[MadHawk]

It all stems from the top. Having owned a Jetta and now a Tiguan both great products but the dealer and service attitude is/has always been Pathetic to put it politely. I have written several times to VW management team having sourced their direct email ID’s ! The funny part is none of them ever responded or even cared to delegate to some one on their team. The only luck I had is when I started complaining on every insta post of theirs. I got a call finally from their customer care who happily where just good at closing the compalint on their CRM so it would not show up. This happened like 10-12 times and I just gave up. On the other hand you have had VW/Skoda expat managers like Zac who tried in earnest to address issues . This is what happens when you have yes men and undeserving folks at the top. He should author a HBR case study on how to kill a brand and alienate your customers ! India 2.0 strategy is only on powepoint I guess for the VW German bosses.

[roadrunner_nv]

This is exactly why I’ve stopped recommending any VAG car to anyone. Utterly hopeless and irresponsible. I faced a similar issue with my Škoda Rapid where I had to change injectors twice and yet they would not honour extended warranty saying that it’s bad diesel.
Best strategy, sell it off and settle with something better. Don’t know why VAG injectors fail when others including premium cars work flawlessly.

[Silent Buddha]

Sorry for the long rant ahead. But, whenever such horror stories pop-up it's usually one of out of these brands: VW, Skoda, Tata, Mahindra, Jeep.

If it would have been Maruti, Hyundai or Toyota then with this much publicity they would have taken up matters into their own hands instead of relying on the dealer. They might not have the "thud", but one thing they do best is that they will NEVER leave you stranded.

VW on the other hand does not enjoy the trust of Indian consumers. But, instead of trying to correct their image all that they are doing is going backwards. Such attitude of dealers might have worked for them when social media trend was not there in India. But in today's day and age where even villages have started getting decent 4G coverage such news spread like gas and I am sure this will impact their sales in good numbers. We already have few potential customers backing out of VW cars in this thread itself.

I agree with the general sentiment here of taking out the car. 16 months is a LONG time and I salute the patience of the owner for waiting this long for a resolution.

That said why can't VW accept a Govt report citing no water in fuel? How can the owner trust VW testing guys to not mix water in the fuel if they are going to test it? I think the owner did the right thing taking this up legally. Hope courts provide justice to him.

While we are at it do remember that Dr. Rajiv Bandaru's case with Tata is also going nowhere.

All this while very recently Kia offered a brand new car because their service centre crashed the vehicle. Tells you the difference between how brands want them to be perceived.

[Peterf]

Just as I had mustered enough courage to go ahead and plonk 21 big ones in buying a Virtus GT this thread pops up in my newsfeed. Apart from DSG unreliability which already is in back of mind, cases like these tell me to steer away from VW/Skoda.

If a known personality is facing such issues, I shudder to think how a simpleton would have been treated by them.

Hope VW understands there is no good outcome for them from this story.

[NJ_9]

Just imagine being so helpless. VAG needs to make sure they do not tarnish their brand image for such small amount( Big amount for the customer)

We need VAG to survive, we need their products. They should focus towards customer satisfaction even if they might have to take some financial hit. This will drive their sales and they could use this time to make necessary corrections with their service quality. Currently the market sentiment towards VAG is "do you want your car to be in service for few weeks/months every year or do you want to be stranded midway your journey"

We all feel for this gentleman. I hope he gets the right justice, the frustration he is going through mentally needs to end.

[RMN]

This particular dealership has been pretty decent in my past experience and I'm a bit surprised at what's going on, especially since I'm also facing some incompetence by them albeit not as serious as this.

Been at least 4 years since I've been servicing my Vento at an FNG. EVM called me up and offered a full service for just 5k for returning customers. I went ahead and availed this and also got an estimate of around 40k which included replacement of several suspension components and also an issue with the coolant and engine oil mixing. I approved these works but since the parts were out of stock, they asked me to take the car and bring it back when the parts arrived. I obliged.

1 month on and still no update. The service advisors phone number doesn't work anymore and turns out he resigned from there. I've been following up with their desk for a week now and nobody knows anything about this work order, and they keep saying they will call me back but nothing happens

Seems like EVM VW has some serious quality issues.

[livewire13]

Last Saturday I was there in EVM for servicing my car. I got a chance to check out this car. It's in a very bad state. Covered in dust inside out, tyres are in bad condition and scratches all over the place.

I told the EVM guys that as a customer this is exactly what we don't want from them and how better this issue could have been addressed. But EVM guys are simply washing their hands by putting all the blame on the car owner and VW, they didn't even tried to justify VW's side.

In fact they don't have to since they are the dealers for BMW, Mini, Nissan, Honda etc in Cochin.

Looks like fixing the injector alone won't be enough, as there could be issues with electrical wiring, battery, tyres etc as the car was long standing in that dirty yard.

