[Resolved]  Skoda India — Skoda fabia ownership woes - ecu failure and safety hazard

Address:	Bangalore, Karnataka, 560067
Website:	www.skoda-auto.co.in

I bought skoda fabia with registration number ka04 mg2542 in 2009
From vinayak skoda, bangalore.
This was a defective car resulting in multiple breakdowns with various expensive repairs in the last 7 years. Defective car coupled with horrible after-sales-service has been the perfect recipe for all the nightmares that i had to endure.

I was forced to pay to fix most of the manufacturing defects, that even with multiple skoda workshop visits often with incompetent engineers not able to diagnose the root cause of the issues. Now most of the hardware issues remain fixed except ecu.

The ecu malfunction appeared within 1 year of the purchase whic shows glowing airbag symbol for the driver. This was reported on 06-jan-2010.
In spite of my repeated requests to replace/fix this ecu ever since was simply rejected by kr puram vinayak skoda service center.
I was determined that i was not going to pay for something of such critical unit for manufacturing defect which can not be caused by normal wear and tear !!! This in spite of the fact that it is clearly a manufacturing defect and could be a safety hazard which may not deploy the airbag when it is needed or even worse, i constantly fear that it may deploy airbag while it is not needed! Skoda wants me to pay north of 30k rupees to fix this on top of all the mental harassement that i had to endure and jeopardizing the safety of the customer.

It appears to me that the skoda thinks that only in india, life is cheap and customers can be taken for granted.

These are the chronological major events :

Jun 2009 - brand new skoda fabia was bought from vinayak skoda
10-aug-2009 - reverse gear did not work at parking lot!
Imagine such a failure with in 3 months of delivery!
The car was towed and vinayak skoda fixed the problem.

06-jan-2010 - ecu failure resulting in airbag light glowing.
With in 1 year of purchase! Skoda refused to fix unless i pay for it.
Repeated requests to fix this from then till now in 2016 have
Been simply brushed aside.
14 sep 2012 - vehicle will simply not start (Won't even attempt to start) sometimes.
After frantically trying to start, you give up and wait for an hour or so,
Then mostly it will start. This was difficult to reproduce which happens
Once in a month or so.
This problem remained mysterious and got me stranded innumerable
Times. This was ultimately fixed in 30 dec 2014 by
Skoda auro motors by replacing the starter motor.
During these 2 years skoda service was not able to exactly identify
The root cause often doing band-aid fixes which temporarily fixed the
Problem so that the breakdown happens after 2 months again.

I do not think the starter motor failure is normal wear and tear either. However i had to pay for it in addition to all the hassles i had to go through during these two years with multiple breakdowns.

Now i seek the ecu to be replaced free of cost and the compensation for the mental torture skoda india has put me through for the safety hazard of not replacing this unit in spite of my repeated requests since after 1 year of purchasing this car.