Paul52

This may not be the source of your problem - we all know how a frustrating it can be trying to tackle rattles - but for about six months my wife and I drove around trying to pick up where a rattle was coming from. I checked and tightened every fixing I could see, we emptied out all the boxes and side pockets, emptied the boot, checked under the seats, even took the spare wheel and tools out from under the boot floor. Still we had the rattle. Then purely by chance I found one of the pegs that the parcel shelf strings hang from was loose. Only half a turn or so but I tightened it up and no more rattle. So might be worth checking as it only takes two seconds.

From years on this forum - new battery was the way to go. Over the years people have reported lots of strange problems which were resolved when a new battery went in. And this way you know the battery isn't going to let you down at an inconvenient time and place.

It's a really easy fix. You have to order the whole part (I ordered mine through my local garage. They service the car for me and they charged me a few pence less for the part than I could get it on-line and it avoided a postage charge - which would have been several pounds). The "button" clip just pulls out of the new part with a sharp tug, which is probably how it got lost in the first place, and slides into the old sleeve. Job done. What's annoying is that if VAG sold the clip on its own for, say £2 (OK, it cost about 2p to produce but they want to make some money) , it would avoid the cost and waste of the sleeve that's now going to go in the bin. No need for applause for this idea, just tell me I'm Simply Clever for coming up with this waste-reducing idea and I'll be happy. (Maybe in a few years we won't even need to go to VAG for simple parts like this, we will be able to make them lourselves with our home 3D printer? After all, if you can 3D print a gun.....).

Five years on from this post but I've had the same thing happen. Just wondering if anyone has the part number to speed up my search for a replacement rather than just get the dealer to order it in. Thanks for the photo Robjon - seeing that it should be easy to remove the clip from the new part and slot it in the existing fixing.

I find it takes a substantial push on the horn button of my 2013 Elegance before it sounds so I think it is normal. Possibly becasue it sits in the middle of the wheel rather than on a stalk it requires some effort to sound the horn to prevent it being sounded accidentally.

Other than the potential sunroof issue it soumds as though the L&K suits your needs and you would find it easier to get one at the right price than the closest alternative. So if I was you I would look into the wrap solution - the people that do this for a living should be able to offer advice and give you a price. If you would be prepared to use Gorilla tape or Helicopter tape to prevent the leak then you may be prepared to accept any slight imperfection where the vinyl passes over the sunroof surround. If you plan to keep the car a few years any decrease in value compared to an "unwrapped" car when you come to sell it is unlikely to be worth worrying about - call it preventativemaintenance. And of course that assumes that the sunroof leaks or you aren't prepared to risk it. Although there are lots of adverse comments on this and other websites complaining about the problem - and particularly Skoda/VW's relectance to take proper responsibility for what might arguably be a design flaw - we only hear about the ones that do leak; people are looking for an explanation/solution and googling the problem throws up links to Briskoda and there's another post and subseqent thread on leaking sun roofs. But of course no-one searches out a forum to say "my sunroof doesn't leak"; my 11 year old Elegance has a sunroof and I've never had a problem (touch wood). So it's hard to know whether the problem affects 50% of cars with sunroofs or only 1% but those are the ones discussed on the forum. Whether it's an L&K or another model the sunroof is only one of the potential problems of buying a 6+ year old car. I bought an 18 month old Volvo V50 from a main agent with a full history and it was nothing but trouble the entire three years I kept it - lovely car if you didn't mind it dropping into limp mode every once in a while, usually somewhere embarrassing or downright dangerous. Still, whilst it was in limp mode you couldn't feel the constant vibration from the DMF which was replaced (at Volvo's expense I pleased to say) just before I traded it in for the Yeti. And replacing the DMF didn't stop the vibration... I mention this only to highlight that there's plenty of other things to worry about beyond the possibility of a leaky sunroof. It's your money so your decision but unless the possibility of a leak is going to give you sleepless nights and you couldn't live with the wrap solution or possibly permanently sealing the sunroof (if that's possible) if it did leak I wouldn't rule out an L&K if a good, low mileage one at a sensible price came up. Good luck finding something suitable - I shall be holding onto mine until it rusts under me (or an electronic gizmo fails and can't be replaced) because it's simply a very nice car that does all I need.

