[Ponybha23]

Folks,

This is regarding a relatively painful experience we have undergone due to the recent floods (Dec 4-6) in Chennai.

While our house is not particularly in a low lying area, the unprecedented floods meant we had water to a level we have never had in the 38 years we have lived in our house. Three of our cars were parked inside the house, a sedan (Mercedes CLA), two SUVs (Jeep Compass and Skoda Kushaq). A photo of the water level in which the cars were submerged is enclosed. The level might have increased, at most, by another 2" since the photo was take late evening of the heaviest rainfall day and the rain continued till night before stopping completely.

Given that water level was reasonably ok, we figured there wouldn't be much issues with the car (earlier 2015 floods also had water logging albeit to a slightly lesser extent of say, 4"). Once all the water receded, the CLA and Compass started without a hiccup. The Kushaq was a different story. Dead as brick when cranked. We managed to put the car in neutral and organised a tow vehicle to the workshop (that process itself was mind-numbing and was executed at 1 am finally, a story for another day!).

After the usual insurance paperwork hassle, came the shocker !

The dealer quoted a repair estimate of ~16.5 lakhs! At first, we thought we misheard him but couldn't believe our eyes/ears when we reconfirmed (including an official emailed estimate). They said even the gearbox (~6.5 lakhs) needs to be replaced. A gearbox is a sealed case containing gear oil, if I am not wrong. How can water at atmospheric pressure enter and cause a full replacement? Cannot fathom my head around it. Mind you, the other two cars are working very well including a low slung sedan.

Either the dealer wants to make a quick buck from this situation or Skoda has so poorly designed the car for Indian market that even a slight bit dampness in the underbody renders the car unusable. We have completely lost hope in Skoda products. We had a high opinion of it since we had the Skoda Yeti in 2015 floods and it didn't even break a sweat! In fact, it was one the major deciding factors in going for the Skoda product. We were like, its ok to live with a few days of frustration due to the lackadaisical customer service when the rest of the year, the car puts a smile on your face. Now its all gone. Will never buy a Skoda again!

On another note, I had a question regarding total loss vehicles. Is it possible to repair them outside Skoda dealership and get it re-insured. I heard there is some re-certification process. Any feedback on this would help, thanks!

[ex-innova-guy]

I had my vehicle totalled last year and a lot depends on your insurance coverage. If the IDV is lower than the estimate then insurance companies usually puts it on a portal where a private garage owner would buy your vehicle and subsequently repair and resell it. If you want to repair it by yourself, generally insurance companies don't compensate 100% of the IDV but say around 75% (no firsthand experience but had read it during our process). This means you will have to shell out a bit more from your side too.

For re-insurance purpose I have no clue about the re-certification process as the garage owner who bought it sold it out to someone and he had taken care of the re-insurance process.

Also, can you post the insurance repair estimate pdf/pictures? Fellow members can point out which parts are added to inflate the bill unnecessarily.

[androdev]

I feel this is less of a "technical" issue and more to do with the circumstances. The dealership will not be able to handle repairs and also post-repair warranty reworks at such scale. A majority of the flood repair jobs don't go well and the dealership is liable to offer post-repair warranty rework. The best possible scenario, according to them, is to offer total loss route.

If you feel the flooding is very minor and you are confident of successful repair (easier said than done with a flooded car), I'm sure you can explore multiple options to avoid total loss route. Be realistic and get some expert advice before getting into the rabbit hole of repairing a flooded car.

Convince the dealer to offer a repair estimate instead of replacing all suspected parts.

Convince the insurance to give you a "cash settlement" instead of total loss (less than IDV) and you get to keep the car. There is a good chance that the insurance company can give you total loss settlement and sell the car to a workshop for very good money resulting in very little net loss for them.

[thanixravindran]

Sorry to hear about the damages. From the picture, the water level seems to be just at underbody level. Has water entered the cabin? Also, please provide some details about the car variant and the dealership details.

Avoid starting the car after floods before insurance claim is raised and leave it to the workshop to do it in front of you. Otherwise, insurance claim may be denied citing consequential damages. What is the IDV of the car? If the 16.5L estimate is above 75% of IDV and if insurance agrees, it will be declared total loss. What is the feedback from insurance?

Also, hope you opted for Engine/Gearbox cover and Return to Invoice cover as well. Former will cover these type of flood and consequential damages and latter will ensure you get the full on road price of your vehicle.

In 2015 floods, many were scammed by letting go of their slightly impacted vehicles with high repair estimates and were declared total loss by insurance surveyors. But they were repaired and sold as RC was not cancelled but owners were made to sign the transfer papers to complete the claim. So please check from this aspect as well.

[Kashief]

Sorry to hear the sad state of the vehicle. From the picture, it looks like water has slightly crossed lower part of the door and hope it has not raised further. If that is the case I believe the damage should not be severe. Flood affected vehicles are categorised as A(less damage),B,C(Total Loss). Looking at the estimate provided by dealer, I believe it may be categorised as C which might not be correct.

As mentioned in previous post, either dealership doesn’t have proper technician to work or shortage of workforce. From my recent experience,

1. My service advisor told that I made good decision to drive vehicle for periodic service from Chennai to Coimbatore, as the service centre’s are very busy with flood affected vehicles from Chennai/Tuticorin. Even technicians are deputed to those locations temporarily to work on those vehicles. This is with Honda and I doubt Škoda India capability based on their reputation on servicing vehicles.
2. Recently I renewed insurance for one of my vehicle with Royal Sundaram and the person visited my home mentioned, they are fully occupied on surveying tasks against flood affected vehicles. He said he has to visit the vehicle twice/thrice as per the components are dismantled and verified. Some service centre’s are quoting high amount by replacing full part instead of broken one and they have to inspect everything in detail.

