[superbad]

Every time I think I should muster the courage to let my next car be a Skoda ...
Such desirable cars, such revolting A.S.S. I don't think any other manufacturer in the world has this distinction.
I don't know what VAG was smoking when it handed Skoda the charge of next generation of India operations
I really do hope the Skoda 2.0 or whatever it is, also takes the word "customers" into account, & not just great cars or fancy looking dealerships.

Originally Posted by GTO

But in the future, irrespective of this problem, don't ever drive with less than a 1/4th tank of diesel. In most modern cars, the fuel also lubricates / cools the fuel pump.

Is this applicable for petrol cars also? 1/4th is a fairly significant amount, more trips to fuel pump necessitated. I have a habit of running till the last couple of litres of fuel left in my ciaz, before refilling, not had any problems so far.

[Eddy]

Originally Posted by superbad

Is this applicable for petrol cars also? 1/4th is a fairly significant amount, more trips to fuel pump necessitated. I have a habit of wringing out the very last drop of fuel in my ciaz before refilling, not had any problems so far.

Yeah, applicable to all cars.

Details - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...rop-habit.html (Letting your Car's fuel tank run empty? Drop the habit!)

[Jaggu]

How can we trust any dealer workshop in this country? I admit, I advised Manson to take the car to the dealer instead of trying it out with local garages. Being a new workshop, I assumed they would actually be more careful in diagnosis and giving the right resolution. The first thing they should have checked is the fuel level and air in the system, I guess they have completely skipped this and tried to con the owner.

What is more surprising is Skoda's trust in their dealership and apparent lack of even a check list to confirm, before communicating back to the customer justifying this expense.

If I remember correct our fellow TeamBHP'ian Dhanush also went through a similar experience and he has in detail recorded how he diagnosed the issue and resolved it, right at the dealership, in front of the mechanics lol.

[mitsalltheway]

I rely on Pai Auto a lot for my Fiat Linea T Jet. Have saved thousands all thanks to them.

Last time around saved about 20k on the alternator. Replacement quoted by Vroome Pointe at Rs 20k + labour. Repaired by Pai Auto for Rs 3.5k. Working absolutely fine.

[Dopamine]

I had a somewhat similar incident with my 2011 Fiat Punto a few years ago. Apparently the entire "blue and me" system went kaput after a battery change(Battery was aftermarket)

I wasn't really using any of the features really, but it meant that music play via USB stopped working as well since it plugs into it or something, I suppose. No music is obviously a big problem so I take the car to the service center and I explain the issue. The guy tells me that they have to replace the entire system without even looking at the car once. Just told me that the blue and me system was gone after I described the problem.

I asked him whether it could be fixed and he's like, no it can only be replaced. He even went on to tell me that they've seen this problem many times after people change their batteries and replaced a lot of these. One just a few days ago he said, as if having such a common part failure was something to be proud of.

Anyhow since he was quoting some crazy figure of around 70-80k for the replacement, I was like nah thanks. I figured I'd just play music on the CD player and deal with it

In any case what happens is I was too lazy to get the CDs in the car so I was just driving around without any music and car system was set to zero volume. Around a week or two later I was just sitting in the car and I noticed changing track names on the MID. Basically whatever the electrical problem was, it had just fixed itself a few days after the visit. The car had been playing music on zero volume for a while, I turn the volume Knob and there toh go, music. The Bluetooth voice commands, telephony and everything else were back online too

The problem was so trivial that it literally fixed itself in a few days! And it's been 3-4 years, it's never reoccured to date. I'm pretty sure if they had tried to look at it, it was an easily resolvable issue. It really made me wonder whether they had actually replaced it in many cars and if they had, exactly how ripped off those people would feel if they knew.

Lucklily the Punto is a very reliable car overall, so there isn't much 'diagnosing' for the service center people to do. Haven't had to take it to them except for routine service ever since and now I think I'd rather take it to an FNG if and when the situation does arise anyway.

[mikem]

Raju at Pai Auto is my goto man for all my Mercedes issues. I had a similar issue with Shaman-Kalina around 4-5 years ago. My E300 gave a few jerks while driving so out of caution took it to Shaman at Kalina. The estimate received after 5 days was ₹12 Lacs.

Took the car straight to Pai Auto at Santacruz and in two hours got a call from Raju to take the car back as there is nothing wrong with it. He even scanned it in front of me to reassure me. And believe you me, all those dozens of parts which had allegedly failed as per Shaman four years ago have not been replaced till today.

The icing on the cake was when he saw the TBHP stickers on the Mercedes, he said the scan and diagnosis were not being charged for. He won me as a customer for life that day.

[Hemicuda]

Originally Posted by GTO

Thanks for sharing, man!

Glad you got the car checked by an independent workshop, Manson (that was also my first recommendation when you called me). .

Considering I stay In Bangalore and own a Vento going into its 9th year now would you be able to recommend anyone here.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by Dopamine

Apparently the entire "blue and me" system went kaput after a battery change(Battery was aftermarket)

I've run into this problem on my Linea T Jet but before the battery change. Blinking odometer resulted in the Blue N Me going dead. For some reason, they were related. Kept occurring every now and then. Battery disconnection used to resolve the issue and sometimes it used to fix itself even without disconnecting the battery. In the end, it was more frequent and I was pretty sure it was the battery as the stock battery was bordering on its 5th year. The slight deviation in voltage and current instability meant the fancy electronics would act up. Car started up just fine though. Replaced battery. All problems sorted.

