boston1920

Purchased direct 12 months ago (so as new) £110 inc postage to U.K. Cost £210 new. I live in Edinburgh.

Purchased direct 12 months ago (so as new) £99.00 for the pair. Will post but will want to add postage. Cost £210 new. I live in Edinburgh.

Oh well... after 3o months of excellent driving until the camshaft went I've sold my VRS. Traded in against an 8000 miles Audi A6 Avant Diesel with all the goodies. I paid £12000 (what a bargain) for my VRS 30 months ago (it had 16k on the clock and 12 months old) and got £9k on the trade in. Under the circumstances I thought this quite fair - Audi / VAG were not bothered at all by the engine replacement (although they asked to see the paperwork). I looked at the new VRS Estate but was getting a December / January delivery date. The Audi is big, comfortable, excellent sound system etc but is very boring in comparison with the VRS. Its only when you move onto to something like an "executive" estate do you realize just how much of a real hybrid/wolf in sheep's clothing the VRS is (especially the estate). I'm missing it already for the fun country drives - but not for the longer motorway drives etc. Off to middle age retirement and signing out of Britskoda! Happy motoring - and watch out for those camshafts !.

Bad luck with your VRS. My incident was exactly the same- 2 months out of warranty and 35k miles on the clock. A few hints : be really nice and polite no matter how p-----d off you are. First and foremost irrespective of what the official VAG line is there is a history with our year of FSI engine belt tensioner going. Apparently it has been recognised and all new engines have a different tensioner mechanism- sorry I am NOT technical. Apparently it is fairly haphazard and nothing to do with how hard the car was driven etc but just bad luck. VAG would rather do a few remedial engine replacements than admit to it and do a full recall! My engine replacement cost £5300 and I had to contribute 15% towards it. But I also had new brake discs and pads put in, a new MOT done and I received a 60k warranty (for the engine). For my outlay I thought this a pretty good deal. I also demonstrated to VAG/ Skoda UK that I was a loyal VAG car buyer I'v and could list the last 10 VAG vehiles my wife and I have owned over the last 30 years. Bit sad actually... ! I could even show them an article I had written in What Car telling them how wonderful a Golf had been! and a less than supportive article i wrote on a BMW...they had genuinely been published . At all times I was polite but firm. Get names and take notes of all conversations and emails etc. poit of contact Go to Skoda UK as your point of contact as your Dealer can and will only go so far. Good luck.

Ok - I'm the recent fellow who had his vRS (2009) engine fail because of belt tensioner issues. I had no prior warning of impending failure. A couple of months on and the new engine is fine and going really well just like the old one. Has this shaken my faith in the engine and VAG - not really at all. Sure I was hacked off that it blew up on me and that I was hit for £1400! S--t happens as they say! However out of it I got a new engine, brakes, service and an additional 60k miles or two years on my warranty. You couldn't buy it for that at regular Skoda after sales. Having seen the latest Octavia and the new VRS spec and design I can say with confidence that I will go for another - but this time in white. The chance of another engine failure is so minimal that the benefits of driving such a superb machine really outweigh the chance of another engine catastrophe.

Just got my VRS estate back today. Spanking new engine with two years / 60k miles warranty. Plus new disks & pads etc. The car has been off the road now for 20 days in total. Seems to drive just fine. My part of the bill came to just on £1400.00 which out of £5600 I'm not grumbling about too much. All in all I think SUK have treated me quite fairly and Skoda West End (the main dealer), Edinburgh have been very good and professional.

I know nothing about engines however I understand that around 2009/10 this engine had a tensioner modification. Something to do with it being a chain now vs belt - or is it the other way round ?! Either way its meant to be more robust..

Just had it 100% confirmed from my local Skoda dealer that I am getting a brand new engine with the "new" tensioner ( whatever that means!). Sure I'd rather not have all this hassle (car off road for almost 4 weeks) , but despite my £1000 hit I'm pretty ok with it and the fact that i will have an as new Skoda VRS that softens the blow. Will I buy another Skoda? 5 weeks ago I would have said an emphatic yes - now I will think twice.

