[alto99]

Originally Posted by Ravveendrra

Because Honda is infalliable according the majority. Threads by owners regarding problems with their Hondas are ignored.

Only Honda reliability is talked about but Honda problems are ignored in general bashing discussions!

[MCR]

Originally Posted by greatmana2000

If that were the case then the whole world might be buying only hondas and toyotas .. none of them would care to buy any other branded car .

Also , I would say that a maruti 800 is much more trouble free and requires much less maintenance than a honda civic ..

If Skoda vehicles didnt offer reliability , mileage , owner satisfaction do you think skoda would be selling the same model for more than 8 yrs since its launch ?

+1 on that.
Hyundai and Maruti are cosidered trouble free since there are a lot of service stations.But nobody cares for the fact that most these service stations are either ill equipped or below par. I have seen many a thread's which suggest this. My friend bought a swift Vdi and during the PDI we came to know that the dealership had put somebody elses floor mats in the new car to be delivered. This we came to know because of car registration number written on the back of the mat. In my Santro xing which I sold recently, during a service the technician had screwed up the entire electrical system and because of this I was stuck in the rain for 2 hours with no wipers. I complained to Hyundai and till today nothing has happened. Because of this fact now I will never goto Hyundai again. This doesnot mean that people will stop purchasing Hyundai cars. I have a colleague who has a GTX and inspite of all the talks about Fiat vehicles not being good or no good service available, he has been very happy with the car and the service for the past 6 years. I think in India mass hysteria is to be blamed.

[rohitioc]

Really wish Skoda All the Best...
I really dont understand what they are trying to achive ??
rohit

[greatmana2000]

Originally Posted by MCR

+1 on that.
Hyundai and Maruti are cosidered trouble free since there are a lot of service stations.But nobody cares for the fact that most these service stations are either ill equipped or below par. I have seen many a thread's which suggest this. My friend bought a swift Vdi and during the PDI we came to know that the dealership had put somebody elses floor mats in the new car to be delivered. This we came to know because of car registration number written on the back of the mat. In my Santro xing which I sold recently, during a service the technician had screwed up the entire electrical system and because of this I was stuck in the rain for 2 hours with no wipers. I complained to Hyundai and till today nothing has happened. Because of this fact now I will never goto Hyundai again. This doesnot mean that people will stop purchasing Hyundai cars. I have a colleague who has a GTX and inspite of all the talks about Fiat vehicles not being good or no good service available, he has been very happy with the car and the service for the past 6 years. I think in India mass hysteria is to be blamed.

Another thing i would like to point out is .. are spares avaliable for hondas ,toyotas ? Why havent the toyotas and the hondas not set up a proper spares distribution network if their primary aim is the customer ? All I can infer is high handedness and they just create a hype and the average Indian gets sucked into it .


Can you buy just the spares and fix it ?
Does honda or toyota have more than one dealership ? for example in chennai we have lanson toyota which operates 3 outlets or more . If a customer isnt satisfied with the dealership , what are his /her options ?

[jigbarai]

True, at some places, biased sentiments are unfortunately flowing, on this otherwise clean forum.

More unfortunate than that is the kind of 'mob mentality' where everyone is jumping into his / her own conclusions & opinions about certain brands and products without ever 'experiencing' one (let alone owning one and facing a problem).

A quick check (search) on consumer complaints india website gave me the following :
Entries for only 'Honda City' : 168
Entries for 'Skoda' (all cars) : 236
Entries for only 'Swift' : 2193

Agreed that ratio of Skoda sales as compared to Maruti would be say 1:50; it just goes to say that nothing is so 'all clean' or 'all dirty', as has been projected so far.

A lot of it (here) is more perception.

[beejay]

Finally some respite. Skoda makes some good cars and there is no doubt about it. I think the dealers are at fault most of the time.
As I mentioned earlier I was relieved this was not another bashing thread.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by jigbarai

A quick check (search) on consumer complaints india website gave me the following :
Entries for only 'Honda City' : 168
Entries for 'Skoda' (all cars) : 236
Entries for only 'Swift' : 2193

When someone complaints on a consumer forum it is obvious the problem is of grave nature which also means Honda's are not far behind compared to the number of vehicles they sell against a Skoda. Would be interesting to know how many Hyundai customers complained?

Last few posts cleared some air and hope that we dont go with the herd mentality and just voice our opinions based on what we experienced or heard from someone we know well.

I am a Hyundai customer since 2003 and purchased 3 vehicles till date and my experience with their product and service has been impeccable. Ofcourse some of them may have faced issues with Hyundai but then which product is trouble free, as said before it makes a lot of difference when we offer advice based on our experience rather than hearsay.

All in all, it was interesting to read this thread and some myths have been put to rest.

[ACM]

Yep some of the facts put up in the previous few posts, reiternate what I have always belived that the bad are not as bad as they are made out to be and the good not as good, the car companies are all various shades of grey and it is finally a matter of perception.

Complains against companies on the consumer forum would be a very fair and neutral analysis.

[Fabiaous]

Originally Posted by jigbarai

True, at some places, biased sentiments are unfortunately flowing, on this otherwise clean forum.

More unfortunate than that is the kind of 'mob mentality' where everyone is jumping into his / her own conclusions & opinions about certain brands and products without ever 'experiencing' one (let alone owning one and facing a problem).

A quick check (search) on consumer complaints india website gave me the following :
Entries for only 'Honda City' : 168
Entries for 'Skoda' (all cars) : 236
Entries for only 'Swift' : 2193

A lot of it (here) is more perception.

Lets have a poll " from car OWNERS only " if they are happy with the car they own or are there any manufacturing defect.

[MKRAFT]

Dudes - Wake up and smell the coffee. We were not born yesterday.

