Timoctav

Yes i’ve heard from others too that have received poor after sales from Sparsh1tts. Wish i’d purchased my Skoda from Meadens now, whom I have only heard good reports about, at the time I was commuting daily from Southampton to Portsmouth and they were more convenient. It’s a shame how poor treatment from a dealer can put one off an otherwise great brand. The Volvo was the opposite experience crappy unreliable car but excellent dealer. Remains to to be seen how I find Peter Cooper VW after sales with the Golf!

Hi, not been around here for some time, after I part exchanged our Octavia Elegance 2.0TDI in March 2016 for a Volvo V40 D4 - and what a big mistake that was, the Volvo was the most trouble prone and unreliable car I have ever owned. The dealer gave excellent after sales service, unlike the abysmal shocking treatment I received from Sparshatts Skoda Botley Southampton. Now thankfully gone and I’m back in the VW fold with a Golf GTI (well it’s almost a Skoda)! Anyway I digress. On FB and elsewhere the “no cure no fee” lawyers are springing up claiming that owners of VW diesel cars are going for a class action against VW Group for the “dieselgate” saga. Anyone here signed up for this? apologies if this has been previously discussed here! Thanks!

I've only had the one Skoda, Octavia Mk.3 2.0TDI Elegance which I part exchanged six months ago for a Volvo V40 D4 R Design. I found the Skoda ok, very obviously a budget brand by the quality of some of the plastics, did 60k miles in 3 years. It did it's job as a basically reliable commuting device, nothing sporting at all about it - but it doesn't pretend to be. I find the Volvo a much better car to drive, far more comfortable admittedly not as roomy but more than adequate. The worst aspect of Skoda ownership for me was the appalling service from Sparshatts Skoda, everything seemed to be too difficult for their service department and got so fed up with the aggro it was the main reason I changed.

Customer service is almost always down to the dealer. The "service" I received from Sparshatts Skoda in Southampton was abysmal, worst I've experienced in a very long time. One of the main reasons I sold my Octavia earlier than I had intended. I now have a Volvo V40 D4 R Design and as others here have stated the quality, comfort and refinement are in a totally different league to the Skoda. I haven't had to have the car serviced yet but I do expect it to cost more than the Skoda did. This will be more than compensated for by the much better residual value!

Each to their own I guess - having owned a 335d and an Octavia the two cars are on a different planet ability wise - in fairness the BMW is much more expensive but the vRS isn't the drive of a 330d. and yes I have driven one! Yes it is very smartly styled, roomier and more economical than the 330d and those factors are clearly important to a lot of folks but as a driving experience nowhere near.

Is that a wise decision Zippeh? Your going to lose out on performance, refinement, build quality, driver appeal.....(wait to get flamed by the vRS fraternity now)!!

Problem is these days if you have an aversion to buying anything Chinese - you wouldn't have much choice left! They've done a good jobs and their new models such as the latest XC-90 hugely impressive. Volvo are doing far better now than they ever did under Ford ownership, in the same way Jaguar Land Rover are under Tata (Indian) owners. To be honest VW Group haven't covered themselves in glory over deliberately falsifying emission tests and when caught out refuse to compensate their victims (sorry customers)!! They were made toon the States. We looked at all sorts of cars before we bought the Volvo, VW Golf - local dealer's sales staff too arrogant to care less and believe they do customers a favour if they sell them a car; tried one, not anything like as comfortable, very austere interior, and hugely over priced in character more like a domestic appliance. Audi A3 much better but even more expensive and again not as comfortable, BMW 1 series just awful. Wouldn't touch Ford or Vauxhall - know too many that have had too many problems!

Thank you JungleJames! Three months into Volvo ownership I can make some comparisons - on the plus side it's much more comfortable, has a more upmarket feel about it and it's definitely better built and finished, the engine is more refined, smoother and quieter. Stereo much better than the standard set up I had in the Skoda and the navigation leagues better than the quite poor Amundsen. Downside : fuel consumption is around 5mpg down on the Octavia (in fairness Volvo has 190 bhp as against 150bhp); it's not as cavernous (although I seldom need the extra room), and the minor controls, infotainment quite fiddly compared with the simpler and therefore better VW sourced Skoda layout. I guess the main reason to change was not so much the car as the abysmal service from Sparshatts. To get anything fixed or arrange a service was a nightmare. Service times "while you wait" always over ran, it was almost impossible to arrange a drop off and loan car. Service staff frequently surly, unhelpful and on occasions verge on rudeness. Probably the worst customer service I've experienced in a long time. Since spoken to others locally who also have had issues with them. Wish I'd bought the car from Meadens, if I had and had decent service from them I'd probably be still running the Skoda.

