[ajayc123]

For a lot of us, a personal motorized vehicle car/bike is probably the second biggest spend item in our lifetime (after a house) as per our stage of life, if you leave aside your spend on events/experiences (like weddings / holidays etc). Due to the high value, it also leads to a fair amount of due diligence on the part of the buyer after factoring into the requirements, preferences and budget.

There are a lot of variables that come into play (from fun to drive, built like a tank, kitna deta hai and so on). For some, one of the key variable is the reliability of the vehicle.

When you step (in/on)to your vehicle on your mission (be it a small errand, trip to your workplace, an outstation trip, or whatever), what if the vehicle breaks down ? And it wouldn’t start / budge at all even with your best efforts. You abandon your current mission, and your new mission is to get your vehicle to the workshop, and get it up and running again. Along with it comes a new set of anxieties, that although the vehicle is under warranty, how long will it take to get it back in shape, and will the problem be reliably resolved, and not repeat again in near future ?

While it is fully expected that the vehicle will break down at some point of time in its lifetime, even though you carry out scheduled preventive maintenance, but is it fair to expect that the manufacturers have designed the vehicle to be able to at least run without any major breakdown during the warranty / extended warranty period. Or is it an unfair expectation? Or is it that, for whatever reasons, for some manufacturers, reliability has taken a backseat?

As the technologies are evolving rapidly and the vehicles moving from being fairly mechanical to highly mechatronic these days, we are seeing breakdowns of even newly acquired vehicles in no time.

In social platforms, usually the negatives / problems are visible and appear quite prominently, but the things are not as visible when things are as expected. For example, if you have concerns with something that you got recently, you will not hesitate to give a one star rating, but if it was alright, you don’t bother to give it a 4 or 5 star rating. So the feedback may get skewed.

In this post, I am asking for a simple poll, to bring up both sides of the picture, with the hope that this will get us some semblance of the ground reality, and help the team-bhp members and readers get some perspective to be better informed for their upcoming vehicle purchases.

While a lot of you would be having a long history of vehicles, I can suggest you to poll about one of your recent purchases, so that the response is reflective of the current trend, and helps in the current context.

How many major breakdowns did you have during the warranty / extended warranty period ?
Option 1: None
Option 2: 1 or 2 times
Option 3: 3 or more times

If you wish to, please feel free to respond, with some contextual information, as a response to this thread for example:

Manufacturer:
Model/trim:
Purchase Year:
Duration of your warranty / extended warranty:
Fuel Type/Transmission/Gearing:
Kilometres done:
Your delightful experience or your breakdown sob story:

PS. I have no clue, about the kind of response that I will get as this is my first thread. But I am giving this a try, as I think such a thread should provide a very valuable input for my next purchase.

[GTO]

Good thread idea. Luckily, haven't suffered breakdowns with any of our cars. The 530d has been very reliable. The Sunny has had some issues here & there (e.g. AC work every 2 years), but never a breakdown. Ditto with the Civic & City Vtec. On the other hand, the Tata Indigo was a mess. Too many problems & breakdowns; sold it off just at the 4 year mark as no one in the family was willing to use it. The C220 was good during the warranty period, but the C180 was a mess. Interestingly, although the C180 gave us a hell of a lot of trouble, it never left us stranded by the road.

Later, we should start a similar poll with number of problems faced during the warranty period (not just breakdowns like this thread). Am seeing new cars with an alarming number of problems. The Kushaq's EPC issues, Hyundai-Kias DCTs, Harrier-Safari problems, Honda's 4th-gen City woes and so on. New cars today are simply not as reliable as they were at one time. Even the Innova Crysta had a fair share of issues early in its model life (Niggles & issues with the Toyota Innova Crysta).

[JoshMachine]

Originally Posted by ajayc123

In this post, I am asking for a simple poll, to bring up both sides of the picture, with the hope that this will get us some semblance of the ground reality, and help the team-bhp members and readers get some perspective to be better informed for their upcoming vehicle purchases.

Manufacturer: VW
Model/trim: Vento Highline
Purchase Year: 2015
Duration of your warranty / extended warranty: Full warranty of 7 years (max possible back then)
Fuel Type/Transmission/Gearing: Diesel, DSG
Kilometres done: 87,000+
Your delightful experience or your breakdown sob story: Full of pleasant experiences. Not a single breakdown in the entire 6.5+ years of ownership. The car was reliable to the core and took us to places, not imagined possible in a sedan. Long distance trips were super comfortable.

