Smokeyjoe

I always used to do my own servicing and repairs until my work supplied company cars which were serviced for me, Upon retirement I bought new vehicles with a service plan, but my current Karoq was recently 4 years old and I used a local independant garage which I trust and have used for other vehicles over the years. I booked their oil change service and MOT which I reasoned would inspect all the items that needed to be checked for safety purposes. As the car was low mileage, I did not get the spark plugs changed or any of the filters this time. The total cost was £195 including VAT.

Brilliant idea! Just ordered one - now £7.00 but worth every penny

Update today. I have had no success trying to find a local Bridgestone dealer who was interested in handling a warranty claim and passing back a refund to me, so I emailed Tom and explained my predicament. I had another phone call from him today, and he has offered to supply 2 x brand new Turanza 6 tyres to my local garage. I will buy 2 x new ones and they will collect the old tyres with no further compensation. Seems like a good deal to me which I am willing to accept. The tyres should be at my local garage in early January.

I had a telephone call today from Tom Moulding who is the Head Technical Co-ordinator at Bridgestone. Nice chap and he has agreed to credit the remaining tread on the tyres which have to be returned to them to be destroyed so they don't reappear in the part worn market. So, I can get any make tyres I like and the credit will come back to me in the form of cash to my bank account. Not sure what tyres to get as I do a very low mileage and live in the sunny south. Having a motorhome as well means holidays / longer distance travelling is very infrequent in the car. I may just replace like for like as I have been very happy with the tyres up until now and it would seem that all new tyres are likely to suffer with cracking due to the newer rubber mixes now being used.

No response to my email with photos to Bridgestone, so I went to my local tyre fitter for his evaluation of the cracks. His view is they are pretty typical of a 4 year old tyre with a low mileage driver. Had I been doing 10,000 miles a year, I would be replacing them now (or before) because of tread wear. He suggested carrying on using them until they get worse (or fail the next MOT) Thank you for all your comments. They were very helpful. Its just a shame that the tyres are not made of better quality rubber!

I have initially sent an email as requested with photos of all 4 x tyres for an initial evaluation. If they reject the claim at this stage, I will just run the tyres until I feel they become unsafe / fail an MOT / or run out of tread. I suspect if they give a credit, it may have to be against more Turanzas. I don't know how they would react if I bought a different Tyre brand, but it looks like they will just send a cheque to me based on the value of tyre left (tread depth). Anyway, I will await a reply.

Got a reply back by return.............. First of all, I am really sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with Bridgestone Tyres. Please be advised your tyres are covered under warranty for manufacturing defects in case the production date of the tyres is no older than 5 years prior to today's date. Bridgestone follows the he British Tyre Manufacturers' Association (BTMA) consumer complaints process. This can be found on the following web link: https://btmauk.com/consumer-complaints-about-tyres/ The process involves visiting a local tyre dealer who will manage your complaint for you. You will be asked to complete a Standard Application Form (SAF), which a copy can be found on the web link above. Once completed, the tyre dealer will contact Bridgestone and a FOC collection will be organised. Bridgestone will then inspect the tyre at their Technical Laboratory and will either issue a credit note in the form of cash (ref: based on remaining tread depth) or issue a reject letter explaining the reason for rejection. This process takes approximately 14 days. Any questions, please contact our technical team on [email protected] (01926 488 579, 01926 488 580) - please use this email address if you would like to send photos for visual examination. It might be an idea for any other member who have Turanza tyres to check for similar cracks. If under 5 years old, they are covered by warranty!

If you don't ask you don't get. Many years ago I had a tyre replaced under warranty. I was advised to put in a claim by the tyre fitter. If a tyre has an MOT advisory at 4 years old for its condition, then it needs to be brought to the manufacturers attention surely? I am realistic and not holding my breath for a positive response, but its surely worth asking than just shelling out £500 on a new set?

6805 miles and between 4.5mm and 5.5mm The tyres are supposed to have a lifetime warranty, so I have emailed Bridgestone to enquire how good the warranty is.

Car is just 4 years old and very low mileage, so I was a bit surprised that the tyres were in poor condition. After a closer inspection today the only cracks I can see are as in the picture. The Tyres are the standard 17" Turanzas with a date code of 36 19 so were new as the car was being built. Just wondering if the tyres are faulty as they surely ought to last longer than this. Generally in the past I was under the impression that you should get 7 years out of a tyre unless of course they had worn down to the legal limit. The car has only been driven on tarmac roads but the state of the tyres looks like that have been offroad!

In have recently bought a genuine Skoda spare wheel kit form Caffyns Tunbridge Wells. I can confirm that the kit comes with the polystyrene filler to keep the tools in which are also supplied - Jack, Wheel Brace etc. and instructions on how to fit it in the car. The spare wheel central anchor bolt and spacer to support the boot floor is also supplied. All of the tools that are supplied with the car will fit into the new styrene filler except the electric pump which I have put into the nearside pocket in the boot. There are different kits depending on the Karoq model, but Caffyns will confirm the kit required for your model if you email them with the reg number. The kit is not as cheap as eBay kits but does come complete with all the fittings and a genuine Jack etc.

I had an Audi A3 with DSG and paddle shifts on the steering wheel which I loved except that it was slow to pull away approaching roundabouts unless it had selected the right gear. It was better running in 'sport' mode or by using the paddles to downshift manually but not perfect. My understanding with the Karog DSG's is that the box still shifts up at the earliest opportunity and therefore makes acceleration sluggish as it waits for the engine to be 'on song'. This is especially true for 1.0 TSI although new ones are not available with DSG any more. The 1.5 TSI had all sorts of early problems with 'flat spots' at low revs which should have been sorted with software updates but if buying second hand should be thoughly test driven in all sorts of driving situations. The DSG on my Audi went bang and was off the road for 3 weeks awaiting repairs thankfully under warranty, but it was enough for me to say I would never have another. If buying a new car and changing at 3 years, then I may give a DSG another go, but if buying and keeping for several years, then I would not (just in case). Others will disagree, and I was maybe unlucky and the newer DSG models are proving more reliable, but I also prefer to have more control over the gears I am using when driving.

Absolutely agree. Done it many times. Never realised that I was doing it until I needed the lights on as I normally leave it on Auto.

Meteor Grey has a great shine as in prevoius post and also does not show the dirt as much as some others do.

Mines a manual. I was out in the car yesterday and tried to identify some more parameters when the squeal appears. So, its at around 2500rpm on a light throttle in 3rd or 4th gear when its most noticeable. Its possible that a DSG changes up a gear before then? I have also tried to reproduce the squeal when stationery but with no luck. It is definitely an engine noise, as backing off the throttle OR slightly increasing the throttle will immediately stop the noise.