Hi all,

Looking for some advice - I Bought a 05 Fabia Estate (1.4 16v 100BHP) 3 months ago.I Got a 12 month warranty from Skoda Dealership as part of the sale. It was still under the initial warranty for a month or so when I bought it and the rest was made up with the dealership warranty).

I noticed about a month ago the rear footwell carpet at the driver side was slightly damp. Thought it may have been down to the kids! Recently the weather has been bad with a lot of heavy rain. I now have gone from a damp carpet to a wet carpet.

Every time i open the rear door there is water sitting on top of the rubber door seal and on the plastic trim further into the car that leads onto the carpet. I dont see this on any of the other doors.

Did some research and im 99% sure its down to the rear ancillaries carriers (the steel plate under the door trim?). I notice this is a problem for alot of skoda owners and also found same issues with VW and Seat which comes as no surprise.

Got onto the phone to the dealer and explained situation, was told that my warranty doesnt cover water ingress but they would check with Skoda warranty or somthing regarding this (mumbling at this point and i couldnt understand what was going to be checked.) I got a phone call back saying that Skoda will pay 80% of bill if I pay 20%. I then said, hmmmm why is that then? Is there a known issue..... The answer I got was a quick and quiet "there must be". I asked what the 20% was inc labour and was quoted £40.

I said i would phone back later but sitting thinking about it, its not down to wear and tear and its definately in my oppinion a desgin fault. Why should i fork out all that money for a relatively "young" car and then get this a couple of months into having it. I have seen other forums saying theirs was fixed through warranty so what should i do? Im tempted to go into the dealership and complain about it.

Any advice would be reatly appreciated!

If you are confident it is the ancilliaries cariers then I would accept nothing more than a free of charge repair. I'm assuming that as it is Skoda Approved it has a full Skoda Service History? Explain that you know it's a design/manufacturing fault and one which would have most probably be evident when they sold you the car.

I thought SUK paying 80% was still good on there behalf.

It's quite normal for them to contribute with the level depending on age of vehicle and type of Service History.

In this instance with it being an approved used car suffering with a known defect I'm afraid I'd want the full amount covered.

Easily comes under the sales of goods act - the fault was present with the car at the time of purchase (i.e. not wear and tear in the time of your ownership) and therefore you've been sold a car that is not fit for purpose. I would demand that the supplying dealer do a complete repair including new carpets if needed/deep clean to remove any mould/smell all for free otherwise you will take the matter to the local trading standards.