[dkaile]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

Well the ordeal continues

Really pathetic to hear this state of affairs. Try contacting these additional people - Subir Singh, Manager Dealerships, sits at Gurgaon, 08588894173
and sudhir.rao@skoda-auto.co.in

Originally Posted by .anshuman

Laura's compressor has some design flaw, it fails in every car, they should own up and issue a recall.

Is the Laura compressor different from the one in the Superb? My 3 year old car done 21k is still going strong and chills. Fingers crossed!!

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

i still do not recommend Skoda cars in India. Reason is- Absolutely terrible after sales support especially the Giriraj and Jai Auto chain, Fahrenheit is slightly better but still not much good. Skoda India Customer care is icing on the cake, they are even worse than BSNL/MTNL helpline, drop them a mail and most of the times they won't respond, if you are lucky and someone replies, all they would do is redirect you to Service manager.

After a compressor change under warranty, now my car's A/C has become weak again. My Father approached the newly appointed Skoda dealer in Hisar, he declared the A/C to be perfectly alright. Looks like i'll have to find some independent workshop to fix the issue this time, i am in no mood to pay these Joker a lac rupees and queue up in their dealership again next year with another lac rupees in my hand again.

Laura's compressor has some design flaw, it fails in every car, they should own up and issue a recall.

Yes the cases of Laura Compressor failure in 2010-2012 cars are extremely high and I believe they were earlier with Sanden (in 2010) and then changed over to Valeo (2012) and now are back with Sanden. In the aftermarket, they don't use Sanden / Valeo compressors on the Laura and suggest Dephi instead which costs around 22,000 in Delhi. Getting it done at a third party repair shop costs around 30,000 and I believe some members have already gotten the change done on their Lauras.

Originally Posted by coolboy007

I would suggest you to visit Fahrenheit, Moti Nagar and meet Mr. Vikas Tyagi (service manager i think) there. He is a really nice gentleman and am sure will help you out with this issue, i will PM you his number shortly and you can talk to him over the phone before going. Do not expect very high levels of service but i have found them to the best of Skoda service centres in Delhi NCR.

Sad to see the ownership turn sour so quickly, i have had multiple poor experiences with VAG service now and have sworn to never buy their cars in India, the cars are unreliable and the support from company is pathetic, all these VAG thugs do is to forward your mail to the dealerships with absolutely no way to escalate matters.

That's the irony of it that the company thinks that their products are perfect and that the customer is a fool to even raise a problem. It is this arrogance that will be detrimental to their own progress.

Originally Posted by parth.jain

It's sad to know that Skoda is not able to satisfy their customers even when there is a lot of news that they are concentrating on After Sales Service and complaints redresal.

Also, I would ask you to get your car checked at a good independent garage. There is a workshop near to Dwarka whose owner is an engineer and used to work in Skoda some years. I used to get my Skoda Octavia serviced/repaired there only after having some bad experiences at ASC. You can get your car checked there, he should be able to pin point the exact problem and then go to the ASC and sit on their heads!

I will not want to take it to a third party yet as it is in warranty!

Originally Posted by dkaile

Really pathetic to hear this state of affairs. Try contacting these additional people - Subir Singh, Manager Dealerships, sits at Gurgaon, 08588894173
and sudhir.rao@skoda-auto.co.in

Is the Laura compressor different from the one in the Superb? My 3 year old car done 21k is still going strong and chills. Fingers crossed!!

Already sent mails to Mr Sudhir Rao and to Mr Ashutosh Dixit, but with no response / feedback. Typically the customer service just forwards the mail to the dealership and the workshop guys are anyway incompetent to solve the problem and the worst part is their attitude. They have no sense of customer service or worth of customer time and zero courtesy.

I think the one is the Superb is different as it is larger (the one in Superb may be the same as the one in the Yeti though).

Thanks everyone for your support and I will keep this thread updated with any developments.

Regards,
Behemoth

[Behemoth]

My experience with the Service in Gurgaon has also deteriorated significantly. The dealer workshop in Gurgaon is run by a bunch of arrogant, incompetent individuals who have no regard for customer service and inspite of complaining so many times to Skoda directly to even the highest levels, there is no improvement; rather I have seen it becoming worse and worse over the past 3 years.

