Its been a while since I have posted anything on here, since I sold my 2.0 tdi L&K with dsg to TheWes ( hope its all ok). But I have noticed that there seems to be more and more problems with the Octavia or are there more people on Briskoda posting there problems for a quick fix solution???

I have had three octavias now all L&K version and two with the 2.0 tdi and dsg gearbox, and I only ever had one problem in seven years of motoring and that was a sticky cruise control button which was fixed within days under warrenty..

Are people expecting to much, which was of coarse a budget car ( in the beginning), or is it because Skoda have now caught up with the likes of BMW, Ford, and other premium brands..

Looking at a forum such as this is a bad way to judge. Many people join the site because they have a problem. Many owners have no problem at all so never seek out a site like this.

A few weeks ago someone asked a similar question, and there were several pages of replies from happy owners. Inevitably a forum like this will draw attention to the problems, because people are often asking questions about them.

A few weeks ago someone asked a similar question, and there were several pages of replies from happy owners. Inevitably a forum like this will draw attention to the problems, because people are often asking questions about them.

My first T reg Skoda TDI engine died at 66k with a horrible death rattle, the dealer couldn't fix it, and it was just out of the extended warrranty (which Skoda Customer Services disputed I had, even though it was listed on the invoice... ) Anyway, despite all that horror, I traded that in for a Elegance TDI. Seven and a half years from new, that has only had an intermittent coolant warning light, (spurious warning) fixed under warranty, and an engine sensor thingy replaced. That's it, over 72k. Likewise, the X Reg SLX TDI recently passed on had no issues at all between the 35k to 80k in which I drove it, - both those cars maintained by an independent garage.

The other thing to bear in mind is that folks will not usually report 'no problems, everything fine' - because that's tempting fate, or what!

I'd suggest that a Skoda is way better than Ford, and equal to BMW in all but price...

If you do have a problem the best place to maybe get some help is a forum like this!

I can say with had on heart that both skodas (to date) have been a zillion times more reliable than my previous peugeot/citroen cars. I hope it stays that way too!

Saying that they have both had issues. Fabia suffered from leaking rear doors but other than that nothing that has not be caused by user error (meaning me). Octavia has been good so far though the paint on the rear bumper is starting to flake/bubble which is currently awaiting a response from skoda UK.

One thing you have to understand is that cars have become incredibly complex, and (roughly speaking) reliability of a system is the sum of the reliabilities of all the components. So as you add more components, reliability goes down (all things being equal).

When I started in the motor trade in the late '70's we were fixing Escorts with a carburretor, choke, contact-breaker points ignition and a simple two-speed heater blower. No power steering, no ABS, no airbag, no A/C or climate control. Modern cars are like a networked computer system with some mechanical parts added on. Given their complexity I thinks its astonishing how reliable they are.

The majority of the parts used by Skoda are generic to the whole VAG range. So your Octavia will have a vast number of parts common to the Golf, Audi A3, Seat Leon etc. Many of the suppliers of these parts are also supplying to BMW, Mercedes, Volvo etc and will use the same materials and quality control processes.

If you choose a car with a CR Diesel engine and a DSG gearbox then you have an extremely complex vehicle. If you want simplicity then go for a non-turbo petrol engine and manual transmission.

I think the fact that Skoda have won multiple client satisfaction surveys year after year and are the car of choice for taxi drivers just about everywhere strongly suggests generally they're getting it right.

If you look on any motoring forum (inc BMW, Volvo etc) you will find lots of people having problems, its just the nature of the beast. Its reasonable to assume they are in the minority in the grand scheme of things.

Of course there have been some notable problems recently with lots of car brands with DPFs and the infamous Teves Mk60 ABS pump/controller, but I think generally cars these days are more reliable, but cost a fortune when they go bang.

(Contact breaker points may have been cheap and easy to replace but they needed attention fairly frequently to keep the old cars running well!)

Edited 12 October, 201015 yr by juan27

Additionally in years gone by if you had a problem with your car and you werent sure what the dealer (or other garage) said was wrong you had to take the car to another garage to confirm or just stump up whatever you were charged. Now you can use these forums to confirm get reassurance that your not being conned by dealer/garage, and as we all know for years we have seen horror stories of people being charged large sums for easy fixes just because they had trust. Alternatively as you said people can get fixes for things that they wouldnt have known how to fix without the help of other members, but are now able to do themselves.

Could be worse

http://www.fiatforum.com/croma/246045-whats-broken-yours-then.html

Edited 13 October, 201015 yr by BigBaddad

At least its not a Fiat!!!!

Reading all the threads over many months, it would be interesting to list the major problems that do get reported. It seems to me (over-simplifying a bit!!) that an Octy 2 without certain features is extremely reliable. Many of the reported faults relate to the equipment found only on certain models, be they diesel, automatics, whatever. Things like the dmf, the particle filter thingie, and so on.

The standard manual petrol TSi's (for example) seem to report very few big faults. Just out of curiosity, it would be interesting (and instructive) to see some kind of table of faults in order of frequency, and the precise models and/or specifications of car they relate to.

It would be especially useful to see the faults that seem to relate to every model, generic faults, if you like!!

I think also there are now A LOT more new skoda Octavia owners than before (myself included) which also has added more cars to the used Octavia market thereby introducing even more people to used Octavias. Ergo more people on the forum ergo more people reporting/discussing problems but i personally think that if the figures could be checked the ratio of problems versus owners would be quite small if not insignificant.

The standard manual petrol TSi's (for example) seem to report very few big faults. Just out of curiosity, it would be interesting (and instructive) to see some kind of table of faults in order of frequency, and the precise models and/or specifications of car they relate to.

You musn't forget that Skoda sell more diesel Octy's than petrol versions, so of course there will be more people posting about problems with Diesels. DSG has also rocketed in popularity so a higher proportion of cars have auto boxes etc.

Statistics are useless unless they’re in a qualitative context, you can twist and interpret them in many ways!