Skoda India — skoda rapid - total loss in fire accident

A childhood dream that turned to be a nightmare

Let me narrate the incident that happened few months back to my best buddy. It was his childhood dream to own a skoda and he bought the skoda rapid in 2017. His happiness didn’t last long. While we were travelling to bangalore, the car caught fire and fortunately we could steer the car to a safe spot which averted fatality. The car was completely damaged and was declared as total loss.

The incident was reported to skoda and a technical team from pune inspected the vehicle to identify the cause of fire. After multiple follow-ups, the report we received from skoda was dreadful. They came back with a single liner email saying the car had an after-market headlight installation connected on the battery positive. My friend was not satisfied with the report and contacted the customer care multiple times asking for the complete technical report. After continuous follow-up they informed him saying the technical report can’t be shared with the vehicle owner. Does that make sense? Doesn’t he have the right to know what exactly caused the fire?

What is the use of extending the manufacturer warranty from four to six when they can’t support a customer who bought the vehicle a year ago. These are marketing techniques and looks good on papers, nobody is being benefited from this. The only concern skoda had was whether any media covered the incident while the vehicle was on fire? Fortunate for them, the incident occurred in a remote location on national highway and no media was available to cover this. Skoda india is not committed to help their so called beloved customer. My friend is struggling to find any support from skoda and hopefully will have to take this up with the court of law for justice.