Volkswagen Tiguan Long Term Report: July 2020

So far, it seems that the year 2020 will be a year of many firsts. It all started with being locked up at home – without committing any crime – and working from home (something I passionately hate). We had all heard of things like this but had never imagined that we’d experience them first hand. But this became the new normal, and we were only in the 4th month of 2020 – a year that can probably be referred to as some kind of a dystopian nightmare. 

And then, a couple of weeks ago I added another first to my list of first experiences – getting a car serviced in the midst of the lockdown! This was necessary as the Tiguan had been throwing a service check-up reminder – the countdown clock from 30 days was going unusually fast. 

The first task for me was to find the nearest service centre, which was easy – Capital VW on Mathura Road, which is just a 10-minute drive from our office. With the service appointment setup beforehand, I walked into a completely new experience at the service centre. Gone were the hustle-bustle and crowded areas – a usual sight at service centres. Things were streamlined and well organised while maintaining social distancing. Helping this was the fact that service is now available only through prior appointments – this helps the service centre to control the number of people that will visit the centre. 

As I’d already briefed the folks at the service centre, the assigned service advisor – a very nice gentleman called Umesh Joshi – was ready to receive the car and take down my requests. Since there was nothing else in the Tiguan that needed attending to, other than the check-up reminder, I handed over the car and left. 

Of course, since the check-up itself doesn’t take much time, Umesh called me a few hours later – the car was ready. As it only needed topping up with a litre of engine oil, the bill only demanded `960 for the oil. 

 After reaching the service centre, I noticed that the car had been given a complimentary wash and a thorough clean inside and out, which is always good. But what happened next made me realise that how considerably the world had changed in a few months. Before I took the car key from Umesh, he sanitised the key by cleaning it with a cloth sprayed with disinfectant. And before I could step in, he also made sure that the most common surfaces you tend to touch in a car – the door handle, steering wheel, gear knob – were sanitised for my safety. 

I was really impressed by both the attention to detail given at the Volkswagen dealership and the thorough knowledge of the service advisor. Also, all these changes are a reflection of the strange world that we currently find ourselves in, which compels us to rethink our daily habits and other things that we earlier took for granted. What I’m definitely pleased to say, though, is that now the spanking clean Tiguan, with the service reminder gone, is again a pleasure to drive.  

Also read - Volkswagen Tiguan Long Term Report: June 2020

Volkswagen Tiguan Long Term Report: May 2020