Hi. The Wife owns an 09 plate Fabia and the black foil trim on the rear of each front door looks to have been badly applied at the factory when built. I recommended she had this rectified by the supplying dealer just after we bought the car but she didn't and now the foil is split, creating a water trap between the foil and painted metal underneath. The dealer wants £30 to repair, but I think it should be done free as a goodwill gesture. Anyone else had this problem?

Welcome to the forum.

Sorry, but I can not really see why the Dealer should cover the cost now,

when Skoda would have, if the claim would have within the Warranty period.

I would price the Film as a part, and look at applying/sticking it on yourself.

george

Yep, had this happen on an 11 plate vRS estate when only several months old, they'd all pretty much began degrading. Skoda did it under warranty but I was somewhat accused of having caused the problem by cleaning it too much (actually nothing farther from the truth; probably had only had a basic wash maybe 3-4 times in several months) and said next time it wouldnt be covered.

They had to get a sign writer in to apply the new vinyl as they didnt have the skill in house to do it themselves; needless to say the job was OK but not perfect; they also bent the metal in my front door seal rubbers when removing and refitting them which led to them not sealing properly; a friend fixed it for me in the end.

Honestly I dont know why they didnt just paint the pillars black or just leave them body colour; quality of the vinyl in my experiece was poor

Welcome to the forum.

Sorry, but I can not really see why the Dealer should cover the cost now,

when Skoda would have, if the claim would have within the Warranty period.

I would price the Film as a part, and look at applying/sticking it on yourself.

george

Thanks for the reply George.

I'm not a DIYer and don't think any attempt by me to replace this would be successful. After all, if the factory couldn't do the job right...

Thanks for the reply Pypsyp.

According to our dealer, Skoda won't pay. Thinking of contacting them direct. Dealer quote was to repair one door not two, so we would be looking at a £60 bill. Wonder if OUR dealer would get it right though. Your experience doesnt say much for Skoda quality or customer relations...

Back to the main question, Is it out of Warranty now or not?

If you had brought up the matter when you were firsts aware of it, there would have had to be a Warranty Repair done and to a proper standard.

Not some half ar53d fix.

Customer have consumer rights and does not need to accept Poor Standard Manufacturing or Workmanship.

If you do not like the Dealers Response you can Take Pictures & contanct Skoda UK Customer Services,

but it would have to be a gesture on their part to cover the cost if the Warranty has Expired.

You will have had an opinion from a member of staff at the Dealership,

well who was that,

The Workshop Manager, the Body shop Manager or someone on the Reception Desk.

No Dealership really speaks for Skoda, they often say 'No', because they expect the answer 'No' to

something being done under Warranty. If out of Warranty, they are probably totally correct.

Ask Skoda UK yourself.

george

Hi George

We bought the car from a Skoda dealer at one year old.

To be honest, I can't agree with the wife when we first spotted the problem. I think it was there from purchase, she thinks not. She says the car was out of its warranty period though I am sure we had some kind of cover. It was certainly apparent for some time before it split open. I had been on at her to get it looked at by the dealer, who has serviced and MOT'd it since we bought it, but she didn't think it was a problem worth wording about until it recently split open. It's now an obvious eyesore spoiling the looks of an otherwise smart car.

My feeling is that despite the fact the warranty has expired, this simple bad design or workmanship and shouldn't be dismissed on a car of this age. If it was paint or laquer peeling or another cosmetic defect I would feel the same.

As the other poster mentioned, the pillars could have been painted black rather than covered in this way. I can only assume that the foil covering was considered a cheaper way to do the job than painting. Development testing should have shown up the shortcomings of the method, or is it a defect attributable to the assembly / quality control process?

Whatever the reason, our relatively new car looks rather shabby and cheap now, and it's through no fault of our ownership or abuse.

John Harper

I was a car sprayer, personally i would remove the film. clean the surface, prep & mask and paint it,

but if you are not a DIY'er it looks like it will need to be replacement film.

The Foil is not really done because its cheaper,

there are not many vehicles that get Sprayed by manufacturers then parts done in another colour on the main body.

It would not just be economics, its not practical.

The way its done works for Million of cars perfectly OK, with however few wrong ones.

george

I was a car sprayer, personally i would remove the film. clean the surface, prep & mask and paint it,

but if you are not a DIY'er it looks like it will need to be replacement film.

This is how it looks like on my car. Still sticking, but already splitting. Car is two years old. I've taken it to the dealer, and I'm still waiting for a reply as to warranty or not, but based on this thread it's not very likely, I guess.

 

 

 

 

This issue has also been debated in a German Skoda Fabia forum, and here are some photos taken by a guy who simply stripped the foil from the doors:

http://www.skodacommunity.de/p927441-b-s%C3%A4ule.html#post927441

Doesn't look to bad like this, so I may do the same thing if my door gets worse.

Edited 24 July, 201312 yr by jankph