German customer satisfaction survey
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 3,164
Likes: 284
From: In the land of pies and pasties
Nice to see Skoda doing the best out the VAG crap.
Not much wrong with the Fabia's, some silly faults like leaking front or rear door cariers (poor rivet design at factory) and after some years, your radiator fan switch will weep coolant (they didn't fit a washer at the factory). But very easy to fix, parts are cheap and being such a basic, smartprice interior there's much less to go wrong. Robust PD engine that hardly uses oil, goes foreveer & ever, No wonder they become project cars for half the kid's that own 'em, cheap to insure.
I contemplated an A3 of the same PD engine, actually the 140 instead. Reliability of that unit though put me off, the way Audi's and VW's interiors "wear" , including the switchgear. All very nice to begin with, poor design makes them look scruffy.
I'm no longer a badge snob, it was hilarious speaking to my Insurance company swapping from my E90 330d M Sport to the little VRS (£300 refund was nice). The call agent I spoke to sounded surprised with such a step-down in car, almost was offensive with a snigger!
It was a women though...what do they know!
The E90 was starting to show signs of becoming one big headache (owning without warranty). Moving that thing on, was a lucky escape for me 
Not much wrong with the Fabia's, some silly faults like leaking front or rear door cariers (poor rivet design at factory) and after some years, your radiator fan switch will weep coolant (they didn't fit a washer at the factory). But very easy to fix, parts are cheap and being such a basic, smartprice interior there's much less to go wrong. Robust PD engine that hardly uses oil, goes foreveer & ever, No wonder they become project cars for half the kid's that own 'em, cheap to insure.
I contemplated an A3 of the same PD engine, actually the 140 instead. Reliability of that unit though put me off, the way Audi's and VW's interiors "wear" , including the switchgear. All very nice to begin with, poor design makes them look scruffy.
I'm no longer a badge snob, it was hilarious speaking to my Insurance company swapping from my E90 330d M Sport to the little VRS (£300 refund was nice). The call agent I spoke to sounded surprised with such a step-down in car, almost was offensive with a snigger!
It was a women though...what do they know!
The E90 was starting to show signs of becoming one big headache (owning without warranty). Moving that thing on, was a lucky escape for me
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 31,181
Likes: 58
From: Hertford
I think your right Pole regarding VAG , I have been lurking on some Audi forums and it's amazing how many of them think Audi cars are designed and built differently from the rest of the group when in fact they share huge numbers of components and underlying design . Ultimately it will be a problem for Audi where they claim to be a up market brand , but the economies of scale and cost engineering dictate that components will be common across the range and designed and manufactured to suit the spread of the market positions and not for the premium brand
Nick got a link for that info , I feel I need to wide up some Audi acolytes
Although soon I might black balled from Pistonheads. !
Nick got a link for that info , I feel I need to wide up some Audi acolytes
Although soon I might black balled from Pistonheads. !
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 813
Likes: 0
I'm no longer a badge snob, it was hilarious speaking to my Insurance company swapping from my E90 330d M Sport to the little VRS (£300 refund was nice). The call agent I spoke to sounded surprised with such a step-down in car, almost was offensive with a snigger!
It was a women though...what do they know! The E90 was starting to show signs of becoming one big headache (owning without warranty). Moving that thing on, was a lucky escape for me
It was a women though...what do they know!
The E90 was starting to show signs of becoming one big headache (owning without warranty). Moving that thing on, was a lucky escape for me
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 31,181
Likes: 58
From: Hertford
Originally Posted by CHIPPO
I think your right Pole regarding VAG , I have been lurking on some Audi forums and it's amazing how many of them think Audi cars are designed and built differently from the rest of the group when in fact they share huge numbers of components and underlying design . Ultimately it will be a problem for Audi where they claim to be a up market brand , but the economies of scale and cost engineering dictate that components will be common across the range and designed and manufactured to suit the spread of the market positions and not for the premium brand Nick got a link for that info , I feel I need to wide up some Audi acolytes Although soon I might black balled from Pistonheads. !
As far as I can tell, they're no heavier than any other comparable car, and if they were, that would just mean crappy engineering and cheaply made components. What I think they were getting confused with was what VAG are very good at - 'engineering in' a feel of solidity to the controls that people perceive to be a mark of quality, despite the fact those soft-touch controls fall apart a lot sooner than Korean no-frills stuff.
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 31,181
Likes: 58
From: Hertford
That's the only total who responded to the survey (and they're left out because it's either below the 150 sample space, or they're no longer sold in Germany) so presumably, >43 Germans CAN be wrong!
