[Mpower]

Regarding the clutch, every time our cars go in for service its comes back with a smooth (ie less hard) clutch and gearshift. Reason is that they simply clean all the mechanical linkages (pedal box etc) and moving parts and grease them.

Flooding cannot really damage the clutch which is an all mechanical part. An inspection of the replaced part by an expert will tell you what is wrong with it and how much lining life is left in there.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by Sideways

BUT, BIG BUT they have changed the following under warranty: -

1) Alternator Overhauled - I am still not happy, it still continues to make a grinding noise.
2) Clutch Cover assembly
3) Clutch Plate
4) Clutch Pedal box
5) Intermediate Steering Shaft
6) Gear shift lever boot cover
7) Oil pump - The whining noise though was narrowed down to the oil they use, the pump was ok, but was never the less replaced. I have shifted over to an after market oil. I couldnt do so earlier because of the warranty becoming void etc.
8) Power window switch
9) High pressure diesel fuel line - had a minor leak and was replaced
10) EGR pipe assembly
11) Engine bed - 2 numbers
12) Wiper motor
13) And the big daddy of them all - The entire gearbox.

- I know what you must be thinking.

Oh my god!

And I thought only Tata does wholesale replacements!

Think of how much this would've cost you if you had a Skoda, though!

[mmmjgm]

Sorry if OT,

I remember during my esteem 1.3l days, there was a grinding noise emanating from below the car at certain speeds, ( 20 to 40kmph)

Took it to Sai Service (it was out of warranty) Lower Parel, they diagnosed it very correctly by stating that my tyres have uneven wear, there's a syncing sound being caused (harmonic vibrations maybe) due to the wear of the tyres & the hard compound.

They did not charge me anything for the same and gave back the car in the evening, as the Service advisor later told me upon delivery that they had checked everything and borrowed tyres from another car and tried the same, the sound stopped coming.

They also went ahead and tried my tyres on another car and that car had the sound which came from my car/tyres.

That's what I would say service, had it been Skoda, I am sure it would have added one more headache on my head by replacing parts which have/had life and do not need an immediate change.

The clutch, - living in South Bombay at the time, I have seen 4 monsoons (esteem) on one clutch, one season had it so bad that the entire disc brakes of the car were submerged, water was upto the bonnet of the engine, except for an outer A/c condensor fan nothing was changed.

Again Sai Service told me that they did not have the part in stock, the Service advisor told me that if I were to look in the open market, I would get an OEM (NipponDenso) fan from Opera House in Mumbai at xyz shop for a particular amount (this was in 1997 don't remember it now).

Yet despite 4 monsoons, nothing happened to the clutch/pressure plate/bearing - for people in the engineering industry its a ZZ bearing (sealed on both ends and self lubricated).

Our Toyota Innova - 1.4 lakh kms, the clutch is yet running strong, only things changed are brake pads (routine) and consumables which are regular apart from a shock absorber change and bushings change.

Can you beat that !.
my 2 cents had it been a maruti/toyota product.

regards

[harry10]

@Sideways - You could have asked for a new jeep instead, lol.

@Jaggu- I know few people who crib and show anger on a Rs 2500-3000 Indica regular service so 60000 rupees as a service may have given them a heartattack.

@Navin ji- Its good you didnt tell them abhout being a mod at t-bhp. The entire experience would be different if you were not treated as an ordinary customer.
However i feel if you would have told maybe the costs would be less ot the treatment something special.
And yes by now we all understand very well that SKODA DONT CARE FOR CUSTOMERS.

[navin]

ok I got the car back from Skoda today. They changed the gasket on the window as well as 2 black plastic cowls (left and right) that lie between the bonnet and the windshield. Total cost about Rs. 2K.

The tested and readjusted my brakes and clutch and checked the cooiling coil but since no parts were changed there was no charge. With any other company we'd have thought this normal, with Skoda might we consider this as special treatment! :-)

[Jaggu]

How does the clutch feel now? and what did they adjust in brakes?

[navin]

Dont know have not driven it. The car is with Stanley. They have to re-do my headrests (they messed up the wiring of the LCD monitors in the head rest) and my arm rest (they gave me a rider arm rest instead of a vRS arm rest).

[Ravveendrra]

Originally Posted by GTO

...... Your car's ONE SINGLE 30,000 km visit actually cost as much as that of THREE services of my Merc: at 10K kms (Rs. 14,078), 20K kms (Rs. 23,648) and 30K kms (Rs. 27,472). I used to think that the C220 is expensive to own, but the RS - at half the showroom price - costs MORE to own!