[GForceEnjoyer]

Our 2021 Superb is less than a year old and has over 5 years of its warranty remaining so I will only talk about our 2006 Fiesta. It suffered one breakdown (overheating) which left us stranded. The cause was a leaky hose pipe. We did have a couple of other issues which I mentioned here. https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-...ml#post5331148 None of those were significant enough to be considered breakdowns though.

[SR-71]

Good thread. Thankfully none of my cars have broken down ever, let alone during warranty. In chronological order, I have owned Tata Indica, Vento TDI (Sold), Jetta TDI, Vento TDI, Verna CRDI AT. Everyone of them have served / continue to serve me reliably. All the VAG babies have crossed 60K KMS. The Verna CRDI has crossed 15K KMS and currently is the primary ride as this is the only AT currently at my disposal.

[GreasyCarb55]

Our car history is as follows: 2005 Maruti Suzuki WagonR LXI (Sold at 198,000km) -> 2011 Toyota Innova 2.5 V (171,000km) -> 2017 Honda City ZX Petrol CVT (73,000km).

Not only have we never experienced any breakdowns in the warranty periods of any of these vehicles, I don't think we've ever experienced any sort of mechanical breakdowns at all

Our cars have always been bought brand new and always serviced at the specified service intervals and almost always at authorized service centers or showrooms (Yes, my parents are that type of car owners)

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by ajayc123

How many major breakdowns did you have during the warranty / extended warranty period ?

Luckily for me, I have not suffered any major breakdown in any of my cars in warranty or even beyond warranty period.

I voted for Option 1: None.

My 2010 Maruti SX4 is still running fine. Although there are a few minor issues now (expected for a 12 year old car with more than 125,000km on the odo), it still runs fine. During the warranty period and the extended warranty period, the car ran absolutely fine and I did not have to use the warranty for even a single claim.

My 2017 BMW 320d just ran out of 5 year warranty period about a month ago. Again, thankfully it ran absolutely great and still runs absolutely great. It is as reliable as my Maruti SX4. Although there were no breakdowns or any driving issues at all on this car, a few things were changed under warranty:

1. In the 1st year itself, the steering column cover/boot was changed under warranty because it was broken and that lead to some funny but faint noise in the cabin during acceleration. The car ran absolutely fine, but when I complained about that faint noise, the SA diagnosed this to the broken steering column plastic cover/boot, and replaced that under warranty.

2. A certain clamp that holds the handbrake cable at one place got broken (a very common problem in F30), and that lead to some rattling noise from this cable. This was changed under warranty. Again, the car was running absolutely fine, and the only problem was a rattling noise on acceleration.

3. Finally, and most recently, when I was into the final week of my 5 year warranty period, I casually asked the SA to check if everything was alright. They checked the car thoroughly and found the front suspension struts to be leaking. Again, there was zero impact on driving as the leak was very minor. I had not noticed that at all myself. But they found the leak and voluntarily changed the struts (and some associated parts) under warranty, and I got brand new suspension components in my car just a week before the warranty expired! Very nice of BMW to voluntarily change such major parts under warranty a week before it expired, that too when I had not even complained of any issues!

Going long back in time, to my earlier cars, my brand new 2001 Audi A4 in the US had some airbag error flashing on the dashboard once, and that led them to replace some airbag sensors under warranty in a new car (a very expansive replacement covered under warranty, going by the bills they showed me). But again, the car ran absolutely fine (except for this warning which once flashed in the middle of the drive and never happened again - but was enough for them to replace components) and there was no "breakdown" to speak of.

To summarize, all my cars ran fine through the warranty period and I had no breakdowns whatsoever (touch wood).

[Jeroen]

I had two Innova’s when we lived in Delhi. Never any problem, not even a small problem, not even a puncture. We drove about 15000 km per year.

Here in Europe I have had a long string of company tin. All brand new, via a lease company. I have had cars from Ford, Opel (Vauxhall), VW, Audi, BMW, Renault, Volvo, Mercedes and probably some more bland I used to drive at least 60000 km a year.

But for the life of me, I can’t think of any problem, ever, with any of these cars, ever. Admittedly, Europe, especially Western Europe is a far more forgiving environment for any car. But still, a pretty good track record. Obviously, with so many cars, I have had the odd bender, puncture, bend rim and even once or twice an alignment done. But I honestly don’t think I had any problems with any of these cars, let alone a real break down.

