[BoneCollector]

I cannot classify these as breakdowns but were major issues.


Wagon R VXi(ABS) 2012 -

The steering rack and pinion column was changed under extended warranty in 2015 due to tear in its housing and water seepage.

Till date, is going on fine.

Brezza ZDi+ 2016 -

Both the headlights were changed due to fog within a year.

The steering column was changed as it developed stickiness and sticky steering was recalled by the company and I had platinum warranty. This was done in 2021 during the 5th year service.

[careind]

Happy stories:
from 2005 to 2019 -> 70000 Kms Happily Owned a Santro Zipdrive without any major issues apart from general wear and tear
from 2010 - 2019 -> 65000 Kms Happily owned an i10 Sportz Kappa Auto without any issues
from 2019 - Current -> Happily Owning a WagonR 1.2 AGS

Sob Story(ies)
From 2015 March - current -> Skoda Rapid 1.5 TDI AT.
Door rattling from Day 1.
Overheating On the 10th day due to a purportedly bad thermostat . Had to see the car on a flatbed. Raised a stink and embittered relations with dealer
14th day car came back, but now coolant is leaking. Again in ASC for O-ring replacement
from 18th day seemingly fine, but the Operational temp jumps to > 90 at random times during long/short journeys. ASS couldnt rectify and it got rectified on its own after a few sightings.
Multiple face-offs with ASS within a few months. moved to FNG in 2017 although having 2 year extended warranty.
There were some other failures, but luckily all were within the city and some not major.

Experience Summation : Off Skoda for LIFE! the only thing I will consider from that stable is a pre-worshipped Jetta TDI.

[neel@makrand]

Nice thread.
Have 3 cars, Zen-Lx(2000),Accent-Executive(2011) & XUV500-W8(2014) but they never left us stranded or troubled in/out of warranty period except the lone occasion when I couldn't keep up the Accent's service schedule and its timing belt snapped leaving me 25kms away from my place in NCR.Had to call my bro with XUV500 as due to strike call no tow-trucks were available that day. For rest of their times with us,these machines never let us look down.

Bought a Nexon XZ+ (D) recently, i.e. a couple of weeks ago, which is still under warranty. I will write up a separate post on its purchase experience and the deal I got through AckoDrive. Haven't faced any issues till now, done 2000 kms so far, and hope it'll be another good machine in our garage.

[Small Bot]

This was with my Hyundai i20 Active SX Petrol MT.
Model year: 2017
Duration of warranty: 4 years (which i absolutely regretted not extending when i had a chance)
KMs done: 65000+

This is an absolutely solid car, that looks kind of ugly at first but then grows on you until you kind of grudgingly like it.

But at around the 60K kms mark, i started noticing a jerking motion whenever I tried to accelerate in third and fourth gears. The service centre said: Meh, it's nothing, just drive better.

At 63K, i could see a visible reduction in fuel economy, and told the service centre guys about it. They were like: Nah, it's a global product, we do excellent QC on these cars, you just drive better.

At 65K, the Check Engine Light came on and this time i was pissed. They dutifully checked in front of me and the code said P2096- Post Catalyst Fuel Trim System too lean. The SA was asking me if I regularly fill diesel instead of petrol in the tank. I controlled myself and then asked them to just resolve it. The ECU was updated, the light went dark and i moved on.

Three days later, i was travelling at 60 kmph on the GST road and the car suddenly ground to a halt. Later the CEL again came on and it went into limp mode i.e. speed was restricted to 30 kmph. I did not want to risk anything, so got my car towed into the service centre where they finally said the catalytic converter has failed, it's a very rare issue in i20's and that it would cost me 45k for the cat con and the oxygen sensors to be replaced.

This was a few months after i let my warranty expire, like an idiot. So i paid from my pocket. The service centre was Hyundai Motor Plaza, Ekkadunthangal, Chennai.

Lesson i learned: Always get the maximum warranty extension possible, irrespective of make of car. Leave alone the costs, i even saw a differential treatment between those who are covered by warranty and those who aren't.

[Zen Av8r]

Voted None. All my vehicles have been trouble-free.

2013 Volkswagen Polo Highline 1.2 MPI Petrol MT
48000 km done. Serviced at FNG using Wheels wisdom Subscription.
The only failure was two ABS sensors in the seventh year of ownership.

2015 Honda Jazz V CVT Petrol
46000 km done. Using Honda Any Time Warranty post expiry of extended warranty.
Serviced at Honda Authorised Service centre using Wheels Wisdom subscription.

2017 Mahindra Thar Diesel MT
33350 km done. Serviced at Mahindra ASS. Starter Key and Lock assembly along with immobiliser codes changed in the third service due to starting problems.

