[noopster]

Originally Posted by surd_biker

This is making me concerned now.I am due to get my refreshed-vento next week. Apart from the ones you've mentioned, are there other problems one can expect from this car as the years go by? How would you rate the reliability of this car?

Well, you can judge for yourself: in 30000 clicks I have:

• Never had a breakdown
• Never had the car refuse to start on me
• Had exactly 1 puncture- nail went through the tyre, repaired streetside for 100/- (never tested the spare tyre)
• No suspension issues. The Vento makes a heartstopping jaring noise over potholes but thankfully it doesn't seem to be showing up as any damage (yet)
• No rattles or creaking
• No issues with engine refinement or performance
• No plastic pieces falling off EXCEPT those damn AC vents and the lid of the windscreen washer tank
• No AC issues except the airflow problem from the middle vents that started at around 26,000 km and is being handled under warranty
• No electricals failure including lights, power windows, central locking, MID
• No ECU, TCU issues, no false alarms due to sensor malfunctions
• Never had an issue with fuel quality affecting performance (though I do fill mostly at trusted Shell/COCO PSU outlets
  
  Where I have had issues are:
• Tyres- The Aceleres are good enough for about 30-35000 km at best IMHO. I am planning to get through this winter and get new shoes to tackle the onslaught of the summer and monsoons to follow. Will reconsider if punctures start to happen. Upgrade to 195/60R15 Yoko DB seems to be a safe choice.
• After-sales service: They are OK-OK at best. Just 2 dealers locally and not much to pick between them. I can't imagine dealing with these guys for any serious issue, honestly. At the outset they threaten you with warranty voiding for the silliest of things (sunfilm installation from outside, tyre upsize!) There is no attempt to "delight", they are quite happy being transactional, which suits me fine for routine maintenance. Once a year 10K bill is not bad.
• Frequent changes in the specs of the vehicle: my original batch Vento is twice or thrice outdated already! The HU has been changed, reverse sensors added, some variants got a touchscreen navigation unit, leatherette seats came in, numerous price changes etc. Add to that the fact that mine is an AT petrol variant, I can probably just throw resale value out the window!l
• Biggest issue with VW AG vehicles is that they age very fast after the first few years. Most fellow VW/Skoda owners advise me to get rid of the vehicle before the 80,000 km mark. Since I am hardly halfway there,not too worried.

Stealing your logo at the A.S.S. is quite a mean thing to do. I mean one can understand if the car is parked on the road, but one would not surely expect this from the service center. You should definitely insist on them giving you a new one FOC.

Hey, am not blaming the dealership for stealing it . Probably one of the other drivers flicked it and stuck it on to replace his own missing logo.

Originally Posted by F150

So we are waiting for your upgrade Laura 2.0 TDi DSG. Rs 4500 per month savings compared to a petrol on fuel alone.

Laura DSG is hardly an upgrade in terms of interiors though the engine spec alone is worth upgrading! I would rather get a segment higher car like the Superb or Accord in my next upgrade. Or maybe an SUV? Who knows!

Hope they replace the logo FOC. Even after the logo incident you call it not an unpleasant experience. May be VW owners are used to logo theft I guess.

Trust me you never get used to it! I didn't follow up after my first call reporting the theft, but there is a feedback call scheduled shortly in which I will reiterate the point.

Originally Posted by mmxylorider

Noop - that a huge amount of driving ! My Xylo is at 35K in about 3 years of ownership.

Wheel balancing at 1200+. Isn't that on higher side? even if you include alignment cost?

I never expected to be driving this much, man! Also because my Swift has no ABS/airbags, I don't feel safe taking it out on long drives that much. So the Vento has been used almost exclusively recently.
Wheel balancing major cost is the weights (870/- or so). I guess that's to be expected when you do it at A.S.S.

[el lobo 6061]

Thanks for the update Noop. 1500 Kms a month ought for a TDI instead of a petrol but considering rising diesel price, the difference shouldn't be much in future if UPA has its way.

The total bill is as expected, wheel balancing is an expensive work at VW Workshop.

Regarding the tire upgrade my suggestion would be
1. 205 55 R15
2. 195 55 R15

195 60 R15 has an error of 2.4% which is quite high and just shy of 3%. Error you get is 100 km is registered as 97.6 km.

[nileshch]

Nice summary there, Noop!

Originally Posted by noopster

Biggest issue with VW AG vehicles is that they age very fast after the first few years. Most fellow VW/Skoda owners advise me to get rid of the vehicle before the 80,000 km mark. Since I am hardly halfway there,not too worried.

