martechnology

The problem with my Octavia II, a face-lifted model bought new July 2009 and which has now covered about 5,500 miles, is that roughly every 400-500 miles the average mpg display resets itself spontaneously. The lowest mileage at which this has happened is about 380, and the highest is about 550. Last time it was 466 miles. The trip mpg display is not affected, and I don't use the instantaneous mpg display at all. This happens without touching any of the buttons which control and/or reset the display, so it is obviously a fault. It could be either a software glitch (unlikely), an intermittent hardware failure, or it could be getting a reset signal from somewhere - possibly a faulty switch or wiring - that appears genuine to the computer, but which is clearly not a valid signal. The dealer has used the diagnostic computer on the system and can find no fault, and has no experience of this fault on any other cars. Consequently the dealer refuses to replace either the computer or any of the other components which may be causing the fault. The first I know about it is when I glance down at the dashboard display and the mpg figures are varying wildly in accordance with the position of the accelerator, as one might expect when there is no long-term record of mileage for the computer to base it's calculations upon. I sometimes (but not always) find that the unwanted reset has occured "in the background". Most of the time I use the average mpg display so that I can see in real-time if a spontaneous reset occurs. However, if I am using the trip display I do change occasionally to the average display to see how economically I am driving long-term. If the fault has occurred in the last few seconds then the average will have changed to an improbable (and usually a far too high) value. It is also showing a significant and expected variation in accordance with throttle usage over the short term. This variation becomes less as time progresses, as the mileage on which the computations are based steadily increases. It happened recently when I was doing about 60mph on the M25. At the time I was coming up behind another vehicle and I was unable to pull out to pass, so I came off the throttle to slow down The fuel flow at that point would have been minimum. As the car could only have done a few hundred yards (if that) since this latest spontaneous reset, the displayed (and actual) mpg over that very short distance was improbably high. The traffic then cleared and I booted it to get past the car in front, and the displayed mpg went low, all as per expectations. Has anyone else seen a similar fault on their car (such a fault may not be unique to an Octavia), or if I am lucky enough to have a Skoda technician read this, can you cast any light on what might be causing the fault? All ideas gratefully received.

HIT AND RUN ACCIDENT I am not actually a new member - I joined in July 2009 when I bought my new Octavia - so perhaps the "introduce yourself" part of the site may not be the correct area to air my gripes. However, it is an area of the site that is readily available to all users, so here goes anyway! On 5/12/09 I was hit from behind by a red Nissan Primera, registration number S979 AMV. The driver made a run for it and got away. If you know the current whereabouts of this Nissan, or better still if you know who was driving it in Purley, South London, on Saturday 5th December 2009, please contact your local Police Station or write to: Croydon Section, Metropolitan Police Traffic Criminal Justice, South East Region, Operational Command Unit, PO Box 510, DA15 0BQ. Quoting crime reference ZD/1302794/2009/CS. Also please contact the Police if you witnessed this accident. The accident occurred at the traffic light controlled junction at the bottom of Downscourt Road (the A2022) and Godstone Road (the A22) at Purley, Croydon, CR8. I was waiting at the red traffic light at the bottom of Downscourt Road (a steep hill). There were no other cars waiting at the light. The red Nissan Primera which had followed me down the hill to the junction appeared to slow down in plenty of time, but then hit the back of my car. Both drivers got out. The driver of the Nissan said "I put my foot on the wrong pedal". He appeared to be pre-occupied with closing the bonnet of his car. This had popped up as a result of the frontal damage to his car. The reason for his pre-occupation with closing the the bonnet shortly became apparent . I said, "I hope you are insured. This is a nearly new car". The driver of the Nissan replied, "Of course I am. I wouldn't be driving otherwise." He then got into his car, and I initially thought that this was to get his insurance documentation. There were no vehicles behind him, and he reversed. I thought that this was to move his car away from the junction which was being blocked by the two cars. He then drove away rapidly forwards, round to the right of my car, passing the wrong side of the the pedestrian refuge (keep left sign), jumping the traffic light which was still red, going straight across the A22 traffic, and disappeared very fast in the direction of Purley Cross which is the the main junction of the A22 and the A23. The reason for his pre-occupation with closing the bonnet on his car then became clear - he intended to get his car into a roughly drivable state so that he could drive away from the scene of the accident as soon and as quickly as possible, without leaving any personal or insurance details. There were no apparent injuries. The damage to my car which could be seen was less than might be expected. The rear plastic bumper was splintered, but only on the right hand side. The bumper-mounted reversing sensors and all the lights at the rear of the car still appeared to work. The tailgate still opened and closed correctly. A professional examination will be necessary to determine whether there is any other damage behind the bumper. The driver of the Nissan was a white male, slim build, dark hair, about 25, approx. 5' 6" tall, wearing a light grey top. My wife, who was a passenger in my car, immediately dialled 999 and reported the accident to the Police. The Croydon Call Centre received the call, and allocated the call reference CBUF3820. The crime reference ZD/1302794/2009/CS was phoned through to me on 29/01/2010 by the Croydon Section of the Traffic Criminal Justice Dept. of the Metropolitan Police. This section is located at Marlowe House, Sidcup, Kent. I was also told during this phone call that the driver of the Nissan had been stopped by the Police in November 2009, and had produced valid documents at Reigate police Station on 25/11/09. If you have any information which could be useful, please contact the Police. Thank you.

