Minimoke

Was OK when new, but now 1 year on everything rattles - including the infamous B pillar rattles. Dealer unable to trace the cause of the latter. Rattles made worse by the crashing about caused by the harsh suspension. Very disappointed after 12 months of ownership. Build quality is very significantly worse than the Mk 2's I have previously owned.

Interesting. How did you get Skoda to chip in with goodwill? Skoda UK and dealer were not interested in my case despite the noise being very obvious before I got just the tensioner changed.

I too have suffered the dreaded Erwin credit card failure issue. I played around with this for ages before creating a new Windows user account. Erwin then accepted the credit card! There is some cookie or other setting that needs changing but I cannot find out what it is. Don't bother with Erwin web support - they are worse than useless.

Here’s a couple of pictures of my wife’s dogs (sadly no longer with us). At that time she had a Fabia hatch and they both fitted in the boot space just fine. When they were younger she used a dog crate (which they shared) to contain them in the case of an accident. Later they both wore a dog harness which I rigged up so that it attached to the clips in the boot provided by Skoda. I have an Octavia estate now and there are ISOfix points for connecting a child seat in the rear, and I presume that is the same in the hatch? If so I guess you could clip a harness to that to stop the dog flying around in the event of an accident? A dog crate may be preferable but probably is a more expensive option. You don’t mention the size of the dog. This will influence selection of the best containment option. Also if it’s a big dog it is not a good plan to let it enter/leave the boot by jumping in/out. This can be bad for their joints in the long term, and is a scratch hazard for your boot lip! Also as they get older they just can’t be expected to jump in and out. The second picture shows a ramp I made for a few pounds using wood offcuts and bits and pieces from the gash can in my garage. In my opinion I would make a ramp and not bother with buying one. They can be extortionate to buy! Can’t help with specific Octavia hatch issues with dogs I’m afraid, but best of luck with your rescue dog! Regards MM

From memory Luxembourg is one. I think it is compulsory to flash headlights at night when overtaking outside of built-up areas

A slight digression but the following may be helpful to somebody one day.... Last week swapped my Samsung Galaxy S4 for a HTC M8. The former was on KitKat, the latter runs Lollipop. Have an Amundsen and there was never any problem with contact photos whilst I was using the S4. However after the move to HTC, the contact photos for just 2 of my contacts refused to upload to the Amundsen. Tried all sorts of thinks like resizing the photos without success. Eventually after trawling the net I stumbled across a tip on one of the VW fourms (forget which one now). The tip is to delete the email address on the phone for the dodgy contacts. I was a bit dubious about this advice, but tried it - and it worked! All contact photos now appear. I haven't a clue why this should work, but it did in my case.

So what happens to the debt due on the pcp agreement? Are you saying his estate would have zero value?

In England a debt incured by one spouse cannot be enforced against the surviving spouse in the event of their death unless it was a joint loan, or the surviving spouse acted as guarantor. Debts are set off against the assets of the deceased spouse's estate. You cannot get probate (and so adminster the estate) until the aggregate net value of the estate is determined. Firstly any IHT liability has to be satisfied before probate can be finalised and the residuary estate can then be distributed. Whether any debt exists as a result of a finance agreement depends on the terms and conditions of the original agreement. I would expect that if the car were to be sold or given back that there would be an amount due and enforecable against the estate. If the estate has insufficient net assets the debt might be written off by the finance company if its not financially worthwhile persuing the estate. However this gets very much more complicated if there is a shortfall (ie the debts being only slightly greater than the assets). There will then have to be a distribution of the assets in so such much in the pound for the debtors. There is no sentiment involved. I'm afraid finance companies do not usually look on widows and orphans as a charity they are willing to support voluntarily.

CHPA is just the VAG engine number/type. Your V5 should show CHPA as the engine number prefix for a 1.4 TSI followed by numerical digits to uniquely identify your particular engine. Don't know where the number is on the actual engine. A CHPA engine is cam belt. Don't bother listening to the engine noises. If you lift the bonnet its a really noisy engine (but fairly quiet from inside the car). The injector chatter alone frightnened the life out of me when I first heard it on what was a brand new car !!! Just completed 6K miles in mine. Came from an Octy 2 2.0 PD 140bhp. No complaints from me about the TSI.

I'm using Win7 and Firefox 36. Clearing all history (cache and cookies) in Firefox appeared to fix my particular issue for a short while, but the payment rejection problem recurred. I don't want to keep clearing the cache so I created a new Win7 user account (without admin rights) which I solely use to log into Erwin. I will not lose very much if I need to completely clear the cache in this new account, but strangely I've not had no problems since. Unfortunately I cannot selectively clean the cache. According to Firefox the site erwin.skoda-auto.cz does not appear to drop any cookies which I find strange. I've also encountered some "browser not supported" messages when using Firefox on this site. I'm going to use IE the next time I need to access Erwin to see if that provides a better user experience. In my opinion the site design is poor - for example the checkout/payment routine does not provide any confirmation that credit card details are correct or provide any opportunity to back out of the transaction, You either commit the transaction or not. However that is only a minor beef in the overall scheme of things. I know that this does not fully answer your question but hope it helps.

