Skoda Octavia 1.6 Ambiente

I'm new to the fourm, which seems to be very active and a good source of info. Wish I found it before! Anyway I’ve just found out I’ll have to cough up £1150 on 2 new catalytic converters for my Skoda Octavia 1.6 Ambiente (56 plate, 56000 miles).

There’s a bit of a story to this, I’m just hoping the car dealership where I bought my car 6 months ago may be legally liable: http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/advice/problemswithvehicles-sum5.cfm . I did not take out any extended warranty plans; I can’t even remember being offered it, which I did find strange at the time.

I bought the car from Arnold Clark on Jan 2011. The vehicle has a full service history from a reputable company. In May 2011, I heard some strange rattling noises from the engine area so took the car to a local garage to check things over. The mechanic at the garage told me there was a problem with the exhaust flexi pipe (I can’t remember what exactly so I’ll be speaking to him again). In short, he carried out a ‘repair’ job as follows (from receipt): Remove CAT manifold from car, weld in flexi and replace’ I was charged £74 for this.

I thought things were going fine until last week (11 July 2011, 61000 miles on clock) the car started making a high screeching noise at higher revs, and the engine management system restricted me from driving above 30mph. I therefore put the car into an official Skoda garage and got the following, unwelcome, feedback:

1. ‘Found catalyst downpipe collapsed and partially blocking exhaust’

2. ‘Advise replacement of cat/d/pipe and exhaust centre section/cat’

3. Carried out GFF, found various faults listed

4. Advise replacement of both cat sections and erase faults and re-access. The mechanic told that me that I shouldn’t have to be facing these costs given the age and mileage of the car (now 61,000) and that I’d have a strong claim against Arnold Clark.

Skoda quoted me £1150 for this.

I spoke to Arnold Clark today who claim not to be at fault whatsoever and put these problems down to general wear and tear. They checked their service history for the car and did tell me that they replaced the exhaust flexible cable before selling the car.

It seems to me that the problems with the exhaust flexi pipe could have lead to the damage to the catalytic converters, but I can’t say for sure. This would mean either Arnold Clark or the local garage have caused the major failure.

It would be very helpful to hear folk’s opinions and views on this, and if they feel I have a strong case in taking this to court, as that’s where I think it will end up if I push for it.

I also have a few questions which would also be helpful to have answered:

1. Is it common for both catalytic converters to fail in this model of car after 60K miles, surely not?

2. Is the price Skoda quoted for the repair reasonable?

Thanks in advance.

Rez