Sam

So, just to confirm that I understand you, the plenum drains are only one of the ways that this problem can occur? The dealer is currently checking to see if Skoda UK will foot the bill as it is only just out of warranty and the new fault is linked to an old fault that was done under warranty. Am I not in a position to say that it was their error in servicing that allowed this to happen or are there too many alternative causes for that to work? Cheers Sam

According to the dealer I have a water ingress problem via the pollen filter. It has only caused a minor electrical problem so far, however, is this the start of bad times? My main question though is this, if the car has been fully serviced by Skoda main dealers (which it has), would the correct servicing have eradicated this problem? ie, do I have a leg to stand on with regard to whether this would have been avoided if the servicing had been done correctly, and does this leak mean that the dealer has dropped the ball with regards to servicing (shortcuts). Is this linked to the plenum drain as I have a piece of paper to say that mine were cleaned out by the dealer a couple of months ago and this has been a problem since that time (ish). All help greatly appreciated.. and the sooner the better if poss. Thanks all Sam.

I think they look way better than cloth and they are much easier to keep clean too. In fact, generally speaking they are way better visually and practically than cloth, it's only when you use them in the cold that it's a problem for me. I don't have any real problems in hot weather, mainly cos we don't get any but also the A/C is good. Because leather isn't as warm as cloth it doesn't pose a problem in summer after the initial sit down :eek: but I would rather be burnt than frozen any day! In leather's defense though, they are way way better than vinyl, that sucked in every way possible, heat, cold, looks, just horrible.:thumbdwn:

I work really odd hours and trust me, when you get your rear end on that leather at 3am in 0 degrees, it bl**dy hurts! Unless I have a really low threshold for pain, which considering I live with 3 females, can't possibly be the case. I don't remember how much the leather option is but you are only supporting my point if you have to cover it in a bath sheet in summer! Leather and Alcantara would be far better IMHO.

Have your own bolsters retrimmed in leather and forget all about full leather. I have it and it is b****y awful in this weather. It's painful it is so cold, great when the heaters kick in but until then dreadful. I will never have leather again.

I use an old cartridge from my old Octy that works perfectly in the Superb so in my experience, yes they are the same. Now I have two cartridges in the boot of my car that I can't be bothered changing!!!

My brother used to work for Green Flag breakdown services which was called National Breakdown at the time. A massive survey was done to ascertain the most reliable car on the market which back then was BMW. They then studied what it was that got BMW that result. It turns out that they had no less breakdowns than anyone else, however, the way they handled those breakdowns was very different. Immediately they would come to you with a courtesy car and take yours away. You were kept informed constantly and promptly and when your car was fixed it was fully valeted and delivered back to you and the courtesy car taken away. The owners were often paying a fortune for the repair or at least as much as anyone else was, but they were being treated with respect and attention. I don't doubt BMW are nothing like that these days but the principle still applies. How dumb are the people running VAG, and they are not the only ones, that they can't see what they are doing. Do they shift so many units that we as individuals really don't matter? In truth there seems so little to differentiate between one car and another that you would think they would use customer service as a way to shine. We really don't matter do we?

You seem like you might be feeling defeated by this situation and lord knows who can blame you, but if it is possible for you to keep fighting this then please do. I know in these sort of circumstances it can become too 'all consuming' and you just want to get rid, accept the losses and move on, but I always think that big business hopes this is what you will do. I really hope you have the fight in you to continue squaring up to them because this is simply unacceptable treatment that you have received, from the car, the dealer and SUK... or should that be SUcK. The Honest John route is a good idea, and show them this site too. Skoda can't afford to lose the support of those of us who saw thru all the 'heated rear windscreen' jokes, ie us, because as you have proved at work, those jokes are just under the surface and Skoda can get a terrible name all over again very very quickly, whether justified or not, only this time it can probably take all VAG cars with it because I have learnt from this thread and others that I will not be looking at another VAG car when I change. I had a friend with a faulty Audi TT quite a few years ago that VAG did nothing about, I thought at the time that this was a one off, it seems not. I think everybody on this site will be behind you on this. I don't think we can do much other than offer support but I am pretty sure we will. We all have a vested interest in this case, pity VAG don't see it the same way.