What I fail to understand with all these car manufacturers, especially the Europeans, is what goes on when they train their service center engineers. You would think that anyone who lands a job at a Skoda or Fiat garage, has basic education and is a mechanical or electrical graduate, degree holder. This will be the minimal requirement for anyone who touches the car. With this knowledge in hand, a natural tendency should come from within to try and solve a problem. That does not seem to be the case though. Even when you have all the tools with you (Ecu scanner and what not), they still fail to do the right thing or diagnose. It is more a "Lets wash our hands off this issue and present the customer with a giant bill" and see what happens. Clearly; these chaps (If not all of em) are out to make money. When will this attitude ever change!

[Eddy]

Originally Posted by Hemicuda

Considering I stay In Bangalore and own a Vento going into its 9th year now would you be able to recommend anyone here.

You can browse through the Team-BHP recommended places in Bangalore here: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/bangalore/

[Ph03nix]

I think this is a general tendency amongst dealerships these days. This may be because service advisors are incentivised to maximise the repair bill. The differentiating factor may be the ability of manufacturers like Maruti and Hyundai to take dealerships to task.

I had a bad experience with a Hyundai dealership in Pune. Took the car to them for a suspension noise, metallic clanging. The SA took the car in for a day and came up with an estimate of 26K for a complete suspension overhaul on a car run 62K kms. The same reason was given in the next service which I did at 70K. I chose not to do the overhaul, and live with it. After a few days I randomly noticed the metallic clanging disappeared when I brake.

I took it back and was attended by a new (inexperieced) but zealous SA. Who I guess had not been trapped with incentive system yet. Showed it to him, he immediately tells me a caliper pin for the brake is missing hence the noise. This was fixed in less than 200 bucks!

[saikarthik]

Originally Posted by manson

In less than 10 minutes of the car reaching at Pai Auto the car was attended, diagnosed and jump started on the same fuel which was deemed adulterated by JMD Bhandup.

If it was due to low battery voltage, you would have noticed the fall/slowing down of starter RPM while cranking the car. Did you notice anything while cranking the car yourself the night your car came to halt?

Also, low battery voltage is not justifying the glow plug lamp and the limp home mode while the vehicle is running (Normally alternator keeps the electrical components running even if the battery is dead).

[MBond007]

Met a gentlemen in Sahil Service Center, Noida, this weekend. He had come to get his Punto serviced and this was his first visit to this center. While the guy was inclined to get the fluids replaced, the SA somehow convinced him that additives will improve his car's performance.

During my conversation with the owner, I could sense that he was not very comfortable in getting additives added to car. After few minutes of discussion, he had mustered enough courage and information to confront the SA and ask the exact benefits of the additives. The SA blurted some random reasons which were not at all convincing. Finally the guy told the SA to replace all fuels and not to add additives.

Later the car owner said that he will never visit this center again. He was feeling disheartened by the fact that the SA tried to dupe him.

Morale of the story: Be extra cautious and alert in any service center; Engage your 6th sense in hyper active mode and never take SA's word on its face value

[Subroto Bhowmik]

Originally Posted by narayan

Should Skoda consider giving Pai motors a authorised service station license ?

Guys where is this Pai motors located?
As I need to visit JMD Skoda Bhandup from now on since the Nerul center is shut, I am getting goose bumps after reading this post.

[rulerofsun]

Originally Posted by ajmat

Totally unrelated, my 2003 Samsung fridge gave up the ghost. The official repair person came along and stated the evaporator coil is dead. The part is not available so time for a new fridge.

Called a local repair person. He changed a small coil and a bimetal strip all for Rs 5000 and we are cool again.

Looks like the customer who retain products for a long time are written off.

Absolutely True. I have a 2007 Skoda Fabia and for the last Two years JMD Bhandup has been giving my car a step-motherly treatment. They want me to upgrade as the car has been discontinued. (BTW the Rapid is a Fabia with a boot) My wiper linkage arm broke and for a year they are unable to get me a replacement. They quoted 23000.00 for the assembly change. Out of frustration I took it to my FNG and he sourced it from a donor car for Rs. 3000.00 (Quoted my 10K for a new one though)

So yes if you hold things and believe that any thing can be fixed if its not dead you should always take the local guy in the picture

[manson]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

I would really urge you to share this thread with Skoda and ask for a reply.

Skoda customer care did get back to me vide email & phone, and as expected subsequently went on to tell me that they are looking into the matter, etc., i.e. regular corporate hogwash. They had always been in the loop through all the email communication but they preferred to let the dealer handle it but now after this thread they want to resolve / assist me for something that has already been fixed outside.

Originally Posted by saikarthik

If it was due to low battery voltage, you would have noticed the fall/slowing down of starter RPM while cranking the car. Did you notice anything while cranking the car yourself the night your car came to halt?

As mentioned in my post the car had been hesitating the crank and would sometimes take a second or even third crank to power up. Pai Auto has told me to keep the accelerator grounded when cranking due to the weak battery, and voila it has worked every single time. However, I would be switching the Amaron unit which fellow Laura owner Anshuman has in his car.

Originally Posted by saikarthik

Also, low battery voltage is not justifying the glow plug lamp and the limp home mode while the vehicle is running (Normally alternator keeps the electrical components running even if the battery is dead).

I too am not certain about why the glow plug lamp came on, but considering the guys at Pai Auto jump started without any new fuel being added etc. I've surely written off bad fuel to a cause. Also, the car did not entirely what I did think was Limp mode, it basically lost a huge chunk of its power, got a mild urge and then shut down completely. Black wasp has asked me to check on the alternator when switching batteries too, so that may just be one of the possible reasons.

Originally Posted by Subroto Bhowmik

Guys where is this Pai motors located?

Santacruz West, at the end of linking road. Adjacent to the Mini and Ducati showrooms.