Evening Gents,

I have a 12plate Octavia thats new to me with an indicated 15k on it.

Its an insurance replacement and as soon as I drove it it wasn't as tight as the original vehicle, it wasn't as flat in the corners and a little lose feeling at the back end.

I got under the car today and you can physically move the rear suspension arms on their bushes ( ie roll them) by hand with the car sitting on flat level.

Surely that's not how it should be?

It also has a funny grinding/bearing noise when changing steering lock that sounds to me like a strut bearing is gone.

My questions then;

You shouldn't be able to move the rear arms like that should you?

You shouldn't be needing to rebush a motor at 15k?

Can you, with VCDS, see if the Odo reading has been altered?

Now obviously any work is going to be done by the supplying dealer, Arnold Clark of Inverness, but I'm wondering weather this car isn't all that it seems and if I shouldn't just reject it. That would be easier if I had something concrete to object to like a false Odo, or pehaps an RAC Vehicle report flagging the bush issue.

Any input gratefully received.

Thanks, guys and girls.

Can advise on anything other than the VCDS question. Yes, it does flag up the mileage (in km's though) of the vehicle which you can compare to the display.

Reject it straight away if you are not completely satisfied.

With VCDS, you can view the ECU stored mileage......which is independent of the odometer. It is measured in a slightly different way to the odometer so can be legitimately upto 5% different from the Odometer.......

....But, if it has been clocked 'professionally' the ECU stored mileage will have been doctored too.....so it is not a guaranteed method to tell if a car has been clocked.

I would go back to the dealership and asked raise your concerns. If they have another car similar, i would ask for a road test in it to see if its the car or something else. Test all the problems that you have with your car against the other one and then ask the dealer to come up with a solution if there is a problem.

Dont expect a quick solution with Arnold Clark though.

Did you test drive the car? how long ago did you get the car and how did you pay for it?

Reject it, no way a 15K car should have those issues, whether its clocked or crashed repaired either way it has to much wrong with it for that mileage.

If the dealer wriggles suggest you will get an independant report insisting they pay if defects are found

Another option is to take it to another Skoda dealer for an opinion

Im guessing as with all things in consumer law you are meant tyo give the supplier the right to make good but if they do you need to know why a low mileage car is in such a state, no way is it normal wear & tear

If you can be bothered to dig the previous owner can be traced from the log book who may shed some light but personally I would just get the dealer to find a genuine motor

A 12 plate would still be under Skoda 3 year Warranty surely?

Niall

A 12 plate would still be under Skoda 3 year Warranty surely?

Niall

Good point

Intertested to see Skodas view of a car in that state after 15K

If it has a dodgy history, a poor accident repair for example the Skoda could easily wriggle out of the warranty. The longer you wait to reject and the more attempts the dealer has to repair it the less likely you will be able to reject it.

Thanks for all your input guys.

I went to the dealer today, registered my strong disapproval and told him that I need it fixed. He [the sales manager] said "If it's not right Graeme, we'll sort it, don't stress". I can already see me having to repeat those words back to him, however he has, up until this point been as good as his word so I'll give him a chance to sort it.

Its booked to go into the workshop next week to have the stuff looked at so we'll see what they come up with, I'll be aiming to speak to the workshop manager when the car goes in to make sure none of this is lost in translation as big companies are so skillful at.

I also took some advice from the former workshop manager of Skoda inverness, who jumped ship when Arnold Clark bought out the franchise.

He said the rear bottoms arms are mainly just tie bars and you possibily would be able to move them a little by hand, he also thought it was possible that the elegance model had softer road springs than my other car which was an SE.PR Codes under the bar code at the start of the service book, i'm informed, are how the car is put together and one will correspond to the suspension set up however he doesn't have the information to find out which one so that it could be compared with an SE's book.

He now works for an independent garage, and so has no reason to lie to me so I'm not sure what to make of that.

We shall see. As suggested I do have to allow them the chance to put things right so I'll keep being a pain in the arse until it has been.

Should have known better than to buy from Arnold Clark.

My understanding of the mileage stored in the ecu could not be changed, only the reading you see in the dash clocks. Even using the vcd's.

My understanding of the mileage stored in the ecu could not be changed

It can.....although I imagine on most clocked cars it isn't.

You can't do it with VCDS, but plenty of 'mileage correction' websites offer ecu 'correction' as well as dash correction.

Thanks for all your input guys.

I went to the dealer today, registered my strong disapproval and told him that I need it fixed. He [the sales manager] said "If it's not right Graeme, we'll sort it, don't stress". I can already see me having to repeat those words back to him, however he has, up until this point been as good as his word so I'll give him a chance to sort it.

Its booked to go into the workshop next week to have the stuff looked at so we'll see what they come up with, I'll be aiming to speak to the workshop manager when the car goes in to make sure none of this is lost in translation as big companies are so skillful at.

I also took some advice from the former workshop manager of Skoda inverness, who jumped ship when Arnold Clark bought out the franchise.

