[adventureseeker]

Originally Posted by ashis89

As others have mentioned earlier, a complete breakdown on the road is serious and feels like a ticking bomb. One wouldn't trust to take such a car on a long drive.

India head's response seems more like damage control than an actual fix for the problem. If they have an actual solution, then let them share an ETA or a proper recall plan. Meanwhile stop deliveries of cars until the fix is in place.

Ford's DPF issues started in a similar manner and slowly snowballed. But Ford stopped deliveries until they fix it. Maybe something to learn here.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

What affected me was the nature of issues, not the number.

Breakdowns - that's where they lost me! Unacceptable even if the numbers were far less than currently reported. Brand new car leaving the owner stranded twice in the first month - is possible the worst kind of car there is, for now!

Easy to say only 10%, 5%, 1% cars are all that's affected. Zac and Skoda is repeating the same dialogues on social media too!

Originally Posted by 07CR

1) EPC error is not a niggle. The car simply stopping in the middle of the road due to EPC error is not a NIGGLE! Moving people from point A to B is one of the basic things a car is expected to do.

The aforementioned comments precisely summarise the issue.

i) Breaking down in the middle of the road is not a niggle like switches/infotainment/rattle etc. Coming to a halt in the middle of the road is a serious issue. The most basic thing why a car is bought for is transportation.
(There are other issues like rattles, speakers functioning etc with Kushaq but I compiled only the EPC issues as the point to be highlighted is 'Breaking down' is not acceptable for a car)

ii)The company's/Zac hollis response coupled with others in this very forum is that they are playing down/trivialising the issue saying that it is a small number or it is common for new launches. But if that is the case Skoda should be transparent and announce that only 'xx' number of cars have faced the serious problems of EPC error till xx/xx/2021 date. Nothing along that lines is done. Like Ford they should have stopped deliveries/till they diagnose the issue, issue recall of the already delivered products and address the issue.

iii)If the product/car is priced at par with the competitors people would have given more time to Skoda for rectification/corrective measures. But the problem is that Skoda launched the product with a premium/higher price over the competitors despite having lesser features, size etc (even after having 95% localisation). You price the product at a premium ,customers expect the service and user experience to be premium when compared to the competitors.

iv) Breaking down a second time after repair/replacement and being stranded in the middle of the road while awaiting the unresponsive Road Side Assistance(RSA) is not a premium experience after paying 2 million rupees. Repeated breakdowns of the same car also indicate that they have not found the solution to the issue.

[venkyhere]

Originally Posted by poloman

I am not judging anyone. I am raising certain doubts. This is a standard practice to segregate genuine reviews v/s manipulative reviews, i.e. to look at the user profile and review history. No one opens account to just bash a brand unless there is something sinister behind it.

@poloman,
You are blaming someone of confirmation bias, yet are using the same tool of confirmation bias to justify the same. Kind of an oxymoron, this allegation is.
Even if it's true (what you are alleging) , the data is not 'made up' - it's just someone collating all the known data from different social media channels. How many other kushaq owners would there be, who are not active on social media ? Unless you have stats regarding the number of complaints filed in SKoda A.S.S regarding the same issue, how can you come up with 16/4000 ? there is no need to bring up DPPM for silicon defects etc into this. The "16" itself is the wrong number.
Over and above, look at the seriousness and repeatability of the issue - this is not a case of "wrong fitment" or "QA defect missed at final checkpoint" - some software error flag gets set (through whatever be the root cause - electrical or mechanical), that disallows the engine to start again. Is this not serious enough ? THis is clearly not a case of some lazy worker in assembly line - this is some corner case bug, looks like.
I have a humble request - look at the message, instead of shooting the messenger.

[Salnv]

Originally Posted by poloman

If 16 out of 4000 cars have issue it turns out to be 0.4%. I am in to semiconductor industry, our DPMs are worse than this sometimes.

I am not sure if DPM terminology can be directly associated to this failure and the calculation doesn't seem right (even if you want it would come as 1000000/4000*16 which is roughly 4000DPM highly unacceptable for any automotive grade parts). BTW, for the automotive grade chips/parts it has to be far , far , far less ( order of 100s and settles into 10s ) even for an initial spin. Anyway here the problem seems to be wrt pressure sensor ( as per multiple comments ) hence hoping that it is for 1.0 L engines and no issues with 1.5 as its sensor will most likely be different. So may be proactively Skoda should assess the impact and do a recall so that customers will have their faith on an otherwise a brilliant product.

[itsbaman]

Looks like "Specifically made for India" isn't working for SKODA. While SKODA customers can make peace with the fact that SKODA cars have less bells and whistles than Korean counterparts, poor reliability isn't something we can make peace with. SKODA must recall and sort these issues while it still can.

[poloman]

Guys, no need to gang up on me. I am not a Skoda fan boy. You can check my posts for any bias. We need to understand even Apple can have faulty batches and niggles on launch.

Originally Posted by venkyhere

@poloman,
You are blaming someone of confirmation bias, yet are using the same tool of confirmation bias to justify the same. Kind of an oxymoron, this allegation is.
Even if it's true (what you are alleging) , the data is not 'made up' - it's just someone collating all the known data from different social media channels. How many other kushaq owners would there be, who are not active on social media ?

Yes one can do only the same in the absence of absolute data or samples. My observations were based on data put out here. If that has bias, I don't have the right data either. All I am saying is the we should not use social media indicators to come up with conclusions.

It is painful for the customers to be stranded on the road with a new car. But the company need time to investigate the issue, right? Many points to the bad fuel quality as this has been an issue with European cars in India for ages. All we know is most of these cars had EPC lit up. None of us know why this did not get detected during the extensive test runs.