In my humble opinion VW should give this guy a full refund including his court expenses and VW needs to keep a fool proof check on there dealers if they need to survive in India.

And the saddest part of this whole story is that, heard that this guy Kiran is a die-hard VW fan boy.

Note: My personal experience with EVM on servicing my car was excellent.

[century]

I am also facing quality issues with my Fiat Linea purchased from Landmark. Already sent notice. Thinking of going to consumer forum.

[DrZhivago]

When I was growing up I always had a thing for the VW Golf and when the Polo came to India I was like smitten once again. But then soon I started to see all the horror stories VAG owners face and as someone who advices family and friends out to buy a new car I always steer clear of suggesting anything from VAG because more than all that robustness in build quality, a man needs peace of mind and a feeling that he is not being cheated.

This incident here is nothing but fraud from the powers that be at VAG and they just dont care. Its not just about money, its more about trust. If you cant trust a car in warranty what is left in this industry? My only hope is that since this news is running hot on TeamBHP, someone up in the power structure at VAG will take note. Thats why TeamBHP matters, people look at it seriously. Prospective buys will surely have second thoughts if such issues are not sorted properly. But then do they care? I really dont know. God Speed

[Turbohead]

Originally Posted by NJ_9

We need VAG to survive, we need their products.

I used to think like this but not any more. VW has been doing this, not for 1 or 3 years, but for 10-11 years! They've been trying to make the customer pay for the injectors every other time.

High time these guys pay big time for their deeds! Enough is enough! What's the point of buying warranty if they can't honour it?

Zac is gone and it's too hard to suggest a VAG product to anyone unless they know what kind of bottomless hole they're ready to jump into.

[gopa99]

I have seen this complaint twice before with my contacts over the last 5 years, one was on a Vento and other was on a Skoda. Diesel is not miscible with water in any form. Moreover definitive methods exist to separate water out of diesel if their hardware is so very sensitive. In this age of declining ICE builds its sad to see VW taking the old school approach to deny customer warranties especially when their hardware is repeatedly at fault. Sometimes I feel OEMs under VW group don't have the same bargaining power with their component suppliers like conti or bosch as the likes of TATA or Mahindra. And with this they eventually end up loosing with their followers & consumers like this.

[OpenRoads]

This is exactly why customers (esp. me) shy away from 1.5 TSI DSG even after knowing that they are better in every single way. Making a good product is not the end of it. It should be a complete package which includes after sales. In India customers are trying to find a balance between both. On one hand Suzuki triumphs on after sales & cost but flops in terms of safety and mediocre performance whereas VW is all about driving pleasure but draws a blank when it comes to aftersales and cost of ownership.

Few manufacturers (e.g. Hyundai, Kia) have found a balance between all parameter and some are improving fast (Tata, Mahindra). And then there are some (Honda, Toyota) pretty much set the benchmark.

Best part is Suzuki has realized the shift and tied up with Toyota to play catch up. With products like Brezza, Urban Cruiser they are focusing on technology and safety.

Hope VW learns from its own blunders and corrects its course. Not paying heed to such complaints is like digging their own grave.

[KANNURAN]

This is a HORROR story and thank God I read it in proper time.

EVM represents Skoda in Calicut / Kerala, and I had an exceptionally good service experience with them; to the extent that I have driven back from another state to get my Skoda Rapid serviced there.

I cant believe it is the same company doing THIS to a customer.

I was planning to upgrade and had resolved to buy from EVM Calicut. The money they would have made from that single transaction would probably exceed what they might, from the cited polo episode.
Counting the countless others who would have steered away from EVM, it seems like a classic case of being penny-wise and MASSIVELY pound-foolish.

[NJ_9]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

I used to think like this but not any more. VW has been doing this, not for 1 or 3 years, but for 10-11 years! They've been trying to make the customer pay for the injectors every other time.

High time these guys pay big time for their deeds! Enough is enough! What's the point of buying warranty if they can't honour it?

Zac is gone and it's too hard to suggest a VAG product to anyone unless they know what kind of bottomless hole they're ready to jump into.

I understand , maybe just maybe because i have had decent experience with VW, i have a little hope. But i see where this is going, way too many bad experiences that we have been hearing, well since EV is coming up big time, the German affordable ICE might not be missed as much in India. Hopefully!!!

[Siddj38]

When my Dad was recently up to buy a car, we didn't consider a few brands like VW (had a bad experience of sourcing parts for Polo in the aftermarket), Maruti,Kia and Hyundai for horrible safety record.

We did test drive Nexon and XUV300, out of which he really liked the XUV300 (though it was overpriced and had basically no boot). In the end I'm happy that I pushed him to checkout City and in the end he ended up picking it up.

I always thought that getting a virtus/slavia would have been so much better as we both love to drive but, threads like these tell me how much degraded VAG's quality of parts and after sales service has become.