My car went to Leicester the other day and acquired a broken door mirror glass whilst parked. I didn't fancy a drive back to civilisation with a broken mirror. When I bought my Superb, I looked around a car park and found a Passat of the same year (10th digit of VIN) engine and transmission. I recorded the VIN of that car and its registration number - and kept them in my car. Getting a new mirror glass from the local VW agent thus took 5 minutes - you can fit it without tools if you have thin gloves to prize out the broken glass from the top. Skoda dealers (if you can find them) keep no bits for Superbs as they didn't sell any. The VW back-up for the Passat is quite good though. So - get some VW data and keep it in the car. rotodiesel. My employer even paid for the new glass.

Edited 29 November, 200916 yr by rotodiesel

My car went to Leicester the other day and acquired a broken door mirror glass whilst parked. I didn't fancy a drive back to civilisation with a broken mirror. When I bought my Superb, I looked around a car park and found a Passat of the same year (10th digit of VIN) engine and transmission. I recorded the VIN of that car and its registration number - and kept them in my car. Getting a new mirror glass from the local VW agent thus took 5 minutes - you can fit it without tools if you have thin gloves to prize out the broken glass from the top. Skoda dealers (if you can find them) keep no bits for Superbs as they didn't sell any. The VW back-up for the Passat is quite good though. So - get some VW data and keep it in the car. rotodiesel. My employer even paid for the new glass.

100% correct, in 2.5 yrs of ownership I've only ever bought a bolt from Skoda, and I'm still waiting for it to arrive over a year later, I use the VW dealer or GSF for everything.

I have detected an "anti Skoda" attitude at VW parts depts.

That's why you need a VW VIN and reg to fool them with - works like a charm.

rotodiesel.

It depends on who you talk to tbh, when getting the cambelt priced up the 1st bloke I spoke with seemed to want to put me off, the next one a few mths later was ultra helpful, while picking it back up I asked for some other things and I obviously asked man number 1 as I got a cv boot that was missing the grease and the clips, and his general attitude was, what part of this is a VW dealer don't you understand mate, luckily most things I need GSF have and they are 100% towards me.

Puts me in a bit of a position tbh, I'd like to get a Sup 2 next, but it will be needing Skoda love for 2 years to keep up the warranty, why oh why don't other makers do a DSG yet, I fancy a Volvo S60/80, and why is a Passat S/H 3k dearer than all the other cars in its bracket.

The problem is, if you need a part unexpectedly in a strange place, you need a strategy to beat the VAG machine - there's no telling the attitude of whoever is lurking in the VW spares dept. I think I've found one - it worked for me.

I couldn't bring myself to buy a car like the Superb (either of them) with cliff-edge depreciation new. 2 years is not a bad compromise - 1 year of remaining warranty and new enough to be not totally wrecked by the dealers.

If you structure the deal correctly (specify long life oil on delivery) you can have a year's warranty and avoid any dealer contact at all. This keeps costs within limits and avoids dealer-induced damage.

rotodiesel.

Do you fellas have a TPS near you ???

They don'y give a monkeys what car its for genuine parts only as well

I looked around a car park and found a Passat of the same year (10th digit of VIN) engine and transmission.

Seems like a good idea - does the 10th digit relate to the actual year of manufacture, or to the model's effective stage of development? Could there be problems with the Passat being 'ahead' of the Superb, so maybe best used for trim bits, but not oily bits?cheers Roto

Roto - that's GENIUS!

Like Fatty, also recommend TPS

Of course you could just hang around car parks in Leciester and "source" the spares yourself Nice idea about the VW vin details though, cheers.

If you structure the deal correctly (specify long life oil on delivery) you can have a year's warranty and avoid any dealer contact at all. This keeps costs within limits and avoids dealer-induced damage.

rotodiesel.

I like that comment about "dealer induced damage" - I once told Ford main dealer that cars only last X miles, Y years or Z visits to the dealers - they did not like that - that was after replacing a heater matrix and breaking the new one and other bits. You guys should try buying bits from Audi - their parts places are manned by uniformed "front men" that take requests behind a wall (to the parts guy) and always suggest that you buy the correct marque's parts for your car - muppets! I've bought an ETOS parts DVD form ebay - and its great as you just go in armed with a list of numbers, used to work well with my local VW van centre - that was until TPS appeared and stopped any ordering of "other marques" parts!!

Edited 15 December, 200916 yr by rum4mo

The whole VAG spares organisation seems to completely disregard the customer - nothing new here from VAG.

If I need a bit for my Superb and there is a building in the town I am in, with the part I need on the shelf, I should be able to get it without having to try to outsmart these people.

The contempt VAG show for their customers is quite breathtaking. Pity, because the screwdrivering operation they call Skoda do quite a fair job.

rotodiesel.