Vectensian

I think everyone else has picked up the main points on this one and sorry to say it's definitely had some sort of crunch. It doesn't look very well repaired and I doubt that it's up to Franchised Dealer standard. I would suspect that the previous owner may have had it repaired on the cheap. The panel shut lines are the instant give away. Several things occur to me. Firstly, I'm not sure I would want to keep this car myself, if you want to sell it in a while, and a dealer asks you has it been involved in any accidents, (as they do), how are you going to reply? I would seek advice from your Trading Standards Officer - that's part of your Local Council. I'm not sure of the law on second hand cars, but a buyer purchasing a one year old car from a Franchised dealer does not expect to be buying a crashed car, (unless the dealer disclosed this.) Your contract, Sale of Goods Act, is with the Franchised Dealer. Assuming that they are a reputable dealer and all official Skoda dealers should be, I think you should perhaps then speak to the dealer. It may well be that he has been misled by the previous owner. Every time I have traded in a car in the last twenty years, and they have all been cars less than 4 or 5 years old - the dealer taking the trade has asked me - "Has this car been crashed or damaged?" If the dealer has been misled by a customer trading in a car, then I imagine that the dealer would have a civil claim against that person. Finally, a Skoda franchise is very valuable nowadays. Although your contract is not with Skoda UK as regards the purchase, SUK are obviously interested in the conduct of their dealers. Hope this might be of some help. Personally, I would not be happy with this car, my route would initially be advice from Trading Standards, (Local Authority - I guess Wiltshire County Council in your case?) and then dealer, with Skoda UK only being involved if nothing else works. If however you intend to keep the car, I would at the very least get someone independent who is qualified, to fully inspect it.

What Skoda UK would do well to remember is that whilst they might fob customers off by saying that the failure rate is only a very small percentage - if you are an owner so affected by this problem - that represents 100% failure and financial calamity to you. In other words, a complete and utter personal disaster. I heard on the media a few weeks ago that VAG made profits of £200 million last year. It would be very interesting to find out what is going on in other world markets with this engine; for example the 1.8Tsi was sold extensively in India and was marketed as the 'Laura'.It was also sold in Oz. In the UK, the Golf Gti mob are well aware of Tsi problems with the tensioner. I have bought 3 Skoda's in the past, a Fabia Vrs, (the first one - 1.9 turbo diesel and a brilliant car) a 1.8Tsi Octy , which I recently sold because I didn't want to be a casualty, and a Citigo for nipper. When I bought the first car, the Mk1 Fabia, it was faultless and the price was, according to the dealer, about £6k less than if it had been a VW. Remember, this was only an £11- £12k car at the time. It seems to me that the prices of Skoda's have been gradually hiked up, the differentials compared to other VAG cars are reducing and they seem to be trading on their past reputation. Whatever new car is purchased nowadays, most are reliable and it is unlucky if you have any problems at all. It is all the more unfortunate that VAG have produced an engine with an inherent problem. I thought those days of design traits were well in the past. There is nothing worse in life than when someone has clearly dropped a clanger to continually remain in a state of denial.

I very sadly and with considerable annoyance recently traded in my lovely 2010 Anthracite 1.8Tsi Elegance which I had owned from new. It was coming up to four years old and I had intended to keep it a lot longer, but in view of reports involving this engine, I did not want to become a statistic. I wrote to Skoda a while ago, asking for advice - i.e. should the tensioner be changed? - but they deny any knowledge of the problem with this engine. A real shame, because it was one of the best cars I have ever owned in 40 years of driving. No one seems to have mentioned this yet as far as I have noticed, but it has long been in my mind, that because of the nature of this failure and how the tensioner works, failure must surely be related to the number of start/stop cycles the engine, (and thus the tensioner ratchet system) is subjected to? If that were so; it would seem that a high mileage car, with a lot of motorway use with not as many stop/start cycles might cover a higher mileage before failure, than a low mileage car, used for lots of short trips with frequent stop/starts. Any thoughts on this?

Yes, I think that the 1.8 and the 2.0 TSI are basically the same engine; from a 2010 brochure, the cylinder bore is the same for both engines at 82.5 mm. the bigger capacity is gained by the longer stroke of the 2 litre - 92.8 mm as opposed to 84.1 mm for the 1.8. I had an early 2010 1.8TSI Elegance, fantastic motor, it was a real bummer to discover some time ago that the engine had this potential tome bomb. Skoda deny all knowledge and have done their reputation no good at all. After some considerable thought, I traded the Octy in a few weeks ago and got a really good price. I needed to downsize anyway - times are hard. What really finished me off was Skoda denying there was a problem with the tensioners on TSI engines. They must think some of us are stupid. Otherwise, my 1.8TSI was one of the best cars I've ever had.

