[ToothyPetrohead]

Hey sawnilrules Cheers on the latest Red beauty. The the Octavia takes the cake anytime. I see you have a spoiler on the Octavia. Any idea where I could get one or did it come with the car? How much would it be?

[sawnilrules]

Originally Posted by ToothyPetrohead

Hey sawnilrules Cheers on the latest Red beauty. The the Octavia takes the cake anytime.

Thank you buddy. However I am surprised with the Jeep's ability to keep pace with me on the highways. Especially I was testing its sprinting capabilities as opposed to the Octi, and I was pretty surprised that off the signal, Jeep was easily keeping up with me. This weekend we have planned a 200 odd km drive, may be I will be able to put better perspectives then.

Originally Posted by ToothyPetrohead

I see you have a spoiler on the Octavia. Any idea where I could get one or did it come with the car? How much would it be?

Yups, the lip spoiler is a standard fitment on the Tsi variants. You can either source them through the dealer as an accessory separately or you can get is on www.skodadop.com. It will be cheaper here on the site as compared to the dealer. However the flip side, the delivery would easily take 45-60 days.

So if time is a pressing issue, you can get it from the dealer, otherwise skodadop keeps OG products.

[sawnilrules]

Let me give you some prelude to the story, Friday evening you come home and park the car, everything running fine. Same night you take out the car again for a short spin in the area as your highness wants to have an ice-cream. You have the ice-cream, come back home and park the car. Everything working perfectly fine, whether the interior lights, cluster lights, head lights or even the puddle lamps. No flickering, no signs of any pertinent issue.

Cut to Monday morning, first day of the week, while you are getting ready, you are thinking about the impending tasks and meetings for the day, presentations that need to be reviewed and skip level meetings that you need to be present at. While having those thoughts in the mind and sipping your morning tea, you are also thinking about the dreading Monday morning traffic.

You leave home on scheduled time, come down to the basement, walk up to the car, unlock the car, the car customarily switches on the follow me lights, you sit in the car, press the KESSY the instrument cluster lights up, you depress the brake pedal and viola, the car goes cut-cut-cut-cut and then blank. Probably, I didn’t depress the brake pedal probably I thought to myself, let me give it a second try, I repeat the sequence only to get the same sound, now sounding more gross and that is when I realize, either the battery has konked off or the terminals are probably loose. But then I think, how can battery go kaput in just 15 months of ownership, so probably should be battery terminals going loose. I pop up the bonnet, to check the battery terminals, but they seem just fine. So no issue there, try to crank the car again, and this time the cluster is losing the power too.

I try calling the Skoda RSA, no body responds on the first attempt. Try calling them sometime later, call gets connected, but help is almost 1 hour away. I tell them to send the technician home at 14:30 hrs as I need to rush to office now and will address the car if I get time to come back half day.

While on my way to office, I simultaneously try to call up the Service Manager at JMD Skoda on his official cell, and as I guessed it right, the phone was switched off. While I agree that people have personal lives, but keeping your cell phone switched off is next to be being plain stupid, especially in customer service domain.

Cut to 14:30 hrs, leaving all my assignments and meetings aside, I reach home to address the car, thankfully the RSA guy reached home on time as committed. However, I was expecting Skoda RSA team to send a recovery vehicle to sort the issues, as in case if it’s not a battery issue or any other alternator or Fuse or Mechatronic issue, car would need to be flat-bedded to the service station and funnily here comes a road side looking mechanic on Activa to address customer issues. I mean really Skoda, how you can even tie up with local garages to serve customers in the name of RSA.

Anyways, car jump started, car comes to life, off he goes to his garage and off I go to Skoda Service Station. I reach the service station, shut down the car. Two minutes later, I walk up to the car just to casually crank her up, but then there she is dead already.

I meet the service team, update them about the battery being dead. God knows why at the service station the service team was trying to convince me that the battery was out of warranty. My argument with them was, how can Skoda provide battery which konks off so early in its life cycle. The service manager was for all his time trying to tell me how other car batteries have failed suddenly and how I am not the only one who has suffered from sudden battery failure. To an extent, the service advisor said, “Sir you are lucky, your car konked off at home, another customer of mine who has Rapid was on his way to Mumbai from Pune, he went to a quick loo break at the food court on the expressway; came back and car refused to start as the battery had konked off. Even his car was just 1 year old.”

While listening to his story, I was wondering whether I should feel happy for myself or sad for that other Rapid customer of his.