Three years ago! Where has the one gone! I had planned to keep my Octavia much longer than the three years; a fair few niggling problems combined with an incompetent dealer with zero customer goodwill priorities and I'd had enough. Just want a comfortable relaxing commuting car with good performance and economy, ended up with a 16 plate 2 week old Volvo V40 D4 R Design, £4K of extras and £7k off list price. PX on my Octy 3 with 55k miles was £9,200. Good luck with your Beemer Matt, great car.

Same here - URL not recognised

Yes I know - mild facelift only though, mainly LED headlights and in the R Design 18" rather than 17" wheels. Wasn't worth paying another £6k for (got the dealer to price the difference) - and that was for a lower spec car than I've got.

For a smallish car it's not cheap I grant you, but £7k off a 16 plate car that had only done 1,300 miles brought it down to a sensible price. Residuals should be an improvement over a Skoda too methinks!

I really wish I'd gone to Meadens now to be honest! I live on the eastern edge of the New Forest but work in Portsmouth so theoretically Sparshatts were the more convenient. Sparshatts have been terrible. It's been a long time - thankfully - since I've had to deal with such an arrogant, inflexible and unhelpful service team. Parking on their site is nigh on impossible also. Volvo have come on a long way since their tank days, and the new diesel is an absolute cracker. Smooth, powerful, economical and st 99g/km CO2 no road tax either! Oh don't think I mentioned the model in my original post it's a V40 R Design Lux Nav.

That will remain a mystery I'm afraid thanks to the unhelpful and inflexible service dept at Sparshatts, they couldn't book the car in again until mid April. I let Snows Volvo know of the issue and they said they would sort it out with Sparsh1tts themselves. They were under pressure to meet March sales targets and wanted to conclude the deal by the end of the month. Personally I believe that they damaged something during the service and weren't too keen to admit it. Exhaust inspection warning light for a fault on the water pump? Sounds like BS to me!

After nearly 3 years and 60k miles I have parted company with my faithful Octavia. I'd been weighing up the option of keeping it until I retire in 3 years time or changing - the latter decision meant that now would be the best time financially. The car was fine, but a couple of niggling faults, the most annoying one that I suspect was caused during the service in February by Sparshatts Southampton. Car was fine up to them, when I collected the car I found the "Exhaust Inspection Warning" light illuminated. Went straight to service reception asking them to look at it to be told this was not possible and would have to book the car in - earliest slot in two weeks time. Not impressed especially as I'd booked a service while you wait appointment which had already over nearly 1 1/2 hours from their estimated time. Car hadn't been washed either. Anyway, returned two weeks later for another two hours to be told they couldn't identify the fault, please book the car in for a two day period so they could carry out further investigation. After a further two weeks took the car in again at the end of the first day they phoned me to collect the car as they identified the defect as a fault in the water pump ( exhaust inspection warning light)???? Book car in yet again for rectification. All this nonsense really decided me to chop the car in for something else. I'd never been impressed by Sparshatts service and a very unhelpful attitude from them and there are no other Skoda dealers convenient for me. My wife always fancied Volvo so we drove to Snows Volvo in Southampton to try the D4. First drive was in an automatic version which I found really didn't suit the engine too well, quite difficult to modulate the turbo / torque surge of the high powered diesel. Went back the next day and drove a manual D2 which was a much nicer drive than the auto, and was really impressed with the quality and comfort. Nearly walked away when the sales manager advised they'd just registered a D4 R Design Lux Nav with a long list of options which he'd let me have for £7k under list. Deal done! First impressions after a week of ownership compared with the Octavia? Less roomy, much smaller luggage too And rear seat leg room (neither of which I need), the ergonomics took a lot longer to work round than the simpler Skoda layout. Although not touch screen the sat nav is a huge improvement on the pretty poor Amundsen. Much more upmarket quality feel and a smoother more powerful (190bhp) diesel. Fuel consumption seems to be around 3mpg down in the 150bhp Skoda. Ride comfort is a vast improvement over the torture beam that's for sure and seat comfort also improved. So, my first Volvo, we'll see how we get on. If it is as reliable as theOctavia I'll be very happy bunny!