[Carma2017]

VW after sales service has a poor record In Japan for sure. One of my Japanese colleagues had purchased VW Golf and had the same lofty vision of a solid, strong car. After 2 years, and a law suit, he has simply washed his hands off VW. The car broke down and on complaint, was informed by customer service, that his driving style was to blame. But, with ultra strong consumer laws, VW had to pay up and give a formal apology.
On inquiring further, I came to know, that such instances are common across Japanese forums, but only for "cheaper" cars like Polo and Golf. The higher paying customers get what they pay for. The problem, it seems is that for cheaper cars, VW needs a minimum volume of sales, before they start providing service that they are capable of.
Moral of the story for me, us till the day VW starts considering India as a serious market and not a Minor change or cosmetic facelift only market, I will stay miles away from their brand.

[torquing_points]

Originally Posted by Swapnil4585

Build quality -

1. Europeans.
2. Japanese.

Reliability -

1. Japanese.
2. Indians.
3. Europeans.

The above is a general perception and there are some more permutations and combinations to

With due respect, I beg to differ. Indian cars have far superior build to Japanese cars. Maybe in fit and finish the Japanese cars are better, but quality of materials and being well built -- Indian cars are far superior to there Japanese counterparts.

[Vandit]

If your budget is as high as 13 a little more will fetch you the S Cross 1.6 which has a great engine and is one of Maruti's best product if not the best available today. Reliability and service cost will be typical Maruti so no hassles on that front.

I just bought a GT myself in Jan & while i don't yet have an experience on service to comment about.. We switched from being a Honda owner to VW & did so after factoring aspects of reliability, build quality & general maintenance.

The build quality of VW was vastly superior IMHO to the feel that there City offered. The polo suited my needs and with an extended warranty in place I was happy to go with VW.

If you care well enough for any car, your service costs are unlikely to be really high beyond the fixed costs annually as per the maintenance schedule.

Reliability wise, i don't think there haver been any serious component failure on VW models recently beyond the occasional random ones. The DQ200 DSG issues have been more or less relegated to the past by VW

[volkman10]

Having a VW for the last 5 years. Four Years of ownership - no major issues to term as reliability .

But from the day of a little over 4.5 years the reliability issue crops up. ( 3 flat bed instances)

Have been a great fan of German cars and recommended the same to many but now I am in a fix and maybe will never buy one again, however will watch how it turns out give a one year time frame.

Lesson learnt ( for me)- Never buy one if it is the only car you have.
If owning more than one, always have a Japanese car in case you still like to enjoy the driving pleasure of a German car

[Vandit]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Having a VW for the last 5 years. Four Years of ownership - no major issues to term as reliability .

But from the day of a little over 4.5 years the reliability issue crops up. ( 3 flat bed instances)

Hey Volkman.. Could you briefly list the 3 issues that required a flat bad service? And were they major in trends of repair or maintenance costs/parts to rectify? Is it a DSG you own or would you say even the manual cars are not as great in reliability?

Thanks

[iliketurtles]

I've owned a VW for nearly 3 years now (I hit 3 years of ownership in a week) and have had the following issues to straighten out.

- 2 battery changes (1 changed under warranty)
- 2 (or is it 3) door actuators (changed under warranty)
- ABS sensor failure (don't recall if the warranty was honored on this, but don't think it was)
- Water pump failure (changed under warranty)

My honest assesment over this period of ownership is that VW's aren't unreliable, it's just the long lead time to get parts that is insanely annoying. For instance, the door actuators took a week or so to arrive and then get replaced.

Thankfully, I haven't come across service guys that have been unable to diagnose issues correctly too, which is another bugbear of VW/Skoda services. I hope I haven't spoken too soon!

[avisidhu]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Having a VW for the last 5 years. Four Years of ownership - no major issues to term as reliability .

But from the day of a little over 4.5 years the reliability issue crops up. ( 3 flat bed instances)
.........

3 flat bed instances would be 'super unreliable' in my book even if they occurred at the end of 5 years. 5 years or a lakh odd KMs can be best termed as medium term(and not long term) by today's standards.

It's a crying shame really. With better disposable incomes people are hungry for superior products, but money cannot buy one time to get such things fixed. Perhaps the worse part is that no brand including VW has shown an upward graph towards getting things right in all these years.

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by Vandit

Hey Volkman.. Could you briefly list the 3 issues that required a flat bad service? And were they major in trends of repair or maintenance costs/parts to rectify? Is it a DSG you own or would you say even the manual cars are not as great in reliability?

I have the 1.6P Polo with ODO now ~ 46k. All details coming up in the ownership thread, and in all 3 occasions the car was immobile. Fortunately in two instances it was in my garage itself and the other it was in a parking lot!

In all 3 cases the diagnosis is inconclusive with a 'maybe due to..' tag in the conclusion.

[batish]

Originally Posted by Swapnil4585

If you consider buying a Japanese car, go for a Toyota instead of Honda.

Sir, Toyota doesn't have any car in this price range. They have Etios and then the Corolla Altis. Nothing in between.

Originally Posted by nidhinsarath

Anytime I would blindly go in for VW. I can't assure you on reliability because it all depends on how you maintain the car. Build quality is top notch and not like Honda and Toyota.

Originally Posted by Vandit

The build quality of VW was vastly superior IMHO to the feel that there City offered. The polo suited my needs and with an extended warranty in place I was happy to go with VW.

If you care well enough for any car, your service costs are unlikely to be really high beyond the fixed costs annually as per the maintenance schedule.

Reliability wise, i don't think there haver been any serious component failure on VW models recently beyond the occasional random ones.

