[King_pin09]

OOH my goodness.....

I have landed upon these threads on suspected reliability of VW cars, at the time when I was about to book one.

I think I must dig more and investigate the long term ownership experience of VW owners before putting my hard earned money on one.

[ajmat]

I think the smaller VW diesels are real dogs. They have had a lot of issues. You can only be thankful that there was not DPF to worry about. The smaller VW petrols are relatively reliable

The larger engines 2.0 litre diesels seem to be okay. With regular maintenance, they seem to run quite well. You dont hear too many issues with them. Actually, considering the amount of effort to make diesels perform like a petrol - turbo's, EGR, DPG, high pressure injectors/ ignitions, one must consider when to sell out when the going is good!

[NaviRai12]

Reports like these time and again makes me forget my urge to let go of enthusiastic and well built cars and go with Toyota as atleast they seem committed to their claim of reliable cars. Worst case Maruti whose cars can be repaired by any road side mechanics as well.

Seriously it is doubtful if they do the proactive diagnosis at all. Everything is reactive and the cost for this reaction has gone quite expensive now.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by NaviRai12

Seriously it is doubtful if they do the proactive diagnosis at all. Everything is reactive and the cost for this reaction has gone quite expensive now.

I don't think the local service dealerships are even trained to handle proactive diagnosis. They typically take days to diagnose even a relatively simple issue. And the solution is always "replace", never "repair". No wonder the costs add up!
Another point- tangentially related- is that VW just doesn't expand its service presence in the big cities. All of Pune has 2 service dealers, of which 1 is not that good. No wonder the good folks at BU Bhandari (where moral's brother's car is regularly serviced, as is mine) don't make an extra effort. Earlier they used to call up in a panic every time they got a sub-par rating. Now they seem blase about it. Looking at VW's steady drop in volumes over the past 6 years, that isn't surprising.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by noopster

Another point- tangentially related- is that VW just doesn't expand its service presence in the big cities. All of Pune has 2 service dealers, of which 1 is not that good. No wonder the good folks at BU Bhandari (where moral's brother's car is regularly serviced, as is mine) don't make an extra effort. Earlier they used to call up in a panic every time they got a sub-par rating. Now they seem blase about it. Looking at VW's steady drop in volumes over the past 6 years, that isn't surprising.

This is very true. Bangalore has 3 dealers and 4 service centers. 1 is known to be bad, 1 is average and 2 are above average.

At any center, one needs to wait a minimum of a week to even get an appointment. I was at VW Whitefield last week. They have a capacity to handle only 30 cars and they handle 50 cars daily. Now they plan to start a night shift also because they are unable to keep up and are under severe pressure from the customers.

In such a scenario, quality levels are bound to be low and am not surprised that they cannot or will not spend time to do a proper diagnosis. Their aim is to keep things moving. So it will be a half accurate diagnosis followed by a replacement.

Centers like VW Whitefield are so congested that half the time they spend in resolving mini traffic jams inside as opposed to doing the service/repair work. Cars are parked all over the place. Every inch is valuable. An image I captured below.

Also, to those who have said they are dropping the idea of buying a VW after seeing this thread, one thing to keep in mind is that a lot of the issues called out are mostly of the first generation diesels (As already mentioned in the title). So need to keep that in mind.

[carwatcher]

I think there are few well-known facts about VW and are present all over T-BHP.
a) German cars are unreliable.
b) Skoda and VW repairs are hopelessly expensive.
c) GTO has mentioned numerous times that if despite that someone wants to own a German car incl Merc, BMW, Audi, etc. should be ready to pay expensive maintenance bills or sell the car just before AMC or Warranty about to expire.
d) Skoda and VW A.S.S. really sucks big time.
e) IIRC Polo's AC vents are also notoriously bad and prone to breaking.

Market is mature enough to reflect that in resale price of such brands and cars be it Fiat, Ford, etc. There is a limit to that and that is also being reflected in the sales figures of VW, Skoda, etc. I see Renault sales going down hugely IF they don't improve their A.S.S. on a war footing despite having good products like Kwid and Duster. Tata is still recovering from that mistake while Toyota can confidently pull the plug off Innova and Hyundai can confidently launch Creta at VW-Skoda price.

I see it as just another VW bashing thread as I didn't see anything which I haven't seen previously. No offense to anyone.

I can also say quite confidently that its not going to change even after 100 years as this is their main business model like all premium and luxury brands have, for e.g. Bose, Samsung, etc.

[csnanjappa]

Could anyone throw any light on the newer models(after 2014) and their reliability , i am in market for diesel automatic and this news does not help me .

[vivtho]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Also, to those who have said they are dropping the idea of buying a VW after seeing this thread, one thing to keep in mind is that a lot of the issues called out are mostly of the first generation diesels (As already mentioned in the title). So need to keep that in mind.

Another thing to keep in mind is that it is very rare for a person to go online and say that "My car is performing fine". AJ-got-BHP's chart of annual sales shows that roughly 280000 VWs have been sold in the past 5 years. How many of them were lemons? The answer is "We don't know for sure". At most I'd say that VWs are more prone to issues, major and minor when compared to other cars.

I truly sympathize with moralfibre and feel his frustration, but I have to say that if I was in the market for a new car I'd take his experience into account, but in the end it would be only one of the factors that influenced my decision.