Let us all agree to disagree. No one is shooting the messenger, but the integrity of messenger and message also is critical.

[07CR]

Originally Posted by poloman

Let us all agree to disagree. No one is shooting the messenger, but the integrity of messenger and message also is critical.

You are again doing the same thing. The messenger just compiled up whatever posts he had come across on the social media. And most of these have been by the buyers of Kushaq, wherein they have posted separate images of their car being towed/or EPC error flashing up on the instrument cluster. This did not affect 1, not 2, but about 25-30 people who have posted it on the social media.

In this scenario why is the integrity of messenger being questioned in? IMO this sounds like a unwarranted personal attack and was not at all necessary. Correct me if I am wrong, but is the bhpian a messenger here?

[superguy282]

Originally Posted by poloman

It is painful for the customers to be stranded on the road with a new car. But the company need time to investigate the issue, right? Many points to the bad fuel quality as this has been an issue with European cars in India for ages. All we know is most of these cars had EPC lit up. None of us know why this did not get detected during the extensive test runs.

I'm seeing post after post of you insisting on giving the company time to investigate. The question is, why didn't this error show up or get rectified during the production phase? Isn't that supposed to make these sorts of errors show themselves for rectification? We don't know that as you said, but shouldn't they know? How would you even say the car was tested in India if it wasn't running on fuel procured in India? Moreover the main point I don't see is how that has got anything to do with a list of all the people reporting this issue. Skoda will be given time, they will solve the issue, but how does a list affect that?

[abhishek_hch]

Originally Posted by 07CR

And most of these have been by the buyers of Kushaq, wherein they have posted separate images of their car being towed/or EPC error flashing up on the instrument cluster. This did not affect 1, not 2, but about 25-30 people who have posted it on the social media.

Social media data is no data especially with such a small sample size!

What makes one so sure that 'the posts have been by buyers of Kushaq'? What makes one so sure that these are all genuine distict cases and not few circulated as many? Or for that matter not photoshopped?

It's very easy to create such hype on social media esp ones like Facebook, Twitter. There are umpteens of such myths created and some of them busted everyday out there. Compiling such data is really not a great use of time! And doubting it is by no means a crime!!

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by abhishek_hch

What makes one so sure that 'the posts have been by buyers of Kushaq'? What makes one so sure that these are all genuine distict cases and not few circulated as many? Or for that matter not photoshopped?

There are umpteens of such myths created and some of them busted everyday out there.

Good enough source to bust myths?



But again, the more I think about it - this could raise further questions why it can't be a photoshopped tweet. So let me attach the source here before someone questions that.

[JishD]

This issue is being blown out of proportion - once Skoda has zeroed in on the fault through RCA , they will issue a 'soft recall'.

Attaching a screenshot of Honda's recall recently. Now the Japanese OEM is considered one of the most reliable in the biz. And they are recalling nearly 78K vehicles manufactured in 2019 - for a faulty fuel pump. How many cars did Honda India manufacture in 2019 ? I would hazard a guess that over 30% of vehicles had a defect.

Guess what happens with a faulty fuel pump ? The EPC light comes on !

My QED - give it time, issues will be ironed out. Even the DSG overheating issues in the Koreans were largely sorted out over time .

And for the record , EPC is not CEL . The engine or other key components are not exhibiting a catastrophic failure. My hunch is a faulty or wrongly calibrated MAF , or a clogged O2 sensor .

[abhishek_hch]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Good enough source to bust myths?

Still raises the Q as to what is handful - 10, 20, 50, 100, 500?

From all available indications - Skoda does have a problem at hand. Whether it's miniscule/ small/ large/ very large - no one knows. My limited points were that compiling social media posts is a waste of time and presenting them as gospel truths is anything but gospel truth. And to question such initiatives is no crime.

[Col Mehta]

Honestly I'm disgusted to read posts here defending a very serious problem in a brand new car. Night of 06th October 2005, my brother's car got stranded in the middle of an isolated place and he was mugged by the local villagers/thugs. He resisted, which he shouldn't have. And that night my brother lost his life ...

Now imagine this happening with you or your family or friends!!

Would you still be a keyboard warrior here and justify a defective car and at the top of it, attack the one who is trying to highlight a possible life threating issue?

Ludicrous

[JishD]

Originally Posted by Col Mehta

Honestly I'm disgusted to read posts here defending a very serious problem in a brand new car. Night of 06th October 2005, my brother's car got stranded in the middle of an isolated place and he was mugged by the local villagers/thugs. He resisted, which he shouldn't have. And that night my brother lost his life ...
:

My profuse apologies if this brought up a personal sore issue , which is unfortunately the reality of our country. May we know what vehicle this was ?

Was this a Skoda ?

[5252rpm]

Interesting to note that 1.5TSI (both MT & DSG) did not suffer this issue (may be because the powertrains are imported?). The 1.0TSI cars which had EPC light came 'ON' has either stalled or went to limp mode. The fuel pump, fuel pump sensors etc been replaced to get rid of this error code and service center has even asked to use better octane rated fuel. If this has been an inherent issue with 1.0TSI engines, Polo-Vento & Rapid owners would have already reported it. This is some mess they specifically made with Kushaq's localisation,IMHO.

Hopes they does the root cause analysis quickly and issue a recall. This way, upcoming VW Taigun could be saved too.

[varun_ro]

Originally Posted by JishD

This issue is being blown out of proportion - once Skoda has zeroed in on the fault through RCA , they will issue a 'soft recall'.

.

Already happening. Have received a call and an appointment has been booked to get my vehicle in for a “general checkup”. Called up the service advisor assigned and asked whether it’s for the EPC issue. He didn’t straightaway say yes but said it will take almost an entire day.