harping on about the price of the service, but I'm sure you're smart enough to have known what you were getting into. As you said you expected a bill of 50k and the a/c was what pushed it above that.

I do harp about how much it costs to service the benz, I am smart enough to know what I got into and I do expect the service bill to go over 40K. Guess what?

I STILL HARP. Simply because, the 3 points you mentioned DO NOT JUSTIFY obscenely infrated charges. No other car in the 10 - 20 lakh segment costs as much to service / maintain as the Octavia / Laura. Heck, as an example, you could maintain an Accord (a more expensive larger car) for 50,000 kms in LESS THAN what Navin paid for this one service. Don't believe me? Search through the forum for actual charges.

Originally Posted by Perakath

I meant everyone will agree that an A.S.S. will charge more than an non-authorised mechanic for a given piece of work.

And the point is? With my Honda, Tata & Mahindra, the premium that the service station charges is worth it for the peace of the mind factor (20% for most regular jobs). However, in case of the Euros, the difference between after-market and authorised can run upto 4 TIMES as much (My mercs engine mounts cost 7,000 in the aftermarket for OEM parts and 30,000 at Merc authorised). That's the point being made here.

This is overcharging, this is obscene pricing, this is blatant exploitation of the customer. I'll be the first to tell you of how Merc doubled the price of its E-Class in 10 years or of how insanely overpriced their authorised service centers are (search for my previous threads). DITTO with Skoda Authorised. Problem is, their cars seem to require new clutch jobs in 30,000 kms....something I have yet to see in other cars (including Europeans more expensive). The other problem is, they aren't exactly as premium as Mercedes either. Heck, I do NOT remember even spending 60,000 on my Merc at 30K kilometers.

[ajmat]

I have never had to change a clutch ever (except for the defective unit on the swift which will need to be done in another 10000km).

Peugeot 309 GTI sold at 80000 miles - original clutch and I was not exactly drving like a priest
Tata Sierra - sold at 48000km
Zen - sold at 52000km
Honda City - vtec - modified, tracked - still on its original clutch

[Perakath]

Okay, GTO. It's just that after reading Navin's posts I got the impression that the service charges, while perhaps inflated, didn't bother him overly. (Not to mean that he's careless with money or anything!) And, as I said, he was lucky enough to get his vehicle back in time with genuine parts.

That was my understanding of his review-- perhaps I'm mistaken.

Edit: I do understand the points a lot of you are making re: whether some parts needed outright replacing or not.

[raul]

Is this an India specific thing or does maintaining Skoda and other VW brands generally cost more compared to say jap cars in the rest of the world.

[jaysmokesleaves]

If one had to pay approx 14000 labour at an authorised service center which did not diagnose the problems and merely replaced parts which are available outside for much cheaper rates, considering that warranty is over, what then justifies a customer to give their vehicles to Skoda A.S.S. Wouldnt it be better & cheaper to get it done outside.
Second point, I do not know how a clutch can be replaced for just being hard @ 30k kms. There have to be settings adjustments, etc.
Lastly, what is the guarantee that the parts replaced are original and not fakes as we have already read. Im sure Navin's case may be different. But how does a lay customer trust them on this count.
Skoda being a european car should certainly have better clutch life than say, my Safari. But that doesnt seem to be the case here.
If parts have to be replaced at such frequent intervals in a Skoda then IMHO it is much much worse than a Tata product.

Those were my 3 cents.

[ImmortalZ]

The trend all over the world is like this. Euros cost more to maintain and run on a regular basis compared to Japs. The cost is justified for character, they say. Although, I do believe Honda has an inflated price tag on every one of their spares in India, but not as inflated as this, by God.

navinji, I see what you did with this experiment. But I cannot comprehend a clutch change at 30K just because the pedal was hard. How can a clutch built to channel a turbocharged 150BHP engine wear out so quickly? As a German underneath, it must be ridiculously over engineered. Same thing with the A/C. As one of our members pointed out, a leaking evaporator coil will cause all cooling to go away in time.

I was trying to convince my dad to get a vRS a few months it got discontinued. Am I relieved he waited a couple of years - if we got a bill like this at 30K, he would've lined me up against the wall and shot me.

[sudev]

Cooling can come down significantly with the filter on the a/c evaporator getting choked. See my thread on Grand Vitara where just cleaning the filter made huge difference to the colling. Since none of the other Maruti vehicles (not to my knowledge) had similar filters this was a first for me. (posted on relevant thread here).
As some one else pointed out if it was leaking then a/c would have been total kaput and not merely under performing.

All said it is a interesting insight on how high end workshops approach problem solving. Replace everything even if not needed. Customer is happy and the show room is happier!!

[harry10]

I have came across many people who buy a Laura, Superb over Accord for 2 reasons-
1.- Better features
2.- Diesel and better FE.

They do acknowledge they like Accord more inspite of giving less features however the main consideration for them is FE and skoda being diesel. However if the servicing and parts cost such a bomb then i guess in the long run an Accord running same kms will be a better deal inspite of being a petrol and giving less FE.
Anyone with any such figure comparing the 2 on this parameter?

[mmmjgm]

My 2 cents,

1) a Defective evaporator should be fixed under warranty
2) Clutch being hard is to do with the lubrication of the clutch actuator arm on the clutch case/flywheel cover & cable/llinkages. - A pressure plate cannot harden on its own. (the device which provides feel and pressure to the clutch friction plate on the flywheel to transfer power)

3) was there some lining on the old clutch plate ? If so there was no need to change the clutch & pressure plate.
4) 28k replacement of timing belt ? Was this preventive or was this on account of flood damage to the timing belt? The service advisor should have clarified on this.

Last but not the least you should have got back the old parts, if you can please upload the clutch plate (friction plate) photos please ?

Navin hats off to you. My respect for you has grown two fold for this gesture.

Regards

M