[srishiva]

I always get apprehensive about the injector issue when I hear the rattling sound of my Vento. One guy on hearing the noise said there is something wrong and its sounding like the Tata 207. I had to show him other Ventos making the same noise. Mine is from Jan 2011 and has run 70K. I have changed many parts and have lost count of what all was done.

After buying, for close to a year, I had gear lever vibrations in 4th gear and finally they changed the mounts to solve the issue. Same with engine mounts. For these I had to make close 5 trips to the service centre. My wife complains that I make too many trips to the service centre and I have owned close to dozen other cars.

Other than the build quality of the body, interiors etc, I dont think its engineered that well when it comes to drivetrain parts. The AC still resets to 22 degrees all of a sudden and irritates switching to fresh air mode while doing so when you dont need it. The AC coil itself was changed a month ago since it had rust around !

[Rahul Rao]

Originally Posted by noopster

I don't think the local service dealerships are even trained to handle proactive diagnosis. They typically take days to diagnose even a relatively simple issue. And the solution is always "replace", never "repair". No wonder the costs add up!............................................... ......
....................All of Pune has 2 service dealers, of which 1 is not that good. No wonder the good folks at BU Bhandari (where moral's brother's car is regularly serviced, as is mine) don't make an extra effort.

Till date my Polo 3 Yrs and 55000 on the ODO has needed only service, and no out of warranty part changes. The Gearbox shifter which had developed tremendous play was replaced in warranty. B U Bhandari has always happily given good service, but I agree that they are more into replace than repair.
The shifter actually needed only cable tightning or replacement, but as they offered warranty change I accepted. Another friend who had done just above a lakh km went for a Clutchplate change, changing pressureplate and thrust bearing with it is acceptable, but they wanted to change the fly wheel too, even though there was no visible wear on it. We refused to have it changed car has done another 30000 km after that and there has been no issue till date.

Rahul

[karuvally]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

honestly I'm not sure what the big deal is.
I spent around as much for my humble indica in the first 4 or 5 years.

Even now it costs about 40K a year in parts and service. for a car several segments above, and considered high maintenence, this looks very reasonable.

But the breakdowns sour the experience a bit - I have never had a breakdown as I've been proactive with most replacements.

you are spending 40k a year for maintaining your Indica? man... something is seriously wrong with your car! my brother owns an indica v2 and he hardly spends 10k per annum for maintenance.

[glenmz]

My friend's dad hada vento TDI 2010. As per him, one fine day car just died. And they had to shell out Rs 75000 to get it back on the road. He is not sure of what happened, as my friend was out of the country during this time and this incident happened a while back. Uncle has since switched to Honda for peace of mind.

[akshaysawant]

I was in a dilema in August-september 2012 when I wanted to choose a car for myself. Two cars were the front runners. Vento and Verna (both diesels). My dad was completely convinced with Vento and I was completely confused!! I loved Vento’s handling, suspension and steering but the bigger two worries were refinement and reliability which the Verna offered. My driving is 400-500 kms a week and that too in Mumbai city traffic, so engine refinement and low speed ride comfort were my top most priorities. At that time, I told my dad that I was not sure about VW’s A.S.S. and it could be a hit or miss. A little agains my dad’s liking I went ahead with Verna and convinced myself that with all my driving experience I can handle Verna’s bad habbits (Handling and Suspension) and be worry free. Since November 2012 till March 2016 I only had to change two things yet: A master cylinder recently, which I did from Hyundai service centre for Rs. 5500/-, which was my mistake as i should have changed it outside as I did with servicing of my Turbo for only Rs. 2000/- (Rs. 3,000/- labour) for which Hyundai had suggested first a replacement and on my denial refurbishment. 75,000 kms and my car still is smooth as ever. I do expect change of suspension set up at around 85,000 - 90,000 kms, that is, in next six months or so.

Though I miss Vento’s drivability, I think the decision to go with Hyundai was a good one as my regular road side mechanic can work on it with ease and that 1.6 CRDI engine is a gem.

[Turbohead]

Moralfibre, thank you so much for not exaggerating anything out of proportion!!!
I think we can add the fuel pump to the list of frequent failures. Very annoying indeed!
Lock carrier( the one holding the radiator) breakage is common due to its design. It usually occurs due to underside hits.
Anybody going for the Germans should be well informed prior to their purchase on all the risks and difficulties one has to face during their ownership. After going through a 100 pages in the Vento thread, I personally felt it was worth the risk, despite knowing every single issue that has cropped up. And I'm still happy with our decision despite 2 incidents. That 1.6 TDI will make you forget everything.
At the end of the day, you can either get a reliable and a boring ride or a ride with a bit more fun and less reliability. No car is perfect. Else don't buy a car.

[ajay_satpute]

I am glad that Kiran started this thread. I was going to start a similar thread, especially related to VW and its other brands.

Why are people still putting their hard earned money on VW products???

I am not saying VW is hopeless, but they are atrociously expensive, which most people realize only after they buy their 'dream' VW car. I know two first hand experiences of my close friends' extremely frustrated ownership of VW Polo. They are repenting so much now. Again I am not saying that Polo is poor product, but it is not everyone's cup of tea to own and maintain it over a longer duration.

I want VW to improve and understand Indian customer's needs better and translate that into better and easy-on-pocket products.