fox2319

Matrix LED misalignment was one of the major reasons for rejecting my Octavia a few years back. The workshop at the time would just park it against an MOT test wall and say everything was working. Hopefully they've got better now...

Is the blanking cone centered on the oncoming cars? I had a problem when I owned an Octavia that the matrix lights were blanking an area offset to the intended arc by around a car width. This made them dangerous to use and was one of the reasons I rejected the car in the end. If you've got a dashcam, take it for a drive and then look at the video afterwards. This may also be useful if you're showing the problem to the garage. In my experience, they were worse than useless during investigation. They would simply park the car against an MOT test wall and say that everything looked fine.

Note that many of the First Edition models (mine included) had a bunch of problems, some of which are still being resolved. Have a read through some of the threads on here so that you know what to look for and check which software is shown on the display

If you have matrix lights, they can be sorted by selecting Travel Mode. Normal lights will need deflectors

I had a major issue with my matrix lights dazzling other road users as shown in this video. It went into the local garage around 3-4 times before the garage finally took it out on a night drive and saw the issue within 5 minutes. Part of the reason they took so long was that they were testing the matrix lights by pointing the car at a MOT test wall. whereas the matrix lights don't really do anything until the car is moving at night.

Mine has done this a couple of times in some areas which are generally mobile phone black spots. It's resolved itself when I drove through.

I was really tempted by an Superb / Arteon but it was just too long for where I usually park. Went for a Tiguan in the end as it's a bit shorter and still has a lot of room. I really like the way that VW group is put together but am not a fan of they way they are heading.

I was wondering if they'd finally got round to fixing things, I guess not. It's coming up to a year since I rejected my car and it has been a lot less stressful since. I trust that whatever car you get to replace it will be a bit less challenging.

I got one of these from Amazon to hold an official magsafe charger onto a vent in my Tiguan. Once I sorted out how to tighten it in place, it has been brilliant. Holds the phone in place without issue.

Not just the sun. Back when I had mine, I was at a junction one night and spent an extra 30s or so because every time I double checked for traffic, I got a flash of reflection from a streetlamp in my peripheral vision.

I had these fitted on my Octavia and they were awful. They were faulty / incorrectly set and dazzled other drivers all the time. On dipped, they didn't provide sufficient light on the road ahead. It took much longer than it should have to confirm the fault with the dealer because they just weren't trained. When I sent it in, they'd park it up on a MOT test wall and declare them as fault free. In the end, I refused to drive the car at night as I didn't feel it was safe. I've since rejected the car for this (and other faults) and now drive a VW Tiguan which also has matrix LED fitted. The difference is night and day (pardon the pun). I've had the car for 9 months and driven it in a wide variety of conditions and can't remember ever being flashed. Visibility is excellent, at least as good as the Xenons I had in my Yeti, When done properly, they are a genuine improvement. I've noticed other cars with them and, after my first couple of encounters, I barely notice them now.

Not really. I had an Octavia with matrix lights which had problems. The beams were very twitchy and I found they dazzled oncoming drivers. There's a video earlier in this thread that shows the problems I had. I've since rejected the car (for this and the various software issues) and bought a VW Tiguan which also has the matrix LEDs. The difference is astounding. I've done a lot more driving with these than the Octavia (eventually I refused to drive that car at night) and the beam is very stable and the blanking cones are resolved almost instantly. Get a dashcam to record the behaviour and show it to the garage. Feel free to share on here too if you want a second opinion.

Yes. A lot of us who got early model cars were basically beta testers. I believe VW group released a lot of cars early to meet some sort of emissions target. They weren't ready but they released them anyway and we all had to do their testing. Might not have been so bad if the support had been better but it was lacking.

Don't blame you. I got rid of mine after around 7 months (Hit the reject button at 4 but they took their time). 7 weeks is just stupid but not surprising. I picked mine up in Sept 2020 and reported problems the day after. (KPH, matrix lights, misc software carp) and they just don't seem to have any urgency. I don't think they even have the expertise. The matrix lights went in 3 times for them to assess a problem that only occurs at night whilst driving and they tested it against their MOT wall As for the KPH issue, people are still waiting on the fix now and that's coming up to 17 months since I picked the car up and first reported it!

Don't forget that you can always involve The Motor Ombudsmand for complaints against your garage and The Financial Ombudsman for complaints against VWFS. To be honest, I'd encourage everyone who's been affected by this to involve them and build up a volume of cases against Skoda. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any particular way to complain against Skoda UK directly

Don't just leave it at a phone call. Email them, raise an issue and get a reference number. Make sure that you refer to a timeline including the first dates when you reported the issue, that will be important when it comes to determining the amount of refund.