I think it was ETP70C. The original posting was "Cars with Character" and I guess one of the Volvos I mentioned in my previous post might qualify. Bought second-hand it was a Volvo 265GLE - one of the, for those days, enormous estate cars. It was the only auto I've ever owned and everything was controlled electrically or through vacuum tubes. Among its party pieces was suddenly going into "dead" mode at 70mph on the four lane section of the A27(T). I'd planned to leave at the approaching junction but with no power, no steering (without the engine running it was immovable) and no brakes I had no choice to carry on in a straight line and pray. Fortunately it restarted after a few seconds. Among its other quirks it seems a previous owner had wiired the electric aerial into the brake lights - every time you applied the brakes the aerial retracted and the radio went off. And I spent pretty much every weekend working on it trying to fix various problems as they emerged. Did I mention on a nice gentle, long run it could do as much as 15 mpg? Put your foot down and it could really shift but you could almost see the needle on the petrol gauge go into freefall. It was comfortable though. After about six months I decided the car had to go or I'd be bankrupt.

After a couple of ancient Ford Anglias (in my day if you were a student it was an Anglia, Morris Minor or, if you were flush, a Triumph Herald) when I started working I "upgraded" to a Ford Escort Mk1 estate After purchase I realised an 1100LC engine meant it was best not to try and drive into a head wind and anything more than about a 1:6 hill and the passengers had to get out and push! It also made my Red Setter puppy dreadfully car sick. Coincidently about the time we got the puppy my wife visited her GP for advice about a back problem. (For younger readers a GP was doctor you could go and see in a room rather than talk to on Zoom or WhatsApp, somewhat fallen out of fashion these days). He advised the Escort could be part of the problem and advised "next time" buying a car with better designed seats. There was a used car lot behind where we lived and they had one of the really early Renault 16 and we traded in the Escort (Renualt 16 pictured below in its original battleship grey - it wasn't improved with a respray in Ford Olympic Blue - a colour that almost glowed in the dark. And the number plate was probably worth more than the car cost). Super-comfy seats, loads of space, an economical 1600 engine supplemented by really versatile seating option (the seats could be laid out to make a comfy double bed or the back seat rest swung up into the roof, hanging off the grab handles, to make a decent sized van). And the Setter puppy took to it straight away! The Renault 16 was front wheel drive with a column change which went down to a gearbox in front of the engine. And to complete it's quirkiness, the rear suspension was arranged so that one rear wheel was slighly in front of the other! Apart from having to accept that at every MOT there would need to be extensive welding I liked them so much I had five in a row before switching to the Peugeot 405 estate (having taken the advice of the local taxi trade who I was doing some work with who swore by them). None of the Renaults' quirkiness but comfortable, solid and reliable workhorses with the low running costs welcomed by those with serious mortgages. After the last 405 went nothing very special but including a couple of Volvos best forgotten; I came to the conclusion their safety record was so good becasue a lot of the time they were off the road for repair but I may just have been unlucky. And then just at the right time along came the Yeti. I'd had new cars before as company cars but this would be the first where it was my money. And what a sound investment its proved to be. (Many years ago my brother was given a Skoda as a firm's vehicle, back in the day when Skoda were the butt of many a cruel joke. He kept it several years, never had a problem throughout that time and still says it was one of the best cars he's ever owned).

Mine's coming up to 11 years old, generally been very reliable wit hno major bills and I'm planning to hold on to it as long as possible. We've had members of this forum decide it was time to replace their Yeti and a few months later return to the fold, by then having no choice but to buy secondhand, which suggests that the Yeti is a pretty decent vehicle (as we all know). Your post suggests yours has been reliable and generally trouble free for its age. If you traded it in you would be looking at a car at least six or seven years old so a minimal warranty even if you bought off a forecourt. You might be lucky and get a good one but there's still a risk the previous owner parted with it for a good reason. There's always a cost to changing a vehicle and if yours is continuing to give good service I'd be thinking hold onto it and that's money could go to any future repairs.

For your own peace of mind I would say get a proper assessment for any damage - it's too late three months down the road to find out something not visible to you was damaged or put out of align.ment as then the cost of fixing it will be down to you. If it was 100% the teenager's fault - not looking/driving too close - rear end shunt I'm inclined to agree with Prezafab and Rooted that not telling your insurer could cause you problems if there is hidden damage or, worse, there's damage and the teenager's hasn't got insurance. Others may be able to advise whether it's worth reporting to the police in case of the insurance issue.

