[hrman]

Injector failure was a known factor in 2011-2013 models of Vento (Lesser so in the Rapid).
Given this, its really sad that VAG/ Skoda did not try to have a recall and allow for FOC replacement of such batch of injectors. This could have been done even after warranty.
This attitude just goes to show that in a market like ours, they have failed as an organisation. In addition, they are still holding on to some of the rogue and incompetent dealers, who are marring the whole experience. In Bangalore, they had closed down Vinayaka Skoda recently, which was a step in the right direction after the horror faced by one of our BHPians.

PS: I own a 2012 batch Rapid, I had faced a Coolant pump replacement which Skoda did at my cost with engine mount replacement after 6 months of the extended warranty expiry. Since then and post the dieselgate ECU software update which I wanted to avoid, I have started going to a non Skoda FnG for the past 3 years and have been relatively at peace. I think this is the formula to enjoy any Skoda or VAG car. Stop going to the authorized dealer after your warranty and identify a good FnG to get your services done.

[GTO]

I have another thought on this matter.

When any customer is let down by the dealer, the first thing he does is reach out to the manufacturer via phone or email. Satya Singh also did (he mentions it), but didn't get a favourable response.

Skoda ought to pay more attention to these calls & emails. After all, it's the only time that Skoda has a direct line of communication with its customer (sales & service happen through the middleman, the dealer). But if you don't solve the problem of someone who gave a million bucks of business to your brand and has reached out to you directly, that is just really sad.

Many CEOs listen in on customer service calls (or read emails) at random. You know who else does it? That company famed for its customer service that we know as Amazon. When you're selling <1500 cars a month, surely the volume of calls is manageable too.

This point is as important as disciplining dealerships. LISTEN TO YOUR DAMN CUSTOMERS.

[nirmaljusdoit]

Originally Posted by GTO

I
This point is as important as disciplining dealerships. LISTEN TO YOUR DAMN CUSTOMERS.

Very valid point GTO

I would like to add , Listen and respect your customers. Mr. Zac should not be sitting and answering these customer complaints.It is the duty of the service advisor, the technician working on the car and the dealership principal to guide and direct the day to day operations.

If everyone did their job and ensured quality at every stage, the number of complaints going up the chain to Skoda directly would reduce. Skoda also needs to make their customer easily accessible and proactive to customer complaints.

[JojyKerala]

Originally Posted by GTO

A clearly exasperated Satya Singh just sent in this email.

I own a late-2012 model and have the exact 2 lights coming on and off, sometimes together, sometimes individually. To be honest, I never did anything about them and I normally just ignore them. Probably will get a test done at the service center once the lockdown eases. So far, I have never faced any injector issues and my beast drives beautifully without any complaints. But who knows what the future has in store...

Originally Posted by GTO

Whoa! Spending 27000 on repairs and still ending up with a troubled machine? And why the heck is this injector still costing 20 grand a piece? Can't it be localised? Since so many Rapids & Ventos suffer injector failure, can't the VW group do something about it and make the repairs more reasonable? This is so clearly a product defect & such steep bills must be killing their reputation.

Never thought about it from this perspective. A few words come to mind if the management continues to milk customers for each injector:

1. HEARTLESS: Any other manufacturer probably would have localized these injectors by now? How could the VW group turn a blind eye for 8 long years?

2. BRAINLESS: The older generation Skodas are exceptional machines except for minor niggles such as the injector issue. Did the VW management think that these cars have disappeared from the roads? There's still thousands of them plying thanks to the love the owners have for these machines. Mine included - love my Rapid!

3. TAKEN FOR GRANTED: Skoda owners love their machines but won't hesitate to complain when things get out of control. A message to Skoda management - don't take Skoda owners for granted!

Final message for Zac Hollis: You are doing a world of good for the brand. Please make sure that service costs for owners outside the warranty period are kept to a minimum. Do everything in your capacity to ensure costs for injectors and other "costly" spare parts are brought down to a minimum by localizing them. Thank you in advance.

[AMG Power]

Skoda dealers have to stop thinking:

Complaint with customer car = Customer FLEECING opportunity

Skoda themselves have to:

Accept 10 year long problems such as fuel injectors / DSG and agree to replace them FOC no questions asked

Ever heard of a Director of Toyota, Hyundai or Maruti intervening every alternate day to resolve customer complaints?

Anything less such as actions against Indian heads or the Indian company etc won't work - the Germans wash their hands off any problem in India and ask the Indian management to handle the issue while the Germans are to blame entirely for the problems having incorrectly designed and engineered products for Indian conditions.

