Timetable:

December 2008 - take Delivery of Skoda Superb. Which despite everything I might say below, I still think is a lovely car.

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October 2011 - Aware that the end of 3 year Warranty is drawing near - I decide to investigate Warranties.

After a lot of poking around the choice appears to be between the Skoda Extended Warranty or "Warranty Direct".

Warranty direct have several levels of cover. The top level is pretty comprehensive. It is slightly cheaper than the Skoda, and does not come with "Skoda Assistance"

(we have made use of Skoda Assistance and found it to be a helpful and practical service, especially when you primary aim is to be going again quickly)

November 2001 - whilst car is having one of its quarterly free Valets we talk to Service Manager, by appointment, asking to him to go through the terms of the warranty with us.

We ask a lot of questions - especially covering issues about what is included and in particular, whether it covers the Columbus Unit.

We are assured that it does. The Warranty is explained as being essentially an extension of the Skoda Factory Warranty.

A claim repeated on the Skoda UK website:

http://www.skoda.co.uk/GBR/owners/warranty/extended-warranty/Pages/ExtendedWarranty.aspx

"Unlike other warranties, it covers you exactly as a genuine ŠKODA factory warranty would for the full period of time that you have it."

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29th of December 2011 Car goes for MOT, we meet up with Service manager again, we AGAIN ask about the terms and coverage for several specific issues. One of them is the Columbus.

We decide for the Skoda Policy and pay our £399

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11th of December 2011

Columbus unit dies. Display turn a mid-gray, Touch screen functions also inoperative. Behind the scenes (and as verified by our VAG COM) the rest of the Columbus is working "behind the scenes" - but the Display is FUBAR.

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12th December 2011

Car booked in with dealer for investigation on the 14th. Am assured by dealer this will be covered.

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13th December 2011

My Policy Documents for Skoda Assist arrive. Notice some alarming and rather ambiguous wording. Am concerned.

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14th December 2011

Dealer investigates. Confirms Columbus FUBAR and we need a new one. Tries to find Warranty on system. Fails. I am asked to go home and contact them with the details from my Policy Documents.

I am assured again that this will be covered.

I go home. Find documents and decide, in the first instance, to contact Warranty company. in doing so I notice that, unlike the factory warranty, The extended Warranty is both underwritten AND ADMINISTERED by a 3rd party company in Leeds. Also note that the small print excludes many items. Further note that this these exclusions go *way* *beyond* those listed on the Skoda Website.

The call to the extended Warranty company is answered by a rather patronising, irritating and unhelpful individual who (somewhat triumphantly) tells me that The Columbus is excluded is it is a "Traffic Management System" - which is one of the many specific exclusions I just mentioned above. He then takes further delight in telling me that he has just spoken to the dealer and told him the same thing.

I am angry beyond words.

I phone up Dealer and chew them out. There initial attitude is that this must all be some terrible mistake, please can I give them time to talk to the Warranty Company to sort it all out.

Eventually they call me back. It is no mistake. They do sound genuinely shocked. They tell me that, provided I agree to continue with the Skoda Extended Warranty, Skoda UK will agree to pay for the supply and fitting of a new Columbus Unit.

I am not at all happy, but agree. A unit is ordered.

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Thursday 15th December

Discuss situation with Warranty Direct. They say they are "rather used to this situation". They will supply me with cover to run alongside the Skoda Extended Warranty. This will cost me £320 odd.

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Friday 16th December

Back at dealer for 8am.

Hang around for around 45 minutes. Am then told that they have just discovered they need to install the firmware and code the unit. This will be another 45 minutes.

Meanwhile discuss the situation again with Manager. I ask for:

a) A free copy of the latest version of Maps (we were going to buy this anyway)

Our next service free.

They agree to (a) and offer me a very substantial discount on (. The effect of this is I get all of my £320 reimbursed bar £50. I accept.

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The Final Indignity.

Car is ready. We depart. we get half a mile down the road and discover that whilst the Satnav and display work find, the Audio is completely dead. Nothing.

Return to dealer. Another hour drinking horrible coffee and watching dodgy daytime TV. They sheepishly come and tell me that the new unit is faulty, they have put the old unit back and and we have to return on Monday again.

My first worry is that the reason it did not work is because the dealer did not code it correctly - We have the enhanced sound system, and I think that uses the digital output. I guess we will find out Monday. <Sigh>

But my big concerns are

1) Skoda UK are blatantly misselling their Extended Warranty.

a) The Terms which apply are nothing like is listed, or suggested on the website. Not by a long, long way.

They completely fail to make it clear that the extended cover is provided by a third party company.

2) The Skoda dealer

a) Repeated the above mistakes. (Quote possibly NOT their fault).

Do not appear to understand the warranty they are selling at all.

c) Also did not tell me I that I can buy "Skoda Assist" independently of the extended warranty.

So you now have 2 extended warrantys running at the same time.

Does the Warranty Direct one cover you for a broken Columbus

If the Warranty Direct costs £320 and Skoda's is £399, why did you go for Skoda's?