I was also one of the original 16" wheels club, going to Skoda UK (as advised on this very forum) to get the change. I also don't understand why there should be a problem ordering the smaller wheel size - the system is set up to let you choose paint colour and a number of other (high priced) options so we aren't talking about re-inventing the wheel here. (Apologies for the terrible pun). My own experience was the first car I had with larger wheels/low profile tyres was a Volvo V50 bought in April 2009. I had punctures in April 2009, April 2010, August 2012 and twice in September 2012 (it's very sad that I keep such thorough records) before selling the car in May 2013 when I took delivery of my Yeti. Since then in nearly 11 years I've had just one puncture, in January 2016. I've always lived in the same area and the only obvious variable is the wheel size/tyre profile but my experience of about one puncture a year with the Volvo and one a decade with the Yeti is consistent with the conspiracy theory that we are forced to low profile tyres to keep the tyre manufacturers in business (even before factoring in the extra cost of larger tyres compared to their smaller equivalents - last time I needed tyres it was around £40 a wheel difference). (Just a thought but which genius thought that ruffty-tuffty off-roading 4x4s would work best out of the showroom on expensive summer low profile wheels? A triumph of marketing over common sense?)

"If you ever find yourself in an overheat situation where you can't pull over promptly, it's a good idea to put the heater on maximum and use full fan assistance to take the water temperature down until you can stop safely". (Austin 7). Brings back memories and I know it works as years ago I had to drive my ancient Renault 16 back to Hampshire from the West Country with the heating on full, fan spinning like a Dervish and frequent stops to allow the engine to cool enough to refill the leaking radiator. And all this on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year! But once the radiator was replaced the car was fine and it saved me a fortune on recovery costs.

I sympathise with owners of Yeti's where the roof leaks. I've been lucky with mine (so far). I bought mine new and it was an expensive option and after seeing the problems on this forum I'd be very wary of having a sunroof in my next car. And to be honest, I don't really use it a lot anyway - it gets a bit more use than the 6 CD player but not a lot. As regards your dilemma, I know you can research your legal rights on google and your dealer seems to be acting responsibly in trying to address your concerns but this is such a big decision you've got to take I would seriously consider getting some proper, paid for, legal advice. This might even include a letter from the solicitor setting out what you require to give you confidence going forward and would give you something to fall back on if things didn't go well. Clearly you have to get the fix done but after that, with proper assurances the problem is permanently fixed, I'd be tempted to keep the car. You say other than this you love the car so it's replacement is likely to be a bit of a disappointment (albeit a dry one!) and if you've had the repair done and include the documentation including any warranty this could be a red flag to a potential buyer and hit the resale value. It's a shame these problems have taken the shine off your new car.

Any car of that age and mileage potentially could have problems so it's going to be down to how the car had been used and maintained and a decent dose of luck. My 2013 1.2 Elegance had now done around 120,000 km and over the 10 years I've had it has caused me very few worries. It's regularly serviced and I've had a few repairs but nothing exceptional - new brakes and discs, replaced shock absorbers (picked upas an advisory on an MOT but I got them done as I was planning to keep the car for a few years longer). The interior has held up very well so I don't think there were any compromises there. As for suitable for your use, most of my driving is on local roads in a relatively flat part of the country but when I've gone on holiday it has coped pretty well - four adults, three dogs and all our luggage including a heavily ladden roof box and although going up long, steep hills in Devon and Cornwall could be a bit slow we got there without the car seeming to struggle. Fuel consumption has been pretty good for a petrol car with this shape - I generally get 40+ miles per gallon (so about 10 miles/litre) driving around locally with a light foot but high spped runs will bring that down quite quickly. Overall I would say if the car looks clean and has a decent servcie record at that age and mileage you could do a lot worse.

I bought a set of blinds for my 2013 Yeti back in 2013 from Vanstyles. I still have them and they are in very good order despite the side window ones staying in all year round. Very good fit and a very reasonable price at the time - I think around £80 for five blinds and they don't seem to have gone up very much at all. https://www.carshades.co.uk/shades-skoda-yeti-c-2729_3662_5449_5450.html