Reply to posting on 16/8/09 by "postmanpat": Your abusive reply has been reported to the site managers. _________________________________ Reply to posting on 16/8/09 by "jbconno": I think that you may have slightly misunderstood my intentions regarding the spare wheel issue. I ordered a car which was specified BY SKODA THEMSELVES as having a spare wheel included. The car turned up without the spare wheel, jack, etc, I decided that this was a problem that I had no intention of having. Skoda, via the dealer, had received all of the money they had asked for, and had found no reason the complain about that. Consequently I had every intention of getting all that I had paid for. I therefore came down on the problem like a ton of bricks, and this worked. I have not "missed out on a spare wheel" as I have now got both the spare and the missing tools. Please see the header posting (ie my original posting on the subject) which has been updated to include this information. If it had not worked, I would subsequently have come down again on the problem like several tons of bricks, but as it happened this was not necessary. _________________________________ Reply to posting of 16/8/09 by "brimma": You state, quite interestingly, "Thank heavens Trading Standards can now continue investigating serious cases". From this I assume that if at some time in the future you order something that either turns up incomplete or doesn't turn up at all, you will consider that this not a serious case and will therefore not be informing your local Trading Standards about it. It is, of course, your right to make such a decision in respect of your own trading experiences. In respect of my own unsatisfactory trading experience(s), I will continue to be the one responsible for the decisions. And believe me, no-one will ever make the mistake of trying to trample all over me a second time. So lets all start acting like customers and not like punch bags, AND START GETTING WHAT WE PAY FOR. _________________________________ Reply to posting of 17/8/09 by "skomaz": You quote the same sentence from my posting of 16/8/09 no less that 3 times: "In the case of the car which I ordered, I did not give the specification to the dealer." And in all 3 cases you have made an incomplete quotation which gives a deliberately distorted version of the point that I was making. The full quotation should have been: "In the case of the car which I ordered, I did not give the specification to the dealer. He gave the specification to me (ie the printed brochure), and I agreed to order the car based on that specification. It was not as though I had asked either the dealer or Skoda to do the impossible." The relevant point is that Skoda themselves had issued the specification which I had seen and accepted. I then placed my order based on that specification. I take the view that if a company isses a specification for a product, and a customer accepts the specification and orders that product, it is NOT then too much trouble for the company to stick to it's published specification and supply what has been ordered. AS A MATTER OF FACT, IT IS NO TROUBLE AT ALL. _________________________________ Reply to posting of 17/8/09 by "davidrhodes": Thanks, a good idea, but I actually e-mailed Skoda UK very early in the proceedings (ie early July). They have not yet replied, and I do not seriously expect them to do so. Perhaps they do not like their customers talking to them about the problems they have caused by their blatantly unacceptable commercial practices. We shall have to see if they prefer those disgruntled customers to talk loudly and publicly ABOUT Skoda rather than quietly and privately TO Skoda. _________________________________ Reply to posting of 17/8/09 by "m0bov ": Another one who has missed the point. Your final sentence is: "If you don't wanna pay for a spare, try another dealer." A spare was part of the car's specification against which I placed my order. I had paid for the car in full, and had therefore already paid for the spare. The car turned up without the spare, and I decided to do something about the problem.

