[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by kedar_GT

Any specific recommendations for dealers in South BLR, Vid? (Closest to ECity) - this is both for purchase and service (more importantly for the latter)

For VW or Skoda?

Skoda I am going to Tafe access near Kudlu gate and for sales contact Yogesh +919035505599

I got my Kodiaq from him.

For VW I know of Bay6 in Hosa road for repairs and service. They know VAG cars well.

[kedar_GT]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

For VW or Skoda?

Skoda I am going to Tafe access near Kudlu gate and for sales contact Yogesh +919035505599

I got my Kodiaq from him.

For VW I know of Bay6 in Hosa road for repairs and service. They know VAG cars well.

Oops - yes -this was for Skoda.
Thank you.

[CircleOfLife]

Originally Posted by kedar_GT

Oops - yes -this was for Skoda.
Thank you.

Strategize in the following way. For sales, buy from Pan India dealer network who gives you a better value (Unless you are looking for BH registration). For service you can always purchase SMP with the service center of your preference. SMP is also valid from PAN India but purchasing from service center of your preference will give you some edge in corner cases. This way you get the best of the both .

[sunikkat]

Originally Posted by kedar_GT

Any specific recommendations for dealers in South BLR, Vid? (Closest to ECity) - this is both for purchase and service (more importantly for the latter)

I stay in E City and have been getting my Octavia serviced at Tafe Access Hosur road since last 6 years. No complaints at all and they are great
But most of the replacement parts I get it done from individual workshops as I dont want to use the OEM parts and going with premium ones. Been thinking about moving my service to some good independent garage too for the same reason.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

For VW or Skoda?

Skoda I am going to Tafe access near Kudlu gate and for sales contact Yogesh +919035505599

I got my Kodiaq from him.

+1 to Yogesh, have got my Octavia from him and a very helpful guy, even after the sales

[kedar_GT]

Originally Posted by sunikkat

I stay in E City and have been getting my Octavia serviced at Tafe Access Hosur road since last 6 years. No complaints at all and they are great

Thanks!

Small world :-) - saw you on the BLR-Goa route thread and remember your mention of driving an Octy. Was wondering how the Octavia & Superb would fare on those roads vs a MUV.

You can check out "Pranav Automotive" in ECity. Got a couple of my hatchbacks serviced over there and was fine with the service they offered (they will send you videos of the oil change etc, if you cannot wait with the car). I noticed that they serviced premium Germans as well (the SA told me that the annual service was a 15k + taxes, for those)

[sunikkat]

Originally Posted by kedar_GT

Thanks!

Small world :-) - saw you on the BLR-Goa route thread and remember your mention of driving an Octy. Was wondering how the Octavia & Superb would fare on those roads vs a MUV.

You can check out "Pranav Automotive" in ECity. Got a couple of my hatchbacks serviced over there and was fine with the service they offered (they will send you videos of the oil change etc, if you cannot wait with the car). I noticed that they serviced premium Germans as well (the SA told me that the annual service was a 15k + taxes, for those)

Indeed, pretty small world. If you happen to see a White + Black top Octy in E City with Live to Drive sticker, please do give a sign

Yeah I did go to Pranav for a Polo tyre change. Though they were good, I was not very confident of giving it for general service. For now I am planning Engineering Exponent in ITPL. My experience with them for brake disc / pads and ABS sensor change has been pretty good.

[CircleOfLife]

With friendly 2 wheelers on the road who would always like to get cuddly with car, it was getting more jittery. One of the instances on a B2B traffic Tyres of a 2 wheeler kissed the bumper. Luckily nothing happened.

Now this lead to some serious thinking on getting a PPF done. Does it make sense to plonk average 5% cost of the car? There are 2 sides of this.

Financially: If one thinks on purely financial sense, the answer is No. One can just get the panel painted at lesser cost or with insurance.

Benefits? One can't ignore tangible benefits either. It's like a insurance policy that one is paying hoping when the time comes it will pay off from visiting the garage. Save factory paint as much as possible and also peace of mind on road (can't quantify in monetary terms).

Some close calls adding to further anxiety (Budding next generation cycle racers in the parking lot). One can't argue with them. Pulled the trigger to shell out the dough. Now it's Zen time.

Few of such indulgence happens only when the vehicle is new with an emotional state of mind. Without much further ado.

[CircleOfLife]

Off late infotainment is getting stuck randomly & quite often. Even after reboot, issue persists. Folks who took deliveries recently, can comment on the version of firmware on their Octavia?

