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Old 1st June 2011, 11:23   #46
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Re: Black Ambiente Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI - Total satisfaction incorporated

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Originally Posted by Maibaa View Post
Having gone through the buying experience of the Laura TSI just a few weeks back , I can confirm that the omissions were never highlighted.

Both the dealers in Bangalore have only the TSI classic on display with the stripped down features. All that the sales people tell you, is what the classic is missing when compared to the petrol Ambiente model. Specifically the classic does not have the center armrest, rear AC vents, no alloys, no rear parking sensors, and comes with a basic music player.

There is no mention of Fogs, cooled glovebox, rain sensing wipers and auto-dimming mirrors that you see on a diesel Ambiente on display. It is very natural for anyone to assume that you will get all these features in the petrol Ambiente as well.

I strongly believe this is a deliberate move by the dealerships to hide the missing features unless and until specifically asked by the customer. By the time you realize this, you would have paid an advance already and booked the car. Then it is a bitter pill to swallow which most of us do since we are more exited about the car.
Skoda has created a lot of confusion w.r.t certain features which are missing in recent Ambiente TSI cars. I recently took delivery of a Silver Ambeinte TSi from Vinayak cars. The missing fog lamps has been a major subject of debate between me and the dealer. I booked the car on 29th April and was supposed to get delivery within a week. As per advice from T- BHP I decided to inspect the car at the stock yard before it went for registration. I was suprised to see that the front fog lamps were missing from this car. The reply I got was that Skoda has discontinued fog lamps in the Ambiente TSI since Jan 2011. I wasn't quite convinced of this thoery, since the classic was launched only recently and front fogs was one the features which it did not have compared to Ambiente. The dealer even gave me contact numbers of Skoda to satisfy myself. Did that. Still unconvinced, walked straight to TAFE access and talked to them about the fog lamps controversy. The explaination I got from them was quite shocking. They said that ever since Classic was launched Skoda has been shipping some Ambiente cars without fog lamps by mistake !! I asked them whether they could assure me of a car with fog lamps. The answer : "100% sir".

Came back to Vinayak and conveyed this to them. But the sales people were still holding on to the "fog lamps discontinued" theory and took me to their GM who they felt could do a better job of convincing me.

Had a long chat with the GM who gave me glimpse of the mail he received from Skoda informing all the dealers that Front fogs were "discontinued". He said TAFE cannot assure anyone of fog lamps, since they also are on the CC list of this mail, like all other dealers in India. In that brief moment I managed to read the gist of the mail, which went something like this "We have received feedback from the field that some Laura Ambiente TSI cars have been received with Fog lamps missing from them. We confirm that a batch of Laura Ambiente TSI cars have been shipped without the fog lamps and we are willing to compenstate the dealer upto Rs. 10,000/- (or 15,000... not sure) , the same may be passed on to the customer."

I had asked them for a refund since I wanted to go with TAFE who were already assuring me of a car with Fogs.

Vinayak then asked me wait for a couple of days till they get a "final" confirmation from Skoda on this whole issue. They came to me after a wait of four days. Their reply "Skoda has restarted Fog lamps in Ambiente, Sir"

The car arrived on 23 May. Sure enough it had the fog lamps. Took delivery on 27 May.

Rain sensing wipers and cooled glove box are other features which are missing though. Did not feel that these were critical enough to bother about.
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Old 1st June 2011, 13:00   #47
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Re: Black Ambiente Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI - Total satisfaction incorporated

Wow. That's quite a story. Have asked JMD also to check with Skoda on this. My simple argument - skoda 'writes' on its website that these things are available and the dealer 'says' that they aren't. I prefer the written word and hence need to get Skoda to fit them in the car. Hope this will carry me through.
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Old 1st June 2011, 13:44   #48
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Re: Black Ambiente Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI - Total satisfaction incorporated

@ Santoshbhat: Shocked & baffled. I just cant believe this.
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Old 1st June 2011, 15:07   #49
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Re: Black Ambiente Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI - Total satisfaction incorporated

Quote:
Originally Posted by Maibaa View Post
Having gone through the buying experience of the Laura TSI just a few weeks back , I can confirm that the omissions were never highlighted.

Both the dealers in Bangalore have only the TSI classic on display with the stripped down features. All that the sales people tell you, is what the classic is missing when compared to the petrol Ambiente model. Specifically the classic does not have the center armrest, rear AC vents, no alloys, no rear parking sensors, and comes with a basic music player.

There is no mention of Fogs, cooled glovebox, rain sensing wipers and auto-dimming mirrors that you see on a diesel Ambiente on display. It is very natural for anyone to assume that you will get all these features in the petrol Ambiente as well.

