[drmohitg]

@Sahil: So any updates on your car yet? Have you got any response from Skoda or gone ahead and paid for the repairs?

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

@Sahil: So any updates on your car yet? Have you got any response from Skoda or gone ahead and paid for the repairs?

I've placed an order for the part and will be paying 50% of the cost as the unethical company leave me with no other choice. It almost feels like day light robbery.

Coincidently a friend of mine(to whom I had recommended the Superb)happened to meet with the CEO of Skoda and told him he cancelled his Superb's booking based on my experience and the CEO had only one thing to say " it's my personal guarantee to ensure you get good service". Wonder why they can't give every customer a "personal warranty" since clearly their corporate warranty norms are bogus.
The CEO did mention that Skoda a keeps a close eye on teambhp and apparently they are very happy that Tbhp gave the new Octavia a great review. Stop fooling yourself Skoda, you give a new car to test obviously you will get a good review, you product isn't bad(only when brand new) at all it's your shabby after sales and reliability that is the reason for numerous threads like this that you choose to ignore.

A clear indication of their rotten attitude at the customer service dept at Skoda head office is that even though this matter has reached the ears of the CEO there is no communication from any of the higher management. They continue to sit on their high horses.

[wilful]

Originally Posted by Sahil

I've placed an order for the part and will be paying 50% of the cost as the unethical company leave me with no other choice. It almost feels like day light robbery.
Coincidently a friend of mine(to whom I had recommended the Superb)happened to meet with the CEO of Skoda and told him he cancelled his Superb's booking based on my experience and the CEO had only one thing to say " it's my personal guarantee to ensure you get good service". Wonder why they can't give every customer a "personal warranty" since clearly their corporate warranty norms are bogus.
A clear indication of their rotten attitude at the customer service dept at Skoda head office is that even though this matter has reached the ears of the CEO there is no communication from any of the higher management. They continue to sit on their high horses.

This makes for shocking reading. I should have thought a CEO would be sensitive to the reputation/long term interests of his company. Clearly they think the Indian customer is a pushover.
On a lighter note - this kind of inflexibility to acknowledge and fix shortcomings brings to mind the Indian cricket team - downhill all the way.
The Octavia ratings in the poll will not translate into significant numbers unless they fix their (service) reputation.

[shankar.balan]

I am not sure what to make of this at all.

The vitriolic tone of this thread seems to me, to be unwarranted in that sense, because speaking for myself, I have been consistently treated well by the Skoda guys so far, irrespective of the 'level' of the person I was dealing with.

Am therefore, unable to relate to this kind of anger. To me it seems a little excessive.

The same goes for the Mahindra guys when I had vehicles from their stable. I was always treated consistently well by their team, from the top levels to the bottom levels.

[Tabasco Sauce]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I am not sure what to make of this at all.

The vitriolic tone of this thread seems to me, to be unwarranted in that sense, because speaking for myself, I have been consistently treated well by the Skoda guys so far, irrespective of the 'level' of the person I was dealing with.

Am therefore, unable to relate to this kind of anger. To me it seems a little excessive.

The same goes for the Mahindra guys when I had vehicles from their stable. I was always treated consistently well by their team, from the top levels to the bottom levels.

I agree with this sentiment completely being the owner of two Skoda vehicles currently. Having owned multiple brands including MS, Ford, Hyundai, Chevrolet, Mahindra, Fiat and Audi over the past 13 years I have been extremely lucky in all my dealings even when faced with serious problems. But then, that is my personal experiences driving my opinion of the dealerships in general.

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I am not sure what to make of this at all.

The vitriolic tone of this thread seems to me, to be unwarranted in that sense, because speaking for myself, I have been consistently treated well by the Skoda guys so far, irrespective of the 'level' of the person I was dealing with.

Am therefore, unable to relate to this kind of anger. To me it seems a little excessive.

The same goes for the Mahindra guys when I had vehicles from their stable. I was always treated consistently well by their team, from the top levels to the bottom levels.