Agreed Sir for the build quality. Regarding Maintenance and Service, My cousin owns a 1.2 TDI Polo, his 90K service is due in two months. He previously asked the service advisor what would be the bill at 90K service (estimate). The SA told him Rs. 13K for the normal service and timing belt would also be changed which would cost around Rs. 25K. So his total bill would be around Rs. 38K.
Apart from the steering column changes (all in warranty), there has been no issue with his car. IMO, Rs. 38K for a single service is unreasonable.

Originally Posted by volkman10

Having a VW for the last 5 years. Four Years of ownership - no major issues to term as reliability .

But from the day of a little over 4.5 years the reliability issue crops up. ( 3 flat bed instances)

Even my neighbour had to experience his Jetta on flatbed. He was driving from Agra to Delhi, in the middle of nowhere his car broke down. He was cruising at 90kmph, when this happened. He took it to the nearest A.S.S. They found the belt to be broken and changed it. He hasn't even clocked 90K kms yet. He says every alternate month there is a problem in the car. He discouraged me to go with Skoda/VW.
After reading so many negative stories about VAG, I'm inclined towards Honda City now.

[kbk_75]

My TDI Vento is 4 1/2 years old and has not had a single issue, to-date, thankfully. I would say it's been trouble-free so far.

[Rahul Rao]

In my 4 1/2 years and 78000 km experience, I did not face any issue, I replaced battery on my own at two years with an Exide matrix battery with 5 years warranty.
At every 15000 km service, I did the following.
1. Routene service including oil change
2. Tyre rotation.
3. Checking brake pads with vernier. (Worn down from OE 14mm to 8mm@ 75k)
Extras
1. Cleaning air filter at 5000 km intervals
2. Wheel alignment anytime suspension got hammered due to going through potholes at speed. This was at 32k & 67k and finally during tyre change at 75k.
3. New RHS wiper blade every June, and LHS when it got spoilt.

At 78000 km I had an accident, first in about 25 years and 11 Lakh km of driving, when car needed to be towed back, now I'm facing a issue that entire side body on both sides needs replacement, as VW doesnt make seperate running board, rear quarter panel etc, so repair cost is exceeding idv, and insurance is recommending that I claim total loss, or do up the car at a local body makers.

[drsingh]

Originally Posted by batish

Reviving an old thread, I am looking for a new car. Budget is around 13 Lakhs and we have been considering VW Vento 1.5 TDI. Have they changed anything in their quality control and after sales service? I drove the Vento found it to be well built but what scares me is their after sales service and reliability.
My cousin and my neighbour both drive Polo & Jetta respectively. My neighbour did not recommend me as he was fed up of its high maintenance and suggested me to go with Honda or Toyota, whereas my cousin recommended to go ahead with the VW as their service costs have reduced and majority are Made-in-India parts.
Now I’m confused whether to go ahead with Vento or consider Honda City?

P.S: Reliability and Build Quality are two of the crucial factors to be considered.

Toyota/Maruti/Hyundai for peace of mind.

I have noticed people tend to leave out Hyundai from these discussions . The Koreans are ahead of Honda in the US in reliability.

[nd4$pd]

Originally Posted by drsingh

Toyota/Maruti/Hyundai for peace of mind.

I have noticed people tend to leave out Hyundai from these discussions . The Koreans are ahead of Honda in the US in reliability.

Can you site any studies for this?
JD power certainly ranks Honda higher than Hyundai in their 2016 US dependability rankings
http://www.jdpower.com/ratings/study...by-Make/846ENG

[srishiva]

My 6 year old Vento had engine mounts and gearbox mounts changed, AC coil changed, one front suspension arm changed. It had engine check issue which was a result of a cut wire.

Some of the issues took multiple trips to the Service centre. Now one of the injectors has gone bad.

Although I have heard multiple times, its the things like interior and places you see and touch that are of good quality. Spare parts are costly too.

A car with good build should also be reliable if its really put well together in other mechanical aspects. So VW is not

[for_cars1]

Originally Posted by volkman10

But from the day of a little over 4.5 years the reliability issue crops up. ( 3 flat bed instances)

Originally Posted by iliketurtles

I've owned a VW for nearly 3 years now

- 2 battery changes (1 changed under warranty)
- 2 (or is it 3) door actuators (changed under warranty)
- ABS sensor failure (don't recall if the warranty was honored on this, but don't think it was)
- Water pump failure (changed under warranty)

Without intending to specifically pick on any of the posts quoted above, the relatively poor (compared to Japanese vehicles) reliability factor of the German and American vehicles has got to do with the design philosophy of the manufacturers. Their expectation may be for the users to change to a new car every 5 to 6 years as opposed to the Japanese philosophy where the car is actually "designed" to hold on more reliably for longer.

Most of the German car brands have nearly a 100 years of expertise making cars so the (poor) reliability factor cannot be due to lack of expertise but a way of design (expecting the customer to use and recycle the car every 5 to 6 years). They could do their part to make it reliable like the Japanese but they don't want to.

Recollecting one of the TV (Discovery/NG series) episodes mentioning that what the reliability factor of a 5 year Ford or GM car would be similar to the reliability factor of a 13 year old Toyota in the US. The reliablity is by design and not unintentional.

Most of the reliablity surveys have always ranked the Japanese cars at the top and the European vehicles at the bottom.(One of the Surveys)
This does not mean that the customer base of German cars will be drastically affected. People make conscious choices and would still go for a Volkswagen although it ranks at the bottom of the reliability list because they want it for its other positives.