[BNG-motorhead]

Originally Posted by Kashi053

Mods, Can you please make the option as radio button instead of checkbox. We are able to select multiple options and the overall score is little confusing. Or is this done purposefully to provide multiple options to user?

Did that purposely, so folks can select
(1) FNG for point service
(2) ASS for as overall preferred option

Is it causing confusion? Can amend the options, lemme know.

Edit: oh wait, I dont have the edit option anymore :(

Mods - do help

[BNG-motorhead]

Originally Posted by hserus

Use an FNG by all means but avoid snake oils (that includes Ceratec)

Use the precise grades of oil, lube and coolant (not in your list and unless changed recently also overdue for a drain and replace)

Don’t use flushes of anything - oil, coolant etc. Just drain out all the fluid and replace it with approved grades of fluid. VW / Skoda are very finicky cars for this so just “expensive branded oil” isn’t enough.

And ask the fng or ASS to do whatever is in the service manual. Review everything and if it is not necessary deny permission to do those (injector egr cleaning, additives etc in particular, tell them to get lost)

Get tyre balancing and alignment done at a specialist tyre shop not at the car dealer.

Thanks for the guidance, I noticed you mentioned Ceratec. 2yrs back I tried it alongwith Liqui Moly 4100 5W40, for the first time since owning this car, it was running butter smooth! I'm kinda hooked on this product. and now only looking for VW 505 01 grade oils. This is the only good one I could find now. https://lrlmotors.com/collections/me...hst=collection

Recently got timing belt + water pump changed at an FNG, so coolant replacement done then.

[chinmaypillay]

Post the warranty, I would recommend giving the vehicle to a competent FNG. The Bosch service center in Ecity (Bangalore) seems to have a good reputation, many of my friends have serviced their vehicles (Skoda, Fiats, etc) there without much issues.

And since many components of these german vehicles are provided by Bosch themselves, they are competent enough. Ultimately, its the trust factor which makes the FNG thing work. You can try this service center if its feasible, the engine oil of your preference can also be provided when giving the car.

Another factor where I would wait to give the vehicles to FNG is the time the vehicle has been on our Indian roads. Newer german vehicles I would avoid initially, since the FNG will have to warm up to the car. Since the Rapid has been here for sometime, a really competent FNG should be able to work on your car without much fuss.

[bhargav2015]

Let me narrate my story with Skoda Fabia 1.2 TDi. It was the last lot of Skoda Fabias sold and they had told me during the sale that the model was being discontinued in India. Got a good discount during purchase. It was serviced throughout at Tafe Access Ltd, Mangalore.
The Assistant Works Manager - Mr. Godwin, is a good man. If it weren't for his timely and honest advise, I'd have ditched the car and bought a Maruthi Swift. The car was meticulously maintained at A.S.S and for all of 1,30,000km.
Here's the interesting part: the car was bought by a gentleman who knows VAG cars inside out. He saw the car was meticulously serviced @ A.S.S and took the plunge. I had relocated to another city and the buyer came, made an assessment and bought it. Within 6 months, he racked up a bill of about ₹55,000. I knew this cuz the registered mobile number at the A.S.S was still mine. I did not cheated him and felt bad that he had to go through so much trouble with my car. I then asked him what caused such costs: he replied with an answer which shattered my belief in A.S.S. He said that the repairs carried out (at A.S.S) were half done; that the works were NOT carried out the way they SHOULD have been. Steering rack replaced under warranty was not replaced properly leading to rack failing again. Timing Kit replaced at 1,05,000km failed within the next 20,000km. Oil cooler failed. It was a mess. MORAL OF THE STORY: JUST BECAUSE THE CAR HAS BEEN SERVICED AT A.S.S DOESN'T MEAN ITS IN THE PEACH OF HEALTH.

[aayushnair]

First of all to the mods, big thanks for putting my cars pic (about a 5year old one by now) as the thumbnail for this poll!

I'd choose a little different approach:
1. DIY if it's a regular service, get all parts and consumables from auto stores or even boodmo. Everything to spec per my Fabia's manual. Including service resets and inspection too using VCDS.
2. DIY for a few chosen (especially timewise) replacements i.e.: brake pads, brake discs, tie rods or ends, sometimes suspensions and bushes.
3. FNG - a trusted mech who has been helping me with a lot of the above as well as other routine upkeep of my now 10yr. Old Fabia with all OEM parts sourced from either Skoda or auto stores or boodmo. I.e.: timing belt replacement, clutch replacement etc.

So this is how I go about it, a lot of research and a combination of the above.

Also heres an updated picture of how she looks now -



Cheers,
Aayush

[hserus]

Originally Posted by bhargav2015

I then asked him what caused such costs: he Timing Kit replaced at 1,05,000km failed within the next 20,000km. Oil cooler failed. It was a mess. MORAL OF THE STORY: JUST BECAUSE THE CAR HAS BEEN SERVICED AT A.S.S DOESN'T MEAN ITS IN THE PEACH OF HEALTH.

Skoda customer care should have been escalated to for this. Isn’t there a parts warranty for such replacements?

[OctYFAN]

Originally Posted by BNG-motorhead

The FNG guy would do point to point service, would lack many tools, dont think would care to do any real inspection and upkeep of car beyond the oil and filter changes. Is my assumption correct? Was thinking, how can I ensure the FNG guy does everything that the ASS guys would do, specially on the jobs that are unknown to me.

