Having read all about the failure of these things on Skodas in forums I really wondered if I had made right choice buying a second Skoda Octavia? Seems there are a lot of problems with these parts. I thought Skoda had a history of reliability or have I been duped? What else goes wrong or would that take too long to list?

Edited 18 March, 201016 yr by morganic

Having read all about the failure of these things on Skodas in forums I really wondered if I had made right choice buying a second Skoda Octavia? Seems there are a lot of problems with these parts. I thought Skoda had a history of reliability or have I been duped? What else goes wrong or would that take too long to list?

I wouldn't worry about it morganic. Look out your window, pick a car model you can see in the street, type in "<car model> crap" into google. Read the horror stories, how could you sleep at night if you owned one of those! Then you snap out of it and realise that car out there is just fine with no issues.

People only post when they have a problem :p it's all a bit skewed!

Having read all about the failure of these things on Skodas in forums I really wondered if I had made right choice buying a second Skoda Octavia? Seems there are a lot of problems with these parts. I thought Skoda had a history of reliability or have I been duped? What else goes wrong or would that take too long to list?

Škoda’s sales totalled nearly 37,300 last year (2009). If only one percent of those new owners got an absolute lemon and if only one in ten of the lemon owners decided to rant and rave at length about their experience on Briskoda, that is 37 justifiably angry posters clogging the site. That's just one year. Take ownership across a typical 3 - 5 years and you could have about 150 seasoned owners continually running the brand down. That still leaves a lot of happy bunnies though.

OK, the more things they put in a car, the more things that can go wrong. But have some faith! Big brands as VW can't afford to sell rubbish, and if you've just bought that lemon everybody is talking of, I'm sure that a good dealer will help you out. It is as important to find a good garage as it is to buy a good car. If one of both falls out, the other will save you... If my garage changes from brand, I very probably will change with him. His service is good, and that's really what matters...

Škoda’s sales totalled nearly 37,300 last year (2009). If only one percent of those new owners got an absolute lemon and if only one in ten of the lemon owners decided to rant and rave at length about their experience on Briskoda, that is 37 justifiably angry posters clogging the site. That's just one year. Take ownership across a typical 3 - 5 years and you could have about 150 seasoned owners continually running the brand down. That still leaves a lot of happy bunnies though.

Thats what I thought but you even get Honest John from the Daily Telegraph knocking ESP, DMF's and DPFs. I picked a Skoda Octavia before the Volkswagen Passat as I think they are better built. I have owned every mark of the Passat except the current one so changing brand was not easy.

Fingers Crossed!

Thats what I thought but you even get Honest John from the Daily Telegraph knocking ESP, DMF's and DPFs. I picked a Skoda Octavia before the Volkswagen Passat as I think they are better built. I have owned every mark of the Passat except the current one so changing brand was not easy.

Fingers Crossed!

Must admit, the DPF problem influenced my own purchasing recently and I ended up (on balance, it wasn't the only factor) with a petrol Octavia. You only have to google it to see the extent - Fiat diesels seem hard hit, as does the Mazda 2.0. And for every instance you find of someone able to clear the problem with a long blast down the motorway, there are many others of someone facing a nasty and unexpected bill.

The biggest DMF problems aren't exclusive to bigger Fords, but they seem to have a high hit rate in this area, particularly the 2.2 Mondeo and 1.8 Focus.

So widely reported are both these problems, it would almost take an authoritative body (like the AA) to bring it all together into a single cohesive piece of research to present to Government and to leverage more support from the industry.

Regarding Skodas being 'better built', I'm inclined to agree as I rely on the hard data on reliability from various sources - this would seem to bear out the assertion that VW quality is in feel and look only, not in how they are put together. The old saying about 'legendary VW build quality' is literally what it says - legend rather than fact.

Edited 19 March, 201016 yr by Cauliflower

Well all cars go wrong as do all parts but on average (see http://www.reliabilityindex.co.uk/) we don't seem to have made the wrong decision. There is sizeable statistical bias on any forum because many users only go to them when something actually has gone wrong whereas there could be thousands of other untroubled drivers who never express a view because they are too busy being happy with their cars.

Well all cars go wrong as do all parts but on average (see http://www.reliabilityindex.co.uk/) we don't seem to have made the wrong decision. There is sizeable statistical bias on any forum because many users only go to them when something actually has gone wrong whereas there could be thousands of other untroubled drivers who never express a view because they are too busy being happy with their cars.

(see http://www.reliabilityindex.com)">http://www.reliabilityindex.com (I guess you meant this one)

My second skoda (well second new but third altogether) and I had not second thoughts about buy into the brand again! Infact due to the fabia's wonderful past I've now got 2 other people to buy into the brand.

Just sit back, enjoy and think thank bob that its not a peugeot!