Answered my own question. After further diagnostrics I have found that ERWIN is not entirely happy with WIN 7/Firefox 36. Got it working (sort of) but seem to have to regularly clear the browser cache.

Hi: I've recently registered with ERWIN and can log onto their system OK. But I cannot buy any time - their website keeps coming back saying that "the input of your credit card data is incorrect" and rejecting the transaction. I have tried many other credit cards (including my wife's), and also debit cards, but the transaction keeps getting rejected. I therefore created a new registration but the same thing keeps happening on that alternative registration. The Skoda website administrator insists on saying that there is nothing wrong with their system. They told me to try "getting an invoice" from them instead. This I did - but guess what I cannot pay that either via their system no matter what credit card I use. I can assure you that this is the only system that I have ever encountered such problems. The Skoda support is lamentable. Has anybody else exeperienced similar issues? Thanks MM

Try navigating somewhere using voice control alone and see what happens.

You may find that sat nav voice commands no longer work - not that they ever worked sucessfully in the first place anyway.

Well I'm a possible no unfortunately. I initially like the Octy 3, but after living with it for 12 months the poor suspension/ride and build quality have made me reluctantly change my mind. I now regret moving my low mileage Octy 2 on, as it was miles better build quality. The pricing is also getting a lot less competitive. However I need an estate, and an auto petrol one at that. I investigated the market before buying the Octy 3, and at that time other brands had a poor selection of engines/transmission unless you were committed to diesel. Also a lot of the possible rivals, whilst having nearly equal rear load capacity, also had ridiculously small and/or badly designed load entry areas. Victims of the "sports tourer" design fad I thought, and not very practical for a workhorse. I had planned to keep the Octy 3 for 5 years, but now I'm not so sure.

Oil pump failure on the PD diesel never affected the Octavia - only the Superb and Passat family. The Octavia had the transverse variant of the engine of slightly different design. The pump failures could just as easily happened to a petrol - caused by bad VAG design again.

Thats precisely what was worrying me about this !!!

Thanks for the replies. Useful information and its nice to know it's just not me experiencing this.

I can accept that the handbrake may become less effective as the discs cool down, but the consequence is that the car is effectively relying on the transmission to prevent it moving fprward. I would have thought that would place an unfair strain on the DSG locking mechanism?

Hi, I’ve got a question regarding the DSG in Park Mode. Situation is that I park on my drive facing down a slope. When I park I apply the handbrake fully (there is no further upward movement to be had) and leave the car in P. Everything is initially fine and dandy. But after a little while the car starts to make an intermittent creaking noise. I get the impression that as the rear discs cool down the parking brake may be letting the car inch forward imperceptibly. Today whilst cleaning the car (shortly after I had parked) the creaking started and when I pushed the tailgate of the car really hard the car moved fractionally and made the noise. I tried the handbrake and it was still fully applied and there is no further upward movement available. Now I can understand that the rear brake may release itself fractionally as it cools, but the car is always left in P and my understanding is that this locks the transmission and the car should threrefore not move. Any thoughts?

Dont understand. Their website says delivery outside of UK is £20.

Never experienced similar temperature issues with my mobius. All the symptoms you have been describing are not typical. I suspect you might have a duff unit. Easier just to send it back and ask for a replacement?

CarWow are merely a dating agency. They pass on quotes from dealers and the dealers will offer a p/ex directly to you if required.In my experience WeBuyAnyCar may offer a good price on line but may offer a price a lot lower once they have viewed the car. They offered me a silly low price on a Mk2 Octavia 2.0 PD in excellent condition with low mileage after viewing it. Dealer p/ex easily beat what they offered.

Petrol 1.4TSI DSG Combi - Q1 2014 CarWow discounts were around the 8% mark. Local dealer matched and I also got +£500 more than I was expecting for the p/ex. So guess what - they got the business. So CarWow worked OK for me. The comments about using brokers is amusing. They usually supply cars via official Skoda dealers, so dealers who say thery cannot match a brokers price may be being a bit economical with the realities of life. Also used CarWow recently for the supply of a new Citigo for SWMBO. Got some pretty good offers which I didn't follow up as she changed her mind!

You don't mention how many miles has the vehicle done, and what time has elapsed, since the last serivice by the Skoda dealership? I think that may be crucial data. The fact that its #2 cylinder that has failed is probably neither here nor there and I would not pin my hopes on that. The independent engineer says that the engine may have suffered oil starvation at some point but that is his opinion. It may not have. Its like all professional opinions (and I have provided then in a different field) its no more than an opinion unless he can back up the opinion with more evidence that is likely to sway a disinterested audience . Was he truly independent or was he appointed by the warranty company? I wouldn't despair at this point but you will have be persistent and patient - above all don't get drawn into a pi**ing contest with the warranty company. If its an insured warranty (a la Warranty Direct) you will have options (later down the track) with the insurance sector regulators if you reach impasse. Best of luck