Falmouthboy

My advice is consider paying a bit extra for DSG. It works so well with that engine (also earlier 1.4 150 bhp SE L that I have). See if you can try one before you commit. I don’t have heated seats, without leather they aren’t essential, wife had a golf hire car for work recently for a long motorway trip, it had adaptive cruise and she didn’t like it (but accept other do) - again, try before you buy! Front sensors - again, not essential in my view. Consider the variable boot floor particularly if you will be dropping the back seats a lot.

I doubt it will hurt sales much as ‘halo’ models are only a very small part of the range and as such not massively profitable. Whilst the new Octavia is some way off, I guess that they are predicting a success for the Rapide replacement next year which is going to be golf size but not a ‘budget’ offering like the current car which hasn’t done well in the UK.

Is it a Skoda dealer or used car dealer? If a Skoda dealer I wouldn’t accept it without the proper Skoda SD Card. If a used dealer it’s a bargaining point - find out the cost from a dealer, tell the dealer you want that amount off as the car is ‘incomplete’ as it’s a standard fit item and get one off eBay.

Coming from a diesel to a modern small engine petrol I’m not surprised you have noticed a significant difference in engine braking, but that is perfectly normal and only to ne expected. Have you got ŠkodaConnect working yet? If you have (red globe top and centre of the nav screen turns white) you will get more dynamic navigation linked to traffic conditions. Depending on when the car was made, there may be an on line map update available (you need to take the SD card out and do it in your PC).

You state that you have only had the car for a couple of weeks - I assume from a Skoda Dealer as an ‘approved used’ car. Whilst there is no argument that this is a ‘service item’ and damage to the system isn’t covered I would suggest that you have a strong case to argue for this to be sorted under the sale of goods legislation rather than the warranty. Skoda make great play of the multi point check prior to sale and I’m sure that if you ask to see a copy of what is checked it will show something that will relate directly to the air con. They clearly didn’t check that it was working properly. This should be your ‘case’ for them to sort it out for you. The fact is they will have to swallow the cost and won’t be able to claim off Skoda for doing warranty work, hence why they are arguing. It is possible that there previous owner didn’t use the air con in some misguided fuel saving efforts and the seals dried out. Your use of the system has re-lubricated the seals and stopped the coolant loss, but the top up is still needed. If the dealer continues to argue the toss I would go to Skoda UK on the basis that the dealer hasn’t carried out the requisite ‘approved used’ checks diligently.

I would kick off on Social Media - I will certainly be kicking off if they try and charge me, having gone to the expense of investing in an O2 dongle to overcome the EE xdebacle, in spite of having a generous data allowance on my EE phone.

I’ve heard that the 3 years free on the nav update has now been removed and it’s not time limited. I suspect that unless they make Skoda Connect more reliable people won’t be willing to pay for it. Particularly Amundsen owners as what it can actually ‘do’ is fairly limited.

Wouldn’t trust them to chance a wiper blade!

But the big difference here is showing him the door was within your gift. Returning a lease car you don’t have the same freedom to walk away.

As a general principle, what you are experiencing is probably something many owners who have taken ostensibly ‘cheap’ lease deals. As used values are not holding up well due to PCP and Lease returns companies will be seeking to maximise the equity in their assets. It will be interesting to see how your challenge progresses.

Absolutely nothing - I suspected it was ‘their end’ so didn’t delete my account or anything - it came back all on its own. Would have been useful I’d Skoda put a down for maintenance message on their ŠkodaConnect web pages.

When messing around trying to get it to load - didn’t come up every time, but when ŠkodaConnect icon said please retry.

As if by magic, all working normally yesterday. Oh, and an email from Skoda in response to my query apologising for my complaint and asking sor more details of the problem. Seems left hand and right hand don’t know what they are doing!

As if by magic, all working normally yesterday. Oh, and an email from Skoda in response to my query apologising for my complaint and asking sor more details of the problem. Seems left hand and right hand don’t know what they are doing!