While I'm glad you've had a good experience with Skoda but god forbid you're driving down a open road at a decent speed with your family and the car beep Brake Malfunction! I think you too would experience "excessive" anger.
Moreover when they refuse to take responsibility for anything and make you feel like they have done you a favour by compensating 50% as a "special case".
Anger only ads up when you have been a Skoda loyalist and went against the tide to vouch for them in several threads across this forum and my public life. Between my cars, family and friends there have been atleast 20 Skoda's bought, most of them Superbs that were bought based on my recommendation. I actually feel morally responsible for all their cars now and one of the prime factors they bought these cars inspite of being skeptical was because I convinced them. Big big mistake for putting them and myself in a soup.

[lurker]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I am not sure what to make of this at all.

The vitriolic tone of this thread seems to me, to be unwarranted in that sense, because speaking for myself, I have been consistently treated well by the Skoda guys so far, irrespective of the 'level' of the person I was dealing with.

Am therefore, unable to relate to this kind of anger. To me it seems a little excessive.

The same goes for the Mahindra guys when I had vehicles from their stable. I was always treated consistently well by their team, from the top levels to the bottom levels.

You are not safe yet .. most European diesels begin their service centre travails after 40K, so hold your guns till you cross that landmark. Very few Euro samples age well, in Indian conditions atleast, after 40K while there are some low mileage ones that last for 10 years without any issues, primarily because they have hardly run.

There are some Skoda ownership logs on TBHP that have run more than 100K, but they are clearly the exceptions and not the norm. The norm is that after 40K, they give a lot of hefty repair bills to the owner.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I am not sure what to make of this at all.

The vitriolic tone of this thread seems to me, to be unwarranted in that sense, because speaking for myself, I have been consistently treated well by the Skoda guys so far, irrespective of the 'level' of the person I was dealing with.

Am therefore, unable to relate to this kind of anger. To me it seems a little excessive.

The same goes for the Mahindra guys when I had vehicles from their stable. I was always treated consistently well by their team, from the top levels to the bottom levels.

I will say 'Good Luck' is with you and is showering the same on you be it Skoda or M&M. Thank your stars that the Skoda is fine and not giving you heart-attacks.

Earlier I used to think having a good rapport with the service team in Skoda will be helpful and easy to get things done when problems arise but that is the time when they show their backs too.

I have a colleague in my Ex-Company who purchased the Superb in 2012 model TDI which had done 36K kms in 1.5 years with no problems at all and one fine day the instrumentation console +headlamps stop working all of a sudden. The car was towed to ASC where it was laying eggs for 4 months as the problem was being diagnosed by the engineers. After 7 months of horror he sold the car and bought a Honda Accord.

Bottom line: You never know what will happen!

All the best!

Anurag.

[shankar.balan]

Ha ha! I guess I asked for that vitriolic tidal wave!

I ve just driven 350kms at rather high ish speeds to visit my folks.

So far so good.

Cheers!

[krreddy]

Sahil, i think it's better to pay the darn money for that part and move on. You have a good product at your disposal and don't let Skoda ruin your ownership experience.

I've had far worse experience with Hyundai tbh. The AC again failed in the seventh month after i got it replaced. They wouldn't budge an inch and i ended up paying the whole darn thing for the compressor.

Same is the case with Mahindra, FIAT, Tata, Ford, VW & other german manufacturers. I guess Toyota & Honda are an exception and the premium they charge kind of makes up for it.

BTW i have a Superb and the experience has been good so far.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I am not sure what to make of this at all.

The vitriolic tone of this thread seems to me, to be unwarranted in that sense, because speaking for myself, I have been consistently treated well by the Skoda guys so far, irrespective of the 'level' of the person I was dealing with.

Am therefore, unable to relate to this kind of anger. To me it seems a little excessive.

This has been mentioned a few times and I don't understand why existing owners try to justify that the service is not bad.

