Mivart

I'm trying to get a sense of your ( @Evolution13 ) view on this. Is it that timing belts on a 2020 1.5 TSI should be changed at 50,000 miles and that any advice to the contrary should be ignored, no matter how apparently official that advice is? Or is it just to have a bit of fun having a sarky pop at Skoda UK and/or their dealerships? I'm not a fan of their dealerships myself, so some sympathies there. It would be good to get your definitive view on it and evidence thereof. I'm assuming you've got something that states, or strongly implies "Ignore all recent advice suggesting that timing belts on a 2020 1.5 TSI are deemed to be 'lifetime devices' ". Needless to say, the fault is with Skoda; in my vehicle manual, there is no mention of timing belts, or their maintenance schedule. After all, why should customers know important facts about the second largest purchase they're likely to make?

It was an online chat with Skoda UK customer services. Not sure why I said "I rang Skoda up..."; my mistake. Anyhow, I PDF'd the downloaded chat session, so I do have that in writing. He checked my VIN before providing that advice.

As useful as replying after 19 months isn't, I rang Skoda up last Feb and they said: "Your vehicle is equipped with the lifetime component (timing belt), which means it is recommended to be replaced when you experience issues with it." FWIW, mine is a 2020 1.5 TSI Octavia. When I asked him what "issues" are, he said: "when there's issues with your timing belt you will hear unsual noise when driving, warning light will come on a dashboard,visible wear during service." The person I spoke to was called Vuyani.

Thanks. Sounds worth a try. I think I need to find every conceivable way of deleting everything from the previous owner and start again with our own. Needless to say, the dealership should've done all this and they're playing with data protection fire by not doing so.

Although I haven't seen this myself, my partner says she's been getting "Connecting automatically..." when driving the car (see pic). It apparently cycles through numerous phones, some with people's names, and goes on for quite a while. I can't decide whether it's just picking up on any stray signals as it's passing people/cars, or maybe it's going through a bunch of phones in the car's address book. In case it's relevant, shortly after getting the car as an approved used, I noticed the previous owner's contacts still in the car. I thought I'd wiped all those contacts out but maybe there's something still lurking in there. I'm not thick when it comes to technology but I've never had the time to invest in understanding the vagaries of how the Octavia's infotainment thing works - apart from registering my own mobile in it, a couple of years ago.

@Rooted Seems like moving targets. On that matter, I caught my eye on the recommended interval for cambelt changes; 50k miles or 5 yr. Previous cars I've had have been more like 70k miles. Seems that TSI owners have to pay in the region of £750 'cos they're more difficult than other variants to do. There again, I've seen a discussion suggesting that the recommendation has now changed to 100k miles, or more. Riddle-me-ree. 😕

@varaderoguy Sounds like not clearing the MIB is a routine failing. Due to data protection rules, they could be in for a fine of up to 4% of their turnover if anyone raised it with the Info Commissioner. They'll get caught out, one day.

@Rooted Yes, similar here: https://www.sinclairskoda.co.uk/pdfs/service/service-plans.pdf. On the "Complete record", services during the previous ownership were marked as "flexible". Mine aren't. I've also noticed that the last service for the prev owner included pollen filter. Nine months later, my first service also had that on it. The full description on the Jan '23 (last) service was "Carry out Service: oil and insp (20k)". By that time, it was on 29k miles and its fourth service. Beggars belief. Still... I think I'm approaching some sort of a compromise with the garage.

@AGFalco Thanks for the offer. I've noticed a "Complete record" attached to my most recent invoice, which seems to include a summary of all work done since new. Both Nov '22 and Jan '23 showing as "Inspection with oil change". Might explain why I've not understood one of them to be a service; in my head "inspection" doesn't equate to "service". They seem to use different terminology every time. Since spoken to a legal person and she reckons the 50:50 offer is probably the best outcome, unless I can prove that I was misled about what one of the garage visits was for. For evidence, submit a subject access request to get records of emails, etc. One thing I'd be interested in would be the wording of the form I filled in to enquire about the Jan '23 dashboard message. I think I was seeking their advice, rather than saying "I want a service". Anyhow...