Based on these two, I would suggest you to get help from any trusted FNG to re-validate what are the things broken and check whether the dealership has given right estimate.

[venkyhere]

Originally Posted by Ponybha23

They said even the gearbox (~6.5 lakhs) needs to be replaced. A gearbox is a sealed case containing gear oil, if I am not wrong. How can water at atmospheric pressure enter and cause a full replacement? Cannot fathom my head around it. Mind you, the other two cars are working very well including a low slung sedan.

Either the dealer wants to make a quick buck from this situation or Skoda has so poorly designed the car for Indian market that even a slight bit dampness in the underbody renders the car unusable.

I am inclined to believe that this a ponzi scheme by dealership. The air intake for engine has to be somewhere near headlamp level, right ? So I reckon that there isn't anything to go wrong here apart from a few lost sensors (which could be the reason ECU is not starting the engine as it wants to play safe when sensors are not telling it anything). If you can reveal further details about what other big ticket items form this 16.5L estimate, it would help. Surely the gearbox can't be the lion's share of 16.5L.

[Raghu M]

The pics clearly do not show the water could have gone to alarming levels and left the car dead (even after 2 inches of increase). The dealer might be playing you (Skoda remember), please try at another dealer or service center. It's saddening to see them quote repairs that are higher than an actual new car. I think Chennai should up the game on flood management. My co brother's vintage Bullet was completely submerged and now he has no clue as to how to get it back on the road. His trusted mechanic seems to be super busy and lives in Coimbatore.

[true_sedan]

I seriously doubt the ASCs analysis. The water levels are not high enough in the first place. There is no way water reached the gear box. And car not starting could be a bad battery. A gear box fault would still allow your car to start. Take it to an independent mechanic or bring it to the ASC in Coimbatore.

[sachin_cs]

Sorry to hear about your loss but that water level doesn't look that high. If a low slung CLA could survive it then why not a high ground clearance Skoda? I seriously doubt the competency of the Skoda A.S.C. to properly diagnose your car.

[akshaysawant]

Ohh boy!!

This just can be total loss. Our building till few years back in Lokhandwala complex, Andheri west, Mumbai used to get flooded every year multiple times as soon as we got above normal rainfall. All my cars over the years have been standing in this amount of water. The maximum problem that we suffered we or jamming of the wheels especially if the hand brake was engaged. In your case it has to be with the sensors and the fuses. Get a local mechanic to check all the sensors and fuse box thoroughly. I do not think water would have entered the engine bay, gear box is far off. Water cannot enter the gear box and engine bay from beneath. For that your car needs to be totally submerged in water. Even in those cases mechanics have restored the cars and people have been using them. My two cents, just don't panic, involve some trusted known mechanic to assess the situation. Its okay if he cant fix the problem, but he should honestly assess the damage. Then think of taking any action.

[aniketi]

Whenever I see such news, my wish and my will to buy German car one day gets killed instantaneously. This type of incidents shows that these manufacturers still don't have good understanding about the Indian car market or they are just too careless.

Coming back to incident, I guess it is better to show car once to FNG and get the real picture of the problem. I guess dealer is trying to earn lots of money here. Better to total the car even if the expenses are more than 7-8 lakhs. No point in spending so much money, better to buy new car.

[Car-pe_Diem]

I think some valid suggestions have been provided by comments above. My 2 cents…
1. Don’t send good money after bad money and spend on repairs. Total it, get a new car esp at 16 lacs of bill. That’s Honda elevate money.
2. Think of resale value. If eventually you want to sell this even after repairing, the value is going to be low.

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by Ponybha23

On another note, I had a question regarding total loss vehicles. Is it possible to repair them outside Skoda dealership and get it re-insured. I heard there is some re-certification process. Any feedback on this would help, thanks!

If the vehicle is not yet salvaged (registration scrapped) the registration is still valid and you can get it repaired outside without any re-certification. Probably the car needs total drying inside/out, oils refilled including DSG, battery charged and it should be good to go.

[Ponybha23]

Thanks everyone for your inputs. Relatively diverse viewpoints indeed.

SITREP as follows:
We have got approval for ~8L from insurance (DD under prep apparently) and a buyer, identified by insurance, is ready to pay 7L for salvage value. We are not legally required to sell to the buyer but insurance will not pay more that ~8L anyway. Just FYI, 15L is the IDV. Insurance says, what I do with the car is my choice, i.e., sell to buyer or keep the car.

My question is, can I take it to a competent workshop, get it rectified (at our risk I understand) and then get the car re-insured? Are there any legal issues here to get re-insured? We tend to keep our cars long (7+ years).

I know Skoda will not provide warranty but, in any case, it is evident that they are incompetent/greedy so I have to bite the bullet and take a risk outside Skoda service network. My only question is to whether re-insurance is feasible or not? If yes, would it simply be a review of the repair or is there any elaborate re-certification for roadworthiness process?

Thanks.

[EnchantedPanda]

As others pointed out, your bill value raised, IDV and a buyer arranged by insurance agent, looks like hand in glove situation. Where they would have other similar cases in past similar situation...remember these guys are generally 3rd party outsourced or contractual ...so commissions are their bonuses and Exchange experience for you as a standalone seller have a disadvantage if you go on sale later. Definitely there is money getting exchanged under the table type situation.

If you want to sell out, it's true you won't get a better price especially with a case logged in skoda's log book. Now a days people trust service record entries and try to do analytics on usage based on those. If you have 3rd party mechanic whose guidance you trusted in past maybe you can try but looking at reliability on VW 1.0 cars it's hit or miss...they treat owner royally until car was in warranty after that the cost used to increase manifolds. VW2.0 cars are lighter on pocket ...but long term outcomes are yet to documented. Especially elephant in room is your DSG transmission.