We have bought a private new car, only once. A Talbot Samba some 40 years ago. I have written about that disaster sometime before. It spend more time in the shop then in our drive way. Actually going in that car was a rare event. But it was 40 years ago, my wife’s choice and it’s French, so what can you expect? The world has moved on and these days all my wife want is a cute Ford Fiesta. Can’t go wrong with a Fiesta. New or second hand.

Jeroen

[Eddy]

My Swift VDI had the instrument cluster changed under extended warranty. AFAIR, the RPM needle had stopped working.

In my S-Cross, the following were changed during the warranty/extended warranty period
- Steering mounted audio control system (not sure of the exact name) because it had stopped working
- Steering column because it was a little sticky. It was not needed at that time, but I got it changes coz the warranty period was about to end.
- Rear axle, again because of some noise.

So I have utilised the extended warranty in both my cars, without a breakdown.

[myavu]

No break down. But I changed the Water Pump and Fuel Pump during my extended warranty period due to conspicuous whistling sounds.

[sunikkat]

2016 Octavia @ 69k kms - None, other than dead battery.
2021 Dec i20 - Very early, but none

Previous cars:

Fiesta 1.6s - 6 years and 75k kms, no breakdown
Zen 2006 model - No breakdowns
Alto 800 2018 model - No breakdowns

I think I have been lucky, touchwood

All the cars had only regular wear and tear without being stranded on road once.
When I got Octavia, based on general feedback from people, I was mentally prepared for 2 to 3 breakdowns in a year. Good I did not listen to people then

[ashenoy]

I owned a Tata Indigo Marina between 2005 and 2008. The car gave repeated problems with the clutch, went through 3 replacements during warranty. During the last replacement the SA at Concorde Motors, Koramangala told me there was a design flaw in the clutch, which this third replacement unit had rectified! The starter motor also had gremlins in it and acted up every so often.

Said clutch left me with a damaged left knee which encouraged me to sell the car off during year 3 of ownership.

This car was supposed to be our baby wagon, to allow us to restart road tripping after our son was born, with capacity to carry all the extra luggage that goes with a little one. It was very comfortable on long rides and never broke down on a highway. It however did all of the above in the city, including made me push start it at a traffic light single handed!!

[RedTerrano]

Maruti Wagon R : No breakdowns
Age: 15+ years and counting
Once around 80K, the alternator/ignition coil conked off and had to be replaced

Maruti Estilo : No breakdowns
Age: 10 years and counting

Nissan Terrano: No breakdowns.
Age: 8 years and counting
Once some light light up on the dashboard and later went away on it's own. The Nissan guys was unable to trace the cause and he put it down to glitch in one of the sensors. He reset the error code and no issues since then.

I feel there should be a separate thread, where people can vote for breakdowns by manufacturer. That should give a clearer picture on reliable engineering.

[Chrome6Boy]

I had a catastrophic breakdown once.

Manufacturer: Volkswagen
Model/trim: Vento
Purchase Year:2016
Duration of your warranty / extended warranty: 1,00,000 KMs (Extended)
Fuel Type/Transmission/Gearing: TSI DSG
Kilometres done:99,920
Your delightful experience or your breakdown sob story: I escaped by a bare 80 KMs. The mechatronix died and was replaced under warranty. I vowed never to buy another DSG unless they offered 10 year unlimited warranty.

For now I am still driving the Vento and it has just crossed 1,36,000 KMs. Love the car, scared of the DSG failure.

[MartinVirage]

Manufacturer: Volkswagen
Model/trim: Vento
Purchase Year:2014
Duration of your warranty / extended warranty: 1,00,000 KMs As much as they are ready to give
Fuel Type/Transmission/Gearing: TSI DSG
Kilometres done:68,000
Your delightful experience or your breakdown sob story:
1) Mechatronics plus Entire Gearbox (during Warranty)
2) Battery + Ignition Cables (not covered in warranty)
3) Throttle Body (not covered in warranty)

Never had complete breakdown to be honest. I don't like a single creaking sound in my car or any sort of check lights. Got them rectified as soon as the lights were found. That said not very happy with VWs attitude towards fixing anyone's problems - "Saar! We clear the code, get the car if the light comes up again". Only once we got RSA involved as we would have not liked to spoil the GB even more.

I beleive people who use DSGs use the phrase 'Touch-wood' a lot.