I strongly believe this is a deliberate move by the dealerships to hide the missing features unless and until specifically asked by the customer. By the time you realize this, you would have paid an advance already and booked the car. Then it is a bitter pill to swallow which most of us do since we are more exited about the car.
Quite a sad way of management indeed. On basics, they should have updated the website / spec sheet, and also informed the dealers to let the customers know. This is almost like a case of cheating (kind of, I am not disclosing anything unless asked). In a different country, they would have got charged for consumer rights voilation.


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Originally Posted by buz View Post
I have asked the dealer on 3 items and I should get an answer by tomorrow: front fogs, auto dimming IRVM and rain sensor (this I think exists as there is a control for it in the wiper lever, still checking it out). Rest of the car is as per the website.
Good luck with that Buz. I remember reading another ownership thread where in some functions were deleted, and the owner insisted to get those fitted back in (think it was a Captiva).
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Old 1st June 2011, 15:32   #50
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Re: Black Ambiente Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI - Total satisfaction incorporated

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Originally Posted by buz View Post
Wow. That's quite a story. Have asked JMD also to check with Skoda on this. My simple argument - skoda 'writes' on its website that these things are available and the dealer 'says' that they aren't. I prefer the written word and hence need to get Skoda to fit them in the car. Hope this will carry me through.
Buz, I have done the same with Skoda. Keep me posted when you get any positive info on this. I will do the same.
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Old 1st June 2011, 15:37   #51
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Re: Black Ambiente Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI - Total satisfaction incorporated

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Originally Posted by varunsonu View Post
i am also curious as to why this has been done. apparently this change is there since june 2010 models. What is the purpose of this?
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Originally Posted by mikon View Post
Buz : Congrats ! You've a petrol monster at your disposal



I test drove the new verna diesel 2011. It has the same process of pressing the clutch pedal and starting the engine.

AFAIK, even the Elantra and the older Verna had this feature. It prevents the car from moving if someone carelessly starts the car without pressing the clutch.
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Old 1st June 2011, 15:39   #52
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Re: Black Ambiente Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI - Total satisfaction incorporated

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Originally Posted by Santoshbhat View Post
Skoda has created a lot of confusion w.r.t certain features which are missing in recent Ambiente TSI cars. I recently took delivery of a Silver Ambeinte TSi from Vinayak cars. The missing fog lamps has been a major subject of debate between me and the dealer. I booked the car on 29th April and was supposed to get delivery within a week. As per advice from T- BHP I decided to inspect the car at the stock yard before it went for registration. I was suprised to see that the front fog lamps were missing from this car. The reply I got was that Skoda has discontinued fog lamps in the Ambiente TSI since Jan 2011. I wasn't quite convinced of this thoery, since the classic was launched only recently and front fogs was one the features which it did not have compared to Ambiente. The dealer even gave me contact numbers of Skoda to satisfy myself. Did that. Still unconvinced, walked straight to TAFE access and talked to them about the fog lamps controversy. The explaination I got from them was quite shocking. They said that ever since Classic was launched Skoda has been shipping some Ambiente cars without fog lamps by mistake !! I asked them whether they could assure me of a car with fog lamps. The answer : "100% sir".

Came back to Vinayak and conveyed this to them. But the sales people were still holding on to the "fog lamps discontinued" theory and took me to their GM who they felt could do a better job of convincing me.

Had a long chat with the GM who gave me glimpse of the mail he received from Skoda informing all the dealers that Front fogs were "discontinued". He said TAFE cannot assure anyone of fog lamps, since they also are on the CC list of this mail, like all other dealers in India. In that brief moment I managed to read the gist of the mail, which went something like this "We have received feedback from the field that some Laura Ambiente TSI cars have been received with Fog lamps missing from them. We confirm that a batch of Laura Ambiente TSI cars have been shipped without the fog lamps and we are willing to compenstate the dealer upto Rs. 10,000/- (or 15,000... not sure) , the same may be passed on to the customer."

I had asked them for a refund since I wanted to go with TAFE who were already assuring me of a car with Fogs.

Vinayak then asked me wait for a couple of days till they get a "final" confirmation from Skoda on this whole issue. They came to me after a wait of four days. Their reply "Skoda has restarted Fog lamps in Ambiente, Sir"

The car arrived on 23 May. Sure enough it had the fog lamps. Took delivery on 27 May.

Rain sensing wipers and cooled glove box are other features which are missing though. Did not feel that these were critical enough to bother about.

This is absurd! As I suspected, this information is deliberately withheld from the customer and the dealers are just maintaining that Fogs are now discontinued. Later when Skoda releases a fresh batch of TSI cars with Fogs, all they have to tell the customers is "Skoda has resumed Fog lamps in the cars now"!

@Santosh - Just to confirm, can you check the VIN no of your car to check it is a 2011 car and not the ones from 2010 that had Fogs. You can never be sure of what these dealers tell you until you are assured yourself that you got the latest car from 2011.

