[GTO]

Originally Posted by ajmat

I verified battery capacity and called Amaron who put me on to a local distributor. Time was 6.15Pm. They had the battery in stock. Asked them to fit tomorrow evening if they could not come now. 5 min later, th mechanic calls, 7.10 PM - battery was fitted.

Excellent service and turnaround time, I must say.

A week later, go for a rocking party, return to car at 2 am to find a low life has flicked my passenger mirror and cracked the drivers mirror.

Time to use the Swift as a beater?

So remember Wing Mirror Replacement from Wingmirrorman. You can pay via paypal. ordered on sunday morning and it was despatched on sunday.

Thanks for the tip. You are now the official Euro-parts-sourcing-Champion on the forum.

How's the car doing otherwise? That is, in terms of driver satisfaction. Been having spirited runs?

[AirWind]

Originally Posted by GTO

How's the car doing otherwise? That is, in terms of driver satisfaction. Been having spirited runs?

Rode with him on Wed, the car looks perfect (barring that lost/broken ORVM and a torn fabric on the rear door pad), its still a looker in our company parking lot and I secretly drool over when Ajmat comes to our campus but isn't around. Had crossed the 39K mark and so another long term ownership report is due.

Seen on Carwale Mumbai a couple of RS asking 4~5 lakhs and a Mondeo for 2.6L, mouthwatery as it sounds but the ownership/maintenance/flooding history, the complicated transfer and the scary maintenace has kept me from picking up one. But I'm determined to own one of these some day but only time will tell when I get that courage.

[siddartha]

part no 1U2857521E ,only the miirror( glass) available at the dealer. rs 2244/- . no need to buy the whole unit.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by siddartha

part no 1U2857521E ,only the miirror( glass) available at the dealer. rs 2244/- . no need to buy the whole unit.

oh, got wrong info - anyway costed the same.

[redsfx]

Reading your thread I really really miss my Yellow RS beast. :-(

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by GTO

How's the car doing otherwise? That is, in terms of driver satisfaction. Been having spirited runs?

Cars is doing fine - it is capable, almost too capable - eats the road and whe on boost, the acceleration brings a smile. However Bangalore traffic does not not do justice to the car.

I still miss the tactile nature of the vtec. Steering of RS is a bit cold!

Service due soon (well I can go on for another 6000km I prefer frequent oil changes). I want to get timing belt changed.

As long as you go in eyes wide open for a good car, it is a great package. Old man told me - what more can you want - BMW 3/5 excepted!

[ajmat]

Reached 40000 so a service beckoned. I could have switched to the 15000 interval instead of 7500 but I prefer frequent oil changes in line with the lousy start stop traffic conditions.

Booked with Vinayak and specified a cam belt change. Even spoke to the spares person who specified that the belt was in stock. Braved the lousy traffic to reach the workshop. Reached at 9.30. Noticed on the board that only 9 cars booked in later. Mine was the only car to have arrived.

Despite that there was plenty of staff around doing not much and was told to await specified service advisor Abhi. He took 30 min to appear. He checked in the car and was attentive. But the process is such that he needs to enter the written car details on the system before I can go. He promised to call me at lunch time.

While waiting, noticed quite a few nearly new Fabia's gathering dust - took a walk around. Except for one Tdi, remaining are 16v 1.4 rejects. Not a good impression!. left - autos wanted Rs 100 to the Tin factory. I spent Rs 7 on a 317 bus to the same place. Crossed the road (not recommended) and took a volvo to office.

Abhi called me at lunchtime to say everything is ready but no belt in stock - that was disappointing. Went to fetch car. Walked into reception, stood in front of receptionist who was too busy examining some hair shampoo bottle. Took a few nudges for her to call Abhi who apeared 30 min later. Again plenty of staff in reception not doing much. To the credit of Abhi, he was the only person running around checking cars and taking calls. Dueto the location of the workshop, most customers are the drivers who do not expect any service quality.

Car was delivered. Can't fault the work done except that when changing the pollen filter, a leaf or two got in. Fan made a racket for 20 min and the noise stopped.

