SKODA Yeti: officially the UK

[Abominable]

It just so happens that I got a new job in the regional council a fortnight ago and share an office with the local Trading Standards team. Handy indeed ;-)

[domhnall]

It just so happens that I got a new job in the regional council a fortnight ago and share an office with the local Trading Standards team. Handy indeed ;-)

S******. Perfect timing. I'm sure your new colleagues will be very useful :lol:

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[mfj197]

Thinking about this further, I actually wonder if you have a criminal case against them.  Firstly, I'm not a lawyer so if any lawyers would like to jump in then please do.  However might you have a case for Criminal Damage?  Of course the dealer is in Scotland so I guess it would be Malicious Mischief or Vandalism under Scottish criminal law.

 

Your new job is most fortunate!

 

Michael

[Dunroamin]

Glad we found this forum we were about to go up to arnold clarke

on saturday to buy a yeti elegance 2.0 tdi. Weve always owned fords so

we have decided to get another kuga after reading thisd. We retired to

nethy bridge 6 months ago and want to be make sure we have a good 4x4 we

can rely on in winter. The missus has an fabia so well get it

serviced in aviemore now

hope you get the yeti sorted out abominible.

[MarieK]

Dunroamin, don't be put off the yeti by this thread. Just don't buy one from arnold clark.

I live on Skye and travelled to England for my yeti, saved over £2k in the deal and have no complaints so far about the car.

[Abominable]

@ mfj197:

 

There are lots of organisations who would like to take an interest in this - Trading Standards, ROSPA, Health and Saftey Exec, Retail Motor Industry Federation, Association of Motor Traders, ISO (yet to determine if Arnold Clark / Skoda UK are ISO registered), Scottish Motor Trade Association....etc etc. This is why I've got a lawyer!

 

@ dunroamin & mariek:

 

It's an interesting one as to whether you should go with a Yeti. I travel to rural properties and businesses providing impartial advice on renewable energy and water supplies, so I meet lots of potential Yeti owners. My work is based upon giving independent & reliable advice. When they see my Yeti they always ask me about it. What am I to say! I always give an honest, non-vindictive, appraisal - a great car, of which I seem to have a lemming and that the dealer service has been awful. So far I haven't seen one new Yeti on their driveways, but I have seen plenty new Subaru XV's, Quashqui's and Rav 4's.

 

The winters in Nethy are extreme so a reliable car is essential, I guess even more so if you're retired. The Yeti seems to be reliable in the main, but in my experience, if/when it does break down you will be restricted as to where the car has to go to be repaired, and that in my experience is when things have started to spiral out of control... Good luck with your decision

[MarieK]

Yes I take your point and that is a concern for me too admittedly. If my car breaks down Inverness is my nearest dealer.

I'll have to take my chances and hope for the best.

[domhnall]

Thinking about this further, I actually wonder if you have a criminal case against them. Firstly, I'm not a lawyer so if any lawyers would like to jump in then please do. However might you have a case for Criminal Damage? Of course the dealer is in Scotland so I guess it would be Malicious Mischief or Vandalism under Scottish criminal law.

Your new job is most fortunate!

Michael

Other than a private prosecution (very rare), only the state has a criminal case. I can't see the PF being very interested in Arnold Clark for bodged yeti repairs

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[Abominable]

You're right domhnall, it falls under civil law.

I had the car audited by two independent Motor Engineers after the brake sensor and HT lead bodges were done. Their reports, which assesed all servicing work done to the car to date, makes extremely interesting, and very helpful, reading. :-)

[domhnall]

Sounds like you have done all the right things. It's not whether a car goes wrong, they're all prone to that, but rather how the dealer and manufacturer deal with the problem. You seem to have had an unusually bad skoda and Arnold Clark and SUK have handled things particularly poorly.

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[Dunroamin]

Ordered the kuga today. a local told me he had probs with that dealer too so not taking any chances dont want to end up like abomnible even tho our fabia is a good runner. tjhanks for advice.

