RagingRebecca

UPDATE: Firstly, I wanted to thank everyone for their advice and help, it is much appreciated. The insurance people seem to be saying that they will never cover for electrical damage as it will always be repairable. However, I don’t think I am completely getting across simply how much water is involved here, wherever it may be coming in from. It is simply everywhere - in the inner skin so that the seatbelts are dripping when you pull them out, every footwell and the boot, and it simply rains from the whole of the roof all of the time. However, my Dad is simply so stressed about the whole thing that despite me offering to take this further with Skoda, press, ombudsman etc, he has contacted a scrap merchant and has sold it for salvage, and they are going to collect it tomorrow. I will probably write one final letter to Skoda to fully express my utter disappointment that it has ended like this, just to make me feel ever so slightly better, but obviously I am not expecting anything from them. Thank you everyone once again for their input.

Thank you for your comments. I was also confused as to how the insurance company could make such a judgement over the phone. Dad has always belonged to a recovery service but I thought this would be a specialist fix, and they would simply try and get it started which is currently impossible. The local garage is a Skoda specialist hence the reason they had said they had seen this type of water ingress plenty of times and told us to take it up with Skoda, who simply don’t want to know. The garage were also insistent that the insurance company would pay out given the extent of the damage. I can appreciate that some people think he has been remiss in letting it get this bad, but our priority has been trying to find alternative solutions in getting him to hospital for his appointments, whilst waiting for Skoda’s responses. Also, today my Dad has had a letter from the ‘dealership’ where he bought it, saying that they will no longer be a Skoda dealership, which I think is quite telling.

Unfortunately my Dad lives in a small cottage with no access to anywhere undercover to protect it from the weather. Me and my sister live around 2 hours away, and the car lives on a drive at the bottom of the garden that Dad can no longer walk down easily. We have tried to dry it out by opening the windows and the doors, but as soon as we shut the car up, it is streaming with water within minutes. We have tried to book the car in with the dealership but they have said there is a 6 week delay each time, and they have refused to come and collect the car when we explained we couldn’t get it to them. Equally it has taken us ages to get a response from Skoda customer services so it has therefore got worse and worse whilst sitting on a drive.

The local garage have been excellent so I don’t think they are trying to avoid doing the work. They genuinely said the electrics have suffered such damage, that it wouldn’t be worth fixing. Looking online, this model would only be worth around £10,000 now so as far as I am aware, a write off is declared if repairs will cost more than 50-75% of the market value. The car has been sitting for around 4 months absolutely drenched in water inside. We tried applying gorilla tape around the sunroof but I wouldn’t stick in the low temperature and the dampness of the vehicle. Literally nothing is working in it, we can’t unlock it unless we do the manual override, the battery won’t charge, we can’t see any electrical component that is actually working. I think we will have to pursue this with someone higher within Skoda or then go down the ombudsman route. Thank you very much for your best wishes, it is much appreciated.

Thank you so much for such a detailed reply. The car does indeed have a panoramic sunroof and we certainly suspect that is the problem. Unfortunately my Dad did not take out the extended warranty because it had such low mileage and was in perfect condition (how ironic)! I appreciate your advice regarding going to the press etc but I don’t know that we have the energy as Dad only has a short time left and we don’t want to waste that time (although I completely agree that Skoda would then have to sit up and take notice), as need to make other plans for him.

No, we didn’t escalate this to any senior executive team as we didn’t know that was an option? Time is against us unfortunately as Dad only has a few months left and we needed a solution asap, hence we went to the local garage.

Hi, I am totally new to this forum but I am at my wit’s end and would appreciate any advice. My Dad, who lives in Essex, has a 4 year old Karoq sportline which he has kept in immaculate condition and has always been serviced and MOT’d by his local service dealership. A few months ago, he discovered that his boot was full of water and ever since, water is streaming in down all the windows and the roof, making the seats constantly wet and now, mouldy. It used to take him around 30 minutes just to clear all water so that he could see to drive. He is 83, has lung cancer and struggles to breathe at the best of times and this process exhausted him. I hit the internet and found loads of issues with water ingress in Karoq’s, therefore we contacted the dealership and they were not interested at all as it was out of warranty, there ‘was nothing in the literature about this problem’ and accused us of trying to emotionally manipulate them as Dad was poorly and because he needed the car for hospital appointments. We gave up with them and took it to a great local garage who said ‘we’ve seen this problem loads of times, you definitely need to take it to Skoda and hold them accountable’. We still had no luck with the dealership but they said we could book it in with them in 6 weeks time and it would be £100 an hour just to look at it! We wrote and rang Head Office who looked into it but came back and said there was nothing they could do. We then went back to the local garage and just said to fix it. They came three times to try and collect it, but couldn’t budge it because it wouldn’t start. They changed the battery which didn’t work, then plugged a diagnostic tool in which said there was extensive electrical damage throughout the whole car and told Dad it was an official write off and to contact his insurance company. Dad contacted them today, only to be told that ‘it sounds like it’s fixable’ so they wouldn’t accept the claim. We are now left with a heap of metal on the drive which he spent £30,000 on 4 years ago. The car is completely immaculate on the outside, but completely defunct on the inside. What on earth can we do next as we feel like there are no more options left? Sorry to prattle on but I’m so upset at Skoda not admitting to anything. Thank you very much.