Right i bought a car a few months ago from Skoda which was a Fabia VRS in silver on a 55plate with 57k miles and full service history. After the first month of owning the car the pulley and alternator went which was a pain but thanks to the warranty it was not a problem.

I was never attached an advisory sheet with my MOT when i picked up the car as the man from the dealer assured me that all advisory work was carried out... However the other day i found out you can check your advisorys online so i typed in my reg and MOT certificate number which therefore returned me all the info i was looking for. the first advisory was all pads and discs were worn and secondly the Nearside front CV gaitor deteriated...

My friend has just looked at the car who is a skoda mechanic and said the CV gaitor needs doing which in all honesty really p****d me off as i was assured all advisory work was carried out and being a used approved car it should have been sorted, thankfully the brakes were sorted which to be honest would have cost alot more but i just find that really bad customer service. From what i heard it's not even a really big job...

Also my rear door seals are leaking to my annoyance and am now fully aware this is a common problem however they will not cover this under the used car warranty and have quoted £80 + Vat. I would honestly have thought that being under warranty this should be covered? it shouldn't come under wear and tear so can't quite see the problem.

The good news is they said they can do CV gaitor under warranty which is some luck but still feel this should have been done in the first instance...

Either way im going to get both of the jobs done however has anyone experienced used car warranty and found other things which is does/doesn't cover?

Many Thanks,

Daniel

Minefield, and depends a lot on the dealer. There's good and bad just like all other walks of life.

Rear door seals are indeed common for leaking, but it's a 20 minute per side DIY easy fix. £10 for Unibond 3 in 1 sealant and £4 for new door card clips (modified type.)

Tell them that they are bull ****ting you on the seals! My one seal went within a month of buying it, again with used car warrenty from skoda. The work wasn't covered by the warrenty but I phoned up the garage and they agreed to pay it. It cost 30 minutes labour per side to remove and re seal. I wish I got both sides done as my other one has just gone :(

I was never attached an advisory sheet with my MOT when i picked up the car as the man from the dealer assured me that all advisory work was carried out... However the other day i found out you can check your advisorys online so i typed in my reg and MOT certificate number which therefore returned me all the info i was looking for. the first advisory was all pads and discs were worn and secondly the Nearside front CV gaitor deteriated...

If you can demonstrate that they stated that all MOT advisory work had been carried out prior to the sale, it would form part of the terms of the sale ("as described"), and they would be required to fix it (Sales of Goods Act). Of course, it's probably going to go down to one person's word against another's, so probably not worth it. As they seem to be doing it under warranty, then it's probably moot, anyway.

Also my rear door seals are leaking to my annoyance and am now fully aware this is a common problem however they will not cover this under the used car warranty and have quoted £80 + Vat. I would honestly have thought that being under warranty this should be covered? it shouldn't come under wear and tear so can't quite see the problem.

You could claim that it's not reasonable for the door seals to fail on a modern car at age 6.5 years (was advised by a solicitor that this was the case on a paint issue @ 5.5 years, so I don't see why this shouldn't be the case). Therefore, under the Sales of Goods Act, you could require them to repair it and shoulder at least part of the cost. However, it is a simple job to do (once you've got the door cards off), so you may be better off doing it yourself, as the above would be a hassle.

Either way im going to get both of the jobs done however has anyone experienced used car warranty and found other things which is does/doesn't cover?

They should have given you a warranty document when you bought the car, and it should say in the exclusions there (they aren't allowed to send it after-the-fact, as that would mean the terms weren't available at the point of sale and could not have been agreed to). From memory, it doesn't cover water ingress, electronic failure, reasonable wear-and-tear, or issues reasonably existing prior to sale.

I have a skoda fabia 1.9 TDI (Sept 2005) I have a Warranty Direct extended warranty where because of the age of the car I have to pay 20% towards the parts and £50 per claim. It does cover wear and tear. I started to have problems with the hand break holding, took it to the garage thinking it was just a hand break adjustment but they found the break activating arms on the rear calipers had seized one completely the other working at 10% The job has been covered by the insurers. It cost me £360 and I have been offered £220 towards the job. After deducting 20% from the parts and £50 per claim I could not get a figure as low as theirs. I queried the calculation to be told they were counting it as one claim per caliper and had therefore deducted 2 x £50 which maid there offer figure correct.

You never know whats covered till you make a claim though on the + side I should be getting a cheque for £220 which is about what I paid for a years cover

Mine came with a warranty.

I made a claim for a radiator, firstly they refused it because the dates on the document were wrong (a year out - their mistake), then because it hadn't been "activated", and finally on the grounds that one of the intervals between two services was too long; from before I'd bought the car!

Fortunately, Subaru UK (was from a franchised Subaru dealer) got involved on my behalf and it was paid up.

Morals of the story?

1) Warranty companies will try anything to wriggle out of it

2) If you want to buy a Subaru, Pollitt Exeter are a good outfit.

I have a skoda fabia 1.9 TDI (Sept 2005) I have a Warranty Direct extended warranty where because of the age of the car I have to pay 20% towards the parts and £50 per claim. It does cover wear and tear. I started to have problems with the hand break holding, took it to the garage thinking it was just a hand break adjustment but they found the break activating arms on the rear calipers had seized one completely the other working at 10% The job has been covered by the insurers. It cost me £360 and I have been offered £220 towards the job. After deducting 20% from the parts and £50 per claim I could not get a figure as low as theirs. I queried the calculation to be told they were counting it as one claim per caliper and had therefore deducted 2 x £50 which maid there offer figure correct.