Here's a recalls comparison with Hyundai (SIAM):

Hyundai total recalls - 30,041

Skoda / VW total recalls - 5,38,889

That's 18X.

These recalls were because of problems faced by the VW Group Directors on diesel gate. There was no problem faced by the customers with their cars.

In fact after the recalls the cars started behaving poorly.

There were no recalls for the 10 year long customer problems such as injectors or DSG's.

[.anshuman]

I have been maintaining my Skoda cars with Skoda dealers since last 10 years. Earlier Laura TDI DSG and now Octavia TDI DSG.

Unlike most popular brands the quality of service depends on the local service center, the biggest dealership in region, Giriraj(& Jai Auto) Gurgaon does well in numbers but has poor service consistently ever since I first visited them. Surprisingly the same staff when shifted to Paramount Isuzu owned by same group does well. Its lack of control by Skoda India I can guess.

I have found a small dealer, BLC Skoda in Hisar, small dealer, not much sales or service volumes but excellent service. They are good in diagnosis. Recently they could not find a leak in AC system so filled in AC gas to test, later when it was diagnosed to cooling coil they refunded and adjusted the AC gas and labour charges on their own.

[abhaysinha58]

Just a noob question. Why haven't the injectors been overhauled before asking the customer to replace the injector?
I have been considering the superb but despite the 4 years warranty is it still advisable to go with skoda?

[srini1785]

^^

Do the ASS service personnel undergo any basic training and pass tests before being appointed?. Either by the company or third party?. I am not limiting the question to just Skoda.

Car companies keep releasing models every now and then and sometimes the leap in tech is just too high.

[TheParsiStig]

Originally Posted by hrman

Injector failure was a known factor in 2011-2013 models of Vento (Lesser so in the Rapid).
Given this, its really sad that VAG/ Skoda did not try to have a recall and allow for FOC replacement of such batch of injectors. This could have been done even after warranty.
This attitude just goes to show that in a market like ours, they have failed as an organisation. In addition, they are still holding on to some of the rogue and incompetent dealers, who are marring the whole experience. In Bangalore, they had closed down Vinayaka Skoda recently, which was a step in the right direction after the horror faced by one of our BHPians.

PS: I own a 2012 batch Rapid, I had faced a Coolant pump replacement which Skoda did at my cost with engine mount replacement after 6 months of the extended warranty expiry. Since then and post the dieselgate ECU software update which I wanted to avoid, I have started going to a non Skoda FnG for the past 3 years and have been relatively at peace. I think this is the formula to enjoy any Skoda or VAG car. Stop going to the authorized dealer after your warranty and identify a good FnG to get your services done.

I too had injector failure on my 2012 Skoda Rapid 1.6TDi in 2015. When taken to Vinayak Skoda, they quoted 1.5L with labour and taxes to fix the issue. We took it up with the then Managing Director and he agreed it was a known issue which unfortunately Skoda does not want to do a recall on. At the end he agreed to only charge us for labour and towing, which still came upto around Rs. 12,000. Also, the whole fiasco took about 2 months to get resolved.

Fast forward to 2018 and I had an issue where the engine idle rpm was 1100 under normal conditions(it usually happens when you do a cold start under 15 degrees Celsius ambient temperature). This issue also took about two months to get resolved with Vinayak Skoda service centre in Whitefield. Initially they kept insisting that I should remove the RaceDynamics Dieseltronic Piggyback ECU. I maintained that it cannot be the issue as I had been using the car for a long time with it and I personally know the sort of R&D that goes into the product.

Having agreed to remove it for a while, the issue persisted. Took the car again some 24km to the service centre again, where they said it was a loose battery terminal. It kind of made sense at the time that if there was a lose terminal then the ECU would've felt that the battery is low on charge and would have demanded a higher idle rpm to charge the battery with the alternator.

But then, just a few days later, the issue came back. Again, repeated the entire process and again wrote a few stinkers to the CEO of Vinayak Skoda regarding the issue. He sent what he claimed to be a very senior technician with a lot of experience. Finally the issue was resolved with the culprit being a worn out ground point from the negative terminal to the chassis.

Ever since then, I have been going to MotoAdda in Frazer Town for any repairs or service. It's working out much cheaper than dealer rates despite using Motul 8100 Excess 5W40 which has made the engine much smoother and requires fewer top ups due to lesser oil being burnt. I even changed the front suspension bushings, control arms and link rods with them and the car rides much better now.

[aniketi]

Stories like this keep me away from Skoda / VW cars. Very sad to hear such story for a genuine customer. It raises few doubts in my mind.