"Reverse Tardis", brilliant, it's a good description, I've been in one with 3 other people and you are dead right, it is completely full...everywhere! What alternatives are there out there to compete with the Superb? I really want an alternative but can't seem to find one. Good point about the Superbs newness making reliability look so good, I could never figure out why the Passat didn't score as high when it was virtually the same car!

I'm only going by the experience of two friends here but they both had trouble with Mercs and they still own them because they have now spent too much on them to warrant getting rid, and if the JD power survey is to be trusted, then don't touch a Merc. The survey also reckons Superbs are excellent which I am guessing some of you may be disagreeing with at the moment. Mine has been trouble free for all 3 years of its life.....so far. I have always fancied an MG ZT and go on their forums a lot and they have as many problems with the BMW diesel in the CDti model. I love the look of the Chrysler 300 too but I drove one of those for a couple of thousand miles last summer in the states and my god are they cheap! It felt tinny on US roads so I wouldn't hold out much hope on our pot hole ridden streets. Another friend has a Volvo S60 which I quite like and he has nothing but praise for the dealer. So much so, I am thinking of approaching them about a trade in. Are there any cars out there that anyone can wholeheartedly recommend? I hope the general public get it that the Skoda problems are a VAG problem and not just Skoda themselves.

This has got to be psychological but my car has just come out of warranty and for some strange reason seems to be coming alive. It's a 1.9tdi 130 superb elegance and has 28k on the clock. It seems a little quieter and has a bit more urge. At what age does this engine really start to loosen up, I would have thought it would be before now. I also expected , now that it is out of warranty, for things to go wrong and for me to hear allsorts of bad noises but the opposite seems to be true. Now I am even thinking of a re-map or whatever will give me more power and pick up. Any recommendations?

I tried it recently after a long break and the new site is absolutely garbage. Autotrader renewed their site fairly recently too and that is an unreliable crock now too. More overpaid consultants creating solutions to problems that didn't exist. Boy do I need to chill, I reckon it's Jack Daniels time!

I have just been in this same situation and also went thru the same thing with my old Octy a few years ago. In both cases the dealers did an end of warranty check which basically gives the car a good going over, as well as having the mot and an inspection which are all due together. If you do this with a bit of time to spare before the warranty runs out (a couple of weeks is enough), any faults found that are covered by warranty can be sorted before it runs out.

It reminds me of a Daytona yellow Rover SD1 that I owned in my 20s. I actually like the look of that Superb, with the exception of the spoiler but, as my diesel does also, it sounds horrible, just horrible. I hate diesels and I hate the fact that I have to have one! If they ever make a diesel that sounds like a petrol they will never sell another petrol car but while they conjure up the words 'Massey Ferguson' every time you turn the key, I will continue to wish I had a V8 like my SD1 was.

I hope we haven't stolen somebody's thread here, anyway, the remap on its own is £300 so that is £325 for the eibachs all in. I am on 17" solids at the moment but IMHO, nothing improves a car more than wheels so new 18s or possibly even 19s would be a must if I went thru with this. With this in mind, is it actually worth dropping it if I am going to put bigger wheels on anyway, will it make that much visual difference? Normally I like a car to be dumped in the weeds but the Superb has this odd thing going on where it is almost too long for its width (or too narrow for its length depending on how you look at it) and I am not sure if lowering actually appears to lengthen it, obviously that is purely subjective but that's how I see it. I also hate the front end grill design which is too high so possibly a Milotec or similar might help. Because I have a dark colour (Titan Grey) the chrome stands out and looks really top heavy. It doesn't look that way on lighter colours like Silver or Sahara Beige like yours. As soon as I start doing the maths though, I start looking at what else I could get for that investment and end up grinding to a halt. Bl**dy cars, so infuriating!