Having just sold my Fabia & ventured into Octavia ownership (need a larger car). I have read some of the horror stories of instrument panel failiures (costing hundreds to sort)& as well as turbo issues that can crop up should I be a worried chap? My Octy is a 2002 TDI Elegance with full history done 75k

Does Skoda deserve the "manufacturer of happy drivers" slogan if so many problems keep cropping up?

Dash failures isn't a common problem , so no worries there.

The turbos on that generation of TDI engines are a bit susceptible to getting the variable vane mechanism clogged up with soot if they were always driven very gently.

Eventually this will cause the car to go into limp mode. Dealers will say that this needs a new turbo but several people had theirs removed cleaned and refitted with no problems.

This doesn't happen all that frequently and the octy is no worse than other makes for this issue.

Turbos going pop on Mk2 TDIs is another matter though....

Having just sold my Fabia & ventured into Octavia ownership (need a larger car). I have read some of the horror stories of instrument panel failures (costing hundreds to sort)& as well as turbo issues that can crop up should I be a worried chap? My Octy is a 2002 TDI Elegance with full history done 75k

Does Skoda deserve the "manufacturer of happy drivers" slogan if so many problems keep cropping up?

As a rule, most posts on hear will be from people with a problem, or needing advice. People don't tend to write just to say "hey my cars fine and nothings gone wrong" so if you judge Skodas solely by this web site you may form an incorrect opinion. I think they're great cars.

They're not cheap Audi's, but Audi's are expensive Skoda's.

Never heard of dash issues with Skodas as a major issue.

Fords Focus' on the other hand.....

I'm on here most days; I'm not on a Ford forum, and I've still heard of more Focus dash failures than Octy ones.

There is a doc available on ebay (not from me, so no advertising) that claims to give solutions to repair inst cluster issues in the Octy rather than renew. Far as I know it is in German but easy enough to run through Babel Fish or another translator package. If anyone has used it some feedback may help here. So far I have had no issues with mine.