Now add to that the fact that up until 30,000 kms, that is ALL the money I spent on the Benz. While your RS has obviously seen other bills too. Net net, up until 30,000 kms, my Mercedes C220 has worked out cheaper to own than your Skoda RS!!

My take when I compared the 2 marques:

1. The Merc engines run for at least 4lakh kms / the Skoda engines might be good for 2 to 3 lakh km

2. The Mercs need less parts replaced over the years than the Skodas

3. The C class is almost twice as expensive to buy as the Skoda.

4. A 10% return on the 16 lakhs that I save by buying the Skoda works out to an income of 1.6 lakhs a year. I might spend half that amount on the maintainance, upkeep etc. of the car.

5. The maintainance / repair costs hit me from the 3rd or 4th year. If I factor in the most powerful thing in the world - compound interest, my wallet is much much better off with the Skoda.

I must add here that the Laura has not disappointed me in the above regard.

The A.S.S. here is pretty good. Of course, I tell them exactly what I want done, I guess it is an old habit. After all, I use the car so I would know what is wrong with it and also know what I want done in it. No Johnny who peers at it for a few minutes when it goes for servicing can ever read it as well as I can, eg. after fitting the Pete's box, I noticed that the clutch was slipping occasionally - I told them to change it, they TDed it and said the clutch was OK, I insisted (Rs.23K for clutch and pressure plates) - now I find my tyres spinning when I floor the accelerator to overtake! (there goes another 30K on 225/55 R 16s).

Cheers,

[viper]

Originally Posted by Ravveendrra

The A.S.S. here is pretty good. Of course, I tell them exactly what I want done, I guess it is an old habit. After all, I use the car so I would know what is wrong with it and also know what I want done in it. No Johnny who peers at it for a few minutes when it goes for servicing can ever read it as well as I can.
Cheers,

Raveendra,

That is the most accurately summarized statement that one can make with reference to a service centre diagnosing issues with a car. For starters the people who do the road testing are not even qualified or proper drivers in most cases. They are not allowed to drive at high speeds where generally most complaints crop up regd handling , braking, pick up etc. They have certain parameters laid out and they come up with their conclusions based on them.

For eg @ Ichibaan Honda the person making the job card and the person who road tests the car are 2 different people. You are not allowed to interact with the test driver unless you make a noise about it.

@ Navin - Like the rest have said I do not feel your bill to be high considering the work done on your car after specifying how particular you were about it
and most probably they just played it safe by replacing he probable culprits. That said if you got the same job done at a private garage you might have saved at least 25% of your bill amount if not lesser.

None of my cars ever go to a service centre once my free services are over or if there is a warranty related issue. There are tons of horror stories of cars being messed up at private garages and vice versa and at the end of the day it all boils down to trust.

1> Trust the person you go to.
2> Trust the parts supplier.
3> Trust the advice given.

Bigger problem happens when if you go to X who gives you a certain diagnosis and then you say that Z said this or that then he think OK let me do whatever you say if you know better. Very rarely do people like taking inputs which contradict with their judgements.

Most private garages will also almost always run down the earlier garage you had been maintaining your car with when you switch to them pointing out all the "wrong" things done to your car even if they were not wrong.

Viper

[ajmat]

Having pushed driven my vrs hard over the past week, it struck me re: the clutch

1: Did you see a rise in fuel consumption
2: Did you suddenly never stall the car ever when it should have or find yourself driving in a lower than nrmal gear?

Then your clutch would have been fried

[navin]

Originally Posted by Ravveendrra

3. The C class is almost twice as expensive to buy as the Skoda.
4. A 10% return on the 16 lakhs that I save by buying the Skoda

The A.S.S. here is pretty good. Of course, I tell them exactly what I want done, I guess it is an old habit.

A C class has a badge. The Skoda does not.

Originally Posted by ajmat

Having pushed driven my vrs hard over the past week, it struck me re: the clutch

1: Did you see a rise in fuel consumption
2: Did you suddenly never stall the car ever when it should have or find yourself driving in a lower than nrmal gear?

Fuel Consumption has improved with the new clutch but they also cleaned the throttle body.

I never stalled the car and I do often drive at low RPMS (under 3K).

Originally Posted by viper

@ Navin - Like the rest have said I do not feel your bill to be high considering the work done on your car after specifying how particular you were about it
and most probably they just played it safe by replacing he probable culprits.

