willcrick

OK all, sorry about the radio silence, i will explain.... Skoda Winchester agreed to pay for the cooling system upgrade after i did a wide social media campaign. I did lots of Tweets mentioning both SkodaUK and Skoda Winchester (which i believe meant that Skoda UK called Skoda winchester and told them to sort it out). I also posted on Google + and Facebook. I also made sure that all the posting i did was cross referenced with this and other popular forum topics. What the cross referencing does is increase your google rank (most search engines put a higher ranking on content that they find on lots of other pages as they assume that means its popular). If you now search for Skoda Kodiaq Tow Bar, you get this forum post on the first google page! However, what really got Skoda Winchester attention was the 1 star review on Facebook (again, with the links to the full story and other things). They really didnt like that. They responded by saying they would pay for the cooling upgrade (if we paid for the normal tow bar fee of around £1000) on the condition that we take down the facebook review. Reluctantly i did this (only the facebook review though, i left everything else up). I also have not posted on social media until the tow bar has been fitted, which i am pleased to say is now done, do the flood gates are back open from me!!! To try and answer a few questions i have been reading in this and other posts. i am only aware of the cooling system upgrade being required on the 1.4 125ps petrol engine , and it might only be my model (SE), but i would check, the dealer should know (or can find out). In terms of the work that the garage did. It took 3.5 days!!! They have added the fold away tow bar with the electrics and switch in the boot, which looks like standard fit now. pretty cool. They also changed the grill on the front of the car (wider gaps) and did other things inside with the cooling system. On the invoice i have there are no details (just says cooling system upgraded covered by WMC) so goodness knows, but it took ages (they kindly gave us a decent car to use while we waited) The only issue now is that our DAB radio seems to constantly drop its signal now, not sure if that is due to the tow bar, cooling system change, or the software upgrade (that they put in at the same time). Anyone else seen this? any more questions let me know, i am now free to answer

Update!! After my social media and forum campaign, Skoda Winchester have finally written to us to say they will pay for the cooling upgrade (although they did ask me to remove my social media posts, which i wont be doing, but i will be telling everyone that they ended up doing the right thing, which is the right thing to do). So Winchester Skoda are capable of good customer service after all, which is good. Its just a shame that it took so much effort. Oh well, we live and learn.

Hi BirtyWhistle - yes silver1011 has it right, the only model that i know requires the cooling upgrade is the 1.4 125ps petrol engine - might even be only the SE model too. Update here is that after my social media and forum campaign, Skoda Winchester have finally written to us to say they will pay for the cooling upgrade (although they did ask me to remove my social media posts, which i wont be doing, i will be telling everyone that they ended up doing the right thing though, which is the right result for everyone).

An update. I just got a rather indignant letter from Winchester Skoda. They say that they did not have a record of us asking for a tow bar in the notes that the sales person wrote down when we bought the car and therefore there is nothing they can do. We bought the car after 2 previous visits (1 to have a look at it, the 2nd for a test drive). On all occasions we discussed adding a tow bar and also did the research online using the specs that Skoda provide (which are inaccurate). There are so many faults on Skoda and Winchester Skoda here (specs wrong, information not provided at time of sale, incorrectly saying they didn't have the information at time of sale, incorrect initial quotes, terrible customer trust) and they write to me basically saying that because their sales person was forgetful and didn't write something down, that i am at fault! Blimey, i am really taken a-back by their arrogance...

Will do. I added the full saga (which took me a while!) for full disclosure in this new post (to stop polluting this one):