Current firmware version in my vehicle. Is this the latest?

[penpavan]

Originally Posted by CircleOfLife

Off late infotainment is getting stuck randomly & quite often. Even after reboot, issue persists. Folks who took deliveries recently, can comment on the version of firmware on their Octavia?

Hi CricleofLife, I had put the same concern here: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offic...ml#post5149631 (Skoda Octavia 2.0 TSI DSG Review)

I don't think there is a solution yet.

[CircleOfLife]

Originally Posted by penpavan

Hi CricleofLife, I had put the same concern here: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offic...ml#post5149631 (Skoda Octavia 2.0 TSI DSG Review)

I don't think there is a solution yet.

I took the vehicle to service center. In my case issue was more prominent when apple car play was connected.

Diagnosis at service center:

1) Remove battery terminal and waited 10-15 mins. Terminal were connected back. Not sure how is this different than using turning off & on button on the console.

2) Connected to ODIS and cleared all the errors.

3) They wanted to reset Multimedia setting to factory default. I didn't want to do these setting unless it was mandatory. I was willing to take this a shot and see if this has resolved the issue.

There was one more observation that data pack on the mobile was almost nil. Topped up this too. Now is this data issue also cause of system hanging up? Honestly not sure. Touch wood issue hasn't resurfaced back yet.

I would recommend either to follow these steps or taking the car once to the service center.

Internationally there is a software update available, but it wasn't showing up for my car VIN on the ODIS. For now it is wait and watch.

[Jo2]

Originally Posted by Floyd de Souza

Why are there no initial ownership reviews? There are definitely 2 recent owners and am sure there must be a couple more.

Thank you moderators for adding me to this elite forum and hello to fellow BHPians. I have been keeping a tab at this thread closely for ownership reviews. Excited to share I booked the Octy Black Style MY -22 . There is significant wait time for a car that has very few bookings and hence very minimal discounts. ( Dealership in Cochin confirms they get 2-3 bookings per month). My car arrived at the dealership last week and paperwork is in progress. The plan is to get it registered early Jan for delivery! Stay tuned for more updates. Meanwhile would love to hear more from existing owners

[rahul1407]

TL;DR
Oh Boy, what an absolute privilege is to be posting the first ever post on this esteemed forum reading which I have grown up over the past decade as a more knowledgeable and sensible person who has not even become a better (conscious) driver on the road, but was also motivated to make a lot of heart over mind decisions, some of which are stated below.

1. Pushing my parents to consider buying a next to base variant of Honda City over a Honda Amaze back in Oct 2013
2. To again convince my parents to let me buy VW Polo Highline Petrol in Nov 2015 at the time of diesel-gate over the newly launched and highly Popular Baleno Hatch.
3. To buy an entry level Kawasaki Ninja 300 over a Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350 in Jan 2019 (Yes I have got bragging rights in my first post).

Just to give some context, our Honda City 2013 had been serving us quite well, it had been driven for 65K Kms in the last 8 years (<8K in last 2 years, due to Covid) and had been my primary car, with Polo being my Dad's car. I always ensured that my car gets enough love and care to the best of my abilities and to keep up with the current times, I also added some essentials mods like upgrading to a Sony System for some handsfree Tech with Car Play and also upgraded with a new set of wheels at 62K kms to a new windscreen (just because some dogs decided to ruin it with scratches while deciding to be on top of the world).

The Polo as I mentioned while serving my dad had been exposed to a lot of extremities while handling the nuances of a growing senior citizen who doesn't care about a couple of scratches/dents as long as he feels safe and confident inside the car. This one had survived a few fender/benders, crashed bumpers, occasional dumps in potholes. It also survived an uprooted tree on its A-pillar (safely parked at night) without even a need to go for repair with any damage to the windscreen. I'll stop here.

Now it had been sometime with the purchases and the bug to buy a new car had already bitten. Since our usage isn't as extensive and both my wife and I are from the IT industry, we knew that our usage is only going to be minimal in future. Although I live in Gurugram and while my office is at the fag end of Noida (return journey with 100+kms a day), I decided to use my Ninja 300 as my daily driver for office commute with a day or 2 in the new car whenever office re-opens. Also we wanted to buy an automatic as we already have had enough while handling manual in city traffic.