I don't think that this is entirely correct. I've never visited the Skoda showroom in the 9 years I have owned my Octavia. Maybe once for a windscreen replacement. I think my FNG is better than the ASS. He is a very truthful and honest person. He was working with Tata Motors sometime back but does know a thing or two about German cars. I've seen Mercedes Benz and Audi cars at his shop. He has pointed out several issues to me that I failed to notice.

At times ASSs could extract money from you for unnecessary repairs. Not trying to say that this won't happen at a FNG, but you can find honest mechanics out there.

Cheers
OctYFAN

[bhargav2015]

Originally Posted by hserus

Skoda customer care should have been escalated to for this. Isn’t there a parts warranty for such replacements?

Because he knew VAG Cars inside-out, he knew the escalation matrix too. For the Timing Kit, he ensured the Skoda Engineers came down and broke sweat in tryina fix the car, using the service history at the A.S.S. Guess my obsession of getting the car serviced at A.S.S paid off in the end.
But he was mentioning something about Skoda covering only a part of the consequential damage. Not sure what he meant by it, and he was depressed with the car by the time. Can't blame him. The car barely ran a 1000km during that time.

[Arun_S]

Originally Posted by TurboGuy

If you plan to stick to FNG, sourcing OEM parts won’t be a big deal as Boodmo have it and Škoda themselves sell the parts over the counter.

I had a bad experience with Honda 2 wheelers on buying parts from over the counter and asking a FNG to replace it. The shock absorber I bought failed within a day and they told they won't replace it as they would do it only for those changed by them. This made me go to ASS for all the cars within the family.

My question if this type of incident happens, do you see that the warranty would be honored.

[akshay4587]

I own 3 German's here in India, one of them is 25 Years old, and two others just turned 8 (Both of them are under 40K kms till date).

I have a couple of close friends around me, who have their own garages/workshops, and they deal with all sorts of cars; and knowing my fussy nature,
they know they cannot mess up things

So I just source best of the parts, from local shops and have them fixed at either of the friend's places.

Talking about quality of after sales we have, Recently, I called 3 different after sales from the same manufacturer for a quote on Automatic Transmission Service; all of the service advisors were clueless about it, and two of them didn't even know what servicing an Automatic transmission means
So you all can guess, What I did!!!!!!

Coming to an example of how after sales are expensive, I recently serviced one of the 3 German's and walked into after sales to pick up Air filter and an Oil Filter, Oil filter was fairly priced at 1650 bucks, checked on the air filter and it was 4000 bucks, which seemed a bit off to me, so I called my trusted parts supplier and he offered me the same filter for 1500 bucks. Just the brand stamp was 2500 bucks!!!!

Back in Melbourne, we are blessed with brand specific workshops, so no need to deal with Aftersales; A workshop called AlfaMen works on my Alfa Romeo, and HondWorld works on my Honda.

[Guite]

This is a very interesting thread. Can members who post their experience on FNG please mention the name of service centre too? Do we have a directory list of such reliable FNG specialising in German/ European cars? It would certainly help other members.

[SN88]

I personally dont trust the ASS.

Personal experience has taught me the guy on the phone coordinating the whole job has absolutely no knowledge about it. Heck he hasn't even seen the car at the service centre and is merely reading out what the mechanic supervisor has printed on his report, which in all probability is a report for everything under the sun for a 5year + old car.

Any questions you ask , the answer is " that is what our report says". The amount of up selling they try to do can really tick even the mind of a very patient man!! I once asked what is critical and really needed to be done and what can be done at the next service and the answer I got was" Sir depends on you"!!

After all that and if you finally make a list about what all you want to do, then comes the answers ranging from part out of stock, needs to be ordered and will take 2 months !!

Fng mostly are attended to by the owner or the manager and if you develop a good rapport which is fairly the case for most people who really care about their cars, make a it much simpler to explain and get the work done. They offer solutions etc and not just give a blank look when you ask for something.

[pawank]

There is equal chance of getting ripped off by the ASS or the FNG.
1. Don't leave your car on the mercy of the
mechanic, stay besides your car.
2. Install only genuine or OEM parts in your
vehicle.
3. Always follow the owner's manual.

Follow these three golden rules and nobody can rip you off. ASS is offering AC waiting room, tea and coffee, free pick-up and drop facilities for customers. For free. Really?? Are they doing social service or what? These are all gimmicks. Remember they will recover this money from you one way or the other. Don't fall in the trap, be smart and opt for the FNG or trusted mechanic, save your hard earned money and spend it on other things.

[armaan_singh]

I think this really comes down to how much do you know about cars and their repairs. Frankly there is a very thick line between loving cars and knowing everything about them.
I love cars, but I could never go to an FNG simply because I wouldn't know what he is going to do with my car and neither would I know how much is the right price for his service, so I personally stick with ASS for that extra peace of mind.

[OctYFAN]

Originally Posted by BNG-motorhead

The FNG guy would do point to point service, would lack many tools, dont think would care to do any real inspection and upkeep of car beyond the oil and filter changes. Is my assumption correct? Was thinking, how can I ensure the FNG guy does everything that the ASS guys would do, specially on the jobs that are unknown to me.

I don't think that this is entirely correct. I've never visited the Skoda showroom in the 9 years I have owned my Octavia. Maybe once for a windscreen replacement. I think my FNG is better than the ASS. He is a very truthful and honest person. He was working with Tata Motors sometime back but does know a thing or two about German cars. I've seen Mercedes Benz and Audi cars at his shop. He has pointed out several issues to me that I failed to notice.

At times ASSs could extract money from you for unnecessary repairs. Not trying to say that this won't happen at a FNG, but you can find honest mechanics out there.

Cheers
OctYFAN