2017 Mahindra XUV 500 W10 AWD Diesel MT
57000 km done. Serviced at Mahindra ASS.

Hope the trouble-free run with the cars continue

[tsi_niks1989]

Manufacturer: VW
Model/trim: Polo Comfortline
Purchase Year: 2011
Fuel Type/Transmission/Gearing: Diesel Manual
Kilometres done: 1,65,000+
Your delightful experience or your breakdown sob story: One of the best cars I have owned till date, apart from the rear space not many negatives to point out. The best and only 'warm' hatch available that time. Full injectors got clogged once which were replaced, other than that only scheduled services. It sure brings a smile even now after 10+ years.

[adigup]

Manufacturer: Toyota
Model/trim: Innova Crysta 2.7 ZX AT
Purchase Year: 2019
Fuel: Petrol

October 2020 @ 11,000 kms
Faulty fuel pump: Car refused to start, was picked by the RSA and dropped home the next day.

[lamborghini]

By and large our cars have been fairly reliable barring a dead battery, but yes they have definitely given a few tantrums during warranty / extended warranty phase.

1. 2016 S-Cross 1.6: Clutch fluid leaked out twice in the 3-4 year of ownership leaving us stranded with 27-33K on odo. As it was a clutch issue, it fell under wear and tear so was a chargeable replacement.
Post warranty there were a couple of niggles, but otherwise has been working solidly with over 70K on the odo now.

2. 2016 C220D : Most of the tantrums have taken place during warranty period - auxiliary battery, multiple window switches, sunroof cover fabric & motor, passenger seatbelt sensor (at 2,000kms!) and some rattles. All covered under warranty! Mercedes really sets the bar high compared to the Japs when it comes to getting work done under warranty.
Year 4&5 were pretty uneventful thankfully and the car has around 27K on the odo

3. 2017 Corolla Auto : No breakdowns, a couple of niggles with seatbelt not retracting properly when disengaged & front passenger seat vibrates on bad roads.
Seatbelt was replaced under warranty, the seat vibration / play is chargeable.
37K on the odo.

4. 2018 VW Tiguan : No breakdowns barring a dead battery. One niggle : a cracked brake pad but no one can explain how this happened with only 6K on the odo : could be an effect of long term parking with the handbrake on?
Replaced under warranty. Nearly 30K kms and going strong.

[Neversaygbye]

Voted None.

Of the 4 cars that have been driven regularly by my Dad and me, none have ever broken down on the road. Only the Indica V2 refused to start at home one day and it was diagnosed to be a problem with the battery. However, different issues did pop up with some of the cars during the warranty period.

1. Daewoo Matiz SG- Never broke down and left us stranded over the 11 years she was with us. I still have a soft corner for her - she was the car that took us on some awesome road trips from Delhi and Calcutta. She never gave us any problems in the first 4 years of ownership, but there were multiple issues with coolant leakage, AC conking off, oil seal leakage and busted relays as she got older. It did not help that Daewoo shut shop in India and GM in their infinite wisdom chose to relaunch the car with a less efficient engine and a new name instead of leveraging the goodwill and brand recall of the Matiz name. As a result, progressively the quality of service and parts available deteriorated. The most hassle I faced was when the power steering pulley fell off one fine day - it didn't leave me stranded but the car became really hard to steer till the time another pulley could be arranged, which took about a month. Also, in the last two years of ownership the car would refuse to start at times and needed to be pushed a little to start. However, it always started at the end. I was so worried about this issue that I only used the car as a beater car in this period and the Indica was used as the primary car including on all our highway drives.

2. Tata Indica V2 DLS - This was our first Tata and the one that made us go for a second diesel Tata. Apart from the one issue with the battery that has already been mentioned, this car never let us down in almost a decade of ownership and over a lakh kms of running. It lacked fit and finish big time and you could hear it coming from almost a mile away, but it was rock solid reliable and super comfy and cheap to maintain and run (I remember my better half had commented that the then 9 years old V2 had better stability, less body roll and a better ride quality than the then brand new Beat). We finally exchanged it for the Vista and were sorry to see it being driven away.

3. Chevrolet Beat LT LPG - While this car never broke down or left us stranded, multiple parts conked off or were changed during the first 3 years when GM was giving the free maintenance guarantee. The AC must have conked off at least thrice during this period, one door was replaced under warranty due to premature rusting, the suspension was replaced a couple of times and even the horn conked off at a particularly inopportune time on a trip to the Odisha coast. The dual fuel system has given its fair share of problems as well. Having said that, the car has still done over 111000 kms over 11 years of ownership and continues to be in our garage as the beater car. It is nowhere as reliable or as trouble free as the other car in our garage but considering that it runs on LPG and is now used sparingly, we will hold on to it till the time we get a good EV under 10 lakhs on road (Are you listening, Tata?)