You are trying to mislead by comparing complaints against Skoda versus Maruti. Maruti sells 9,00,000 cars per annum to Skoda's 14,000. That is less than 2%.

And you are trying to compare the two? Hollow defence brothers. Come up with something more innovative.

How about this guys? -

-Have you ever heard of a Maruti dealer getting so desperate as this Skoda dealer.
-Enjoy the read. There is one major complaint like this practically everyday.

Skoda and its dealer Marikar engineers have cheated me of Rs 10,50,000 | General Discussions | Car Forums - CarWale.com

"This grievance is related to Skoda auto India and its dealer in Cochin, Marikar engineers. In June 2009 my company booked the new laura l&k cappuchino beige by paying Rs50,000. In early July the dealership informed us saying that the car has been dispatched and asked to pay up the full amount. Not suspecting anything we paid half the amount and said we will pay the other half on delivery. Now more than 4 months, many blatant lies and false promises later, my company’s bank account is short of 1050000 rupees and no car. Marikars enginners are the only dealers for skoda in kerala and it seems they are suppose to start Porsche dealership in cochin. Guys at Porsche India wake up.

-Order placed for Laura L&K cappuccino beige, by paying Rs50,000(evidence attached- see scanned pro forma invoice)
-The dealership informed us that car has been dispatched and asked us to pay the full amount, but we said that we can only pay half and paid them 10,00,000 rupees on 08/07/09(evidence attached- see bank certificate).
-We later came to know that the car was not dispatched at the promised date. When we enquired, the dealers said that there was a mix up in the color. Honestly, how can anyone expect us to believe that?
-The dealers said they were sorry for their action and promised that the car will be dispatched on the 15th of august (evidence attached- see email received#1). You guys should read my reply to their mail which is also attached.
-I send the same mail to skoda customer care, I have attached his reply as well(email recieved #3).
-No sign of car on promised date. When enquired the dealers even had the audacity to try to convince me to change the color, their excuse was that skoda was unable to accommodate the color in the assembly line. If that is the case I wonder why they promised that color in the first place
-On personal request of the senior sales manager Mr KK, I decided to give the dealers on last chance and they promised delivery on September 10th.(evidence attached – see email recieved#2)).
-They failed yet again in delivering the car. I decided to cancel the order. These guys have no limits in taking their customers for a ride. I waited 3 months for a car that was promised to be delivered in two weeks. The order was cancelled and I asked them to pay me back the amount of Rs10,50,000 with interest, to which they agreed.
-Even after many reminders and phone calls, Marikar engineers are refusing to pay back the advance paid Rs10,50,000. On 28th September 2009, I send a registered letter (copy attached) asking them to pay up or face legal action. They didn’t respond to this as well. Now I have asked my lawyer to send them a legal notice.

I HAVE ALL THE ABOVE SAID EVIDENCE, UNABLE TO ATTACH IT IN THIS FORUM”

[xPK]

Chill out guyz. Don't you think it's going way OT? Or can we have the title of this thread changed?

[Prakash Gupta]

In quote to MCR

I agree that such mistakes can happen and do happen at almost all of the A.S.S. Change of mats is acceptable, but in Harish's case the replacement is of critical engine parts from the D market.

In a past case with my Octavia the A.S.S. Asset Auto had left my oil sump leaking during a normal servicing and the oil getting drained out. I was lucky that I noticed the same and got it repaired at Acumen Motors. I even have the communication made then with SAIPL to which there was never an action taken against Asset Auto

[Ravveendrra]

I and a few other dudes have not only smelt the coffee but have been tasting it as we woke up more than two years ago. Complaints are legion against every seller/manufacturer. What you say about Maruti (and almost every other manufacturer) selling more cars than Skoda has been said before.

What I and a few others find odious is the way people who have no experience of a product stand up and shout "it is bad" and likewise shout "it is good" about some other product just because they hear some others saying so. What some of us have been at pains to explain is that not every Skoda is a lemon, not every Skoda dealer is a crook and likewise even Honda/Maruti sell a few lemons and not every dealer is competent. All we can do is take the horse to the water.

Cheers

[Prakash Gupta]

Originally Posted by Fabiaous

Lets have a poll " from car OWNERS only " if they are happy with the car they own or are there any manufacturing defect.

I appreciate on having a poll, as I come across atleast one Skoda Car owner every alternate day, who has some or the other concern on the car or the A.S.S. It would make more sense if we go by ratios, sale:complaints.

In India not many people are aware on the web forum or consumer court, hence the matters go unnoticed. I have come across atleast 15 Fabia owners who are facing the same problem of braking as I am, but they don't know how and whom to contact. In fact I am trying to help these guys to post it onto Team BHP.

[Rasputin]

Many of the these bashing occurs as part of 'my-car-is the best' syndrome. Can really understand the loyalty towards a brand , after putting in a few lakhs of rupees in buying its product. But that should not result in developing a negative attitude towards other manufacturers.
Skoda Octavias ( old & new model) run as taxi cars in many Eastern European Countries with many of them clocking more than half a million miles before being discarded.Personally I drive a 2007 March Octy Rider, which has done 68000 kms as of date with an absolutely Hassle-free ownership/driving experience. This is in-spite of not so gentle driving style and frequent trips to my pothole ridden Kerala Hometown. My OE tyres lasted 61,000kms, car still runs on stock Clutch , suspension, - all of which are in excellent shape. *** experience ( with Vinayak Auto ) in this last 2.5 years of ownership has been very reassuring with an average service costing abt 9k ( which is every 15k kms ).
Bottomline- We cannot type cast a manufacturer as 'Lemon maker' , based on some unfortunate instances while majority enjoys trouble free ownership.