Problem seems to be that VW in their wisdom decreed that along with the Polo Gti, the Mk2 Fabia Vrs had to have a DSG box, (no manual option). Many commentators in the journalistic motoring world considered that this was the monumental mistake that caused sales to flop. I wonder if VAG have learned the lesson? Certainly in the UK, people buying hot hatches don't in the main want autos. The Up! GT was built with a six speed manual box.

VW having developed what is by all accounts a sensational car - the Up! GT, which has now been canned, - why oh why isn't this turbo 3 pot engine being used in one of the Up! derivatives. A Citigo Vrs with about 108bhp would have been absolutely fantastic, the Citigo chassis just needs more power and it would have been cheaper than a VW version. Would have looked great in race blue and would have sold loads. Perhaps VW are still embarrassed about letting Skoda do the original Fabia (diesel) Vrs. I had one - HW05 JYX in silver. Fantastic. I wonder where it is now. What a car. Now, if someone wants a city car with more oomph, without paying out too much, the i10 with the 1248cc engine and 86/87bhp is the way to go. Price for a i10 Premium, is roughly the same as a 5 door Citigo Elegance, 75 or is it 74 bhp? The 4 pot 1200cc Panda only gives about 66bhp and is asthmatic. Twin Air is a bit pricey. I'm not surprised the i10 owners complain about fuel consumption, most of the recent old i10's were the 1248cc version, and is is a revvy engine and it's difficult to avoid using right foot, it goes well. Despite what the manufacturers claim, as a generalisation, small petrol engines plus lots of welly equals tanks empty quickly!

An interesting topic. Times are hard and I need to downsize from my Octy 1.8Tsi - probably one of the best petrol engines I've ever had, but the cam chain tensioner is a major concern on these engines and I've got an early one. I can't afford the risk of an engine failure costing £6k plus, not helped by the fact that Skoda seem to be concealing the fact that they know about it. The problem is all over the Octavia, Audi and Golf Gti forums. I bought an extended warranty for a year, but that ends soon. So it's gone, I've done a deal. Originally I thought I'd get a Citigo Elegance, my wife financed her nipper with a Citigo some time back and it's very good indeed. I've also driven the dealers demo Citigo, so I'm familiar with the Citigo. Only downside seems to be a known gearbox/clutch problem and 'Honest John' is aware of this one on his forum. Then some weeks ago I got wind of the new Hyundai i10 and had a good thrash around the lanes and over the downs in the dealers demo 1250cc 87bhp 4 pot Kappa engined i10 a few days ago. It is simply brilliant. It's German designed and built in Turkey. Good revvy chain cam engine, brilliant precise gear change and good fun to drive. I personally thought the styling of the new i10 is cool,- the old i10 was total rubbish styling. I thought that the steering wasn't perhaps quite as involving as the Citigo, but that's all. Brilliant stoppers - discs all round. Just like the Citigo, you can really sling the new i10 around. Massively better equipped in most areas, I've ordered the Premium version, which prices out pretty well identical to the Citigo Elegance 5 door. So for the same price, I've got a really good, well specced small car, with a 5 year warranty and 3 years free servicing. And - the Hyundai dealer gave me £500 more than the Skoda dealer offered and bought the Octy off me straight away. (We've got a second car, a small 4wd, so no probs being down to one for a while.) Hyundai Dealer thinks that when mine arrives, they will come with cruise control fitted as well. There is a full size wheel well, space saver £50, or a full size steel for £99. (I've gone for the latter.) Make up your own minds, but I think that Hyundai will sell these new i10's by the shed load. The good news is that the VW Up! - Citigo - Seat Mii, will have to be more aggressively priced to keep sales going, but that's all good for the customers.

My wife's son has had his 60bhp Citigo for the best part of a year now and loves it to bits. Amongst other things, it gets used off Island for fast trips down to the West Country and back. It's done some 7,000 miles now and he runs it on super unleaded - V power preferably and reckons it is accelerating somewhat faster than the 13.2 seconds for 0-60 or so stated by Skoda. It's fairly widely known that these 3 pot engines go much better with mileage - has anyone accurately timed the 0-60 speed?