My own ordeal which I faced recently:
My Skoda Laura (Feb 2012 purchased) run 46,000 kms only was given the EA189 Software update and after that became significantly noisy and the vibrations at Idle were very high. I raised it to Skoda and they said that it is normal to have the noise increase and after 30 days it would settle down. But within 30 days it became far worse. I raised it again to Skoda and they sent down an engineer to check it and the dealership service told me it is a faulty clutch and flywheel set which needs to be replaced at my cost and would cost 1 L +.

So I left my car with the dealership workshop and they replaced the Entire Clutch set, Flywheel and also a faulty water pump and timing belt and also front suspension bushes. When I got the car, I was handed a bill of 1,08,000 and the when haggling with the service manager , he gave me a 2k discount as if he is doing me a favour!

Seriously the attitude of the dealers of Skoda has gone to the dogs and there is absolutely no relief for Skoda owners like us as even the company doesn't care at all about their existing customers.

The dealers are just fleecing customers and the company has given them free reign to do so.
From my experience I have vowed never to buy a Skoda car again and tell all my friends and family the same now (I had been a Skoda promoter for past 5 years as my experience with the Yeti was good mostly, but my experience with the Laura has been quite bad.)

They can well make good desirable cars, but their service network absolutely is pits and they don't care a damn about customer service.

Now when they are launching their Kodiaq I wonder how they are going to handle their Kodiaq customers , who will end up Guineapigs when they face Skoda Service (at least here in NCR).

[.anshuman]

I have stated a few times already, Giriraj Motors(and Jai Auto chain owned by same group) is as bad as it can get when it comes to service, to top it up Skoda India management is as worse. They have some awesome cars but having burnt my fingers I wouldn't suggest a Skoda in Delhi NCR to anyone.

Not only they are bad with Service and Attitude, they are also infamous for selling used cars as new cars, re painted cars as new cars and what not!.

[jalajprakash]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

They can well make good desirable cars, but their service network absolutely is pits and they don't care a damn about customer service.

Owning a European car past the warranty period, requires one to be a little more personally involved in the maintenance aspect. Instead of taking the car to Giriraj Motors, I would recommend you to take the car to a FNG for better service and cheaper costs. Dealers inherently have an interest in scaring you with huge repair costs post warranty period so that you might just end up buying a new car. They will often change everything that can be a possible culprit of a fault instead of pinpointing the fault and fixing what actually needs replacing. I definitely think you were fleeced into paying 1L+ for a clutch replacement. You could have solved the post software fix clatter with a remap for added power and reduced noise as well.

I have no doubt that if you buy a brand new Skoda with extended warranty and service packages, you won't have much trouble with them since they are on the hook for all consumables and non-consumables required.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

Even after a wonderful 5 year ownership experience(Only because of the wonderful product, no credits to Skoda India) with my Skoda Laura, i still do not recommend Skoda cars in India.

Thanks I landed in this thread. Skoda Kodiaq is one of the options that Iam looking at for XUV replacements (primarily for 7 seat + Monocoque + AWD). Reading different threads on cost of maintenance esp after warranty period is scary.Looks like XUV (170 bhp) is the only good option -

[bharatbits]

Reading posts here i feel i should never think of buying a Skoda. Who else can tell better than BHPians who speak from personal experience.

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by Surprise

Looks like XUV (170 bhp) is the only good option

Why not the Endeavour/Fortuner?

Originally Posted by bharatbits

Reading posts here i feel i should never think of buying a Skoda.

Also, both of you are referring to threads which are more than a year old. Look up the happy threads as well before coming to a conclusion.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

Why not the Endeavour/Fortuner?


Also, both of you are referring to threads which are more than a year old. Look up the happy threads as well before coming to a conclusion.

Endeavour will be going for the first service shortly

[arun_747]

Hi Team-BHPians,
Happy to know that this thread is still active.

