oldgroaner

My 2015 2.0TDI 150 PS DSG had the light for low coolant come on so I booked it in with the main dealer. It is second hand and two months out of the guarantee . Later that day they rang me to say the problem was that the heater matrix was blocked and the bill would be over £1300 pounds, but as a goodwill gesture they would deduct 45% Bringing it down to £706.97. My job before retirement being a company engineer responsible for field liability claims resolution, on pressuries boilers among other thinga, and I pointed out the following The heater matrix could only be blocked by either sand left over from the casting process, or corrosion products had excess flux been present in manufacture of a component such as the heater matrix and overcome the Inhibitor in the coolant causing corrosion and consequent particulate silt that blocked the Matrix The coolant itself would not be replaced periodically at service intervals, but only when the Cam belt is changed either at five years or 140,000 miles, neither of which has been reached The inescapable conclusion therefore is that there was a latent manufacturing defect as the car left the Factory, and notwithstanding the Guarantee period has expired the liabilty under the law is with the manufacturer I have been in contact with Skoda twice to register a complain, they responded today (the second time) not accepting liability but offering a goodwill free of charge major service. I responded "I can afford to pay for my car being serviced, thank you very much , but attempting to fob me off when under the law you have a clear liability to pay in full for this repair." I also reminded them that this dealer has replaced SIX other heater matrixes that failed for the same reason, and that I found Fifteen other cases in the VW passat Forums. I pointed out that this is very bad policy for a major company to refuse to accept not merely it's liabilty in a single instance, which is after all a mere pittance to them, but to try to pretend this is a one off problem It makes you wonder, if this dealer has had six failures of this type, how many are there across the hundreds of dealerships across the UK, and how many people simply top up their coolant unaware of the sort of future bill they face? I have a word of advice for anyone Owning one of the Skoda Octavias, especially if it is still under guarantee, If the coolant level falls below the minimum, check if your heater is still working, and or as in my case the car is slow to warm up if the heater is either not working or not very warm, insist that the dealer deals with the problem under guarantee. Don't just top up the coolant, it needs to be investigated while you can have it fixed at no charge to avoid being ripped off s I have been, and by the look of it a lot of other people too, many of whom will be unaware of this nasty shock they could face through no fault of their own. Has anyone else been treated in so cavalier a fashion over a failure of this type due to a manufacturing defect? I am simply not going to leave it at that, you can be sure!