As if by magic, all working normally yesterday. Oh, and an email from Skoda in response to my query apologising for my complaint and asking sor more details of the problem. Seems left hand and right hand don’t know what they are doing!

As if by magic, all working normally yesterday. Oh, and an email from Skoda in response to my query apologising for my complaint and asking sor more details of the problem. Seems left hand and right hand don’t know what they are doing!

I was told a year back in Jan - it may have changed though. Whilst it remains ‘flakey’ I won’t even continue with my O2 mobile WiFi, let alone pay Skoda for the privilege.

My O2 WiFi worked perfectly up until Wednesday, likewise I could connect with my home WiFi when parked in my drive, so definitely either a car of Skoda Server issue - the error code would suggest the latter.

I suspect there is an issue with Skoda’s server (see my recent post re Error code 500 - Server Error). I’ve sent an email to Skoda to ask and will post any reply (unless it sorts itself out in the meantime). Definitely not a phone issue as neither my home WiFi or O2 mobile WiFi are working properly with the car, despite showing as connected.

As the title suggests - Skoda Connect has suddenly failed to connect - been working fine for weeks now (since I bought an O2 mobile WiFi). I’m now getting a system error code 500. It’s not an issue with the WiFi as the carwon’t connect to our home WiFi when parked outside either.

Correct - the contract is with the supplying dealer.

Now that there are a fair few 1.5s out there (and the 1.4 is defunct) I’m interested to hear from those with experience of both engines (ours is a DSG). We ordered our 1.4 last year when both 1.4 and 1.5 were available. The decision was based on several factors: £300 cheaper, (surprisingly) £950 higher GFV and reluctance to be an ‘early adopter’ of a new engine albeit cylinder deactivation was available on some 1.4s in the VAG group. I didn’t trust the ‘on paper’ fuel consumption gains and even then, on my 10,000 miles per year it didn’t add up to £300 before even considering the more speculative depreciation forecast. Also, I read reports that although the max power and torque were the same on paper, in reality the 1.4 had better low down torque. 4 Months and 3500 miles in and I am mightily impressed with our 1.4 which has plenty of useable day-to-day power (our other car is an Audi S3 with 315bhp so anything too sluggish would irritate). The long term mpg is 40 and a 30 mile trip on hilly rural Cornish ‘A’ roads consistently sees mid to high 40s. I seldom venture on dual carriageways and the nearest motorway is 100 miles away, when cylinder deactivation may have come into its own. I wonder if the 1.5 would have shown any tangible economy ‘gains’ and if the power and flexibility would have been any worse/better. I guess that as ex demonstrators and early trade-ins come on the market people will need help deciding between the two engine options.

The thing I don’t ‘get’ - if £750 is 5% of the bill, that’s a £15,000 bill. Surely that is way more than a 3 year old car with 21k miles is ever worth. Why was it even considered worth economic repair? Assuming you have owned the car a while, the recently changed consumer law won’t apply to you so you will need to rely on the old sale of goods act. Whilst you still have rights, onus is on you to prove that the fault pre-existed when you bought the vehicle. In other words that the item that failed broke due to a manufacturing or assembly defect. By accepting the 95% contribution you will have signed away your rights to the broken parts for independent inspection which is your only realistic means of proving a pre-existing defect. They have you over a barrel as covering 95% sounds reasonable because £750 for 3 years worth of engine wear is about right. However, as you have already accepted the offer, the only way now is to try and shame them through social media but even this carries its risks.

The manufacturer based warranties tend to be best, although a little more expensive and can tie you into dealer servicing (because they are insurance not warranties). As said by others, Warranty Wise seem to be the best of the rest. On most policies the price goes up after 60k miles and cover after 100k miles is almost non existent.

Ensurance specifically excludes windscreens. An OEM screen always has a Skoda logo on it, however, these are often made by Pilkington so a Pilkinton screen should be of the right quality. Autoglass often fit Shatterpruf windscreens and these are an inferior pattern screen.