I would be worried if that is true. I intend to keep the car for a long time. However, I have my doubts. It may be true for Skoda but VW world over is known for long running cars. Heck, during my recent trip to South America, I saw a lot of old VW Boras running absolutely fine. In fact, they are a modder's delight, just like the OHC!

Originally Posted by el lobo 6061

Regarding the tire upgrade my suggestion would be
1. 205 55 R15
2. 195 55 R15

195 60 R15 has an error of 2.4% which is quite high and just shy of 3%. Error you get is 100 km is registered as 97.6 km.

Rohaan, what is the base size you took? It should be 185/60 R15. Using this, 195/60 R15 results in an error of 1.99%. It is the next best after 205/55 R15 (0.58%).

[el lobo 6061]

Originally Posted by nileshch

Rohaan, what is the base size you took? It should be 185/60 R15. Using this, 195/60 R15 results in an error of 1.99%. It is the next best after 205/55 R15 (0.58%).

I took 175 70 R14 as the base size, since that's what Vento Trendline comes shod with. Once while reading the manual it mentioned the following sizes for snow chains 175 70 R14, 185 60 R15 and 195 55 R15.

Keeping 175 70 R14 as base, 195 60 R15 returns an error of 2.4% which is very high and mileage recording gets very erroneous resulting 100 km as 97.6 km. If I did suggest 205 55 R15 is the apt size and it has higher sidewall in comparison to 185 60 R15 which should help in those tricky situations.

Originally Posted by nileshch

I would be worried if that is true.

Its not true at all. German cars retain their value for long and don't age rapidly in comparison to their counterparts. On the contrary I still love the design of "Dolphin Shape" Honda City ZX in comparison to the new one.

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by el lobo 6061

Its not true at all. German cars retain their value for long and don't age rapidly in comparison to their counterparts. On the contrary I still love the design of "Dolphin Shape" Honda City ZX in comparison to the new one.

I agree with both the statements. I traveled in few really old VWs in Sweden and Germany (some had Odo over 3L Kms) and they still felt as if a 20k KM old well maintained car in India!!! Interiors had no signs of fading! I even traveled in a very very old Polo of my neighbor in Germany (it looked like the old Maruti 800), it was at least 20-25 years old. She was driving at 150 on the autobahn!

I also liked the Dolphin City Zx. Even considered buying one once. It came in some brilliant colors.

[ninjatalli]

Anoop,
I trust the 80k mark caters more to the scenario of extended warranty getting completed and the risk of one of the costly components going out giving one a heavy bill.

Otherwise these cars are quite capable of doing 1lakh+ kms without any problems.

Btw a bit un-pleasant affair for you, hope the logos are replaced as early as possible.

[negativeH]

Noopster, congrats on the Silver Jubilee driving mark.

About 2.5K with installation for brake pads sounds pretty reasonable. Have the labour charges come down? I think I read on some other thread about some exorbitant amount charged for labour.

[noopster]

^^ I think so. Labour costs used to be 40-50% of total bill earlier. Now it's reduced to about 25% which is decent.

BTW- Silver Jubilee was back in June! Now I am 30K down

[AvonA7]

Originally Posted by noopster

Well, you can judge for yourself: in 30000 clicks I have:...

Congratulations and wish you many happy milestone ahead.

Thanks for sharing the feedback -

a. Logo stolen at Vidyut - well I am surprised, as I always get my car serviced or visited Vidyut@Pune for small issues. Have had excellent experience with them till now. Henceforth, I will make sure that I show this thread to the SA. This is totally unacceptable. Was of the impression that logo stealing has come down at Pune :(

b. This post perfectly depicts VW cars and service, as of now in India.
Though I do not own Vento, but most of the points mentioned are similar
to Polo w.r.t. ownership. Quality product (yes, there are some exceptions)
but more I read Team-Bhp more I feel its good to own VW within warranty
period, more so if a mod say so , wish I am wrong as I am very happy with my car till date but do not want any headache post warranty period.

[noopster]

Got a call from VW on service feedback and passed on my unhappiness at the stolen logo as well as the parts that have apparently not yet arrived. They have said they will pass it on to the dealer. Wait n watch for now.

