I'm having a nightmare...

[carnivorous]

Keeping you posted lol:

Skoda CS have been very, very good which is unsurprising since I pretty much tore them a new one regarding

the previous issues.

The car was dropped off at Allams today and I have been given a Chevrolet Captiva rental - good enough

for me seeing as I now at least have a 4wd vehicle I can get to work in (terrible car, do not buy one).

Allams have made a decent first impression so far, so when I hear back from them regarding what's actually

wrong with my Yeti and how long it's going to take to fix it, I'll stick up another post. Fingers crossed.

[900000]

Keeping you posted lol:

Skoda CS have been very, very good which is unsurprising since I pretty much tore them a new one regarding

the previous issues.

The car was dropped off at Allams today and I have been given a Chevrolet Captiva rental - good enough

for me seeing as I now at least have a 4wd vehicle I can get to work in (terrible car, do not buy one).

Allams have made a decent first impression so far, so when I hear back from them regarding what's actually

wrong with my Yeti and how long it's going to take to fix it, I'll stick up another post. Fingers crossed.

A Captiva! You poor, poor man. The fuel bills will be sky high too I bet! Hope you survive. But good luck with all that.

[carnivorous]

The steering wheel is bigger than I am.....hahahahaha!

Should see about 30ish mpg as it's a diesel. She'll do.

[carnivorous]

Update: Four days with Allams so far and they have yet to diagnose the fault, let alone inform me how or when the car is going to be fixed.

I must say, after getting Skoda CS involved and given my experiences at the hand of Skoda technicians thus far, I was hoping for considerably more effort and efficiency. :-/

[carnivorous]

I have been informed today that the car is getting a new fuel rail and fuel regulator assembly. Let's hope this is the end of my troubles but I refuse to count chickens at this point....

[rockhopper]

I have been informed today that the car is getting a new fuel rail and fuel regulator assembly. Let's hope this is the end of my troubles but I refuse to count chickens at this point....

Thank goodness for warranty.

[carnivorous]

I do so many miles and cars have gotten so complex and expensive to repair, I only run cars with a warranty now. But the fact remains that a warranty is only as good as the people behind it....

[rockhopper]

I do so many miles and cars have gotten so complex and expensive to repair, I only run cars with a warranty now. But the fact remains that a warranty is only as good as the people behind it....

That is a very good reason to buy new, or nearly new.

[carnivorous]

It sure is if you can hack the depreciation.....but that is less of an issue with the Yeti than with most other cars at the moment.

[rockhopper]

It sure is if you can hack the depreciation.....but that is less of an issue with the Yeti than with most other cars at the moment.

I call 11% extremely good, even for a 3 year old car....but for its first year - amazing. I knew there was a reason I bought the Yeti.....

[carnivorous]

I'll be giggling too once (if) mine finally gets sorted.

[carnivorous]

Right, I have now had another call from Allams, to tell me that all the parts in my post above have been replaced and there is still a fuel pressure problem. Another request has now apparently been submitted to technical, and I should expect a call back on Wednesday at the earliest. After another full week at the dealership, I am no closer to having my car back, let alone having an ETA on when the car will be fixed. In total, the car I purchased for nearly £20k has now spent more time with Skoda than it has in my possession.

I am at the point where I am going to reject the vehicle as not fit for purpose and buy something decent - perhaps an X1. I have been an automotive journalist for 11 years and I have never in this time experienced anything that even comes close to this. Whatever happened to diagnosing a fault properly/efficiently and fixing it without having to resort to your parts-fitters (technicians) being instructed over the telephone, or even building a car properly in the first place?

Rant over.

[900000]

Right, I have now had another call from Allams, to tell me that all the parts in my post above have been replaced and there is still a fuel pressure problem. Another request has now apparently been submitted to technical, and I should expect a call back on Wednesday at the earliest. After another full week at the dealership, I am no closer to having my car back, let alone having an ETA on when the car will be fixed. In total, the car I purchased for nearly £20k has now spent more time with Skoda than it has in my possession.

I am at the point where I am going to reject the vehicle as not fit for purpose and buy something decent - perhaps an X1. I have been an automotive journalist for 11 years and I have never in this time experienced anything that even comes close to this. Whatever happened to diagnosing a fault properly/efficiently and fixing it without having to resort to your parts-fitters (technicians) being instructed over the telephone, or even building a car properly in the first place?

Rant over.

No you'll regret getting an X1 or anything else believe me. Just look at this forum to see how many happy drivers there are!