He said the rear bottoms arms are mainly just tie bars and you possibily would be able to move them a little by hand, he also thought it was possible that the elegance model had softer road springs than my other car which was an SE.PR Codes under the bar code at the start of the service book, i'm informed, are how the car is put together and one will correspond to the suspension set up however he doesn't have the information to find out which one so that it could be compared with an SE's book.

He now works for an independent garage, and so has no reason to lie to me so I'm not sure what to make of that.

We shall see. As suggested I do have to allow them the chance to put things right so I'll keep being a pain in the arse until it has been.

Should have known better than to buy from Arnold Clark.

See if the chap you have spoken to would be willing to inspect the car, worth paying an hours labour. If he is you dont neccesarily need to do it but when you take the car in insist on seeing the Workshop or service manager & tell them firmly but politely that if you are not totally satisfied you will not bring the car back but get an inspection carried out by an independant engineer. If they ask who say its for me to know & you to wonder. It may just focus them on doing a proper job

Edited 6 April, 201313 yr by Stuart_J

See if the chap you have spoken to would be willing to inspect the car, worth paying an hours labour. If he is you dont neccesarily need to do it but when you take the car in insist on seeing the Workshop or service manager & tell them firmly but politely that if you are not totally satisfied you will not bring the car back but get an inspection carried out by an independant engineer. If they ask who say its for me to know & you to wonder. It may just focus them on doing a proper job

Thanks Stuart,

I have already approached my friendly ex skoda tech to do just that. It'll go up on their ramp before it goes into Skoda so I should know what I'm dealing with. Polite but firm is exactly how I've been approaching it. Unfortunately they don't have a VCDS system and neither do I yet, so the mileage issue may have to wait. I may did approach Kenny's garage in Inverness who are an independent VAG specialist but they wanted £60 just to plug it in. I've got a few other things to be done on the car too including BT coding, but I think I'll hold off on that until I've had the vehicle mechanically inspected.

I'm a contractor to trade, so I'm well used to the art of being polite yet persistent.

Thanks again,

Will keep you posted.

Just keep in mind a lot of cars on AC yards are ex hire cars. A friend of mine just about bought an Astra from them, I told him to ring vauxhall and ask how the car was registered with them when new. Turns out after a long cold shoulder it was a rental and does not get the lifetime warranty. Said he had tell them he was going to auto express as they already covered a story about this.

yeah it is an ex Avis motor, they both were.

I don't think that necessarily means they'll all be crap, but it certainly does mean that some will be.

to be honest though, who else is going to be selling a motor with 15k on it from new?

Unfortunately Arnold Clark buying Delmore was the single worst thing for skodas this side of perth :(

Unfortunately Arnold Clark buying Delmore was the single worst thing for skodas this side of perth :(

Absolutely true, nice that I've tracked down Peter in his new job though!

He's now working for Birrel's MOT's in the Carse, really good little garage. Good work, no nonsense sensible money. They just did some fuel injection work and an MOT on my old Astra.

Absolutely true, nice that I've tracked down Peter in his new job though!

He's now working for Birrel's MOT's in the Carse, really good little garage. Good work, no nonsense sensible money. They just did some fuel injection work and an MOT on my old Astra.

I was going to PM you and see where you'd found the Skoda manager but you've beaten me to it, that's the same garage I take my Octavia to and always found the service good but all the better now the Skoda service manager is there - as far as I'm aware when Arnold Clark took over Delmore they got rid of all the Skoda techs and it's now Peugeot guys that work on the Skodas. I was completely mucked about the couple of times I tried to use the AC Skoda garage so the car won't be going back there, I used to take the previous car to Birrells anyway so it's an added bonus to have someone with specific VW experience. I find the garage pretty trustworthy, if they don't know about something or not entirely sure they tend to tell you rather than mislead you.

I'd hope Skoda wouldn't let Arnold Clark have any more franchises as I think they way they've run the Inverness one is disgraceful (it was the first Skoda franchise for them if I recall correctly) but I think they've since been given other ones. Annoyingly there isn't any other Skoda garages anywhere near although I'd be interested to hear any opinions of Kenny's garage from fellow Invernesians.

Good luck getting your car sorted to your satisfaction.

John

Edited 6 April, 201313 yr by JohnMcL7

Annoyingly there isn't any other Skoda garages anywhere near although I'd be interested to hear any opinions of Kenny's garage from fellow Invernesians.

Yeah, My experience of Kenny's wasn't great to be honest, I walked in and asked if they could code my BT unit in, they just heard the word "bluetooth" and sent me across the hall was to Calum's (CarTech i think he calls himself) with whom they share premises. He fits parrot kits and does window tinting and the like. He didn't know what VCDS was and tried to tell me that what I really wanted was a Parrot kit. Its not.

Maybe I just caught the receptionist, If I go back I'll walk into the workshop rather than do that rigmarole again.

I'd be interested to know if anyone has a contact at Kenny's who knows what he's talking about though.