[sauravpat]

Originally Posted by sunilch

Wonder how is the situation with Audi? The forum doesn't have complaints of this severe nature for Audi or their dealerships as far as I have read. Most of the issues of this sort (dishonest or defrauding behavior by dealerships) reported here are from VW or Skoda.

Same parent company but yet a very different attitude towards customers?

I feel that is because Audi technicians are trained to work on A4s and Q5s and they end up doing that exact thing.

VW and Skoda technicians might be trained to work on Polos, Ventos and Rapids and then are asked to work on CKD cars like the Passat and Superb which is a completely different ballgame.

VW and Skoda dealers only focus on the volume cars. Maybe that's what causes the indifferent attitude towards these premium cars.

On the other hand for Audi all the models are similar in architecture and are all CKD. So they know how to deal with that.

[Sumer]

It pains me to read this thread. I hope the court intervenes and things are sorted. Once they are, my humble advise would be to sell it ASAP.

[ankitsharma]

This appears to be an outright loot by VW. How difficult can it be to change the hose properly.
Anyways whenever I read a VW/Skoda horror story it sends chills down my spine. I am still @ 25k /1.7 years into ownership. I am changing serviceable parts beforehand and keeping a tight check on everything.

Thanks to the consumer court for helping folks like us here otherwise going the other route is very frustrating.

Also as @dkaile mentioned Maruti seems to be a breeze in ownership. I have Swift Dzire 1.3 and recently serviced it myself for 80k major service. Everything works on this vehicle as usual at 8 years.

[ajayc123]

The title has been aptly chosen to align with the name of a specific movie.That was interesting.

Anyway, I am still not able to comprehend the dichotomy that I see on this thread vs so many other threads with so many enthusiastic and satisfied owners. As confusing as Quantum Mechanics ?

Nobody has bashed WV so much on any other thread, and on the contrary there are so many folks who buy VWs back to back.

[exhaustpipe]

I used to have a Passat B5. The car was great, but the dealer and service staff were incompetent and just plain ol'horrible. The owner of the dealership, where I bought my car from and took it for services as well, turned out to be a neighbour, two houses away. Even though I knew the owner, it didn’t help much in getting professional service from the agency.

VW eventually closed his workshop and dealership due to too many complaints. However, two months after I learnt of this, the same (cheat) service advisor called up to say that the entire team from the previous company has shifted to a new dealership and workshop under a different company name but owned by the same guy! So much for due diligence on behalf of VW.

The key disturbing events during my 4+years of ownership included:
1. Car’s AC tripping during summers - They replaced the compressor twice and looked at everything but couldn’t resolve the issue. After driving it like this for 4 years, I took the car for service to another dealer who decided to update my engine map due to DISEAL GATE, without intimating me. The engine became less responsive but it eventually fixed my AC problem! VW needs to better train these guys or at least provide backstopping support from Germany for recurring customer issues.

2. After a service visit to the original dealer, I went to collect my car and noticed a long crack, right in the middle of my windscreen. After weeks of debating, they finally agreed it was there fault. I mean there was no way I wouldn’t notice a long crack in my car’s windscreen.

3. My front suspension used to make a creaking sound during winters while going over humps. I paid for the whole suspension to be overhauled, twice, but the problem didn’t go away. Eventually sold the car with it.

4. They sold me an extended warranty which on every requirement was interpreted as per there understanding and never honoured without arguments and several repeat visits.

5. Once the front fender was damaged in an accident. The VW workshop painted it in the wrong colour!

6. I can’t recall the other incidents which made my ownership experience nothing but a pain. Suffice to say, me and my family will never ever consider another VW vehicle.

In comparison, my BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Toyota ownership experience has been great. A few hiccups here and there but nothing major. It is my opinion that VW mostly deals with low-end cars, as a result their hospitality and service response is a poor match for customers expecting a D+ segment response. ‘They offer excellent cars along with hypertension and further financial liability’

[BoJack]

Our Jetta uses to have a problem where a 5A fuse just gets fried randomly and the glowplug warning flashes. I have "got it sorted" more than 10 times with 4 different authorized VW ASSCs only for the fuse to blow again and again. One dealer went as far as putting a 10A fuse in place of the 5A one and didn't tell me about it. Few times I had to leave the car there for more than a week.

After a while a friend suggested an outside shop which specialises in german cars and took the car there. I had to leave the car with them for almost 2 weeks but unlike the incompetent employees at VW the employees here knew a thing or two about fixing cars. The problem never came back in the next 20k + kms we had the Jetta before selling.

[ritedhawan]

It seems the VW dealerships have no clue about how to go about fixing VW Passat. They simply used the opportunity to apply their hit and trial methods on your car. According to the more than one experience already shared by people who currently own or used to own this car. The verdict points to lack of training imparted to service technicians; that enables them to fumble the opportunity to fox the vehicle.

When the car eventually ended up with Noida ASC of VW , and post their fix the issue still crept up. Why didn't you try an independent workshop?

[SN88]

I have learnt my own lesson the hard way thanks to my Jetta which BTW is an absolutely amazing car.