Abhi is ex Sundram mercedes - so I made a comment, you moved since you got fed up with C180 problems. His jaw dropped, so I then told him you must be having fun with the 16 v Fabia's and Superb gearboxes. He then knew not to mess round. We had a good conversation about cars. He recommneds the w211 e280 D as the most trouble free.

Problem with Vinayak is that all the staff have changed except the cashier. This has caused a blip in the service.

I have been promised the belt on Mon. Will wait else need to find an alternative.

Meanwhile - if you see Mandovi - they handle 10 times the volume but I never have to wait too long unless there is a final rectification

Edit - Bill was Rs 8000

4000 for the oil
920 service charge
200 for brakes cleaning
200 for scanning
remaining for three different filters - oil, pollen and fuel

[ajmat]

Wrote a note to them

Dear Sir

I gave the above car for service on 17th Feb for its 40000 service. I booked the car in advance and wanted the ribbed timing belt to be changed as the car is 5 years old. I had specified this and spoke to your spares person who assured it would be in stock.

I was disappointed to find that the belt was not in stock in the first place and not ordered. I have been assured that it will come in on Monday but I somehow don't think this will happen. Another aspect is the time I spend waiting to check the car in and also to collect.

When giving the car in, my car was the only car awaiting service, but i had to wait for 30 min till Abhi was available. Again on collecting the car, I had to wait quite a while. This gets aggravated since I have to travel a far distance to reach the workshop. An observation was that Abhi was pretty busy while there seem to be a lot of staff not totally engaged in the reception area. I also notied that the entire staff are different except for the cashier. This has impacted your service quality. I found Abhi to be attentive and knowledgable and he kept me informed of the progress

I have been your customer since 2008. I am pleased with the workmanship but I do find it time consuming when giving the car for service. My Swift is serviced by Mandovi who handle 10 times the volume of cars yet the process takes only 30 min and this inclused the supervisor taking a test drive. Their service levels improve by the day. I did not even see any attempt to measure your service levels for improvement.

Please take these points constructively, while I am impressed with the build quality of Skoda, I might looktowards something else if the service levels suffer further

Regds

[Jaggu]

Good deal, did you check out the belt in ebay thingie? Might be faster and cheaper lol Yet to see your car, after the body spa treatment you gave.

[evo]

I have no clue who He is or what He does (apart from His profile here on TBHP) but he is a one huge reason why TBHP is TBHP for me. I`m more of a passive enthusiast compared to most people here, compared to Him, I`m just a vegetable!


I bought my RS with not insubstantial alacricity in my heart, after all buying a so called "hero car" is no small thing! Then when Skoda being Skoda did what it does, my heart was a little afraid. "Fear not" says He, He shows the way to keep a car and I learn even more from him about my car than by driving it!


There was a strange noise that my car emitted every morning. My vocal chords were not quite versatile enough to repeat this noise. Thus I couldnt explain this to the workshop people fully. He not only gave it a name (The "gaunch gaunch" noise), but also showed me how to make it go away by discovering the ARB bushes issue. No one else was able to pinpoint the root.


A devious Kolkata Municipal Corp truck, has recently taken with its ugly self, my passenger side mirror, and yet again, He has shown me the light and I have sent some business Wingman`s way.


The "Achilles Heel" and the "Beauty of the Beast" threads are but a sliver of His knowledge.


I thank Him and look forward to reading much more of His writings about the Old Man and other things, above the enigmatic German Potatoes signature.

[Nikhilb2008]

Woah! You should open an Ajmat fan club!

[ajmat]

I got a prompt reply as follows

Dear Mr. Ajit Mathew,

We thank you for your valuable feedback.
We apologise for the inconvenience caused to you. With regard to the concern of the ribbed belt replacement we would like to inform you that we have placed an order for the part.
The part is expected to reach us by the coming week, once we receive the part we would keep you updated accordingly.