I have just bought a S/H Superb and the 3 years is up on 1/9/12 but the dealer has extended it to 10/12/12 as part of the Skoda Approved Used Car scheme. I presume the extra 3 months might be covered by this 3rd party company in Leeds

>Does the Warranty Direct one cover you for a broken Columbus

Yes. Quite specifically. It also covers several other major items excluded by Skoda including the Airbags, The Electric Seats, The Emissions Control system, The GSM module, The Parking sensors, The Central locking, etc.

>If the Warranty Direct costs £320 and Skoda's is £399, why did you go for Skoda's?

a) Because I only found out about the exclusions the day after the Columbus unit died.

(If the unit had not died, I would have told them where to shove it and demanded my Money back - it would have been simple.

Because I had specifically been told that Skoda policy was as good or better.

c) Because the Skoda Policy inlcudes Skoda Assist (Which I value).

Oddly, Now I know that Skoda Assist is available unbundled (something they neglected to tell me) - I also discover that the cost of Warranty Direct + Skoda Assist is almost exactly the same as the Skoda Warranty.

Kind Regards

Andrew

This talk about warranties reminds me of my issue. When discussing sawtoothing problems with my Skoda dealer here in Coffs Harbour, I read through the terms of my WRITTEN warranty. At the time of purchase I was told (maybe there was a sign on the cars in the lot) that the warranty was three years or 100,000kms. To my horror, the book states TWO YEAR warranty. I brought this to my dealer's attention. He professed ignorance. Obtained a warranty book from a brand new car on the lot which also said TWO YEAR. "" Don't worry we will honour the three year warranty"says the dealer. Of course that is when you start. Number of telephone calls were made and Skoda (Australia) promised to send a new warranty book. Eventually new book arrives and it also has two year warranty proscribed. Skoda unable to explain what has happened and blamed Skoda CZ. Three year warranties are the industry standard here with Korea and some Japanese manufacturers now offering five years.

I'm now into my third year of ownership and am a little twitchy given my years of interaction with various car dealers as I plod along along with a VERBAL warranty.

I just find it incredible that these kinds of confusions are allowed to continue.

My Dealer suggested to me that I should rely Skoda UK "Goodwill" for the remaining 11.5 months of my warranty with them.

...and seemed genuinely surprised when I told him I had major concerns with that.

It is very clear here that at least this dealer has some major issues of confusion to sort out with Skoda Uk.

From where I sit it is very hard to judge whether the primary blame lies with the dealer or with Skoda UK.

However given what I see on the Skoda UK Website and the Skoda UK documents that have been sent to me, it seems that At least some blame must be dumped on Skoda UK.

I don't know whether the dealers on this site feel able to comment on this (and would understand if they did not) - but it would be interesting to hear if they did feel able.

Personally I think the whole UK Warranty situation is in a "Right Bleeding Mess". Ultimately this can do Skoda nothing but harm and will seriously damage relations with some of their customers.

In Ireland we only get a two yr warranty, I asked about the fact that they get a 3yr warranty in the uk, I was told that the in the uk the 3rd yr of the warranty is financed by the skoda dealer network.

In Ireland we only get a two yr warranty, I asked about the fact that they get a 3yr warranty in the uk, I was told that the in the uk the 3rd yr of the warranty is financed by the skoda dealer network.

This is correct, the first 2 years are Skoda CZ and the 3rd year is provided by Skoda UK. The first 2 years are unlimited mileage, whereas the 3rd has a 60K limit, so if you run over 60K in the first 2 years you in effect do not get the 3rd year here at all.

>Does the Warranty Direct one cover you for a broken Columbus

Yes. Quite specifically. It also covers several other major items excluded by Skoda including the Airbags, The Electric Seats, The Emissions Control system, The GSM module, The Parking sensors, The Central locking, etc.

>If the Warranty Direct costs £320 and Skoda's is £399, why did you go for Skoda's?

a) Because I only found out about the exclusions the day after the Columbus unit died.

(If the unit had not died, I would have told them where to shove it and demanded my Money back - it would have been simple.

Because I had specifically been told that Skoda policy was as good or better.

c) Because the Skoda Policy inlcudes Skoda Assist (Which I value).

Oddly, Now I know that Skoda Assist is available unbundled (something they neglected to tell me) - I also discover that the cost of Warranty Direct + Skoda Assist is almost exactly the same as the Skoda Warranty.

Kind Regards

Andrew

Andrew, thanks for those answers.

Can point me in the right direction on the Warranty Direct website for your policy.

I asked for a quote online and it came to £600 or £700 and it specifically excluded Navigational equipment.

I'm interested in extending my warranty for an extra 2 or 3 years

£320 / year is about the going rate for a Warranty for our car.

(but we have only done 50k miles. Warranty rates go up steeply with higher mileage)

That's for "Luxury Care Plus" at this link:

http://www.warrantydirect.co.uk/summary_m.html

Another 3 wasted hours this morning. In a freezing cold waiting room, sometimes accompanied by fractious kids. Deep Joy.

But it does, finally seem to be fixed.

Just to add to this,

You cannot buy an extended warranty through Skoda Irl, and it seems quite hard to find anyone here, who will sell and cover an extended warranty.

Warranty direct say they will, and I am just wondering if any Irish members have taken out a policy through them and if so, what did they think of the cover?