I've had my car at Allams before to find a "gurgle" noise at low throttle between 1100 and 1400rpm. They could not find it after a week and it was then suggested "the man from Milton Keynes" need to come down. I think you need to insist on this guru coming down as the guys at Allams just take out random bits and replace them with new ones (ad infinitum). Whilst they have the car and you have a rental just keep it there until they fixed it. Don't take it back through haste. Let them keep it a month if need be. The rental costs them a LOT - especially a 4x4 - so they will sort it once those bills rack up their side.

A friend had something annoying on his X5. He told them to keep it until they found the problem after struggling for ages with the dealer. In the end BMW sent a guru from the HQ who found a loose alarm bracket connection that made the whole car shudder at resonance at a certain speed. So nothing to do with the then already installed new gearbox! LOL He paid naught thankfully as it was still under warranty but he had a perfect X5 after that. So patience - I know it is difficult. You have a great car already.

[carnivorous]

I understand what you are saying. I'm not particularly keen on cutting my nose off to spite my own face, but I have had just about enough of dealing with the repercussions of having quite obviously bought a lemon. Even at this stage, and dealing with Skoda UK's customer relations manager direct, there appears to be a surprisingly small amount of haste and priority being given to my case. I keep getting polite phone calls full of promises and carefully and politely worded emails rather than an actual concrete plan of action. "We're waiting on technical again so they can tell us what other parts to bolt on and try next" is the basic gist of it. Over and over again.

I have told Skoda UK of my plans to reject the vehicle as not fit for purpose and have been promised a call back before 10am to discuss. I will surely let everyone know how I get on, but at this rate I won't need to as you'll all be able to read about it in the paper at some point. I am dangerously close to publishing a nice article on the state UK car dealerships and the possible negative experiences that await buyers, even when buying from a brand "rated no.1 for customer satisfaction".

I flat out refuse to let them keep a car for a month or more that I am paying to have ownership of under my finance agreement - in essence I am paying to drive a Chevy Captiva. No thank you. There are plenty of non-VAG alternatives out there such as the X1, CRV, RAV4, etc. that may well be worth a try.

Edited 12 March, 2012 by carnivorous

[900000]

I understand what you are saying. I'm not particularly keen on cutting my nose off to spite my own face, but I have had just about enough of dealing with the repercussions of having quite obviously bought a lemon. Even at this stage, and dealing with Skoda UK's customer relations manager direct, there appears to be a surprisingly small amount of haste and priority being given to my case. I keep getting polite phone calls full of promises and carefully and politely worded emails rather than an actual concrete plan of action. "We're waiting on technical again so they can tell us what other parts to bolt on and try next" is the basic gist of it. Over and over again.

I have told Skoda UK of my plans to reject the vehicle as not fit for purpose and have been promised a call back before 10am to discuss. I will surely let everyone know how I get on, but at this rate I won't need to as you'll all be able to read about it in the paper at some point. I am dangerously close to publishing a nice article on the state UK car dealerships and the possible negative experiences that await buyers, even when buying from a brand "rated no.1 for customer satisfaction".

Grrr...... I feel for you right now.

By the way my car still gurgles... I gave up after being Yeti-less for a week as the "man from Milton Keynes" could only come the week after...... so it is still on my list to sort (before the warranty runs out). Hopefully at Preston Motors which is not a 120mile round trip for me but only 3 miles! I went all the way to Allams only on recomendation from this forum. Though now Preston is getting good reports too.

[carnivorous]

I have a friend from Germany staying here at the moment (I am German much as I hate to admit it), who spent many years in the automotive trade. He is absolutely gobsmacked at how things seem to work "over here". I am inclined to agree with him as I have found dealers in Germany to have technicians with vastly superior competence and technical knowledge, let alone dedication and efficiency. I suppose it's partly down to the British mentality of letting people get away with bloody murder before uttering so much as even a peep, whereas Germans simply won't stand for this kind of shoddy service and incompetence.

My dad's Audi once broke down while he was in England (he is based in Munich)....and after Audi had it for 6 days he rang his dealer in Germany, who promplty rang the dealer in England and said "have you tried this?". Twenty minutes later the car was fixed - needing zero parts, but not after they had replaced god knows how many random parts over the course of a week.

[angrybeard]

Why would you hate admitting to being German, surely one of the best nationalities to be, esp if you like things doing properly!

I really feel for you on this matter, the situation doesn't seem good, despite loving my Yeti, i, like you would be thinking of rejecting the car, perhaps Skoda, can 'somehow' find you another Yeti, that is trouble free, and close enough to your original order that you don't mind the change, as long as the good will payment is enough...

Have you thought about trying a different dealer's, get Skoda to move your car, not saying anywhere else would be any better, but anything to get things moving, and surely SUK should find you a Yeti to have whilst you wait?

