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Originally Posted by abhinav.gupta88 Congrats on your new acquisition, its beautiful.
Can you share what problems you faced with Fabia in detail? Also what were the mods you got through Vagtune, and what problems you faced with the mods and vagtune? I was going to get some stuff from them, maybe your experience can help me and other prospective customers. |
Thanks for the compliments!:-)
Yes I do intend to share my "Skoda" experience here.
First I will tell you what all went wrong with my Fabia apart from the Vagtune experience. I will tell you all about that in the next reply as that is going to be quite a lengthy read!
Alright then, here are the problems that I had with my "2012" Fabia 1.2 HTP.
a) I bought the car in January 2013. Three months have passed and I have just got the infamous
Race chip installed from Vagtune(more on that later).
On my way back to home I noticed a foul smell coming from the A/C. It was there for a couple of minutes after which it went away. I initially dismissed it as the stink from that particular area that I passed by, but boy was I wrong.
A few weeks later the foul smell had reappeared and it was so strong, that I had no other option but to drive with the windows down.
Then I found the source of the smell, it turns out that the rear of the was clogged with
water leaking from the
rear a/c vents. I failed to notice it because of the carpet and my own ignorance.
Took it to Marikar Engineers and when I told them that the rear a/c vents were leaking water they were dumbfounded that the Fabia actually came with rear a/c vents!
Anyway they saw the problem and told me they would fix it within 3 days.
They called me on the third day and said they had fixed it. Apparently a
small lizard had got stuck in the a/c lines and that had been causing the water clogging and the foul smell. Now I was dumbfounded, I really had my doubts about this one. I went there picked the car, all was fine at the back, all the water was gone and it was bone dry.
And then the doubts came true as only week has passed when the water started leaking from the vents again! Took it to them second time.
This time they did fix it. Said some pipe had been bent and they had fixed it. Was glad that it was not an animal this time. Bad news they took apart the entire dashboard to try to find out the problem and the reassembly was not at all satisfactory.
And that was that and the car didn't have any water leak again.
b) Few months have passed since the water leak incident and now something strange was acting up with the car. Every time I went over a pot hole or a bump it rattled and somehow the whole car felt "loose" at the front.
Again took it to Marikar Engineers, they diagnosed the problem and found it to be faulty engine and gearbox mounts. They said it was a manufacturing defect and they will replace it under warranty. Good. Bad news is they haven't got either of those and they said it will take some time before they have them. Little did I know it would take around 6 bloody months before they got them.
c) During a visit to Vagtune, I found out that the seat rails and the entire seat structure of the two front seats had been rusted.
Needless to say I was shocked and was genuinely getting annoyed with the car. I mean what on earth are the people at Skoda factory doing? Seriously 3 manufacturing faults in a brand new not even a year old car. Blast!
Again took it to Marikar and surprise surprise they didn't have any seat support structures in stock. I was really beginning to feel the heat of Skoda ownership.
d) Then one fine morning the seat adjustment knob came off cleanly in my hands.
By this stage everybody in my house was pissed off!
The car was rattling all the time on everything except race track smooth road. Both the mounts needed replacement. The seats were all rusted up and now I cant adjust my seat and I am stuck in my Brother's driving position.
Once again I took it to Marikar to get it fixed and this time said sternly to give back the damn thing after actually fixing it or don't give it back at all.
Then next day good news came that they have finally got the new engine and gearbox mounts and they have replaced it with the old ones. This brings us to the next problem.
e) I was happy that they finally did something right. I went to pick up the car, got in, started the motor and my god I was shocked beyond belief. The whole car was shaking as if there was an earthquake underneath me. The normally rock solid steering wheel was vibrating in my hands, the seats suddenly got massaging function in them.
I rushed to call the technician and told them this and the reply I got was that
"Its alright the car is just cold and vibrations are inherent in a 3 cylinder car". I just wanted to punch him in the face but since I couldn't I somehow convinced him the same. He got the message, said he will look into it and call me after two days.
Finally after two days the call came, the technician said the engine headers were faulty and needed to be replaced, cost is only Rs. 1.25 lakhs only but I needn't worry about it since it is covered under warranty. He said he will call me again the next day to confirm it and give the full details.
The next call came after a day and the guy said it is alright , the engine headers needn't be replaced, it was just a case of repositioning the mounts. By this time I had lost the whatever little faith I had in these morons.
Went to pick up the car that day. The vibrations were all gone and I drove back home. But as is the norm with Marikar the problem resurfaced within weeks. The car didn't vibrate as much as it did the first time, but something was definitely wrong, there still was quite a lot of vibrations on idle.
Finally got it fixed from German Tech. Seems the gearbox mount was not installed properly. Mind you German tech is in Kottayam which is 100 kilometers from where I live, damn it.
Then I came to know of Vision Skoda in thrissur and my god what a relief. These guys are in infinitely better than Marikar starting all the way from the security guard at the gates.
Got the seat support structure replacement and first service done from there. It took them just a single day to do it whereas even after 5 months Marikar still didn't have the seat support structures in stock! Shocking indeed.
f) Then there were two other problems which wasn't the car's fault.
One was the bent front left side alloy wheel. Other was the heart wrenching mis-fueling incident where the idiot at the pump put 27 litres of diesel in my petrol Fabia after quite specifically been told by me to put only Rs 1500 worth of petrol.
All these happened within a period of exactly one year and combined this with the Vagtune experience drove me to sell this car and buy the GT TDI.
I still loved it though, it was quite handsome thing and was rock solid at highway speeds. The car even though underpowered had bucket loads of character and the gearshift is to die for. Sometimes I really do miss it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chitta Pradhan But I felt that it was less noisy than it was at the time of it's launch. Volkswagon has done some thing to this IMO. What's your experience |
The excessive noise is the only gripe I have about this motor. Its so loud I can hear it when I am in the bathroom inside my house.
You simply have to hand it to Hyundai for making their engine so refined and quiet. I did have the pleasant experience of test driving the I20 and compared to the Polo it purred like a kitten, and also it does have more turbo lag so when the turbos do come on, it gives you more of a shock. I liked it a lot.
I am guessing the 1.6 in the verna is just as refined as in the I20. VW can clearly take some notes down from hyundai in terms of refinement.
Quote:
Originally Posted by a4anurag Congrats on the GT TDI busy. Wish you lot of happy miles and trouble-free ownership.
Since Fabia and Polo come from the same family, hope this car doesn't let you down like the Skoda did. We all are curious to know what went wrong with the Fabia that made you get rid of it in 1 year (too short a time).
I was to in love with it and gad almost paid the amount but cancelled it due to dealer + sales guys arrogant attitude. Did try and contact their seniors but they turned a blind eye so picked up a Maruti Suzuki Swift ZDi. VW's loss and Maruti's gain.
Congratulations once again!
PS: Need more pictures of the car.
Anurag. |
Thanks again.
I too am hoping for a better ownership experience this time. Somehow I just don't trust these Europeans anymore.
The Fabia was such a far cry from the 2005 Honda city zxi ownership which lasted 7 years and 75000 kilometers. Not even a switch went wrong in that car and when the time came to sell it, it still had more resale value than my 1 year old Fabia.
The now sent off Troublemaker