@Stacker93 Having now found the invoice from our Jan '23 service, I see that all the previous service records are attached to the back of it. If that's a standard method, I guess you'll get the same at your first Approved Used service. Re the Infotainment thing, makes me wonder whether that's a standard bit of incompetence. At my fingertips, I had the previous lady owner's name, mobile number, her recent comings & goings and numbers she'd called. Not good.

Well, Marky... for my last car (Citroen C3 Picasso), I used a nice little back-street garage in Seaham. Can't wait to get back there; he's a proper old-school mechanic and can seemingly do anything.

Is the car on the Fixed or Variable servicing regime? I'm assuming "fixed". Last March, I found the wording of the Approved Used Service Plan. Can't guarantee it was the same as when I bought mine but it read: Service Plan covers two years servicing limited to: 1 x Service, 1 x Pollen Filter, 1 x Brake Fluid change for Electric Vehicles; 1 x Minor Service and 1 x Major Service for all Petrol, Diesel and eHybrid vehicles. Do you have the Skoda Service record printout? This lists all the service records done to the car that have been put on the online Skoda Digital Service schedule. Not that I'm aware of. All I can say is that the people at the dealership insist that their records state that I had two services. They said they have records of having done 2 vehicle health checks which, apparently, implies that the Nov '22 and Jan '23 jobs were both services. BTW, I don't think I made it clear that I did, in fact, take the car in, in Nov '22. Although I need to check my own paperwork, I'm not doubting that we took the car in twice. For me, it's more about whether they've failed to reset the car's service indicator after the Nov ''22 job and maybe that explains why the car was alerting me to get a service only two months later. Not looking forward to a £414 bill for the service, when I should have had it done under the service plan. This is a dealership who sold me the car with the previous owner's details still in the Infotainment sys; address, phone number, name... I deleted it myself but I'm now wishing I'd reported them to the Info Commissioner.

I got my Octavia as an Approved Used from a Skoda dealer in June 2022. It came with an extended 2yr warranty, two free services and a few other bits & pieces. When it was bought, the salesman told me it had just recently been serviced. We do about 10k miles per annum. Nov 2022: the "Oil Service" message came up on the display. In my ignorance, I didn't realise that this was a "proper" service, in the sense of an annual full/interim service; I thought it was some sort of oil-check. I was also probably waylaid by being told in June that it had only recently been serviced. Jan 2023: another dashboard service message. Can't remember exactly what it said but I got booked-in and got it sorted. Only 2k miles since the Nov '22 visit. Mar 2023: a letter from the dealership inviting me to book in for another service. At this point, I wrote an email to the dealership asking why they thought it needed yet another service. Got a call from the service manager to apologise and to say they'd update their system to send a reminder in late 2023. Now that I genuinely do need a service, the dealership is telling me that I've already used my two complimentary services. After some argy-bargy, they've offered to share the cost of this (so-called) 3rd service. The thing is, I'm working on the assumption that the onus would've been on them to: reset the service interval setting (or whatever it's called) after the Nov '22 "service" flag it up when I was returning so soon after the Nov visit ... therefore, they're the ones primarily at fault. As mentioned above, I didn't challenge them in Jan '22 as I simply didn't think the Nov thing was actually a service. And given the service invite in Mar 2023, there's pretty clear evidence that their admin is suspect. Question: Am I right in thinking they should've reset something in Nov '22 and, if they had, the car wouldn't have pestered me in Jan '23? A final point... I couldn't find any paperwork to verify the terms of the Approved Used sales deal (serices, MOT, AA membership, etc). Over several months, I've asked them three times for a copy of that and they haven't supplied it. Cheers. M

Just a quick hello from County Durham. I got my first Skoda (Octavia 1.5 TSI) in June 2022. I guess it's the first half-decent car I've had, after a succession of Fiats, Kias and Citroens. Pleased by its performance, MPG, boot capacity and comfort. Hoping I can hang onto it for many years to come, given the apparent reliability. Had some bother with the main dealer, which I'll discuss elsewhere.