[noopster]

My Vento is finally back the way she looks best. Picked it up from the service centre yesterday. Had handed it in last Friday to get the following jobs done:

- HV AC unit replaced. Massive air flow issues earlier. New one works fine. Covered under warranty.
- AC vents (2 nos.) replaced. The Vento has absolutely pathetic quality of AC vent plastic. I made this an issue: my car is otherwise well maintained and the broken vents are an anomaly. Nobody even touches them most of the time. Covered under warranty.
- My front VW logo had been flicked from the service station during the second service a few weeks ago. I insisted they replace it FOC. Done.
- The grill/wire mesh behind the front logo fell off, possibly because I drove 300 odd km immediately after getting the car logoless. The SA told me he couldn't replace this FOC and I said fine. Cost: 2452/-

Issues:
- The SA told me that work had commenced only on Tuesday. Apparently some AC technician went AWOL. When the SA told me this, I almost burst out laughing recalling Behram's post.
- Billing was royally messed up. They generated an invoice which had EVERY item related to the AC as "pay" (there were numbers like 99,999/- and 31,000/- in that bill). Apparently posted transactions cannot be reversed easily. They gave me a receipt for the amount I paid them and promised to give me the actual bill after a week. Am not holding my breath.
- They initially said everything would be covered under warranty (I was skeptical), then said the wire mesh thingy would cost 550/- and finally this afternoon told me it would cost 2200/- plus tax. Not done. Any service center worth their salt OVERestimates and underbills. Not vice versa, and certainly not by so much.
- 2% charge on credit card. This is crazy. Cafe Coffee Day happily accept my card when I buy a 46/- latte from them. Luckily I was carrying cash.
- Car was cleaned in and out- a good touch- but reeked of benzene when I picked it up. Dashboard looks nice and shiny now though.
- There doesn't seem to be much supervision of the SA's and they are woefully undertrained. The billing process took 25 minutes and eventually was wrong anyway.
- No soft skill training either. They talk loudly in Marathi among themselves assuming I don't understand what they're saying. They are obsequious but it seems superficial and fake. I didn't raise my voice at all since I kinda felt sorry for the young SA who was doing his best.
- Funniest thing is that the SA tells me as I am leaving: Sir you will get a call from VW in a week, please rate us as "Excellent". I listed, good-humouredly, everything that had gone wrong in this service encounter, but he said "Please, sir". So I said I would see what I could do.

Overall I got what I wanted and had to shell out slightly more than what I expected for it, but it's still reasonable. Still, Vidyut (VW Pune) guys come across as highly unprofessional in whatever they do, sales or service. I seem to have lucked out in both sales and service that I at least found a person who was willing to go the extra mile, but the owners and management are strangely aloof.

Doesn't inspire confidence, frankly. This is still a relatively new car- what after it ages and starts coming up with real serious issues?

Car needs new tyres badly- have been advised not to drive it beyond 35,000 km on the stock Aceleres. Am thinking 205/55 R15- will start research this weekend.

A new ICE would be nice yet. But will it happen? Stay tuned...

[abeerbagul]

Did you have a chance to check out B U Bhandari, the dealer handing VW West? I went with my friend to drop off his Jetta for service, and was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of familiar faces from the old B U Bhandari TATA Fiat workshop.

VW West should have much better service, my friend had the following issues:
1. a couple of dents and scratches for touch up
2. broken outside rear view mirror - replace
3. annual service.

Car was back in one week, though why they need even one week for such basic stuff is beyond me.

This same staff and dealer used to give me my Indica max in one or two days, for same type of work.

[Guderian]

Originally Posted by noopster

My Vento is finally back the way she looks best.

Hey Noops,
Congratulations to you and Fraulein on crossing 30K clicks !
The whole AC unit changed or just the blower ? What exactly was the air flow problem ?
About the mesh-logo imbroglio - appears they charged you for the mesh and the logo in one shot ! Appears not just one logo but couple of future logos too in case you go barging in again for a free replacement !
How did the mesh fall off in the logo-less state ? Does the logo clip on to mesh holder or something ? Or was that comment a punch in the nose for the dealer/VW ?

Catch up sometime.

[noopster]

Hey HG- been a while!

Entire AC unit was changed. These German blokes don't believe in the 3Rs I guess. It used to cool fine but the air flow from central vents seemed obstructed. It's as if those vents were running on the 'closed' setting while actually they were not. Anyway they changed it under warranty and I am happy!

You comment on the logos is spot-on. A telling statistic is that Honda charges about 325/- for their logo while VW charges 1750/- Interestingly I also told my SA the same thing: that he as charging me for the logo as well as the underlying mesh/grille thingajamig! He hotly denied it and said that otherwise the bill would have been much higher

[Guderian]

Originally Posted by noopster

You comment on the logos is spot-on.
Interestingly I also told my SA the same thing

Good - that you told him that !
Is VW still persisting in making that flimsy logo still instead of a more robust one ? Yours (and second time too) is the nth case of missing logo I am hearing of on VW wheels. Pity really.
And, oh yes, Noops - welcome to the Geriatric Ward - the LTORs section ! Hang on to them dentures and toupee...!