RichardB53

Just to round this off: the lease ended and she’s now driving round in a Kamiq. Nice looking car, comfy and quite lively. The Octavia is gone, no word on whether they ever got it fixed. On the basis of this experience, I would never buy a new Skoda.

Almost a month in the dealership. No news, still waiting on go-ahead from Skoda HQ. No sense of urgency whatsoever. They’re not waiting for parts; it’s just a matter of reverting a software update. Honestly, if this were my decision (it isn’t) I would be cancelling the order for the new car, losing the deposit if necessary, and going for a different maker.

They’ve had it seven working days now. No news. Trouble is, it’s a lease car, so to some extent it is out of our hands. She’s mobile in a Chinese MG hybrid at the moment (courtesy car) so there’s no urgency, it seems. I sold my Octavia III estate last year. Drove well, comfy, practical, bit bland. But it kept slamming the brakes on for no reason. It was never dangerous, just alarming, but there were never any fault codes to explain it. Skoda make good cars, but their software is a weak area as far as I can see.

So, the dealership has had the car 6 days (although over a weekend, admittedly). I called in today to ask about progress. Roughly, Skoda won’t authorise a reversion of the software until they have more evidence. They have recommended that the dealership puts the battery on charge and see if that cures it. Six days before they even put the battery on charge, when they already knew the battery state was the issue. This could take WEEKS.

Fine in principle … This has happened to me twice. Service manager takes the key, smiles and says “by the way, there’s an update to install …” First time was massively inconvenient, as it was early morning and I had to be 300 miles away by nightfall (in my own car, was just dropping the Octavia off for my wife). I told him this, and he said the update was safety-critical, would take a couple of hours, and Skoda would not allow the car back on the road without it. I would have had to go all Rambo and demand the keys back but I ended up walking home 3 miles after they agreed to drop the car off when they were done. This time, I argued that we were trading the car in for another one in a couple of weeks, and couldn’t it wait until then? He said, no, Skoda audit them, and if they are found to have failed to apply a required update they’d be in trouble. For a 20-minute delay, it wasn’t worth getting upset about. Except that it was, of course. I find the dealership to be uncommunicative, a little arrogant, not very truthful and not all that competent. I wouldn’t set foot in the place, but she likes her Skodas and it’s the only show in town. (We’re quite rural, and not blessed with a multitude of car dealerships round here.)

Hi WaveyDavey, thanks for posting this. My purpose in posting the OP was to warn anyone in a similar position, so if I’ve saved you some grief I’m happy! And thanks for the info about your conversation. When I think back, the dealer did mention it was transmission-related, so I’m sure we’re talking about the same thing. We’re not expecting the car back any time soon! Meanwhile she’s riding round in an MG hybrid courtesy car. She likes it. Believe me, it’s utterly horrible.

Car is now with dealer. RAC man heard the symptoms and immediately suspected low battery voltage. Sure enough, battery at 3.4V. He put a booster on it and it started first time. His guess is that the software update has left one of the computers switched on and this has rapidly drained the battery. (From driving the car home normally to the alarm incident was about 5 hours.) Anyway, the car is now being assessed and the dealer is ‘hoping’ to get a code from Skoda that will allow them to revert the update - apparently they need special permission. If there is any more relevant info I will post it here.

This may be repeating something from elsewhere, but I thought it might be worth mentioning in case anyone is in a similar position. I took my wife’s 2021 Octavia IV in for MoT yesterday and the dealer said there was a new software update they needed to do. I said OK to that. The car drove home normally and I parked it by the house. 8pm, the alarm went off. I silenced the alarm with the fob, and got in the car and the dash was flashing like a Christmas tree. Engine would not start. Error messages around ‘put car in P’ alternating with ‘P not available’ and parking brake error. Brake pedal pulsed against my foot when I pressed it, even with engine off. The car basically went mad, so I left it and went indoors. Half an hour later, I went out to check and the car was dead. No dash, no interior lights, no response to key fob. Doors remain unlocked, but rear hatch is locked and can’t be opened. I phoned the dealer this morning, and he tells me that this was the first car they had applied the update to. Immediately they had done it, they got a call from Skoda UK to tell them not to apply the update as it had been found to be faulty. Obviously too late to do anything about it. So we have a dead car, and are waiting for RAC to recover it to the dealer so they can attend to it. Just a heads-up.

In my defence, the paper manual isn’t great, and I can’t make sense of the infotainment version. Thanks, very helpful.

Thank you! Makes perfect sense now.

Wife’s car, Octavia Mk4 hatch, but I’m curious. In the overhead display, to the left of the passenger airbag warning, is a lit yellow symbol. Looks like binoculars or an open car door or something, with the word OFF. I haven’t a clue what it means. Pressing it turns off the light but it still reads ‘off’. I’ve searched this forum, I’ve googled it, (reverse image search, lens, the lot) but I can’t find anything except a reference to ‘Active Driving Display’, which may or not be attached to that symbol. If that means a HUD, then the car doesn’t have one. Anyone enlighten me? I need to know or I can’t sleep. Thanks.

Ah, OK, Mk 3 and Mk 4 must be different then. Thanks.

Mine is a 2016 Mk 3. The trip reset is between the clocks at the bottom of the dash panel, marked (I think) '0.0'. Easily missed, as it is hidden by the steering wheel centre.

Can it? I haven't tried on the Mk 4, but you can't on my Mk3. There is a 'disable front sensors' option in the software, but all it does is disable them when you are driving forward. if you engage reverse, front and rear sensors are active until you reach the cut-off speed again.

I think we'd get on well if we ever met. 2CV is my all-time favourite car.