Our journey for the car hunt started this year and we also decided to join the bandwagon of SUVs (no offense anyone). Though we had set an initial expectation of 15 Lakhs, I didn't want to settle for Korean Twins despite multiple test drives due to lack of connect from the car to the heart, nuances of handling an SUV while comparing with a sedan, longer wait times and lack of safety ratings (Yes I mentioned this at the last but it is of prime importance to me). Talking about the driving aspect, The IVT never resonated with the driver in me (who grins everytime during an overtake while decent thrust from the city) and the rubber-band effect was a bit of a downer.

In fact I fancied Seltos a lot and persuaded my Father-in-law to book and buy one in Mumbai as soon as it was launched back in 2019 but the safety rating had just not gone well with me. We are expecting our family to grow by 2 feets in the near future, so that sentiment further made my decision strong.

Car shortlist Phase:

Tata Harrier: In Feb 2021, we checked out Harrier for its Hype despite being a diesel. We drove and we didnt like it. Off the list. Period.

Jeep Compass: Then came Mar 2021 and we decided to casually check out Jeep Compass Facelift even when we knew it is out of our league. But oh boy, the moment we sat in Limited Variant and had a glimpse of its durability (Yes the SA made me do a few biceps curls with its bonnet), we knew that we had to work out our budget to earn this one. Then what followed were a series of test drives over the month but then Covid 2nd wave happened and our family also got affected with a casualty of a dear one and my dad being seriously affected. He was hospitalized and we dealt with post covid complications. My dad is now overall healthy as he had always taken good care of himself. However, now dealing with diabetes and a heart disease as a return gift. Soon my wife also got infected but luckily she recovered at home.

Skoda Octavia: In July 2021, due to the inherent stress and bad state of affairs at home, I decided to bring back some mojo by resuming the car hunt again. Somehow by that time the mood for compass had faded and I started looking forward to the Octavia Launch. This was one car which I always wanted to drive as a child and I kept my eyes tight on this forum and its launch. Since we decided to work hard and go for a Rs 25 Lakh car, this started making more sense due to its form factor (a sedan) and the octavia craze which had developed as a driver's car in the last 2 decades. However, the pricing was a turn-off as we knew we wouldn't be able to cross the 30+ bracket but still decided to get a test drive. The car and test drive as expected was in a league of its own. I couldn't sleep for a few nights dreaming of Octavia but senses prevailed and we were just not convinced to buy such an expensive car.

In Fact when I was visiting my wife's house in Mumbai, I also made my FIL to tag along and experience the car. In fact he had been patient to check out every car we had shortlisted in Mumbai and a huge shoutout to my wife to check out every car twice as a curious buyer in 2 different areas with totally different traffic and roads.

MG ZS EV: In August 2021, We decided to look for other alternatives from EVs to MUVs to SUVs. We then checked out the ZS EV and though there were a lot of things to like in the car, somehow the 25L price tag did not resonate much with the space offered. Yes I knew it wasn't for the space/size but for the tech. Somehow we weren't still able to connect much with the car.

MG Hector: Since we had visited the MG showroom, We decided to check Hector, there were a lot of cool features and looked very upmarket and probably a step or 2 above. The drive however and the Chinese Parent Company factor didn't go well and we started looking for more alternatives.

XUV 700: The showrooms were full of enthusiasts and we eventually managed to get a preview test drive on a predetermined small stretch of road. The power was adequate on petrol auto but decided not to pursue it due to its size which is a problem for my wife and my dad for some occasional runs, 25+ for an XUV factor (which is totally worthy but some arguments are hard to beat) and the mileage to run such a heavy car. Immediately off the list.

Jeep Compass Phase 2: In Nov 2021, since the Jeep compass was never excluded from the list, we test drove the Jeep Compass again in Gurgaon and Mumbai on several occasions and we like the ride much better in Mumbai than Gurgaon but somehow in gurgaon we found it to be a bit unsettled. Since we wanted a Petrol Automatic, the low end torque on the 1.4L petrol made foot work with the pedal a bit more prominent and somehow felt tiring to use.

Octavia Phase2: Since we already ready to spend 25+ on a car which wasnt connecting even 80% with us (owing to sedan love, effortless drive and oodles of space in City), we decided to drive Octavia one last time (YOLO factor and there should be no regrets). And I must say I would have regretted a lot if I wouldn't have done that. No offense to Jeep owners which an ultimate machine in its own game, the shift in the luxury and the driving pleasure was apparent and the GRIN which was there during the test drive was back and this was the time when my wife actually said lets go for it and I knew that there is nothing in life that I would now want. :-)

Car buying Phase:

I started watching the official review forum even tightly for any leads on discounts and went to work out a deal with 2 showrooms in Gurgaon for the Style variant. Overall we got a discount of 2 Lakhs with Style Pricing coming close to 28.2 L OTR.