[JCP]

Dealers face a dilemma. Really good and talented techies are few and training them takes time and money. Computer diagnostics are no better than the software designers and technicians who design and operate them. Manufacturer support is nowadays much outsourced to people who are only customer relations trained. Most cars are well made and designed to run without significant intervention (other than changing consumables-even that is extended to 18k intervals for the cost accountants who design vehicles for the corporate/lease markets).

When a car proves to be troublesome they are bound to flounder.

If I were you I would ask them to replace the car with a comparable one, from your account this is a problem car for which you have paid a full retail price. If they prefer to persevere and sort the car it can only be on the basis of providing you with a genuinely comparable alternative-their demonstrator for example.

It is not reasonable to expect you to manage with less than you have paid for for the kind of period involved.

[Llanigraham]

I have told Skoda UK of my plans to reject the vehicle as not fit for purpose and have been promised a call back before 10am to discuss. I will surely let everyone know how I get on, but at this rate I won't need to as you'll all be able to read about it in the paper at some point. I am dangerously close to publishing a nice article on the state UK car dealerships and the possible negative experiences that await buyers, even when buying from a brand "rated no.1 for customer satisfaction".

Whilst I feel sorry that you have had a problem, I think that this paragraph is totally over the top. You are willing to denegrate the whole of the British car industry because of one problem with one manufacturer. Sorry but that puts you about equal to Daily Fail reporters, in my mind.

And I suggest that you check BMW, Honda or even Merc forums, because you will find exactly the same type of complaints there as well.

Internet forums are invariably full of people shouting about the problems they have, and rarely about the happy customer.

[yetiscot]

Whilst I feel sorry that you have had a problem, I think that this paragraph is totally over the top. You are willing to denegrate the whole of the British car industry because of one problem with one manufacturer. Sorry but that puts you about equal to Daily Fail reporters, in my mind.

And I suggest that you check BMW, Honda or even Merc forums, because you will find exactly the same type of complaints there as well.

Internet forums are invariably full of people shouting about the problems they have, and rarely about the happy customer.

I agree--as long as it doesn't happen to me!

[carnivorous]

It's not the fact that I have a problem that is the issue, and I am not saying that Skoda are necessarily worse than BMW or Mercedes or anyone else for that matter. What I am saying, is that you pay a premium for a warrantied car from a main dealer, and when that product is defective, it shouldn't be handled like it is in my case. Cars have gotten quite complex, and will inevitably go wrong.

What you don't do, is sell someone a car with a load of obvious defects that any decent tech should be able to remedy or at least diagnose, then twiddle around for weeks on end while your customer makes monthly payments to drive a Chevrolet.

This isn't my first bad main dealer / manufacturer experience, and I am sure it won't be my last, but it is certainly becoming one of the more annoying ones. If I decide to publish an article, it will be on the cost-advantage relationship when buying a nearly new "approved" car from a franchised dealer at a premium, and will chronicle not only my own experiences with Skoda and others, but also those of quite a few other journalists in my circle of acquaintances who have experienced similar or, in many cases, worse.

My only expectation is for people to keep to their customer promise and to do their job with a modicum of care and efficiency. If that reeks of Daily Fail to you, so be it.

[carnivorous]

I may add that I was informed on Friday by a source inside BMW Headquarters in Munich, that UK dealerships (in BMW's case) have the worst rate of warranty repair diagnosis in Europe. Shall I choose to pursue this, I will be making sure to get several more pieces of "evidence" to substantiate my claims - and shall do so from a number of different manufacturers.

[Llanigraham]

You've now explained yourself a bit better than your original rant that I took the paragraph from.

[carnivorous]

Glad to be of service. Apologies if I gave you the wrong impression - I'm pretty angry at the moment. All I ever expect is for people to do what they promise when they have taken money from me.

I would like to add that I didn't join this forum to moan or give anyone a hard time. I have made several posts singing the virtues of the Yeti, and would like to think I have also managed to give the odd good tip or and snippet of decent advice.

As far as my particular situation, I'm just fed up of being messed about now, and justifiably I think. :(

Edited 12 March, 2012 by carnivorous

[The Plumber]

Sad to hear your still having issues, know from my own experience the standards of workmanship can be below that you hope for or expect. Took me a number of visits to get a simple PDC controller replaced and got to go back again at some point to get the trim they broke sorted.

The UK education system doesn't help mind when it comes to training new technicians entering the industry, form my own observations, standards and quality are nowhere near what they used to be in vocational trade training from 16+. This is not helped by a funding system, based on targets and achievement, that encourages education establishments to 'push through' students that in my day as an apprentice, would have dropped by the way side as being not up to scratch.

TP