VW service guys are crooks and will stoop low to any level to keep billing you. I, along with my relative have personally experienced their planned obsolescence tactics when a car comes to their workshop. Any car which is out of warranty and goes into service will keep coming back for new issues.

I changed to a reliable FNG and have been happy since. I have sworn never ever to use VW service.

By the way, my car had gone for a small rear door painting job, came back with a broken air inlet pipe due to pressure washing they said. It went back and got fixed the same day and after 3 days the engine overheart signs all over. I sent it back and they said "coolant leak from the pump".

[actuallyankur]

Originally Posted by TechnoBloop

My experience with them till now has been good, but they are a lazy bunch of greedy people. My Vento's headrest adjuster button of the front passenger seat was broken and I have been telling them to place an order for another one for the past 1 year, they agreed but they never did it.

Ordering the parts and the parts being in "back-order" constantly
Another VW ASC attribute common to so many service centers. They just seem so lazy to place orders for simple parts. I think part of it is because they have to cross reference the part with quite a thick handbook for parts. What I learnt is that the company issues a 250-300 or more page handbook referencing different parts, and issues a new book every time there is significant number of parts are changed, say volume 2 of the handbook and so on. In some cases, like VW polo for example, they had as many as 7 handbooks covering different updates and facelifts. As such they simply weigh the amount of part (and their incentive thereon) with the effort it would take to go through hundreds of pages. Hence the laziness. If start telling you about the times I went through this attitude in my 8+ years of owning VW cars, I might have as well written a small handbook

Originally Posted by dkaile

Think of owning a Skoda/VW vehicle ONLY IF you have a very competent authorised/3rd party service station in your city OR if you are technically inclined and can maintain the car yourself (like me), otherwise stay away from them as far as possible.

Absolutely true!!

Originally Posted by dkaile

And though I am surprised to say this, but the ownership of my humble Maruti, in comparison, has given me a big smile even after 2 year.

I can so relate. Some brands put in a lot pain towards satisfying the customer. We got a Mahindra Thar P AT previous December, and although it had a fair share of niggles, the ASC guys were so keen to sort the issue out. In fact I encountered a engine starting issue where the car won't start at times, they rapidly changed as many parts as they thought might have been faulty, and the pump that's responsible for pumping fuel from the tank to the engine bay also had to be changed and was out of stock, they arranged it through courier in 6 days. I have driven 17000+ kms in the Thar in 9 months, and never faced any issue being repeated or new issues coming after the initial niggles, and the promptness of the ASC guys gave me the confidence to pick up a XUV700.

Originally Posted by sunilch

Wonder how is the situation with Audi? The forum doesn't have complaints of this severe nature for Audi or their dealerships as far as I have read. Most of the issues of this sort (dishonest or defrauding behavior by dealerships) reported here are from VW or Skoda.

Same parent company but yet a very different attitude towards customers?

Audi also suffers from similar kind of breakdowns, having experienced three Audis amongst close friends and family (A3, Q3 & Q5), just that ASC guys are a lot better trained, albeit they won't miss the opportunity to rob you given the chance to. EPS failure, shocker issues and AC air recirculation mechanism are some of the most common issues I have seen. Further all Audi guys seem to be very eager to bill you extended warranty and service packages, more so than other luxury brands.

Originally Posted by sauravpat

I feel that is because Audi technicians are trained to work on A4s and Q5s and they end up doing that exact thing.

On the other hand for Audi all the models are similar in architecture and are all CKD. So they know how to deal with that.

Another reason could be that most Audi owners are mentally prepared for repair bills to the tune of half a lac rupees, as such not much of a cry. For the most part Audi charges a hefty premium for same/similar parts as VW & Skoda, hence the incentive for better service.

We tried verifying this once, when a friend sent his Audi A3 35TDi (2.0 lt diesel mill with 7 speed DSG) for the 45000 km service. Coincidentally my car was also about to clock 45K in a couple of weeks, so we decided to send both the cars for service simultaneously and made sure we get the exact same jobs done on both cars since the car basics viz, engine and transmission, are same. For the exact same jobs carried out on both cars VW billed me Rs.17000, whilst Audi invoiced around Rs.33000, and this is not even considering the add ons in the invoice which SA suggested were "crucial".

Originally Posted by ankitsharma

Anyways whenever I read a VW/Skoda horror story it sends chills down my spine. I am still @ 25k /1.7 years into ownership. I am changing serviceable parts beforehand and keeping a tight check on everything.

Praying that you have a much better experience than the rest of us. One thing I'd like to request/suggest you is to buy the maximum tenure of warranty available, irrespective of the cost of warranty, in the course of ownership the warranty will pay off for itself. Also read the fine-print of different tenure warranties, VW has the bad habit of omitting a few crucial thing here or there as the warranty tenure increases. Even if you don't get the maximum tenure of warranty, get warranty for the number of years you plan to keep the vehicle plus 1 year. For example you wish to keep the car for 4 years, get a 5 year warranty cover.

Originally Posted by ajayc123

Anyway, I am still not able to comprehend the dichotomy that I see on this thread vs so many other threads with so many enthusiastic and satisfied owners. As confusing as Quantum Mechanics ?