We decided to wait for a month and started checking out deals and offers in Dec 2021, we got a deal of Rs 27.5L OTR on style all-inclusive (Ex-showroom, Skoda Insurance with RTI and RTO fees). This was a sweet 2.8L discount over the 30.3L. We took a day to decide while the showroom staff assured that no one could beat their pricing and yes they were right.

We checked out different showrooms and while we were trying to get a best deal for Style. During negotiation, YOLO kicked in hard again and I started enquiring the best quote of L&K trim. After a lot of persuasion with my wife for approval and my SAs for negotiation, we finally sealed the booking for Rs 30.6L OTR Gurgaon for the L&K in the new Graphite Gray Color with Ring Road Skoda Gurgaon. Huge shout out to Mr Vasu and Mr Sachin for giving us the best offers.

Yes it is an expensive car but its the car we need. With due respect to everyone, several folks complained back then, some are complaining still today and some would continue to complain in future of its pricing in my own circle, there was one thing for sure, that it was less of an exorbitant Octavia and more of a glimpse into luxury and features of an entry level German (Audi) disguised in a Skoda badge. Yes it misses some key features like a desirable sunroof, ventilated seats but there are plenty of goodies that wouldn’t stop you from buying one.

City Sale Phase:

Well talking from both head as well as heart, there was actually no problem with City wrt to it frugal maintenance and well kept condition. In fact, when we decided to sell City (simply because it would have been difficult to maintain 3 cars and Polo was certainly less driven at 30K and 6 years of age), nobody in our house was actually happy to do that. In fact when there was a shortage of some life saving drugs for COVID, I sprinted using my City from Gurgaon to chandigarh in less than 4 hrs on each side (Yes I may have not respected some limits and I am really sorry for that) but our city didnt break a sweat and always assured that I have its back. Fast forward to this day and soon after posting the ad at various forums, our deal materialized with a guy in our own society in less than 2 days. We sold our car for 3.7 Lakhs and bid adieu with a lot of emotions. Needless to say, I have visited his lane to see our car (Mind: It's not yours anymore Rahul) at least thrice to see if it's in good hands.



PDI and Delivery Phase:

Rest of the process was overall smooth, I did PDI to my satisfaction. I was given an option to choose between Lava Blue and Graphite Grey as both were not allotted till date and there were some hiccups on delivery date to Server Issues at RTO website but no regrets. Looking forward to many more miles with our new car.

I will share pictures to do the talking.

[Jo2]

Many congratulations mate and yes, its hard to ignore the Octy once you TD it. I was in the same boat and shifted from a compass to Octavia after we TD both. I envy the on-road pricing too in GGN. In Cochin, the Style itself cost over 32 Lakhs on-road- that too after multiple rounds of haggling and taking quotes from other dealers in neighbhouring districts!

[rahul1407]

Originally Posted by Jo2

Many congratulations mate and yes, its hard to ignore the Octy once you TD it. I was in the same boat and shifted from a compass to Octavia after we TD both. I envy the on-road pricing too in GGN. In Cochin, the Style itself cost over 32 Lakhs on-road- that too after multiple rounds of haggling and taking quotes from other dealers in neighbhouring districts!

Thanks buddy. And damn at those prices, looking at your experience, I did secure a very good deal considering the year end discounts with these dealerships who had to clear some inventory. Mine is Oct 2021 manufactured but I was given an option to choose between a Nov 2021 Lava Blue as well. However this colour just stuck with us and one month gap didnt make any difference.

[CircleOfLife]

Originally Posted by rahul1407

TL;DR

We checked out different showrooms and while we were trying to get a best deal for Style. During negotiation, YOLO kicked in hard again and I started enquiring the best quote of L&K trim. After a lot of persuasion with my wife for approval and my SAs for negotiation, we finally sealed the booking for Rs 30.6L OTR Gurgaon for the L&K in the new Graphite Gray Color with Ring Road Skoda Gurgaon. Huge shout out to Mr Vasu and Mr Sachin for giving us the best offers.

Congratulations on the car and lovely Graphite color. Absolute cracker of a deal 30.6L for L&K. Did this include insurance? Wishing you many happy miles on this beauty.