BeattieBohemia

Thanks again for the further replies. Extended warranty cover for my car/ mileage is somewhere between £600 and £1.1k depending upon the excess and whether I opt for named or all component cover. Feels like quite a lot. Any views on the named vs. all component cover options? I'm inclined not to have a huge excess as will really grate to have to pay that as well as the premium, to avoid the bill. Discs were recommended by a dealer at last point of contact although when I probed a little the emphasis was on 'braking efficiency' and 'prolonging the life of the pads' and other non-serious sounding comments rather than it being even close to a safety issue. So I took the view that it wasn't a job for that day. Next service is around 3k miles away so happy to take the 'vehicle health check' at that point and re-assess. The car turns 5 in September, a month before the warranty runs out. Age is the basis on which I think it's soon to be cambelt time. Perhaps £600-700 total at an indy for the cambelt, water pump and discs/pads will be easier to stomach. I'm somewhat persuaded by the line of argument that this cost is materially less than the cost to change car.

Thanks very much for the helpful replies. A few points in response to some of the comments: I'd say our current car has generally been reliable, if not perfect. It needed a DMF at 55k which was done under warranty, so I did the clutch at the same time. So only 14k on those. I suppose one of the reasons I'd consider a change is that the older the car gets, the more likely it is that other (significant) mechnaical items may need replacement. But I'm not sure whether there's an accepted 'cliff' that these mk3 Octavias go over, be it an amount of miles or age in years, where things tend to start going wrong. Put another way, does anyone have experience of the 70-100k or 5-7y ownership period for these cars? Warranty is due to expire in October, and I'll be happy to use an independent after that - why wouldn't I, really. It's a good point that cost to change would be more than the impending bill. For that, cambelt, water pump, and rear discs will all need doing and I will do the pads at the same time as the discs. I think that's over £800 of work (so £1k is an upward approximation) but it would be significant, and not the sort of spend to incur on a car I was about to change. The service itself will be free to me (goodwill). So I think it's a case of keeping at least until 7y/ 100k if I do get all the work done, to get value from that spend. If I was swapping, it'd likely be for a Superb. Would love a 270 but that's probably a little out of budget so likely a 190 or 220; I prefer the latter and a switch back to petrol. I'll be getting a smaller car, a toy for short trips and fun in the next six months, so our family car will no longer need that element in the same way, so I could even get a 150, but I know I'll wish I hadn't come overtake time! But in the way the vRS meets all of our needs currently, the next two cars will be more specialists for their main role. I'm not in a position to buy new, and can't stomach the depreciation anyway. One day maybe! And as it happens, we're in exactly that position with the houses!

Interested in opinions. We bought our diesel vRS in Oct 2019 with the intention of covering around 22k per year in it. CoViD means we aren't hitting that mileage (around 24k in 21 months) and would prefer a return to petrol sooner or later, and so with the car approaching the expiry of its warranty and a £1k service bill, we are considering whether to keep or change it. It's a 66-plate model, bought for £13k at 45k miles, now at 69k miles and by virtue of the current used car market, probably worth not far from what we paid. Full Skoda service history. I think if we keep now the next logical point for considering a change will be when its 7yo/ approaching 100k (as if we keep then will want to get some value out of the cambelt change and other misc work shortly due). FWIW I think our next family wagon will be a Superb and we'd look for something 3yo again. Grateful for views!

Not DMF-related....but following another issue with my Octavia, for a second time it was a call direct to the warranty provider which prevented me being fobbed-off by a dealer and incurring a four-figure bill. I strongly recommend anyone who has a car within warranty and who is having issue with their dealer, trying the same. Very helpful people available on the phone, and they might save you a lot of money!

Hi folks, I'm a medium-term reader but new member here. I'm on my second Skoda, a 66-plate Octavia vRS TDi, bought in October through Approved Used at ~46k and which has just been serviced at 55k. It has full dealer service history and 15 months of Approved Used warranty to run. The servicing (Skoda main) dealer has observed that the car appeared to them to be 'running poorly, like it's running on three cylinders'. There are no warning lights of any sort showing. I hadn't noticed anything myself (if there had been performance degradation I put it down to 'getting used' to the car - previous was a 1.0TSI Fabia). They are suggesting diagnostics to rule out anything simple (e.g. blocked injector). They suspect a seizing dual-mass flywheel (DMF). They are estimating £600+VAT to remove and refit the gearbox for purpose of diagnosing the issue, and £1600+VAT for diagnostics, replacement of the DMF and clutch (at my request). A few questions if I may... Does the jump from simple engine diagnostics to taking the gearbox out seem like a sensible and logical fault-finding progression to you? Are the cost estimates in the right ballpark? Would you expect the Approved Used warranty to cover this work? I would, and the dealer does if the flywheel is the fault...but there are no guarantees in life! Is it sensible or over-cautious to swap the clutch at the same time as the flywheel if the flywheel does need replacing? Dealer has suggested this will be at my cost i.e. not possible via warranty. If the flywheel is not found to be faulty, is there anything else you might suggest could be? What line would you take with the dealer if they don't find a flywheel fault and then want £600+VAT to suggest there is a fault and then fail to find it? e.g. would I be sensible to suggest they keep looking?! Hope that all makes sense but happy to clarify if not. Thank you in advance! BB