Nobody has bashed WV so much on any other thread, and on the contrary there are so many folks who buy VWs back to back.

Well, till August 2020 I used to be one of the enthusiastic and satisfied owner like most others you'd find here or any other forum bashing VW/Skoda

It just took one bad incident, hence the term "betrayal"
And this is the exact cycle I observed with most people dissatisfied VW owners.

Another thing could be the usage, like we use our cars a lot, like a lot lot. We drove the diesel Polo for 1.45 lac km, our Innova crysta has already crossed 1.7 lac km in 6 years. We bought a creta and thar within a week in December 2021, both have done 17000 kms each in 9 months. Forget all else, we got our XUV700 last week on 27th evening, and it has done 900 kms

So I might just be right in saying that it's people like us who bring out the true colors of cars and car companies

[actuallyankur]

RECENT UPDATE OR RATHER A FINDING!

So today I was talking to a friend, bit of a cunning chap. This guy owns a VW Vento Diesel, and is currently in the eighth year of ownership. He told me that he has faced several issues and malfunctions, and many a times he was able to get them fixed by bribing the technicians to replace the affected parts with some other cars which might have come in for repairs, especially cars which come in for paint work and stay in the dealership for a comparatively longer duration. Further, in most VW workshops, paint-work is usually outsourced to a third party, and as such there isn't much scrutiny in the bodywork area. According to him this common in a lot of VW workshops, specially in North India, and a lot of people he knows have done this sometime or the other.

I don't know how far it is true, hence I am not disclosing his location and the name of dealer, but I find it quite plausible. I mean reading so many posts about cars developing sudden problems right after coming back from ASC out of nowhere, on this as well as other forums, makes me feel that what my friend said could as well be true!
:-(

[OctYFAN]

I just found a video on YouTube, on a car very close to yours, on how to calibrate the DSG. Just look up 'vw Passat 2017 DSG calibration'. Here's a link to it:

https://youtu.be/lC4vQdnt2Do

I'm being honest with you, I've never taken any of my Skodas to the ASS for any repairs no matter how big of an issue it is. I've used a competent FNG here in my city for over 10 years and he knows his way around these cars. I've told people about him and now one has to make appointments to have their vehicle serviced! Hard work and honesty do pay off.

Though I'm sure you are fed up with your car, just know that these amazing machines are being fixed by people with Maruti level training at most places. Get a good independent mechanic that you can trust and don't give up on such a nice car.

[One]

Originally Posted by OctYFAN

I'm being honest with you, I've never taken any of my Skodas to the ASS for any repairs no matter how big of an issue it is. I've used a competent FNG here in my city for over 10 years.

Does that include not taking the car during warranty period as well or did no repair work/ part failure happen during warranty?

[TheRajput]

Originally Posted by SN88

I have learnt my own lesson the hard way thanks to my Jetta which BTW is an absolutely amazing car.
I changed to a reliable FNG and have been happy since. I have sworn never ever to use VW service.
".

OT, but seeing your location as Mumbai, can you please tell me of a good FNG for my Vento?
My FNG guy has disappeared & I'll never risk going to the ASS with an 11 year old car

[anti21]

Originally Posted by actuallyankur

1) Avoid VW & Skoda as much as you can, specially for cars of higher segments. No doubt they build wonderful cars, but they don't have the technical know-how to diagnose and repair their own cars. They just follow a hit and trial method based on their assumptions.

Thanks to Team-BHP and other car forums where people like you have been posting about their experience with car manufacturers, I know VAG India is a manufacturer to avoid at all costs. They don't even reply on twitter, the emails to leadership goes unanswered and you just left alone to deal with dealer. My Uncle who owns a Vento (and loves the car), now swears off any VAG cars due to his experience with the service centers.

I've personally used countless examples from this forum many times to drive people away from VAG (and Jeep) cars.

I just say that if you want the best car to drive, but are ready to deal with the hassles mentioned and costs of owing a VAG Car, go with it. Otherwise avoid it as much as possible.

Owning a car is much more than just driving and if VAG keeps it "we don't care about our customers" attitude, they might also have to exit India in a couple of years because word of mouth now spreads much faster in a technologically connected world. Once a reputation is damaged, it is very hard to build it up again.

Originally Posted by actuallyankur

4) Take RSA from your insurer along with brand RSA. Most insurers now provide RSA at nominal increase in premium, and most national insurers have a far wider network of local tie-ups than car manufacturers. In the unlikely event of a mishappening, your insurer's RSA will reach you faster than your brand RSA, specially on highways and remote locations.

I think we need a RSA review thread also. My experience of IDFC Credit Card's RSA also has been pretty useless, even though I was stranded about 10kms away for the district headquarters. I am curious to know which ones serve best. Have heard good things about Maruti's RSA.

[SN88]

Originally Posted by TheRajput

OT, but seeing your location as Mumbai, can you please tell me of a good FNG for my Vento?
My FNG guy has disappeared & I'll never risk going to the ASS with an 11 year old car

Hi, just sent you a dm.
Cheers