16/8/09. I was the one who started the thread "Unacceptable practice by Skoda" back in July. I have only just got back from holiday, so this is the first opportunity I have had to reply to the posting by jzc008 on or about 12/8/09. The following paragraph applies to Octavia models ordered on the basis of the brochure covering the period 1/4/09 to 30/6/09. It may possibly apply to earlier brochures, but the part concerning the spare wheel does not apply to the brochure which commenced on 1/7/09. In the pages covering the Elegance model it was specified quite clearly that a full size alloy spare wheel is included. It couldn't have been any clearer even if it had been set to music. There is also a note which one might call a disclaimer at the bottom of the back cover of the brochure, advising of the possibility of specification changes. This note is carefully positioned EXACTLY where people looking at new car specifications do not look, and is in print so small it is difficult to read. Even with my specs I need to use a magnifying glass. The last sentence reads, "Please confirm exact specifications, prices and colour availability with your Skoda retailer who will be notified of any specification changes as they occur." It seems to me that the specification of a car (not just Skoda, any make of car) should be fixed at the point of ordering, and should not be subject to unilateral and autocratic changes to the specification at the whim of and for the benefit of the manufacturer. If the manufacturer wants to make a change then this should be undertaken ONLY after consulting the customer and obtaining his full agreement. In the case of the car which I ordered, I did not give the specification to the dealer. He gave the specification to me (ie the printed brochure), and I agreed to order the car based on that specification. It was not as though I had asked either the dealer or Skoda to do the impossible. I did not break the agreement, and I certainly did not have the slightest intention of being on the receiving end of a breach of that agreement by the other party. This is why I came down like a ton of bricks on the breach. To those who have expressed the view that I was too precipitate or too heavy handed, I would say that if a similar situation occurs in the future, I will be much more precipitate and a lot more heavy handed. And I won't have any regrets about it, either. Many people are too ready just to "roll over and accept it" when treated badly by a commercial organisation or government department. If you are one of those people, then you deserve everything that happens to you as a result of such victimisation. I am not one of those people, and I would advise anyone reading this to start acting like a customer who fully intends to get everything he is paying for, and not like somebody else's punch bag. In a more general sense, if you find yourself in any contentious situation where you could potentially be victimised, ALWAYS choose not to be a victim and act accordingly, ie at the expense of those who are seeking to victimise you. This isn't paranoia, it is just simple common sense. Also, and quite logically, NEVER try to victimise someone else, or they could do the same to you. To return to the matter of spare wheels etc., it is important in these situations to identify the direction in which the money flows, ie from the customer to the retailer, and then to the manufacturer. The instructions flow in exactly the same direction, NOT IN REVERSE. It is therefore right that the customer tells the retailer what he wants, and if this is acceptable to the retailer then the instruction is passed on to the manufacturer. The retailer is NOT in a position to dictate terms to the customer, neither is the manufacturer in a position to dictate terms either to the retailer or to the customer. If they want to dictate terms to us, then first they pay us handsomely for the privilege. Or they don't do it. At all. I turn now to the problems incurred by jzc008 and others who have ordered a car based on a quite clear published specification, but have been "short changed" by Skoda UK in that certain parts (eg spare wheel, jack, etc) have not been supplied. I would advise informing Trading Standards immediately. If you live in one area and the retailer is in another, you should inform both Trading Standards offices. Write to the dealer, pointing out that they have breached their supply contract and that you require the matter to be put right. Also point out that legal action at their expense will follow if the matter is not rectified to your entire satisfaction. In short, start acting like a customer, not like a punch bag. Perhaps we should all bear in mind that Skoda UK, and their Lords and Masters VW, are guests in our country and should conduct their commercial practices fairly and and acceptably, and not to the detriment of us, their customers. If they choose not to comply with acceptable commercial standards then I for one would be quite happy to see them kicked out of the country. It would probably help the balance of payments. Finally, I have noticed the abbreviation "SUK" being used to represent Skoda UK in these pages. Please be aware that "SUK" is in fact already being used by Sony UK, and may actually be registered to Sony.

This is to update my posting. I refer you to my first entry which started this thread. I think this is called the "thread Header".

I originally posted this in the introductory section, but a helpful member by the name of "chicken_eyebrow" advised me to post it also in the Octavia II section for the benefit of those who have just taken delivery of (or are just about to take delivery of) a new facelifted Octavia. ------------------------------------------------

Update: This posting is to update and replace my earlier posting about the spare wheel, jack, wheel spanner, etc. being missing from a brand new Octavia estate car. I am now pleased to say that after telephone discussion of the problem with the Franchise Manager from Motorline Skoda, he has agreed to order the missing parts for me. ---------------------------------------- 2nd update - 27/7/09: All of the missing parts (spare wheel, jack, etc.) arrived at the dealer on 24/7/09, and I was able to collect them the following day. I am now delighted to say that the car is now complete, and I am able to undertake longer journeys including those at night. I will now be contacting Trading Standards and asking them to "call off the dogs". ---------------------------------------- Contrary to the impression I created with the original posting(s), I am now happy to recommend Motorline Skoda as a source of supply for a new Skoda car. If: - you have a new Skoda on order, or have just had one delivered, and - the specification in the catalogue from which you ordered included a spare wheel, and - either the car turned up without the spare wheel or you were told that it would, Don't let Skoda UK get away with it. Pester your dealer ceaselessly until you get the parts you paid for.