To cut the story short, I ended up buying the battery from outside, and changed the battery now to Exide Dinn 65 with 4 years warranty (recommended by the service manager). The service manager was blunt enough to tell me that, though I can compensate you by giving 50% discount on the battery if you buy from me, but again, I will give you one year warranty and you will get same battery which you had till date, which can just randomly konk off after a year or so. So I procure the battery from local retailer, he sends his guy to the workshop to replace the battery, I get the car scanned for removing errors on ODIS and leave for home. Phew its 18:00 hrs already.

The reason for posting this here was, in our last 15 years of owning various cars either me or in the family, never have had a situation that the car battery died down in the very first year of ownership. All the other batteries have lasted minimum 3 years if not more. Just December when I had done the health check-up of battery done on my car, it showed battery in perfect health. So what drastically changed in 3 months after service? The car is being run regularly, never handed over to valet, and has a secure basement parking, whether at work or home.

So if all parameters are right, isn’t it safe to say that Skoda has provided or providing batteries with sub-standard quality in their value premium cars, something that even the technician at their service station agreed, coz if he would have been so sure of his battery quality, he would have insisted on replacing the battery from them and would not have recommended a customer to buy a battery from outside. I thank my stars that the car was in my parking, had this happened last week while I was on my way back from Shirdi to Mumbai, I would have been left stranded with 3 year old kiddo on the blazing heat of 44 degrees, just because Skoda has provided sub-standard battery in a premium car.

I have mailed a stinker to Ashutosh Dixit, highlighting the issue. Will keep you guys posted if I get any kind of a reply.

For now, on a Tuesday morning, the car cranked normally.

[deepfreak15]

Battery life of 15 months is truly terrible. Hopefully it's a bad batch impacting only a few cars. So battery warranty is not part of the Skoda 4 year warranty that comes with the car?

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by deepfreak15

Battery life of 15 months is truly terrible. Hopefully it's a bad batch impacting only a few cars. So battery warranty is not part of the Skoda 4 year warranty that comes with the car?

Most VAG cars have rubbish OEM batteries prone to sudden failure in the 12 - 15 months timeframe. Just search TBHP.

Mine was replaced by the workshop with Exide at 11 months free of cost. Now I am worried of a sudden failure at the current 26 months

[McLaren Rulez]

What's your usage pattern like? Daily driven, how many km, etc? Wondering if it's a short commute or something that doesn't allow the battery to get charged properly.

[deepfreak15]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Most VAG cars have rubbish OEM batteries prone to sudden failure in the 12 - 15 months timeframe.

I'll consider myself really lucky then. Both Vento and Polo batteries lasted 4 years with signs of degradation (like delayed crank) before they went kaput. These were the OEM batteries with no visible branding on them. So never did any search for that issue with VAG. Hopefully I continue to be lucky

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by deepfreak15

I'll consider myself really lucky then. Both Vento and Polo batteries lasted 4 years with signs of degradation (like delayed crank) before they went kaput. These were the OEM batteries with no visible branding on them. So never did any search for that issue with VAG. Hopefully I continue to be lucky

Apologies, should have been more specific. The rubbish batteries are w.r.t. their D1 segment cars like the Octavia and the Jetta. Loads of complaints from such owners. Is it because of the electronics load compared to the 'dumber' C segment cars?

[sawnilrules]

Originally Posted by deepfreak15

Battery life of 15 months is truly terrible. Hopefully it's a bad batch impacting only a few cars.

I would have been happy if it would have been a particular batch and consider mine battery as a bad lemon and move on. But the discussion that I had with the Service Associates there, firmed the fact that Skoda has been using substandard quality batteries, and this has not been a first instance where battery went kaput in the first year of ownership.

Originally Posted by deepfreak15

So battery warranty is not part of the Skoda 4 year warranty that comes with the car?

And somehow the battery is not a part of 4 year package. Doesn't look strange considering, battery is and outsourced part, in the same context I don't know whether our tires come with a 4 year warranty.

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

What's your usage pattern like? Daily driven, how many km, etc? Wondering if it's a short commute or something that doesn't allow the battery to get charged properly.

Well, I have a daily run of 50 kms every day to and fro. Mostly driven every day except on weekends, as for weekends I use the smaller car to do the daily duties. So probably, I doubt if battery charging would have been an issue, coz even with my past cars, the running was almost identical and in identical traffic situations.

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Apologies, should have been more specific. The rubbish batteries are w.r.t. their D1 segment cars like the Octavia and the Jetta. Loads of complaints from such owners. Is it because of the electronics load compared to the 'dumber' C segment cars?

Can be a case in all probability.

[AMG Power]

Originally Posted by sawnilrules

And somehow the battery is not a part of 4 year package. Doesn't look strange considering, battery is and outsourced part, in the same context I don't know whether our tires come with a 4 year warranty.

Battery and tyres do not have warranty from any car manufacturer. They are covered under warranty from the respective manufacturers. This would be mentioned in your warranty booklet too.

