Hi, I have an Octavia 1.6CR TDI which is just over a year old. There is a defect in the steering wheel material. It looks like the platic skin has blistered in a small area and the skin of the blister has become detached in this area exposing the plastic substrate. The defect is about 15mm by 12mm, at about the 6 o'clock position on the inside diameter of the steering wheel. There is no damage in the area that the surface plastic is missing and it is clear that around part of the defect the surface plastic has become detached from the material below.

I have tried to add photo, i trust it works.

Skoda are not being very helpful with this. They seem to say that this is "wear and tear". I have had cars that have done over 200,000miles and never had this type of problem.

Has anyone else had this happen to an item of trim and did Skoda fix it under warranty?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

I would say they should fix it...

However I would take the opportunity and upgrade to a leather one

Definitely a defect IMO.

I've never had a steering wheel blister or tear, and that's on cars 4 or 5 years old.

That's got a genuine warranty claim written all over it.

I've seen steering wheels with over 500,000 miles on them that are in better condition than yours!

Not even my Clio did that. Ok the leather kind-of melted but never bubbled.

That screams warranty.

My old 3 series wheel still looked prime at 160000miles

Like everyone says, stick with it on the warranty claim.

If the dealer won't budge, tell him you want to raise the problem higher and demand that he gives you details of how to contact Skoda UK.

That may be enough to force a rethink on his part; if not, it's the start of a formal dispute that I think you can win.

Many thanks for all the replies. I have raised this with customer relations and while they always sound very nice and helpful all they suggested was to go to another dealer to get a second opinion. This I have done and await their verdict. I will probably have to chase them as i am getting the distinct impression all they want to do is to fob me off.

I will keep chasing this and will report the outcome.