4. Tata Vista D90 VX - Our current primary car and one that has done 97500+ kms as of today. The car will be exactly 9 years old on 30th June. Like the V2 it replaced, the Vista has been super reliable over the time we've had her. However, it had one issue during the warranty period - the steering column was changed during the first year of ownership after it started making weird noises after the first road trip to Darjeeling. (Tata changed it under warranty, proactively). Post warranty period there have been some issues but they've been few and far between. About three years ago there was a weird issue with the engine cranking but not starting until two or three tries were made and this was resolved by changing the lock set. The AC conked off once (back in 2018). Like with any other car, the Vista has had its share of regular wear and tear replacements - most recently the timing chain was changed at 90000 km, and there have been the odd fixes and replacements during service (replacement of a cracked windshield, rust issue on one running board, clutch and front suspension work, etc.). However, on the whole the car is hassle free to own and maintain, solidly built, extremely stable at 3 digit speeds, runs smoothly and efficiently (14 kmpl in the city and 19 on highways) and (along with our experience with the V2) is one of the reasons why I recommend Tata cars to the people I know.

[bhp_maniac]

Voted for the second option, even if it was not a complete breakdown which left me stranded on the road.

Car : Skoda Rapid 2018 1.5 TDI DSG
Issue : Injector failure
Possible cause : During the first lockdown period, my ride was idle for mostly 4-5 months with almost a tankfull. I had taken her for a 100km run and around 15 min to the trip, I had the warning lamp glowing and the DSG went into limp mode. I drove in the limp mode with only 2 gears and <2500 rpm back to my home and called the RSA. The RSA and warranty experiences were seamless, RSA came within 1.5 hours and the car was delivered after injector replacement on the next day. I had requested to drain the fuel tank which they did promptly as well.

Meanwhile, I would like to highlight this fact that the ASS experience from Skoda for the past 4 years has been excellent for me to say the least. I was dealing with Manikandan motors in Kochi to start with, and since EVM took over, with them. I have been reading about rants on the DSG failures and such in other threads, but I could never find a competent automatic till date around the 20 lakh bracket after driving a bunch of them including the new age DCT's from Hyundai.

[anshu1101]

Manufacturer: VW
Model/trim: Vento Highline
Purchase Year: 2013
Duration of your warranty / extended warranty: Standard warranty of 3 years (IIRC)
Fuel Type/Transmission/Gearing: Diesel, Manual
Kilometres done: 1,00,000 (when I sold it)
Your delightful experience or your breakdown sob story: Pleasant experiences mostly, except for 2 instances when I got stranded due to the same issue (fuel pump failure) and had to get the car towed on flatbed truck. The first failure was in the 4th year of ownership and the second during the 7th year. Apart from these issues, the car had no other issues whatsoever and it has taken to some of the remotest corners of the country with aplomb.

[r24x7]

Should have voted none. But voted 1 or 2.

Reason: our car had a huge breakdown at 50kms due to water ingress into engine. Had to replace complete engine short block assembly and engine rebuild.

Second breakdown was just within the next 5000 kms. Suspiciously the engine mount wasn't in best shape for sometime and engine bedding gave away. I'm suspecting a part swap during engine reassembly by the SVC.

At the end , i believe these breakdowns happened not because quality issues , but major works that happened recently with the car.

[Vizay]

2011 first gen i20 CRDI
No breakdown that caused us being stranded.
Milege 125k
Major issues -
1.AC compressor replaced under warranty. Had to run 100 km in the highway without AC. This was around 25k mark IIRC.
2.At 100k kms, EGR started throwing all kind of CEL codes. It took few visits for Hyundai ASC to fix it.

Currently car runs without any major issues. Looks and feels solid even after 10 years and 125k milege. Turbo is not great but ok for normal drives.

[Kannan]

Manufacturer: Maruti Suzuki
Model/trim: VDI ABS
Purchase Year: 2009
Duration of your warranty / extended warranty: 3 years
Fuel Type/Transmission/Gearing: Diesel/Manual/5
Kilometres done: 73,000
Your delightful experience or your breakdown sob story: None as of now.

[rpunwani]

Voted None

Manufacturer: VW
Model/trim: Passat 2012 Highline AT DSG
Purchase Year: 2012
Fuel Type/Transmission/Gearing: Diesel Autimatic
Kilometres done: 50,000+
Your delightful experience or your breakdown sob story: In the 8 years of ownership, I have replaced 7 ABS wheel sensors both under warranty and after the total extended warranty of 4 years. Apart from that the car was very reliable


Manufacturer: Ford
Model/trim: Ecosport 1.5 Petrol AT Titanium +
Purchase Year: 2018
Fuel Type/Transmission/Gearing: Petrol Auto
Kilometres done: 50,000
Your delightful experience or your breakdown sob story: One helluva car. Have had to replace ABS sensor twice and a MAF sensor under warranty.