Batteries have warranties ranging from 1 year to 5 years pro rata. Usually OE battery warranties range from 1 to 2 years. So depending on what you had, you may have got a replacement from Exide. Maybe it was a 1 year warranty in your case.

Tyres fall under this category too but have different warranty terms.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by sawnilrules

To cut the story short, I ended up buying the battery from outside, and changed the battery now to Exide Dinn 65 with 4 years warranty (recommended by the service manager).

Hi sawnilrules,

Will you post the exact details (SKU + name + price) of the Exide DIN65 battery you installed? Was it a plug-n-play install or does the battery bay/bracket need to be modified in any manner? ODIS codes can be cleared of course.

Info will help me later when I am parked on the highway with a dead battery and an irate wife

Seriously, in some ways the Germans can be truly bone-headed and frustrating.

[sawnilrules]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Hi sawnilrules,

Will you post the exact details (SKU + name + price) of the Exide DIN65 battery you installed? Was it a plug-n-play install or does the battery bay/bracket need to be modified in any manner? ODIS codes can be cleared of course.

The the battery that I went for is Exide Mileage Red DIN65(LH) 65AH, costed me INR 6000 in exchange of old battery. This one comes with 2+2 years warranty.

Though it was simple plug and play, but the Velcro battery cover that Skoda had provided wouldn't fit in. So I had to remove it and keep it in the boot. Rest nothing was modified. ODIS Codes had to be cleared, but as I was at the service station itself, got it cleared immediately.

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Info will help me later when I am parked on the highway with a dead battery and an irate wife

Trust me I was lucky here, just last weekend I had been to Shirdi, and with temperatures hovering around 45 degrees on that plateau, and something like this would have happened en route, you guys would have been attending probably mine or the cars funeral by now

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Seriously, in some ways the Germans can be truly bone-headed and frustrating

True that, but at the same time, I really don't think I can go back to Japanese or Korean cars now, considering how much you get spoilt for luxury, comfort, safety and the list can go on by these Germans.

Imagine this, the road till Nasik is a NH with nice twisties all the way, and you are doing 120 in the car, chit chatting with friends and family in the car, not even realizing what speeds you are doing and entering and exiting the corners at same speed and the car is absolutely stable. And though you are in the interim chatting with people around, in your mind you are having a wide wide grin. Something like this

I don't think this kind of confidence, a similarly priced Korean or Japanese can give. Again, just my perspective from little bit of engineering background that I have and having worked in the past with one of the Big 3 Germans.

[sawnilrules]

Sorry for the delayed update as I had got busy with work once again and moreover this time I was traveling too.

So, to continue the story, as most of you are aware that I had written a stinker mail to Ashutosh Dixit from Skoda, I was pleasantly surprised that next day I had their National Head of Customer Service calling me in to take stock of things and understand what went wrong.

I had a lengthy conversation where I apprised him of the chain of events. He said he would look into the things on priority. And guess what he did. People who keep shouting on top of their voice that Skoda has lousy customer service standards, well hey, I think this should probably make you think differently. Looks like Skoda is improving or at-least making an efforts to improve.

Anyways, within 3 days of his call I had the national and zonal service head call me, apologize for the inconvenience caused and they got the battery re-replaced for me. They wanted to ensure that the car had OEM recommended battery and with much higher Dinn as opposed to even 64 Dinn that I had fitted.

So last Saturday, considering I was back in Mumbai, got the battery replaced with Varta 72 Dinn battery. Apparently now that is the stock battery for all the Skoda’s right from Octavia to Kodiaq. So now while the Exide Battery came with 4 years warranty, what I have now comes with 2 years warranty, plus Skoda refunded me the money that I had paid for the Exide battery.

Past performance of Varta batteries had been significantly bad at-least in India. However, most of them were 55 Dinn batteries that time. April onward is the first lot of cars that Skoda has fitted with 72 Dinn Varta batteries across their range, and hence they chose to fit the same battery for me too. Let us hope the battery stays the way it is supposed to stay till I stay with the car.

Well my objective was never to get another battery fitted, my objective was to highlight the issue of battery getting dead in its early life-cycle stages. The team at Skoda has promised to look into their past data and take corrective actions. I hope they do, or may be their switch over to higher Dinn Varta batteries is their answer.

Meanwhile, attaching the picture of the new battery.



Do let me know if you have any queries, would be glad to answer them.

[ferrarirules]

Originally Posted by sawnilrules

Well my objective was never to get another battery fitted, my objective was to highlight the issue of battery getting dead in its early life-cycle stages.