That's good news. I had a similar problem back in April (albeit with better availability of stock cars). I wanted to stay with VAG cars but avoid the latest generation electronics so I looked at Tiguan / Arteon. In the end, I went for the Tig as it works better with where I park the car. My car was back on sale within a week. When I asked the garage about how they could sell a car knowing that it had serious defects which were non compliant with the RTA, I was told by their head of brand "That is no longer your concern"

I had a problem with the matrix LED when I had my Octavia. Took it to the garage multiple times and they declared no fault found. When I eventually got them to take it on a night drive (I'd asked multiple times) they spotted the issues I was having immediately. I even got this video from the dashcam when the guy from the garage took it out. It's worth checking if the blanking cones appear to be aligned correctly if you're getting persistently flashed. The other issue with mine was that, on dipped beams, they didn't project very far ahead. It's as if the speed sensitive part of their alignment was absent. I ended up rejecting the car for this (and many other) reasons and now drive a Tiguan with Matrix LEDs and they are fantastic. The technology is brilliant (pardon the pun) but I don't think the service departments are trained in how to maintain them. I later found out that all of their previous investigations prior to the night drive were done by putting the car in a MOT test bay and checking the lights were within the pass criteria.

I'm another ex-Octavia owner. I was lined up for an interview with Rip-Off Britain back in March, I'd signed the disclaimers and was all set for a video interview which was called off at the last minute. Skoda had replied to their request for comment and given the impression that they were all over the problem with a solution imminent. A few weeks later, I'd rejected my car and was on my way to buying it's replacement. I still can't believe that we're still here, nearly 7 months later and it's not moved any further forward! I'd recommend getting in touch with them again en-masse and see if they want to take up the case.

I noticed my car up for sale at the local garage a couple of weeks after I rejected it. I emailed the garage to ask if the many problems had been fixed or were they just going to sell a car which was faulty and non-compliant with the Road Traffic Act (unable to display KPH on dash). Their reply simply said "Thanks but that is no longer your concern". If I hadn't already gone off that garage, this email alone would have given me major alarm bells.

When I first reported the problem to my dealer, they were able to reproduce it on a couple of their demonstrator cars. They still sold the cars and, having had a lot of communication with them since, I doubr very much that they warned the new owners about the faults. When I rejected my car, it was on the forecourt for around 3 weeks before it sold. This was months ago.

That's why I went for a Tiguan. I really like the VW quality over the Fords etc. but didn't want to risk the same problems on the new Golf, Cupra or even A3. In the end I went for the Tig and, aside from one minor niggle with predictive cruise control, it's been brilliant. My issue is that it can sometimes read roadsigns / map info in kph and set the ACC accodingly (40mph zone had ACC set to 25). There is already a fix which can easily be applied but I don't want to give my local VW garage any time with my car as they (on the Skoda side of the fence) were so bad with the Octy issues.

I would open a case with the Motor Ombudsman and (if the car is on finance) the Financial Ombudsman. One goes after the dealer, the other VWFS. Like you say, the only losers are the mugs who've put up with this for so long and have a car which is probably unsellable when people get on google in a few years. It's about time we all shared the pain.

Speaking for myself, I wasn't offended. It's a fair question. When I finally dropped the keys off at the dealer, I left the forum for a while. It was just so stressful for me to have a car that was a random fault generator every time I got in (personal fave was the one where Siri activated every time I turned the wheel to the right. Not on every journey but it was starting to happen more often). Since coming back, I've limited myself to the topics where I posted before unless a new relevant topic comes up. I'm certainly not one of those who posts doom & gloom warnings on every topic from someone who's considering a new Octavia (well, not any more at any rate )

I've been following this topic right from the start (back on page 1!!) This was my 5th Skoda and the worst car I've ever owned. The faults were one thing but the response of Skoda UK and my garage were something else. With this forum, I was able to get in touch with similar experiences to combat the inevitable "Oh? That's the first time we've heard of that. You must just be unlucky". I was able explore my options and get a resolution. I've also had a few DMs asking me about the specifics which I've responded to. Like Gax says, I want to be able to respond to others if I can help. Besides, I still want to see a resolution to this. I know there's people on here who are still driving round in hire cars months later. I'm rooting for them to get a resolution and for the Octy to be the car it should be