1 Why spares are still so costly? Why can't they just localize these parts as they are in India for quite a long time now.
2 Why authorized service station is not able to repair car properly? How come they give foolish reasons? How can they justify?
3 Like other manufacturer's, aren't Skoda technical staff is trained properly? They should be able to know their cars better, right?

For last 20 years, my family owns different Maruti cars. Whenever we have any problems, MSIL authorized service center are able to identify and fix problems with real ease, no issues whatsoever. Some of their engineers are so good that they identify problems with just 2 mins of drive and fix it like new. Never had any complains like this.

[anshu1101]

And here I am thinking that Skoda India has mend its ways and is on track to restore its reputation. But alas! These incidents do put a huge dent in your confidence on the brand. My cousin was considering the Rapid TSI as his first purchase, but with these horror stories continuing unabated, I'll ask him to stay away.

[asbshyam]

I can think of two things,

1. If they are going to fleecing with a shoddy repair for a Rapid, I wonder what they would charge for even expensive cars like Superb or Octavia? Looks like peaceful ownership is unattainable with a Skoda.

2. Does TEAM-BHP have a list of Skoda A.S.S.'s which are marked good or bad by BHPian reviews, with possible counts of bad services? Google Reviews are hardly dependable as not everyone might be aware that they are being taken for a ride. If not, would it make sense to have a dedicate thread for Skoda A.S.S akin to the Team-BHP Directory?

[#ABTorquey]

VAG cars are simply not for middle class or people who do not understand their mechanics. For me, they are too complex machines compared to their competition. This complexity is exploited by the dealers very well - charging exorbitant amount for repairs and replacement.

Being an owner of a Polo has taught me many, many things. There is an ABS system in the car. It can fail many times (experience). There are injectors which too can fail (Team-Bhp). The battery can leave you stranded anywhere and any time (experience) . And most importantly, the showroom guys do not always smile as they did when you first went for the purchase. After buying the car, I have visited the showroom more than my relatives' houses. It was quite a journey .

With all this, am I going to buy another VAG Car??

ABSOLUTE NO!!!

[AkMar]

I have been reading a lot on how Skoda has improved. What I don't understand, and is already pointed out earlier, is why Zac Hollis has to intervene in every customer issue as if Skoda customer care is a one man show? The inference I can draw is that there are absolutely no checks and balances from Skoda on its dealers. Second, there is no customer care mechanism within Skoda India to take care of these complaints OR if such a team exists it is extremely incompetent due to which every issue has to be escalated to director of Skoda to get the attention it deserves.

Yes, there might be some improvement in the service experience. But till the time every customer complaint requires the director of Skoda to intervene & rap the dealer on their knuckles, they have not improved enough to inspire confidence in me.

I had a horrible experience with Maruti (link (Sai Service Ripoff! Rs. 18,000 for service of Swift (22K kms) UPDATE: Excess refunded)) which was resolved at the dealer level without much fuss. The dealer may have got some firing internally, but I didn't even have to contact the territory manager for this.

[WorkingGuru]

Any mainstream passenger car maker having low sales numbers has very limited leverage over its dealers.

With such a situation, to build confidence among customers & win the favour of masses, heavily invested mainstream car manufacturers must ensure reliability of their car is uncompromised (especially the entry level models) with long term Warranty & AMC packages. Among the vocal masses it'd indicate not just their confidence on the product, but also their commitment to the customer for vehicle maintenance.

Skoda could rather sell the Rapid Rider for a price that includes a 4yr (60,000 km) warranty + 3yr (30,000 km) extended warranty (apart from a 5yr/1.5 Lakh km engine warranty), and a similar usage based AMC plan. (Edit 2 : Wouldn't it be a sales success if the Skoda Rapid with this scheme came at the price of a Honda City without these offers?)

Once the customer is happy and service center personnel is trained to work with fair ethics (while maintaining profitability), then the same customer would be happy to pay premium for servicing their next higher segment Skoda.

Over many years this has been repeatedly said by senior members of the forum & it isn't a new technique that any mainstream car maker seemingly wouldn't know, still some brands choose the path where they have numerous customers grudging at them over forums while they're claiming 99% positive customer reviews (claims which we ALL know have 0 credence).

If the car maker is NOT heavily invested and mostly just imports & assembles their niché products here, then they may not need to do alot of these things to be able to recover profits.

IMO, only if any car maker manages to balance these things well, then they can glorify their "German Engineering" aspect, or say that they're "Born of Pedigree".