I was assured that I am getting a spanking new engine (..although Ive just emailed them, again to get 100% reconfirmation !!)

Silly question .. but how do I establish if its got the latest timing chain tensioner ? Just ask the dealer I suppose ! Will they even know ?

Good News or Bad News ?! Ive just had SUK offer to contribute 80% towards the £5200 bill I'm facing for the replacement engine that the local Skoda dealer is installing as I write this. Apparently I'll get a full service and a new MOT plus a two year and 60k miles warranty on the engine. I'll still be writing a cheque for £1000. I'm relieved that I'm not having to pick up a £5k bill for everything but still miffed that my engine (head belt tensioner) has blown so early (or at all). To be fair my local dealer and Skoda UK seem to have handled everything quite professionally , with good communication and feedback. Ironically have just received an invite to the launch of the new Octavia this weekend. Have attached a picture of the VRS without its engine ! Proof will be in the pudding when I get it back next week !

No - I had driven it about 50 miles the previous day without hiccup and the next day it wouldnt start with all sort of warning lights. Recovery vehicle to Skoda dealer and the rest as they say is history.

Personally I wouldn't say I drove the car hard at all nor have i done excessive miles (15000 miles in 24 months) However it's a VRS and I guess you don't buy one to potter to the shops in at 20mph! Its a superb car for overtaking but even then you don't need to push it ; indeed I've owned plenty "performance" cars before and to be fair this one has probably topped them all because of its smooth power supply.

Well I've just had my local Skoda dealer advise me that my 2009 / 35k Octavia VRS engine (FSkSH) is damaged beyond repair. Something to do with the belt tensioner. It needs a new replacement engine at a cost of........wait for it.......£5200 !! As the car is two months out of warranty Skoda UK have offered to pick up 70% of the cost leaving me just £1550 to pay - Yippee!! The good news is they'll also give me 60k miles and 2 years warranty on the engine. To be fair the dealer appears to be trying quite hard on my behalf and so far everyone is very calm ; although deep down I'm in a state of shock and disbelief! The irony is that it is (or was) a really good car. Hey Ho

I have Dec 2009 registered Octavia VRS which is two months out of warranty. Just 36000 miles - full service history.The timebelt tensioner has just gone (Ive been told by an independent VAG specialist) and so has the engine I'm told. Its with a Skoda dealer right now who has told me they will charge me for three hours work (i.e. £240.00) to tell me what they already know is wrong with it and that then they will go to Skoda UK and see if they can recompense given that its just out of warranty. Sods law !

I use an iPhone 3GS and recently noticed that thr music can Bluetooth stream too. Although not sure how this actually works !!

I've had a 2010 Octavia VRS DSG estate for just two months now. Had really wanted a VW GTI but £20k for a year old one vs £12500 for a year old vRS = no choice ! However I decided that I wanted to play my iPod and use the mobile through the Bolero. After a bit of searching about I chose a Denison 500 interface because everything would be discretely hidden away from sight plus control it all from the MFS wheel. There were a few teething problems in terms of understanding how it all works (the instructions are pretty haphazard) but now that I've grasped it it really does work with a clear display in the centre cluster plus on the Bolero itself. Cost £300 (supplied and fitted) which is a lot cheaper than upgrading to a Kenwood unit and looks a lot better than the Parrot kit everyone was pushing.

2010 Octavia : can I deactivate the auto central locking that seems to happen when I drive off? Thanks

Have done a bit of homework and have decided to have a Denison Gateway Five kit installed. Apparently my iPhone/iPod and phone via Bluetooth can all be controlled by the MF SW and all the info will be displayed on screen plus some of it on the cluster. Some recoding required. Thanks for your input.

Hi All I've just bought a Dec 09 Octavia Estate DSG which has a Bolero stereo. However I'm used to having a stereo that 1) integrates with my iPod/iPhone operated by the MF steering wheel showing playlists etc and 2)bluetooth for the phone. The Bolero doesn't seem to offer this and I'm not sure if I can have it adapted to do this or whether I should consider changing the headunit altogther to a Kenwood , Pioneer etc. Any suggestions please ? And any suggestions as to who could do this in the Edinburgh region ? Many thanks