The VW Up was designed by a VW team lead by VW's head of design, Walter de Silva and the VW brand design chief, Klaus Bischoff. All 3 versions - VW, Skoda & Seat are made in the same factory at Bratislava. It is a VW car. A bit like the situation with the Citroen C1, Toyota Aygo and the small Peugeot, (which are all variations on the Toyota Aygo design), but the Up/Citigo/Mii is streets ahead in every area. I'd go as far as to say that the VAG car is possibly the best small car that has ever been made (and I owned several original Mini's) The best is yet to come - the VW engineering boss Dr Ulrich Hackenberg is the brains behind the VW Up Gt which is about to hit the VW dealers in a couple of months. The 3 pot engine turbo'ed to 109bhp, 6 speed box, probably discs all round, lowered, big allys, redesigned front, (looks great I think), probably twin exhaust pipes and very very quick, with a top end of about 120mph. Oh - and tartan seats like the original Golf Gti The return of the proper hot hatch! Autocar have driven it and raved about it. Definitely my next car. As VW are tooling up to do the turbo motor, economies of scale surely must mean they will let Skoda and Seat use this engine in the Citigo and the Mii after a few months. What I would like for Christmas is a Citigo Vrs in Race Blue please !! I've owned some good hot hatches over the years, but I've got a feeling that the little Up Gt may well turn out to be the best of the lot in its own way. It could be as epic as the original 1960's Mini Cooper 'S'

Happened to be passing the VW dealership today, popped in and asked when the Up GT is coming out. About a couple of months, I was told and the salesman even knew about the tartan seats, same as the original Golf GTi. The 64,000 dollar question is will Skoda be allowed to do their version? Really hope so, because I'm hanging onto my Octavia longer that intended, because the Up GT is by all accounts a cracker of a car and I want one, but preferably a Skoda version, because it will be better value, (cheaper), than the VW. And - with a bit of luck Skoda will do it in Race Blue. I think the Up GT is going to be a massive success - it will be more Mini Cooper S than the original Mini Cooper S, (Issigonnis's, not the BMW German one.) In case you hadn't heard, - the 3 pot motor is turbo'ed, about 109bhp, loads more torque, 0-60 - 7 seconds, top end 120 or so, lowered suspension, discs all round, 6 speed box, different front, twin exhausts etc. Hoping for a Skoda Vrs Citigo! With Skoda's long history of motorsport, I'm optimistic!

I think you will miss it - the 1.8Tsi is a fantastic engine and the performance is really brilliant, but I avoid checking the mpg! Considering how quick it goes, I don't worry and it's much better on a decent run. Mines just over 3 years old and it's the second really good Skoda I've owned - the other was one of the early (diesel) Fabia Vrs - brilliant. Both proved to be virtually trouble free, with only a couple of duff switches replaced under warranty. I'm going to have to hang onto mine a bit longer than intended, because what I want isn't available yet. I could now do with something smaller and more economical, but still with some oomph. VW are bringing out the turbo version of the Up later this year; the Up GT, which looks as though it will be absolutely stonking. Everyone and their brother will want one of these, same power to weight ratio as the original Mk1 Golf GTi I'm hoping that Skoda will do a Citigo Vrs version in Race Blue...........................

The forthcoming Up GT is well talked about and will be a cracking small car. About same weight and power as the first Golf Gti. I thought like many people - VW won't let Skoda have this engine. But if you are tooling up for something, you want to flog as many as possible to reduce unit cost and increase profit. 'What car' recently reported that Seat will be doing a sporty version with the 3 pot engine with a turbo - Seat Mii FR? and I reckon Skoda will end up doing a Vrs version about 6 months after the Up GT comes out. That'll be good, because the VW version is looking to be a bit pricey and Skoda well undercut VW prices. Will suit me, because my Octavia will be on about 5 years old then and I fancy a quickish small car. Drove the dealers Citigo demo when it first came out and I was well impressed with how it handled. !00 plus bhp in a light car sounds good!

I noticed that you said you park on a business park. The strange part about this, is that the glass is damaged as well. The only thing I have ever come across like this, is damage caused by showers of white hot sparks, such as someone using cutting equipment or an angle grinder in close proximity. That will damage the glass. Can you think of anything that could have been going on close by your car when it's been parked in the business park?

I've got an Octavia, previously had a Fabia and my stepson has got a Citigo. All suffer from excess condensation especially on the windscreen, which will freeze up if the temperature is freezing. This seems to be a VW group problem, that's not much help I know, but at least it doesn't seem to be a problem that's unique to just a few. My Fabia Vrs was really bad, the Octy's not much better and stepson tells me that his Citigo is bad. Is it just a thing to do with the angles of modern windscreens? I don't know.

Any thoughts out there on the easiest colour to touch up stone chips etc., without it showing? I guess one of the 'solid' colours - White - Red - Black - Yellow? And obviously assuming that you've got the right touch up shade!