[Ice]

Originally Posted by siddartha

for example , one sevice advisor at vinayaka cars blr,

Siddartha, I actually got an SMS from Vinayaka saying that they were voted the best Skoda dealer / service center in India. Yikes.

Originally Posted by siddartha

and with regards to the "mechanics", how many of them who work on your car are actually trained at skoda or where ever! are they trained for diagnosis or fault finding? or just to "remove and refix".

Siddartha, I knew a chap from the Millenium Motors family (which runs a couple of Skoda dealerships in TN, and used to run one in Madras). He used to give me horror stories on how Skoda trained only the first batch of mechanics. Net result: one mechanic in the garage became a Service Advisor and Foreman in just a couple of months, in order to front the service station and train future mechanic hires.
Whenever they launch a new car, Skoda has a mechanics meet. One batch gets trained. The best existing mechanics at the existing dealerships get to visit this meet.

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

......

3) Skoda cars are not made for India. Every now and then there is some niggling issue. I once had a street race ( actually as a result of stares and ego ) with 1.9 Octy, that guy was driving like a maniac and I managed to stay ahead of him in my Zeus. Traffic helped me. Later on we stopped in front of same restaurant and we had a conversation. He was frustrated with the car, electricals and AC fail on expresshighway, excess cost of spares, etc. Some or the other problem would come up.
I though its because he drives like mad.

After reading this, it can be confirmed that their cars are not made for India.

4) I wonder what is the realiability of their newer cars lile Laura/Jetta. And its seriously very dangerous to even think of buying Skoda.

Aaggoswami sir,

While your inferences might be based on experiences, I don't think its right for you to generalize. We have 2 Octy diesels, one with 60,000 kms. on it, and the other with 55,000 kms. Both have done extensive highway travel, and braved horrible roads in S. Tamilnadu. We have never been stranded, and the maintenance bills have never been exorbitant (except for one car's AC coil which was damaged by water in last November's rains in Chennai). There have been no niggling issues.
(3) - its probably horrible driving and maintanence on the part of the guy you raced with.
(4) Our company has 3 Laura's presssed into service as executive vehicles, driven only by company drivers. No problems, and I don't feel endangered because we have 5 Skodas at home.

Their service sucks, though. Sucks, sucks, sucks. They respond well to threats of bodily harm sometimes

[Steeroid]

Ajmat

Can you keep sending them mails every now and then so we can figure out if it is actually a person responding or an autoresponder system that looks for key words and send a response within a specified time?

[kavesh55]

Behram, Indeed a good one for the 600th post.

My two bits-

I feel its 50% effort of the organisation either dealership or company to inculcate the values/training/gyan/philosophy. 50% effort of the individual, the person needs to be passionate about this job, some engineer passing out having no passion for automobiles in general joins an auto major, because its a good brand to work for. Incases the poor guy just is not capable or does not have the basic orientation for customer service.

PS- Unofficial reply by an HR person of an automobile major, We only hire the cream from the premier insitutes ( Whether the person is passionate about anything on wheels, is a question that needs to be answered)

[Ravveendrra]

Originally Posted by Ice

....
While your inferences might be based on experiences, I don't think its right for you to generalize. We have 2 Octy diesels, one with 60,000 kms. on it, and the other with 55,000 kms. Both have done extensive highway travel, and braved horrible roads in S. Tamilnadu. We have never been stranded, and the maintenance bills have never been exorbitant (except for one car's AC coil which was damaged by water in last November's rains in Chennai). There have been no niggling issues.
(3) - its probably horrible driving and maintanence on the part of the guy you raced with.
(4) Our company has 3 Laura's presssed into service as executive vehicles, driven only by company drivers. No problems, and I don't feel endangered because we have 5 Skodas at home.

Their service sucks, though. Sucks, sucks, sucks. They respond well to threats of bodily harm sometimes

I agree with the 'no problem' bit. The sales and service are actually no better or worse than the others.

AFAIK no manufacturer trains every mechanic in every dealer & A.S.C. The batches that are trained by them are expected to train the others and new-comers down the line.

Cheers,