JM VRS

Well here's the latest. Got my VrS back from the dealer today. As I said in my earlier post, I was still pretty narked at having to fork out for the labour costs of the new engine install at £1300+. The dealer said he'd "see what he could do" to get the cost down a bit but didn't sound convincing. As Skoda quickly offered the 100% on parts, I took this as an admission of guilt and yesterday contacted Skoda UK customer service to see what their take on the labour situation was. I received a call back from a customer relations manager today who took all of my details etc and said he'd see what he could do. This afternoon, the dealer called to say the car was ready for collection and that Skoda were stumping up 50% of the labour cost. RESULT! In summary, I'm not happy that I ended up in this replacement engine situation but can't fault Skoda for turning it round so quickly. My advice for anyone else in this situation is to tackle both dealer and Skoda UK to get resolution.

Update from Skoda. I received a call from the Service manager this morning at 9:00am on the dot. He explained that he had put all of my car details (age, mileage, service history I guess) into a 'calculator' from Skoda UK and this results in Skoda offering a goodwill contribution of 100% on parts (new engine) leaving me the labour charges to pay for. He told me the total cost of the works is just under £5,800 with the engine cost alone coming in at £4,500 (which they are covering). The verbal quote for the labour is just over £1,300. They had an engine on 'the system' which they have booked and will hopefully be at the Dealer on Saturday. The garage confirmed that this engine would have the most up-to-date tensioner ! I'm somewhat relieved that Skoda are contributing 100% parts cost but still p****d that this has happened. I have asked them to review their £1,300 labour cost based on the fact I took the car to them in January, explained my fears, and got no joy.

Another 2.0L VrS failure... 2010 FL, 37,000 miles, full Skoda service history. Got to work yesterday morning as normal, came out at lunchtime to get something to eat, engine just sounded like it was turning over without firing - engine management and EPC lights on ! Called AA and their diagnostics pulled up codes P2015, P2296. AA guy said it sounded like there was no compression (heart sinks!!!). Got the car recovered to local Skoda dealer who called me later in the afternoon to tell me the timing chain had jumped. At this point I reminded the dealer to check their service record for my car as I left it with them in January 2014 ? (need to check date) to check for this very problem after reading these threads and having the odd rattly start. The car was returned at the time with no faults found! The dealer at the time said he was unaware of any failures, issues with the tensioner and didn't know of any revisions. He pretty much implied not to believe what you read on the Internet! After I explained about the above service visit, I was called back a few minutes later to be told that Skoda would make a 'contribution' to the repairs but they needed my authority to start the strip down. I have told the dealer to explain the scale of the contribution before anything is touched (waiting to hear back this morning). In the meantime, exploring legal side as the car is fully serviced by them and I have told them I was worried this may happen due to the cars rattly start (normally after standing for a while but intermittent).

Hello to all.... Been driving my new Octavia vRS for the last 4 weeks and it's quite honestly the best car I've owned! Came across this site and thought I'd register - seems to be a great site for info. Cheers.