It is heartening to see that Skoda responded to the issue faced in a constructive way and provided an amazing resolution. Skoda has been trying hard to improve A.S.S. reputation. According to me, it is the dealers who have the wrong attitude rather than the company. Yes, at the same time company should keep the dealers in check. I think that is happening slowly.

And dealer attitude is simply because of the way we Indians are. Words like "Customer is King" have no importance/value in our country.

[sawnilrules]

Last week had gone to Pune with a colleague of mine. That gave me an opportunity to drive down to Pune, well what’s new about that, but then the new thing was, I drove the Hyundai’s D Segment Contender, The Elantra. Considering I almost drove the car for 200 km to and fro, couldn’t help but compare it with my mental monster back home. The car that I drove was the Petrol variant SX (O) AT. It almost comes loaded with all the bells and whistles that Hyundai has to offer. While I am not going to compare the features in the car, as both the cars are feature packed in their own rights, but I thought of bringing in the subtle things that I couldn’t help but notice and compare.

• Hyundai, has really put in the efforts in the build quality, while it may not be up there with the Europeans, but the walk towards that direction has become, and one can definitely feel it by the way the doors shut or open. Probably, Honda, can learn a thing or two from them.
• The all new NU 2.0 Petrol Unit is silent most of the times, unless revved aggressively, that adds to the comfort of long trips.
• You see a free stretch and the Octavia entices you to surge ahead faster, but with the Elantra, there is no such desire or no such enticement. She goes about doing its job subtly, in more calm and composed manner. She just doesn’t like to be hurried. She wants you to enjoy the scenery and the nature around you. Behind the Octavia, you really don’t have time for all that, because, even before you know, you are already into the illegal speeds territory.
• While the Octavia is absolutely planted at any speeds and any corners you throw her at, Elantra starts feeling unsettled in that territory of Octavia speeds. Don’t get me wrong, for a layman, it does the job, but push her into the corner, you know that she’s not a corner carver.
• Speaking of speeds, at 140 kmph, you know back of your mind that the car is indeed at 140 kmph, she is not able to mask the speeds, this can be partly attributed to the light steering wheel, which makes her very nervous at those speeds. I may have hardly remained at those speeds for few meters, before deciding to come back into the safer territory of 120 kmph
• At 120 kmph, the car feels absolute stable and handling feels sorted, lane change maneuvers are performed as expected with absolute no drama.
• Arkamys Sound System, is definitely an improvement over the standard audio setup found in regular Hyundai cars. Hyundai, should have considered adding a sub to the overall audio setup. While, the audio sounds nice, leaves a lot to be desired if you are an audiophile. Does it sound better than the Canton setup or even the non Canton setup in the Octavia, I would say definitely no.
• Voice Command in the Octavia works only with Apple Car Play or Android Auto, but in the Elantra, it works even on normal Bluetooth connection. Comes very handy if you use the Bluetooth for receiving and making calls.
• How can you drive the Hyundai Elantra and not talk about the front cooled seats. What feels as a gimmick, definitely works. On multiple occasions, where we had parked the car in the sun during our field trip, coming back to the car, switching on the AC and switching on the front cooled seats, I could instantly feel the difference and tell it that the cooled seats really help in getting you cooled.
• Headlamps are auto but wipers are not. This led to a funny situation, it started drizzling while on the way to Pune, and though the lights switched on automatically, the wipers didn’t. I was expecting the swipe to happen automatically, but the wipers didn’t wipe and my colleague told me the stalk on the wiper is on the left. I said ya ok, wouldn’t the car auto swipe? There was 2 minutes of silence in that moment. Because I gave him that what?? Your 24 lac cars misses on this feature?
• As the sun sets in, the evening looks better in the Elantra with the blue backlit light donning most of the parts of the car inside. It feels pleasant and uniform, unlike my Octavia which has orange backlit for the center console and white backlit light everywhere else.

These are some of the points I could think of while I drove the car at length.

To summarize then, who is the customer for the Elantra? Well, someone who wants a no nonsense car, which goes about doing its job very well, each day and every day. Carries him or her to all the places and ensures that she will not suddenly stall without any prior notifications. But then because most of these things even the Verna does, and does it at a much cheaper price point, Elantra sales are suffering.

But someone who wants the car to be fast when he is in the mood to go fast, and slow when he’s in the mood to go slow, someone who wants fancy electronic aids even to tell that the wiper washer levels are low, and is ok with knowing the fact that you may rarely see double digit fuel efficiency figures on the highway, because you will be enticed to gun her every time you see a free road, from him/her ladies and gentlemen, there is no other alternative than the Octavia 1.8 Tsi. Well, if you have more of Vitamin M, and the desire to go faster than the 1.8 Tsi, there is another monster, and that one is called The vRS