You never know whats covered till you make a claim though on the + side I should be getting a cheque for £220 which is about what I paid for a years cover

2 cheques for £110.19 (£220.36) arrived today so I can't complain, they have paid out the amount they said they would and have done it very quickly considering there has been a Christmas and New Year holiday. The car was fixed on Dec 20th and the cheques are dated 3rd January Joe

I noticed the door seal problem a few months after buying my used Fabia with a full Skoda warranty. The door seals were not covered in the warranty as I think they class it as bodywork. They did fit a new steering angle sensor and wishbone bushes without any arguments though.

Skoda should have been forced to sort out the door seals on these cars as it is clearly design fault, Good luck with sorting out your problems

Thanks for all your replies, very helpful...

The cars going in the garage today after i finish work so will have to use their courtesy car for the rest of the weekend and hopefully by mid-day Monday it should be sorted...

I just see warranty like insurance, they will try anything to not pay as mentioned above.

I suppose the thing thats most annoying is my nearest Skoda garage is 20 miles their and 20 miles back so all in all a 40mile journey to give them the car and a 40mile journey to get the car back, bear in mind that these are London miles so takes longer...

Long as the car gets sorted i'm happy, never good to sit on problems as they will never sort themselves out and can cost more money in the long run.

2nd trip to garage within 3 months of owning the car. lets hope from now things are ok.

I had a Octavia Elegance 1.9TDI (110) before hand with 206k miles on the clock with a full service history, on standard clutch and drove very well the whole 10months of ownership. The only reason why i no longer have the car was because i was caught in a car pile-up in October 2010 and the car was written off. i managed to keep the car regardless and felt insulted by the scrap yards offer of £100 to take the car. Instead i put it on ebay and after 7days it sold for £550 which all in all was not bad considering i bought the car off my dad for £800. Funiest thing was someone bought the car that lived in Poland and they came all the way down to my house to pick the car up onto a trailer and take back home...

Sorry I ever traded my Octavia in for a Fabia, When I traded the Octavia in at a Skoda dealer last May it sat on the forecourt for 35 minutes and it was then sold on to a lady..

vertrider06 did you happen to get your car from walthamstow? thats where i got my 05 plate fabia vrs not too long ago. had so many problems with it and the dealership just fobbing me off. the car has been back there so many times ive forgotten. they done the same thing to me with the MOT not giving the advisory sheet and assured me when i asked for it everything was done that was on it. i think im going to cut my losses and get rid of the w4nker (car)!

Never ever forget the value of the Sale of Goods act when dealing with a car dealer, warranty is worthless, the law isn't.

vertrider06 did you happen to get your car from walthamstow? thats where i got my 05 plate fabia vrs not too long ago. had so many problems with it and the dealership just fobbing me off. the car has been back there so many times ive forgotten. they done the same thing to me with the MOT not giving the advisory sheet and assured me when i asked for it everything was done that was on it. i think im going to cut my losses and get rid of the w4nker (car)!

If they're still there, you might want to try Willis Skoda in Ruislip. It'll be a PITA from Walthamstow but I found them reasonable to deal with.

I'm going back today to get the head gasket looked at. It's throwing coolant everywhere from the header tank. Let see what they say. Will post later what's going on.

Right been there they tried to mug me off £150 plus vat to replace fan switch plug. 10 min job. Brought the bits from Audi for under a tenner. Gonna do it myself. The warrenty is useless. Totally passed it off when I said head gasket. Not happy at all. Think legal advise is the way forward.

Yeah i got my car from TransCity Soda in Walthamstow. Found customer service was great and had 2 little probs with my car which was sorted out and no questions asked. Did have to pay for rear door seals to be sorted which unfortunately cost me £100. Was annoyed to find out that the advisory work wasn't carried out. good job i checked online otherwise i wouldn't have known... Shame to hear your car is full of problems, i guess it's all about the car lottery. I remember my first ever car being prone to problem after problem...

If you bought a car with them then surely you have used car warranty? also if work is carried out under warranty the dealer will be payed by Skoda directly so can't see why they would be reluctant to sort the issues out...

They have done most of the work on the car under warranty but the fact they are denying the head gasket is on its way is frustrating. It's showing all the signs. And I know exactly what they are. That's how my last car died! they sold me the car with the problems and now I'm stuck with it. It's not really an "approved" used car I suppose I'm just going to have to get the tools out and do it myself!

Hmm yeah that's not good. I just don't see how they won't sort it out. if it's a warranty thing then it's not like they won't get paid out for it :/ You might wanna try your MOT checker online as well to see if there were any advisors on the car in which the work wasn't carried out. Hopefully that way you'll have something against them?

Do you drive a red fabia vrs by any chance? i work in enfield and see one all the time

No mine is silver. I keep seeing the red vrs going about. Looks better than mine! I go to the vag meet at the ace cafe you should come along it would be good to get another Skoda there!

I did check th mot online and the list was as long as my arm. I'm getting under the car on the weekend so I will have a look and see what hasn't been done.

Oh right, ill have to keep my eye out for ya... When do you go Ace Cafe? i've never actually been before funny enough altough i do know people that go from time to time...

Hows the work on the car going? any luck?

Well from now on every 55 plate silver vrs I see is going to get a toot so if it's from a 05 plate it's me! Lol. The garage Pressure tested the cooling system and as I thought they found nothing. I've got two months of warranty left so let's hope if the head gasket is going to fail it better do it soon! I think the vag meet is tomorrow I'm going to pop up there for a few hours. Might see you there or around Enfield!

Scrap that. I'm not going. The meet was tonight I thought it was tomorrow. It's the last Tuesday of every month. I was looking forward to that aswell.