Hi

I was looking at buying a white demo vRS from Gordon Lamb Skoda, Chesterfield, recently - still on Autotrader I think. I went to the showroom and was glad I did as there appeared to be a problem with the driver's seat - something very similar to the faulty seat bolsters described on our forums already.

The staff at the dealership stated they would be selling the vehicle in its current condition as they did not see it as a problem. I declined to buy the car based on my perception of the seat problem.

They phoned me back later the same day and stated Skoda admitted there was a fault on the vRS seats and the seat foam would be replaced with a recommended alternative and Gordon Lamb would be a 'guinea pig' dealership to test the new foam.

They were telling me the standard foam had moved for what ever reason and Skoda were putting an alternative in place to prevent such movement. The outside of the seat (nearest the door) seems to be a weakspot because of the need for the aibag to deploy - if you feel the seat it will be naturally less padded on the airbag side anyway for that reason.

The staff at Gordon Lamb's were very helpful indeed and yet another of my initial dealer contacts was very positive - it would appear the quality of the product is starting to fail the very good dealership teams.

nice info,good to see skoda have finally realised there is problem

Thats if they can be believed. Could just be saying that in the hope of selling it. The should never say they are going to sell a nearly new car in that condition for an obvious warranty fault.

Shocking that they are selling a showroom car with an obvious fault, I'd run a mile.

Are they prepared to put that in writing for you??

In my experience, Skoda very rarely 'own up' to a fault like that, they just resolve any warranty claims that come up. Often replacing it with the same standard as the original, so the issue may well crop up again.

While you say they've been helpful, that wasn't a great opener for them - saying they'd do nothing about an issue that a potential customer had clearly flagged up. That would then raise questions in my mind, over what other issues on the car might they just be ignoring, or not wanting to do anything about?

Steve

Sorry for my ignorance on this but when you say bolster do you mean the one on the lower part of the seat i.e. which you sit on, or the one on the seat back? In my car it s the former that is causing problems.

Bolster = the side of the seat, ie the upright where your right ribs contact the seat, where the airbag is housed.

The guys at Gordon Lamb were very pleasant but don't get me wrong I've heard many sales pitches before - they were adament the car did not have a fault, according to Skoda, and it would be sold in that condition - maybe that's why the other so called six customers have also walked away. That's why I walked away.

This is a a cheap car - advertised at £15 980 but would take an offer of £15750 AND throw in a set of rear parking sensors!

Sorry for my ignorance on this but when you say bolster do you mean the one on the lower part of the seat i.e. which you sit on, or the one on the seat back? In my car it s the former that is causing problems.

Hi, what problems are you having with your seat? I am thinking of selling my 60 plate VRS as I can't live with the seats any more, they are so uncomfortable, the sides just seem to crush the sides of my legs, is anyone else having such problems?

This is a a cheap car - advertised at £15 980 but would take an offer of £15750 AND throw in a set of rear parking sensors!

Not really. You could order a new petrol vRS for £15.5k from drivethedeal.com

Granted you'd have to wait for it to be built, but £16k for a used Octavia isn't cheap.