Just wanted to check if any one of You (Skoda Laura owners 2.0l Diesel) are facing RPM increase problem.

I currently own a 2010 Skoda Laura 2.0 TDi (done 64,000km) Ambiente. The RPM increases from 850 to 1000 at idle and stays there for some time & returns to 850 after a while (after atleast 5min to 10min). This increases the fuel consumption.

There is no solution available with Skoda/ VW Service or in Google/ Youtube.
Kindly let me know if any solution to this problem is available.

Thank You,
Arun
9945866330
Bangalore

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by arun_747

Hi Team-BHPians,
Happy to know that this thread is still active.

Just wanted to check if any one of You (Skoda Laura owners 2.0l Diesel) are facing RPM increase problem.

I currently own a 2010 Skoda Laura 2.0 TDi (done 64,000km) Ambiente. The RPM increases from 850 to 1000 at idle and stays there for some time & returns to 850 after a while (after atleast 5min to 10min). This increases the fuel consumption.

Bangalore

This is normal behaviour after the Dieselgate fix, as it is meant to increase the engine running temperature faster to optimum level to burn off the NOx generated. Once the Engine temperature stabilizes, the rpm drops back to normal. My Skoda Laura also exhibits the same behaviour.

[arun_747]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

This is normal behaviour after the Dieselgate fix, as it is meant to increase the engine running temperature faster to optimum level to burn off the NOx generated. Once the Engine temperature stabilizes, the rpm drops back to normal. My Skoda Laura also exhibits the same behaviour.

Hi Behemoth,
Thanks for Your prompt response. Quite technical though.
Well, the software upgrade (relating to the Dieselgate fix) has not been done in my Laura. And, also, this increase happens even when the engine temperature is at optimum level.
So, do we just live with this issue as of now.
Regards,
Arun

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by arun_747

Hi Behemoth,
Thanks for Your prompt response. Quite technical though.
Well, the software upgrade (relating to the Dieselgate fix) has not been done in my Laura. And, also, this increase happens even when the engine temperature is at optimum level.
So, do we just live with this issue as of now.
Regards,
Arun

If you got your car serviced at Skoda, they would have done it automatically when the car is connected to their system.
If it is happening without the software update the other reason could be dpf regeneration cycle in which the engine runs at higher idle to heat the engine to burn off excess carbon deposits in the exhaust system. Though this is generally only the case if the car is used only for short distances and does not get a chance to reach running temperatures frequently. ( If you are using your car only for short runs of 10-15 min and not taking long drives!)
Maybe its time for you to take the car for a long weekend drive!

[RohanDheman]

Originally Posted by arun_747

And, also, this increase happens even when the engine temperature is at optimum level.
So, do we just live with this issue as of now.
Regards,
Arun

Originally Posted by Behemoth

If it is happening without the software update the other reason could be dpf regeneration cycle in which the engine runs at higher idle to heat the engine to burn off excess carbon deposits in the exhaust system.

My octavia also faces this issues. Did a lot of research on this and had posted on the Octavia thread as well.

Please see this below quote. No skoda car in India currently comes with a DPF so that is ruled out.

Originally Posted by RohanDheman

So did a lot of reading last night and am now sure that the Indian Octavia does not have DPF- so that ruled out the cause of high idle.

For those keen- if you have the code 0GG on the sticker in the owner manual- there is no DPF present.

DPF is 7GG
0GG is EU4 but no DPF

Dug further and found this very interesting article on electrical system management on the Jetta. It seems to be a electrical system management issue- the system senses the drop of battery volt below a certain level and increases the rpm accordingly- please read the aspect on power supply (page 25)

http://www.vaglinks.com/Docs/VW/Misc...SSP_873403.pdf

Cheers
Rohan

[arun_747]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

If you got your car serviced at Skoda, they would have done it automatically when the car is connected to their system.

Hi Behemoth,

OK, i'll need to check with Skoda Service if the software update is done. The RPM increase happens even after long drives.
Thanks for Your response !

Another question: Do You think upgrading to Crateris 16" alloy wheels (from the L&K model) & better tires will improve the ride & handling. Or is it not recommended ?