[navin]

Originally Posted by GTO

Wow man. Toyota really sets the standards. .

To bad they sell exactly one car!


My bet is that as soon as the economic climate in India improves the classifieds section will see a lot of Skodas available.

In my view Skoda is doomed. I'm going to get of this sking ship as soon as I can.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by navin

To bad they sell exactly one car!

I'm guessing you didn't classify the Innova as a car. They also sell the Camry.

[iraghava]

Originally Posted by vid6639

They also sell the Camry.

They offer it. How many they sell is another matter.

[travelwriter]

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

Dear all - now let me give you some more to mull over.
Dear Customer - .....BLAH BLAH. CC DEALER - PLEASE - AND CONFIRM.
Behram Dhabhar

Behram,

I know exactly what you mean. I work with a leading telecom operator and am in the service department. We also have an outsourced outfit handling customers. Customer sends in a nasty mail asking for disconnection and he gets a standard "Thank you for your interest in our services. We will ensure someone calls you within 28 hours. Assuring you of our best services."

And the customer goes "They can't be serious, can they?"

[aaggoswami]

It looks they were sleepy and at that time, typed in the reply.
The reply given by DHABHAR.BEHRAM is the best. Generally this is what is known as administrative or managerial abilities in India.
We never had a similar experience with Maruti, the reason we are loyal to them.

1) Skoda's sales have been falling that is what I read, dont remember where.

2) GM is improving its A.S & S. and their diesel version is giving competition to Skoda.

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.

[kb100]

Total, abject and callous disregard for paying public = Skoda!

Someone send the MD of that madhouse all the links in this here forum. In fact why don't we forward it to VW HQ itself - and warn them that they can kiss their Indian excursion goodbye unless they get their house in order!

[rangaraj]

The reliability of the VW group seems to be inversely proportional to the price. the horror stories of the Passat , the Laura and i guess the Octavia was probably the most reliable of the lot. Given their choice of choosing tractor sellers as distributors of their cars in bangalore, skoda's reliability post the warranty phase are starting to crop up and word will spread. They had a great run, and with the others catching up with products in the diesel space - Hyundai, GM to start with and Toyota and Honda shortly, the VW group will suffer with their lack of reach, reliability etc.Not too sure if the Audi family suffer from the same levels of frustration. Ajit recently mentioned to me VW/Skoda has the same level of reliability as Ford or lower (they suffer from the same image in the US as well). The japs rule when it comes to reliability with Lexus/Toyota in the lead and the Koreans make up with a vast network and competition amongst themselves keeps them on their toes. The American and German cars in the lower and mid range suffer from lack of a large network of dealers/support network and hence that breeds complecency and with the cost of spares being so high, make their margins by blindly suggesting - "needs to be replaced". Their margins (dealers) - (especially GM) are so thin as they dont have volumes to make money and focus on customer satisfaction.Toyota looks at a long term view (despite what the latest VW ad says, it doesnt seem to follow it) and builds bullet proof cars and follow it up with great service. No wonder they have a loyal customer base. Despite its image, Suzuki has done a reasonable job of it. I wonder how Skoda fare so well in the JD powers customer satisfaction surveys! If they were to take their surveys at the repair centre's and ask customers, they may get a real picture. Despite the success of Skoda, i have decided to stay away from the VW family and go to either the Japanese or to Hyundai, despite they not having "German Engineering".

[Thakurs]

Hey all, it seems you are just running behind an unfortunate sheep who thinks she know the way. R any of u aware dat d VAG-COM will give u the only values, but r they in specified limits?????? trust me i really feel this ajmat has a different story all together. what say???? I own an RS and even i have to followup the mfgr. Hey even i have 2 keep on calling the customercare. what i get is an assurance from mfgr but d dealer reacts after that. so it should be applicable to all...........


Note from Mod : Please take the time to type out your posts in full words as per Team-BHP rules. Avoid the use of SMS language (r = are, d = the, etc), and please take the time to re-read your post for typos before submitting.

[dilipkumar7278]

Hi
I was seriously contemplating skoda as a buy after i sell my lancer.But the experiences of ajmat and many others made me think twice.I now have decided that I will never buy this damned piece of so called automobile.I am using a lancer for the last 6 years and 1.2l kms and the costly part I had to change was the timing belt at 100000kms which came around 4500rs. God save skodaa
Cheers

[Nikhilb2008]

Haha! that was hilarious reading Ajmat!

[kailashnj]

Skoda customers are really frustrated lot, can be easily seen from many posts in here at the forum. But something that I saw put everything else to rest

One of the Octavia owner in Mumbai had the following Quote on his car "2yrs of Ownership and 3 lacs spend in maintenance, I am a proud owner of this white elephant". I can now relate to what this guy was saying, obvisously I have a laugh when I had read this but now I understand how frustrated that guy must have been.

Regards,
Kailash

[kapiljolly79]

Dude. I too have the same experience. Two years of ownership, 45000kms and three lacs spent in maintainance. Lucky for me, Insurance decided to pay half the amount. Now thats called irony. Even Insurance companies should think twice before insuring Skodas and let alone that, you as a customer should think ten times before you decide on these white elephants. Please pass this message to all those people who intend on buying skodas and it will save you a fortune. You will be bestowed with blessings for having shown buyers the right way.

Mods: Yes, this is now a forward. So if you want blessings, pass this message to all prospective clients.

Originally Posted by kailashnj

Skoda customers are really frustrated lot, can be easily seen from many posts in here at the forum. But something that I saw put everything else to rest

One of the Octavia owner in Mumbai had the following Quote on his car "2yrs of Ownership and 3 lacs spend in maintenance, I am a proud owner of this white elephant". I can now relate to what this guy was saying, obvisously I have a laugh when I had read this but now I understand how frustrated that guy must have been.

Regards,
Kailash

[GTO]

Originally Posted by navin

To bad they sell exactly one car!

Well, the Camry does outsell the Superb while the Altis has outsold the Octavia & Laura (combined) in more months than just one. Then, we have the Innova!

[diffsoft]

Ajmat:

I think one needs a technically qualified person to own a Skoda, atleast an Octavia / Laura if not Fabia.

I for instance would like to buy a car, assume by default it will be defect free generally and enjoy the car. With Skoda it appears that I will enjoy my drives much more but the downside is that I need to be prepared for "bugs" and "crashes" (ala Windows). Folks who are technically savvy (like yourself, know where the water pumps are, how a turbo works, know that there's a VAG COM, etc) can feel still feel confident they can resolve any "bugs" their cars may throw up from time to time. I have hardly opened the bonnet of my car more than 10 times in the 100,000 km I must have clocked driving so far

But for folks like me - if a car stalls and I have nowhere to call then my heart literally comes to my mouth. I am clueless, helpless and insecure. And if I imagine the hard earned money spent to buy the car then I reach a new nadir of foolishness. Throw in hard charging dealers then I feel M800 gives a better "holistic experience" of car ownership at a sixth or so of the cost.

Cheers,

[navin]

Originally Posted by vid6639

I'm guessing you didn't classify the Innova as a car. They also sell the Camry.

Originally Posted by iraghava

How many they sell is another matter.

Originally Posted by GTO

Well, the Camry does outsell the Superb

Innova is certainly not a car. For me a car is a sedan a la Accord, Civic, City, Jazz or Fabia, Octavia, Laura, Superb etc.

Wish Toyota has a line up that could comepte with Honda/Skoda.

The Camry is a CBU and hence costs 25% more than a simialrly equipped Accord.

Originally Posted by diffsoft

I have hardly opened the bonnet of my car more than 10 times in the 100,000 km I must have clocked driving so far

in a Skoda?