Assuring you the best service all the time


Regards
Shantha
Customer care
Vinayak Cars Pvt Ltd

I'm still waiting - 10 days on!!

Wrote a note


Dear Ms Shantha

I was assured that the part would arrived on Feb 22nd. I have not received any communication from yourselve on this.

I will have to consider importing the part directly and finding a specialist to fit this due to your inability to source a item routine item which I asked for over two weeks ago

Regds

Ajit

The fact that I got a person coming over next month means I might just procure the belt. Have been recommended a specialist

[ajmat]

sorry for delay, lots happened in the meanwhile

On receipt of the letter, I get a call saying the ribbed belt had arrived. There was a misunderstanding, they got the fan belt. Luckily, they had the cashaft belt on hand all this time.

Car got booked in and job was duely done. Total cost was Rs 9900. The tensioner was not replaced. Luckily the life of this is a lot longer so I will do this later. Was a stich in time as the belt was gettiing a bit hard.

I take deliver and then get this note.

We would also like to inform you that the Clutch, Oil sump, water pump and ribbed belt tensioner in your vehicle need attention. The same has been updated in the jobcard also.
Requesting you to get these parts replaced at earliest.

Clutch - although no slippage was getting temperamental when changing gear and the watchman was complaining that oil was drippping. So far, we had been getting away with Mseal but this was not holding up so time ot bite bullet.

Popped into Vinayak and they were insisting on changing the flywheel. I dug my heels in. There is not slippage, it is the pressure plate which is playing up. (actually , they had ordered both flywheel and clutch).

Booked car in, on the way to handing over car, the EPC light came on and car started spluttering - fuel starvation. I connected the laptop and drove on and cancelled the codes. I switched AC on and car was ok except EPC light. Faults pointed to throttle body

Checked car in - Abi clearly made sure that flywheel would not be replaced. instructed that the TB to be cleaned. Job took over a day. On the next day, they completed everything but could not get the car to run smoothly. Bill was Rs 26000. Rs 8500 for the sump, Rs 15000 for clutch and Rs 2000 for labour, rest for taxes and sundries. Clutch was wearing out. I had another 5000km. If I over did it, it would have damaged flywheel

Am told - Coil packs 1 and 4 need to be replaced - I told them to interchange with 2 and 3. They did that but no luck. Deja Vu since it was post no 99 happening again. Told them to realign the throttle body. I was told it had been done

Collected the car. I needed to be in office for a night meeting. It was rough unless I had the turbo on. Work over, I drove the car home. Lack of traffic meant it could get home without a hitch. Hoever, it was idling at 1500rpm and hunting.

Next day morning, i scanned the car - misfire, higher idle, pressure drop at dump valve. These were all results and the causes. With a sigh, I cancelled the codes, did the TB adapation and alignment online. Went in to get ready for work.

Took a deep breath and started the car......it was smooth. 150km on, the car has been fine.

Looks like Vinayak are not aware about the need for TB relignment.

and so why do I persist with this car

1: Actually things are not too bad. I have bit a bit over proactive
2: No other car gives the mid range acceleration and poise for the money
3: It is solid and safe
4: It is comfortable

Frankly, the water pump, fan shorting have been the main issues. The clutch can be attributed to working conditions.

finally - the service advisor conceded that the flywheel was perfectly fine and was amazed with the collective t-bhp knowledge behind me! Asked me to teach him a few things about the car!

[Akki_5]

Ajmat, the first picture on this thread is an absolute stunner!
BTW Rehaan suggested i talk to you about this; can you please us newbies out here? -> http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...up-needed.html
TIA!

[rjalihal]

Hello Ajmat, I cam across this thread while reading GTO's thread titled 'Beauty of lateral Upgrades'. You own a fantastic car indeed. This has inspired me to make a similar move. The maintenance seems to be quite a lot though. You seem to know a lot about cars judging from this thread. Maybe I shall PM you sometime in the future to seek help and advice in making a similar lateral move

PS: The VAG-COM tool sounds interesting. Is there any similar tool which is compatible with a Maruti Zen?