I will again reiterate what everyone is trying to say. Skoda cars are not all bad. The reliability and after sales is poor. But this does not mean that all Skoda cars are plagued with issues.

As an example if a Toyota has a failure rate of 1% i.e. 10 out of 1000 cars failing then the Skoda has a failure rate of 10% which means 100/1000 cars.

If you notice the difference in the above comparison you will see 990 Toyota owners are happy but only 900 Skoda owners share the same joy.

If you are within the 900 just consider yourself lucky but if your out of the 100 which are not so lucky, you will end up with threads like this.

Also, there is no point for the 900 which are happy owners to tell the 100 that are not that Skoda's are not unreliable and I am having no such issues.

Unfortunately as a Toyota owner I can't even find the small % of unhappy Toyota owners to tell them that my car is running perfectly even after 5 years.

[StarScream]

My small experience with Skoda is telling of dealer attitudes, if not the company. I like the way the Octavia looks and I'm in the market for a car, so I called my local dealer even though I'm very wary of Skoda. I asked for a test drive of the petrol variants. Dealership says they have none and don't intend to have them, only the diesel is available. They will happily deliver a petrol car though, if I am interested, without a test drive.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

This has been mentioned a few times and I don't understand why existing owners try to justify that the service is not bad.

I cannot understand such a comment from you, a Moderator!

Of course I will go on record and appreciate it if I have experienced something good. Equally, if I have experienced anything bad from anyone I will rant and rave with the best of them.

I'll thank you, Vid, not to make statements to me like you have above. Its not, shall we say, quite so "becoming" of you. Fact is, whether anyone likes it or not, my experience has been pleasant.

I wasn't aware that one was not allowed to air such positive views on this or other threads, especially in ref Skoda. If you ask me, there is way too much "bashing" going on here, on this and many other threads.

I am not a "fanboy" but I believe one should be fair.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I wasn't aware that one was not allowed to air such positive views on this or other threads, especially in ref Skoda. If you ask me, there is way too much "bashing" going on here, on this and many other threads.

I am not a "fanboy" but I believe one should be fair.

I'm not saying not to make comments good or bad. What I'm trying to say is, if you have a good experience with them then it's very good for you, but trying to say that there is no problem overall is not. There is a problem and a lot of people are suffering. If you don't have any issues then that's very good for you.

A big problem exists and people are suffering which is why the thread has a vitriolic tone and it's definitely warranted.

The OP has stated facts and is not having issues with just one car but both his cars. What can be worse than that? Obviously looking at other threads on this very forum he is not alone with his issues.

Even after that, how can harsh criticism be unwarranted? It is very much warranted and that's the only way a manufacturer may realise that something needs to be done.

[sbkumar]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I am not sure what to make of this at all.

The vitriolic tone of this thread seems to me, to be unwarranted in that sense, because speaking for myself, I have been consistently treated well by the Skoda guys so far, irrespective of the 'level' of the person I was dealing with.

Am therefore, unable to relate to this kind of anger. To me it seems a little excessive.

The same goes for the Mahindra guys when I had vehicles from their stable. I was always treated consistently well by their team, from the top levels to the bottom levels.

Apologize for going off topic, but I had to respond. I am sure that you have had good experiences with them and you are talking from that. Apparently there a quite a few people who have had bad experiences. As you said you can speak for yourself and so are the rest. What I find difficult to accept is you qualifying what others said as "vitriolic" and their anger a little "excessive". Nobody in this thread has said that all Skodas are bad and so I don't know why you came to this conclusion. I'm happy in a way that Sahil seems to be capable (financially and mentally) to handle this mess and move on but that doesn't mean that they can take him for a ride ( and that too on a lemon if I may say so !). Forgive me, I was not capable of building a relationship with my neighbor next door till I was a bachelor and I definitely don't want to spend my time and energy doing that just to get what rightfully is mine. I am not for elitism in any form.