TLDR: Dont buy a Kodiaq SE 1.4 125ps 7 Seater without a tow bar and assume you can fit one later. You can, but you have to pay thousands to upgrade the cooling system first!! OK, here is the full story. I bought a nearly new Skoda Kodiaq SE 1.4 125ps 7 Seater from Winchester Skoda http://www.winchestermotorgroup.co.uk/ on 30th September 2018. The model I was buying did not have a tow bar, but this was one of my key requirements. So I carefully reviewed the specs that Skoda release (http://www.skoda.co.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/downloads/brochures/kodiaq_pricing_specs.pdf ) to ensure it was capable of towing. I also confirmed with the dealer that fitting an after market tow bar was possible. I did not get a firm quote at the time, as this was not possible, because the parts and details had not yet been released by Skoda (I checked that on forums to ensure this was correct). But the dealer thought that a price of around £1000 was a reasonable estimate. With that information, I decided to purchase the car from them. I then returned to the dealer around early November to get a confirmed quote for adding a tow bar. They initially gave us a cost over the phone of around £1200 (cant remember the exact figure) but then rang us back a few days later saying that he had got it wrong and that it was actually going to between 3 and 4K because they had found additional information Skoda had sent them about the cooling system requiring an upgrade which we complained about. After speaking to their manager, they then told us they could do it for around £3000 because they could reduce their hourly rate slightly. Unfortunately, this is still way too much money for a tow bar given the specs say that the car off-the-shelf should be able to tow the weight we wanted. We complained to the manager about how when we bought the car this information should have been given to us. The manager said that they received the information after they had sold us the car and therefore we had to complain to Skoda, so they were not liable. We did this and went through the very friendly and helpful Skoda customer care team. It took some time, but it turned out Skoda Winchester received information about the cooling upgrade a month BEFORE they sold us the car, so in fact Winchester Skoda did know this information and could have told us when we bought the car. Skoda said it was therefore up to the dealer to sort this out and there was nothing they could do. I actually dispute this, as I believe they should also have updated the specifications of the car online to be inline with this information as it was known (they have still not done this, so the will happen again unless they take action). Anyway, we then got back to Winchester Skoda to tell them the situation, they said it was Skoda's issue and therefore there is nothing they can do. They also said that because they didn’t make any money when they sold us the car, they didn’t want to do anything. Very unprofessional indeed, I don’t believe for a minute they would sell us a car without making money on it in some way. So now we are stuck between Skoda and Winchester Skoda both blaming each other. Both sides agree there is an issue, but no one is willing to take responsibility. We have therefore started a consumer rights complaint. As we were sold a car with specifications saying that it can do something (tow 1600KG), that it clearly cannot without an expensive cooing system upgrade. In addition to this, the dealer did not tell us at the time even though they had the information, they also told us that adding a tow bar would be easy. This misinformation led us to purchase the car. If we had been given the correct information at the time, we would NOT have bought that car, and would have looked to find the same model car but with a factory fitted tow bar. We have written two consumer rights letters to Winchester Skoda (based on this link which is very helpful should you have similar issues: https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/how-to-complain-about-a-second-hand-car-to-a-dealer). We had no response to the first. To the second we had a letter saying there is nothing they can do (basically tough luck we mis-informed you). We are now sending a final letter saying that we will proceed to the Consumer Rights Ombudsman. I think we have a clear case. It is very disappointing that we have to go through this process just to ensure that large profitable companies such as this behave responsibly. The tow bar for us is very important. We are avid bike riders and want to use a bike rack that fits to the tow bar easily. In addition, we are looking to buy a (very small) caravan for family trips, as well as wanting to tow a trailer to haul building and garden materials from a house renovation project we starter in October. The lack of ability to tow a trailer has meant we have had to put building materials in the car which has now scuffed it (reduced its resale cost) as well as pay for skips to get rid of the waste (as well as spend hours bagging up building waste to take to the dump!). So the impact has now gone way beyond just having to spend extra money on a tow bar. I would normally be recommending this car, as I think it has the potential to be great. However, I would NOT currently recommend Skoda as a reputable company who take responsibility for the errors that they make, and I would especially not recomend Winchester Skoda as all they care about it making profit on individual sales and not long term customer relationships. If either company had waived the cost of the cooling system, I would be singing their praises., recommending them to all my friends and going back to buy another car from them in a few years when we want a newer model. Their short sightedness and lack of customer care will cost them more in the long run (as its mostly only labour costs they incur for the cooling system upgrade). I have already put off 2 of my friends who were looking to purchase a Kodiaq from Winchester Skoda, so they have already lost more money than they would have gained from sorting this out. What a shame that I have had to resort to public shaming of these companies, I hope that increasing the visibility of the issue will help others and maybe make them realise the seriousness of the issue. So, buyers of Skoda Kodiaqs beware, if you want a tow bar, there are bunch of issues with lots of models. Other issues with the diesel models can be found in this post: https://www.briskoda.net/forums/profile/151898-h1ubs/ Here is my twitter conversation with Skoda, Skoda got back to me, but they said they found my previous complaint in the system and that it clearly stated that I should contact Winchester Skoda. Winchester Skoda never replied to the tweet. Here is my Facebook review of Winchester Skoda, no letter so far (apart from those mentioned above): I will keep this thread updated. Just in case either company actually comes through and does the right thing, or if the Ombudsman has a recommendation. Will Crick (Not usually a person who complains on forums, but needs must)

Thanks @silver1011, i agree. But the warranty is void if i dont get Skoda to fit it. So if there was a problem with the cooling system and i had a non-skoda tow bar fitted, then i would not be covered (or if anything else went wrong they could probably use the same excuse, and given how shady they are being about this issue, i dont trust them to be honest about the warranty!).

Also, if you buy a Kodiaq SE 1.4 125ps 7 Seater without a tow bar, fitting one afterwards will cost you up to £4000 as you have to upgrade the entire cooling system. The specs say it can tow 1600Kg, but without a cooling system upgrade it cant! I assume that if you buy one with a tow bar already fitted they do this upgrade in the factory, but they dont tell you that when you buy one. Seems like their towing specifications were a bit dodgey.

Beware - i bought the Kodiaq SE 1.4 125ps 7 Seater from Winchester Motor Group: http://www.winchestermotorgroup.co.uk/ without the tow bar on the assurance (from the sales person and from the specification sheet) that i could add a tow bar later. A month later i went back to get a quote, and they said it was going to be £4000 !!! Apparently on this model (and maybe some others?) you have to upgrade the entire cooling system for it to be able to tow to the spec (on the spec sheet its listed as having a capacity of 1600Kg). To me that means the spec sheet is incorrect and that Skoda are liable for this extra cost (just adding a tow bar without a cooling system upgrade was around £1000 which is more what i expected (but still expensive!)).