The bill can be considered to be high not beucase of the work done but at the number of kms it was done at. If the same works were done at 60K it might have been considered normal.

1. Why did my Skoda clutch last 1/3rd that of the OHC, NHC, Accord, Corolla, Innova and Opel (Astra and Sail) when the same cars were all driven by the same drivers?

2. Why does a Skoda clutch on a car that has been in the Indian market for 5 years (and hence should have been localised) cost more than that of a Corolla's?

3. Viper you know how particular I am when it comes to having a car that looks and performs like the 1st day I got it. I suspect Skoda knows I am a Mod (I never talked to them about TBHP) and might have thought "we better fix this guys car properly otherwise he will write a bad review".

[v1p3r]

Navin, the clutch issue is a bit weird. Obviously, they could have tried greasing the pedal assembly or changing just the release bearing. But most importantly, and this is something the other RS owners haven't pointed out, why hasn't Autobahn changed the flywheel? All RSs come with dual-mass flywheels which NEED to be changed when the clutch is changed, or the new clutch stands a good chance of slipping from Day One.

Your timing belt change seems to have been pretty cheap.

[navin]

V13pr/Sideways, So what you are saying is that the replacements of most of the parts as quoted in the link below is reasonable.

Sideways has tested the belt (I couriered the same to him) and found that the belt had indeed become hard and that Skoda was right to change it. Sideways will elaborate on the technical details of the timing belt change.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/1242818-post2.html

Q1: How come Skoda parts have a shorter life than their counterparts?
Q2: Are Skoda parts more or less expensive than that of a Corolla, Civic, or Accord?

Some parts that failed are odd eg: Fuel Gauge Sender unit 8L0919673E 1 Rs. 3333

and some parts were changed at their discretion (I had given them the job to do as per their discretion)
i. Fuel Filter Set 1J0201511A 1 Rs. 417
ii. Dust and Pollen filter EL 1H0819644B 1 Rs. 481
iii. Screen Wash Concentrate HBA096039 1 Rs. 89
iv. Dip Stick Ptl. 06A115611Q 1 Rs. 340

and lastly some charges are considered high considering what Toyota, Honda and Hyundai charge (we have Civics, Corollas, Citys, Innovas and an Elantra in my family)
a. Wheel Alignment Done Rs. 900
b. Wheel Balancing Done Rs. 500
c. Replaced Fuel filter Rs. 150
d. Replaced Brake Oil Rs. 350
e. Water outlet gallery cleaning done Rs. 950
f. Front Shock Absorber servicing done Rs. 1200

I have no complaints against the personal attention given to me but am just trying to evaluate (in a rigourous and stoic manner) if teh TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of a Skoda is more than that of it's counterparts in the Industry. Some posts back for example GTO had pointed out that he has spent less on his C class than I have spent on my Skoda. There should be no rationale reason for this.

[mmmjgm]

Originally Posted by navin

I suspect Skoda knows I am a Mod (I never talked to them about TBHP) and might have thought "we better fix this guys car properly otherwise he will write a bad review".

Thiis gives a lot of solace to my heart and mind, the commercial media (wife was an editor) is ugly and bends over in yogic poses for advertisement revenues from industry who wants to pose it as a bunch of roses which stink like the Mahim creek.

This my friends is truly freedom of speech via electronic media. What could not be accomplished for so many years has now come to fruition in India.

Alternatively can one ever imagine an editor of newspaper or publication ever berating a product or service of one of its advertisers ?

Cheers and long live Team-bhp.com

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Ravveendrra

My take when I compared the 2 marques......If I factor in the most powerful thing in the world - compound interest, my wallet is much much better off with the Skoda.

And with that, we've missed the entire point of my post. It's pretty obvious that a 30 lakh car will work out more expensive to own (including opportunity cost etc. etc.) than one that costs 15 lakhs. That's like saying that the total ownership cost / compound interest / etc. etc. of an Indigo diesel is better than a Octavia.

The point behind my post was that a 15 lakh car has COST MORE to maintain, until the 30,000 km mark, than a 30 lakh car. This is simply inexcusable. And I always used to think that Merc's maintenance costs are killer. Heck, I find it reasonable (as a % of ex-showroom price) compared to what Navins been spending on the vRS! Let's not forget that my C220 is a diesel (whose parts are priced higher than the petrol) and gives me 11.5 kpl on a cheaper fuel compared to the 7 - 7.5 kpl that Navin gets on the vRS.