Last edited by Maibaa : 1st June 2011 at 15:51.
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Old 1st June 2011, 16:13   #53
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Re: Black Ambiente Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI - Total satisfaction incorporated

Woah! Are you serious? What is Skoda doing? As if, the bad reputation with cars was not enough, now this! Skoda India needs a revamp in the organization. Pretty sad to read about this. No wonder the dealers themselves have a baffeld look on their face to most of the queries!

EDIT: Any answer to the clutch being pressed while starting part?

Last edited by Swanand Inamdar : 1st June 2011 at 16:15. Reason: Adding Text
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Old 1st June 2011, 19:45   #54
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Re: Black Ambiente Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI - Total satisfaction incorporated

Quote:
Originally Posted by Maibaa View Post
This is absurd! As I suspected, this information is deliberately withheld from the customer and the dealers are just maintaining that Fogs are now discontinued. Later when Skoda releases a fresh batch of TSI cars with Fogs, all they have to tell the customers is "Skoda has resumed Fog lamps in the cars now"!

@Santosh - Just to confirm, can you check the VIN no of your car to check it is a 2011 car and not the ones from 2010 that had Fogs. You can never be sure of what these dealers tell you until you are assured yourself that you got the latest car from 2011.
Maibaa - After this entire incident with missing fogs, I decided not to leave anything to chance. I asked for the VIN of this car even before it was shipped from the factory. Once I got the VIN, I managed to get a full four page VIN report from a European website by paying 4 Euros! The date of production : 15th April 2011. So this is a latest production car.

Apparently there was short supply of some wiring harness required for the Fog lamps at Skoda plant. I guess due to this there was a batch of Ambiente which was waiting in the assembly line for this part. Guess the company decided to ship this batch anyway, without the fogs, since dealers were waiting for cars to be delivered to impatient customers. They have also informed the dealers about this by mail. Dealers just could not be transparent about this to customers, since any customer upon knowing the real facts would rather wait for the next batch than buy one without fog lamps in a 16 lakh + car. The dealer and the company have colluded to convince the unsuspecting customer that Fog lamps have been discontinued so that this batch could be sold. I was just lucky that a salesman at TAFE gave me the "Skoda has shipped Ambiente without fogs by mistake" story which helped me to get to know the real facts. If TAFE too had confirmed that Fogs have been discontinued, I would have had no choice but to accept it.
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Old 1st June 2011, 19:50   #55
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Re: Black Ambiente Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI - Total satisfaction incorporated

Quote:
Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar View Post
Woah! Are you serious? What is Skoda doing? As if, the bad reputation with cars was not enough, now this! Skoda India needs a revamp in the organization. Pretty sad to read about this. No wonder the dealers themselves have a baffeld look on their face to most of the queries!

EDIT: Any answer to the clutch being pressed while starting part?
Yes, my car requires the clutch to be pressed while starting (even in neutral). If I try to crank the car without pressing the clutch, "CLUTCH" shows up on the MID.
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Old 1st June 2011, 20:30   #56
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I suggest this should be highlighted to everyone by moving this discussion to a new thread with an appropriate title. At least prospective customers will be aware of this sinister ploy used by Skoda and it's dealer network.

Now I hope I can pay for and get fogs added to my car at the service center. Skoda will be selling me something again for which I have already paid! Disgusting!
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Old 1st June 2011, 22:00   #57
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Re: Black Ambiente Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI - Total satisfaction incorporated

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Originally Posted by Maibaa View Post
I suggest this should be highlighted to everyone by moving this discussion to a new thread with an appropriate title. At least prospective customers will be aware of this sinister ploy used by Skoda and it's dealer network.

Now I hope I can pay for and get fogs added to my car at the service center. Skoda will be selling me something again for which I have already paid! Disgusting!
I just got a call from Skoda Aurangabad, asking me the dealer name & details. I have sent an email asking for a resolution on my missing fog lamps
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Old 2nd June 2011, 09:42   #58
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Re: Black Ambiente Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI - Total satisfaction incorporated

Strange how a shortage of wiring harnesses hits only the petrol Ambientes, and not the diesel ones. Wonder how they'd explain the other features that have mysteriously stopped appearing in the TSI - rain sensing wipers, cooled glovebox, auto dimming mirrors etc... which find place in the diesels (and the Skoda website for both fuel variants)!
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Old 2nd June 2011, 09:47   #59
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Re: Black Ambiente Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI - Total satisfaction incorporated

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Strange how a shortage of wiring harnesses hits only the petrol Ambientes, and not the diesel ones. Wonder how they'd explain the other features that have mysteriously stopped appearing in the TSI - rain sensing wipers, cooled glovebox, auto dimming mirrors etc... which find place in the diesels (and the Skoda website for both fuel variants)!
I seen it on diesel ones too. All manual lauras did not have fogs for some time.
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Old 2nd June 2011, 13:10   #60
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Re: Black Ambiente Skoda Laura 1.8 TSI - Total satisfaction incorporated

I have taken up the issue of missing features with Skoda customer care. They are supposed to come back to me. Lets see how it goes.
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