TGP

Interested to get some perspectives on a situation I’m in. I’m in Australia and I bought a 2010 Octavia 1.8T mid last year from a dealer. The sale was through Gumtree, and in the initial contact I confirmed that the seller was a licensed dealer and that was the reason he was selling the car. The dealer was selling the car from his home as he was in the process of finishing up selling cars and moving onto another career, but his name was still registered on the Motor Trader’s license database, so I wasn’t concerned. Within days of purchasing, I noticed a lot of smoke coming from the exhaust under deceleration. Tests with Skoda eventually confirmed the well-documented oil scraper ring issue affecting the engine and high oil consumption. $10,000 quote to fix. Initiated returning the car to the dealer under my statutory rights, he didn’t accept it as he claimed he sold it to me not under his dealer’s license. The dealer did insist in ‘taking care’ of the admin side of it prior to purchase, but as I haven’t bought a car before, I didn’t fully understand what paperwork I required (in hindsight I was a bit naïve on this front). I opened a case for compensation through the Office of Fair Trading which took about 3 months but this was ultimately unsuccessful. They found that there was evidence to support my allegations of the dealer misleading me, but they couldn’t rule on it definitively due to some details around the legislation and their jurisdiction that’s not really worth getting into here. My next option is the small claims court (QCAT), and I feel like I have a fairly strong case. I’ve actually sought legal advice before I go ahead with QCAT, but the advice is taking a long time to come back, so in the meantime I thought I’d see what this forum thought. Obviously not looking for any overly informed legal views, but keen to get some views on the matter as a sense check more than anything. Thanks.

New engine fail to add to the list: 1.8tsi Skoda Octavia 2011 with 127,000km and near full service history (Australia). Official diagnosis from Skoda is that oil scraper rings have failed resulting in complete engine rebuild. Also suspected turbo leak. $10,000 to fix.

Official diagnosis from Skoda: Needs a complete engine rebuild for $10,000. Skoda said I can still drive it for a while if I keep the oil topped up. Dealer has refused to take it back as he sneakily sold it to me privately (I'm a mug). Am looking at legal options now. If all else fails, well sell it a wrecker.

Thanks Brad. Well, it’s f*cked. $10k repair quote today. Needs a full engine rebuild. Yeah, clear title + no write off. Trying the solicitor route now with the seller. Running it into the ground or selling for scrap if that doesn’t work. Yay.

I got a generic receipt and the standard paper work. No hand written note. The car was unregistered, but being sold on behalf of his friend who has recently moved back overseas from Australia. I didn't realise that at the time, he only told me afterwards when I contacted him about returning it due to the smoke. I thought the name he wrote on the papers was his own, but apparently it was his mate's. Was either the language barrier or deliberate obfuscation. I specifically asked him over email to confirm if he was a dealer before I purchased for peace of mind, which he replied yes. But only after purchase when I mentioned I wanted to return it he then said he had sold it to me privately. Again, things were either lost in translation or he made it murky on purpose. A lot of this is my fault for not checking all the paperwork properly and not doing my research, but he knew what we was doing. He was aware the car had issues, and he wanted it gone.

Okay thanks, yeah — I think you're just confirming my suspicions there around any manufacturer goodwill unfortunately. Re: spec level, sure, I guess I was using that term pretty loosely. My point is it's not a base model and it's a nice car to own (has satnav, leather etc), so won't be a total loss if I have to spend a bit of money on it to recondition the engine. Interesting pick-up with the front sensors, they're not actually working at the moment.

Thanks for the reply. Yes I think that makes the most sense in terms of holding the ‘dealer’ to account. No contribution from him post purchase.

Yep, both I reckon. Just created another topic around my predicament actually if you wanted to check it out. Like you, would also prefer to keep it somehow, lovely car to drive (always been a heart over head person with cars). I’ll keep the saga updated here:

Seeking some advice on a potential lemon. Without getting an official diagnosis yet (booked in this week), I’m 99% sure I’m a mug who bought one of the ill-fated CDAA engine, oil guzzling, dodgy-scraper-ring-equipped 1.8 tsi Octavias. I’ve only owned it for a couple of weeks but noticing all the tell tale signs of oil consumption and smoke out of the exhaust after deceleration. Here are some key facts: - 10/2010 build / 127k on the clock / regular servicing / engine otherwise fine / DSG recall done - I bought it from someone who told me he had a dealer licence, but after I mentioned that I was worried about the smoke from the engine after purchase - which I didn’t notice on the test drive - he said he sold it to me privately on behalf of a friend who had moved overseas (in fairness to him, he is no longer selling cars as his job and had this car in storage at his house, but if he was genuinely not selling it under his licence, he definitely confused the situation and gave me a false sense of security by telling me he was a dealer before I purchased when I asked - I have this in an email from him). I know this sounds like I didn’t do my due diligence (probably partly true), but there was a bit of a language barrier and some details were likely lost in translation. Either way, I’m prepared to send him a letter from my lawyer as I reckon he was being misleading. - I got a roadworthy completed at a Skoda dealership here in Brisbane (Australia) before purchasing, does this lend any weight to requesting a contribution from Skoda for the fix if they didn’t pick up the issue (eg. smoke from exhaust)? My only saving grace is that I got it really cheaply (too good to be true in hindsight) for $AUD5000. Potentially looking at same amount to fix if it’s the scraper rings/pistons/conrods. I otherwise really like the car, it’s a top spec wagon with all the extras, so if I can’t return it I’m thinking it’s not a bad buy for $10000 with a reconditioned engine. Anyway, I feel a bit foolish, but interested in any thoughts. Thanks.

I just checked oil level again today not expecting to see much of a difference as I’ve only been driving locally. It’s dropped about half a cm to below min in two days. Damn. I’m in trouble.

That’s me too sadly. Don’t even need to record oil consumption either, have noticed it drop by eye in the past few days alone to below min!

Not yet - I’ve only been driving locally about 10-20km/day since the oil change. I’ve been keeping an eye on the dipstick though and there’s no appreciable drop. Mileage is average (7-8l/100k). Good to hear your levels are stable for now.

Thanks Rayx. I’ll check the viscosity. It’s booked in with Skoda next week to try and get to the bottom of it. And unfortunately I bought privately so no recourse for a refund. I’m preparing for the worst with either the scraper rings or valve stem seals being stuffed. Still smoking after deceleration. No smoke on start up or acceleration. Oil is definitely being burnt in the engine for some reason though.

Rayx, any technical thoughts on why the smoke colour suddenly changed from my exhaust? As mentioned earlier in the thread, the issue started as blowing black smoke/soot under acceleration, now its grey/blue (oil) but only when accelerating after compression braking. We’re talking the space of a week here. Mechanic did an oil change and flush which was the catalyst. Also, with most of the oil consumption problems I’ve been reading through, barely and mention smoke. Wonder why?

Nope, just the Golf