Re: 2022 Skoda Kodiaq Facelift Review | 2.0L Petrol DSG I had booked my Kodiaq L&K In Lava Blue with TAFE, HSR in Sep’22, indicated delivery was “After Jan 23”. Heard from a friend in Oct end, that they have one unit in Lava Blue ready for immediate delivery because of a customer cancelling. Called up TAFE, who confirmed this, however declined to give me once I told them it’s a company lease, citing it will take up to two weeks for them to complete billing and further the payment terms with the leasing company is 45 days or so, and they had to complete the billing the same month. So the wait continued. Meanwhile the sales advisor Mr.Satheesh from Raja Skoda with whom I had taken test drive of Superb before deciding on Kodiaq kept in touch with me periodically and in Dec told there is a black Kodiaq that will be available in 2 weeks. I was tempted, but deferred as I was particular about Lava Blue. By Jan last week, he called me again telling they are getting a Lava Blue, scheduled for assembly by Feb 1st week, and can deliver by Feb 12th or so. All the while, I kept checking with TAFE who said they don’t have any update on my vehicle except it will be after March. So I went ahead and processed my company lease with Raja Skoda. The experience was smooth, with Mr. Satheesh coming to my home for the paperwork. The VIN number was passed to me that confirmed the kit was from Nov’22 and assembled in Feb 23. I was kept updated of the progress and indeed, there was a frustrating 3 day delay from when the vehicle rolled out from the assembly line to getting on the truck to Bangalore. This meant that I’d have missed the auspicious day my wifey had looked up for taking delivery and the next auspicious day was 2
a whole 2 weeks later :-( Thankfully, the vehicle arrived in Bangalore and was unloaded on 9th evening. Did the PDI at their service Center on 10th morning, and as a work around for the auspicious day, Mr. Satheesh arranged for a “formal delivery” with the Pooja ( priest admins supplies included) at the service Center itself under the condition that I will restrict my inaugural drive to the by-roads around the service Center to the nearby temple and bring back the vehicle within 30 mins as it was yet to be registered. The car was still set up in “Transprt Mode” that restricts it to too speed of 30KMPH. The Pooja was done with the Ghunkat ( white plastic protective layers) on, so that I didn’t have to worry about the vermillion staining the paint on the hood. Man, it was heart wrenching to leave the bride back at her parents house immediately after marriage !!! Took another 4 days for the vehicle to be set-up for drive mode, registration to get completed and finally bring the beauty home.
The delivery experience itself while smooth, was. Little underwhelming - while my teenage son was more excited than me checking out every feature of the car, my wife was disappointed there was no cake cutting, and only a box of chocolates given. To be fair, it was late evening by the time I could go and they were keeping the showroom open to complete the delivery promised by 15th. Explanation of features was a hurried affair, partly because he knew from previous interactions that I have been binge watching every single YouTube video on Kodiaq for the past 3 months and there was only so much for him to tell me before I interrupt with “I know, next feature please”😅 so overall, happy with my experience at Raja Skoda and Mr. Satheesh in particular.
I finally got the call from TAFE by April end that my vehicle will be allotted by end May, and it gave me immense satisfaction to tell them “Thank you, you can keep it”. ( This was partly because of a previous experience with TAFE when I was on the fence buying the BS4 1.8TSI Octavia in Feb 2020, just before the BS6 norms kicked in. There was a sweet discount negotiated with HSR TAFE, and I was prepared to order. Meanwhile, a colleague of mine was quoted a higher price by TAFE in St.Marks Road, and he quoted the discount offered to me. TAFE, instead of offering the same discount, withdrew the deal offered to me and that helped me decide not to by the previous gen BS4 Octavia - which actually turned out to be a good decision as we were all confined to our homes without much driving for the next 18 months with the onset of the pandemic.)
Having said that, one of my colleagues who had also booked his Kodiaq the same day with TAFE HSR was given delivery on exactly the same day I took from Raja, except he was ready to accept a Graphite Grey instead of the Lava Blue, and his delivery experience was very professional ( including the same pre-delivery Pooja on the auspicious day prior to registration, the only difference being it was driven to the temple by the TAFE driver.
Service experience is very limited - 2 visits actually. Visited the very next day to have the suspension checked out as I felt the front suspension to be noisier and somewhat “loose” than expected while going over speed bumps. I was attended to in less than 5 mins, they hoisted the vehicle on the hydraulic lift and checked everything is torqued properly. After confirming everything was in order, took me along for a test drive and confirmed this is the normal behaviour of the DCC, and demonstrated the change between Sport and Comfort mode, where it was less pronounced in sport mode. I was half convinced, so straight away went to my colleague’s place and drove his Graphite Grey Kodiaq and confirmed the behaviour is identical. The second visit was 2 days after installing the 70mai dashcam at the showroom, I noticed the 12V socket to which the dashcam was plugged into stopped getting power. Again, I was attended to immediately, asked where did I get the dash cam installed . Upon hearing it was done at the Raja Skoda showroom, they immediately checked and replaced the blown fuse - free of charge and without any paperwork. They couldn’t say why it blew the fuse after 2 days of working except saying probably something shorted while I was plugging in the 12V to USB adapter and suggested to use the one Skoda gave - no problems since then, for the past 3 months. |