[Abominable]

Sorry to hear you won't be experiencing a Yeti dunroamin. Can entirely understand why you decided not to though. Did you buy from Macrae & ****'s then? Enjoy the Kuga - hope it works out for you.

[Abominable]

Finally got a call from Arnold Clark Inverness branch manager. It was far from a response that was gushing with remorse or apology nor did it seem to recognise the sheer quantity of problems to date.... Anyway, I'm going in on Saturday to see what they are going to offer in terms of switching the vehicle out.

Can't say I am looking forward to it; I've a sinking feeling it will become a horse trading arena where I am yet again going to have to fight my corner in the face of all of Arnold Clarks errors, failures and mistakes.....

In other news, the Service Manager has resigned. As fed up with the whole thing as I am in all probability. It's maybe time for me to resign from Skoda too!

[domhnall]

Friends of ours bought a hyundai from Arnold Clark, less than a year old. It's had a complete electrical failure, been away for repair for 4 weeks so far and no sign they know what the problem is. Latest plan is to replace the entire wiring loom.

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[Abominable]

They have my uptmost sympathies.

[Abominable]

Come to think of it, on one of my (many) visits to Arnold Clark, this time the Edinburgh branch, there was a car in the service bay with it's complete wiring loom on the floor in a tangled mess. My sympathies went out to that owner too. Was probably just a blown reg plate bulb :-)

[Abominable]

So, went into the branch this morning, as prearranged, to discuss moving me out of the UK most unreliable Yeti.

The Branch Manager wasn't there and the Sales Manager was expecting me in for a test drive in a new Yeti! Eh?

He'd been given no briefing at all about all the previous issues, the impending legal case or all the details I had given to allow them to do some preliminary work to price up a replacement car. He knew absolutely nothing!

Another total waste of my time by Arnold Clark.

I'm away on holiday from the middle of this week and as soon as I'm back I'm starting a Civil case against Arnold Clark / Skoda UK - I am going to hurl EVERYTHING at them! I cannot think of anything they have I their defense, so I'm looking forward to some fun!

Going to go quiet on the forum now that I'm starting a legal case.

Wish me luck...

[steve20bore]

I wish you the very best of luck, and everything will remain crossed for you.

 

I hope it doesn't go on too long

 

 

 

Steve.

[Billcbf1000]

All the very best and good luck - hope it doesn't cause you too many ulcers!!!! and that you get a satisfactory result.

Out of interest, it was on a recent BBC programme that if you buy something or even pay the deposit in excess of £100 by credit card, then the credit card company is liable should things go wrong........just a thought if you did use a cc, it might be worth giving them a bell.

[Beryl's Chief Pilot]

Good luck with all that, sounds like you've got a lot of incompetence to battle!

[domhnall]

Just to let you know Abominable, my Yeti is a long way behind yours in the unreliability stakes but the climate control packed up for the second time yesterday. A week short of its second birthday (and having done only 10,000 miles) -  no cold air. Oh and the grab handle for pulling the boot shut came off in my wiife's hands.

 

I was planning to keep this car for longer than my usual three years but I'm increasingly uneasy about owning it without the comfort of a Skoda warranty.

[Abominable]

Pleased to report that we finally got a resolution to the trail of faults with my 1.2TSi Yeti.

 

Skoda UK agreed to put a 5 year warranty / breakdown cover on the car and provided 2 free services as a gesture of goodwill.

 

Arnold Clark, on the other hand, despite all their errors, offered nothing at all. After much persuasion from Skoda UK they finally relented to looking at a problem with the brakes (the brakes had begun to judder during braking which coincided with the time that the wheel bearings were faulty - Arnold Clark had mis-diagnosed the wheel bearing faults for a long long time whilst the car was driven for thousands of miles on new discs and pads, causing the discs to wear unevenly and thus judder under braking. Arnold Clark fitted new front discs.

 

Hopefully this ends the sorry tale of problems with this car. The last 10,000 miles have been fault-free - long may that continue.

 

The moral of the story, if you buy a Skoda keep your fingers crossed you don't get a Friday afternoon one and do not ever go near an Arnold Clark dealership.