LE Damaged Wheels Register

[danrooke]

I replaced my LE wheels (monzas) with Neptunes from the standard vRS. I never really got anywhere with Skoda Customer Services after several emails. They meet the UK legal requirements unfortunately, although I'm not sure the responses fit in with the old company slogan of 'Manufacturer of happy drivers' - perhaps more so with the new 'Simply clever' slogan, for Skoda's benefit at least.

Skoda could not confirm that the wheels had been tested by them, when directly asked.

I think another member did have some success using the line that their car was not supplied from the factory with these wheels, according to the records available to dealers using chassis number, which is against the guidelines in the handbook for the car. I believe the member had their's replaced for Zeniths at Skoda's cost.

I have given up on getting any results from Skoda, they're reputation has been tarnished in my book and of course I feed this back to friends and family, as communicated to customer services. It seems that customer safety is towards the bottom of the priority list for Skoda. I would be very reluctant to buy another one, especially any sort of limited run like the LE.

[sunset76]

Well, the day I've been dreading has finally arrived. My LE front passenger-side wheel has buckled and started losing air quite quickly :(

I knew this would happen eventually, I avoid all the pot-holes that I can, but I suppose that with such poor quality wheels it was inevitable...

Wish I'd never bought the LE now :(

[blackspaven]

I had an issue with a low mileage wheel on my L&K bubbling and when SUK showed no interest I emailed Autocar and they very quickly got involved. Suddenly, Skoda couldn't call me quick enough. Not quick enough to stop the article going to press, but all got resolved. Has anyone tried writing to motor magazines instead of the BBC??

[Aspman]

You could write to Which? that just awarded them 'Best manufacturer'.

I did that with an unrelated company that was displaying a 'Which?' approved trader badge on their website. They did actually follow it up and things did move on.

[jmattley]

I hit a pot hole on the way to alton towers a few months back, got skoda to look at it during my MoT today. Turns out my rears are lightly buckled, but not loosing pressure, but my front left that hit the pot hole is loosing about 5 psi a week! Skoda want £170 for a new one. Considering what a common problem it is, I may just look at some stronger wheels which look similar to the Monzas. 

[ChilledBud]

I had a buckled front wheel and ended up changing them all to the TD 1.2s.

jmattley : I've three good alloys without tyres and one buckled with a near new Avon ZZ3 that keep pressure, the tyre has a minor bulge which meant it was skipped when I had new tyres fitted, but had a good couple of thousand miles out if it without any issue. If you want to buy a cheap single or more feel free to PM me.

[Toddie]

ChilledBud sent you a PM  Regards Toddie

[jmattley]

Just so everyone knows, I've sent a polite yet firm email to Skoda customer services about this saying that it's unacceptable and I want something doing about. I'll give it a few days then call them. I'll keep people posted about what they say.

[sunset76]

Just so everyone knows, I've sent a polite yet firm email to Skoda customer services about this saying that it's unacceptable and I want something doing about. I'll give it a few days then call them. I'll keep people posted about what they say.

Good luck, but I wouldn't expect them to capitulate. Seems like they only care about their legal rights, not their moral responsibility...

Edited 29 October, 2013 by sunset76

[jmattley]

So...

 

After my dealership taking pictures of the wheels and sending them to customer services, the verdict was exactly as I and everyone expected.

 

Basically, the car is 4 years old, so out of warranty, there are no "defects" with the wheels and no recalls on them. Therefore it's not their problem and they will not do a single thing about it except sell me new wheels at £170 a corner. They also had an "expert opinion" from their technical team and he says it's just speed bump and pothole damage. I pointed out that no one with regular 18s has had this problem and he had didn't know. I also sent them a link to this thread, but they can't look at it because it's not a Skoda approved forum (are there any?!).

 

So to sum up, I'm a bit stumped at what to do next. 

 

Any ideas? I'm tempted to just leave it as I think I'll just be wasting my time.

[jmattley]

Hi all, so another quick update, called the citizens advice bureau today. They reckon I'll have a difficult time getting anything from Skoda. And because I have the car on hire purchase finance, it is technically the finance companys responsibility to sort it as they're the ones who technically sold it to me (sort of).

 

So on this, I'll be calling VWFS at some stage, so I'll keep you all posted on what happens. 

[chris w]

Just to drag up an old thread, sold my LE this week and it left on its new wheels leving me with the originals.

 

If any LE owners need an odd wheel PM me, im going to split the set as I Know others may need just the one.

 

collection from cheshire

[Toddie]

chris w sent you a pm. cheers Toddie

[N7EJA]

Price? Condition ?

[chris w]

Looking for £30 a wheel, Toddie is taking 2 and is having first choice. I can send you pics of the 2 that are left if you pm me a mobile number.

 

ta