Just back from a fantastic weeks on holiday near Royan in France.  We drove from the tunnel to our campsite, unloaded the Yeti, removed our 4 bikes from the roof, opened the beer when I spotted a screw poking out from the tread of a flattish front tyre.  Grrr, I’d spent a few weeks agonising over whether to buy a spare wheel or not before deciding not to.  Still, at least I was relieved that we’d reached the campsite without incident, and didn’t need to deal with this mid-journey.

 

So, I called Skoda Assist (RAC) and asked if they could send a mobile out to help; but it turns out France has no equivalent to the Kwik-Fit vans I’ve used at home.  The RAC offered to help locate a tyre but I’d have to use the gunk/pump solution to get myself to the tyre place for fitting.  A few deep breaths later and the gunk/pump stuff worked as it should (phew – I had heard horror stories about that).

 

I headed off next day to the recommended tyre place – 40K away.  Once there I discovered that the tyre had been ordered but wasn’t there yet.  One irate call to the RAC later confirmed it would take 4 (four!) days and was being dispatched from Germany.  Also, it turns out that the French convention is always to replace both tyres on the axle.  Now my Yeti was new in March and has only done 6k so I attempted to convince them that buying a single identical spec & brand tyre would be sufficient.  Eventually they seemed to accept my logic.  This was a relief especially since one Pirelli was to be €222.

 

I returned 4 days later when and the new tyre had arrived (the RAC actually confirmed this pro-actively, partly making up for their earlier communication snafu), and the tyre was promptly fitted.  Finally, during the week I tried to purchase some replacement gunk, but neither of the 2 VAG dealers I managed to find had any – so I was dreading a second puncture all 650 miles home.

 

A couple of reflections:

 

(1) The gunk/pump solution was actually OK.  Could I have risked driving home fully laden at speed?  Probably not.  But in this respect a space-saver spare would not have served me any better.

 

(2) Low uptake of Yetis in France?  Unusual tyre spec?  Not sure why, but 4 days to source a replacement could leave you in trouble; especially if this happens near the end of a holiday.  Next time I’ll be travelling with a full–size spare.

I'm glad the gunk worked for you and held out until you could get a new tyre but two thoughts come to me - if it was just a slow puncture due to a screw in the tyre, why couldn't it be fixed with a puncture repair? Isn't this legal in France or did the gunk coating rule it out? As someone who has has a couple of blow outs in tyres if the gunk hadn't worked where would that have left you? Each to their own but I think I'll stick with my preference for a space saver spare wheel because even restricted to 50mph it would keep me mobile.

 

But it sounds like despite the hassle and cost, you enjoyed your holiday and that's the most important thing.

Welcome to France, where customer service has yet to be discovered. Buying tyres here is an expensive pastime, particularly if you just turn up at the tyre place. And what you want is NEVER in stock.

The best way to buy tyres in France is to buy them online from someone like www.123pneu.fr (the French equivalent of mytyres) and take them to an independent dealer for fitting. I realise that in your predicament that wasn't an option. So the best solution is a spare with jack etc.

As for low take up of Yeti in France, the French tend to buy only French products (particularly in rural France). There is a reasonable Skoda dealer network here but if the Yeti had a Peugeot or Renault badge they would sell. I know which I'd rather have!

Glad the holiday was ok.

The fitter handled the tyre as if it had leprosy.   There was still about 200ml of liquid gunk sloshing around that had him sneezing and generally mithering.  Repairing didn't seem like an option based on his body-language alone, and my French wasn't up to the task of working out the legalities of a repair.  But, like you say, it didn't spoil the trip.

Sounds to me like you should have just pumped the tyre back up and took it straight to a tyre place for a 10 euro repair rather than ruining it with gunk (altough in fact this can be cleaned out).  Any motor shop would have sold you new gunk, no need to go to VAG dealers.

4 days - lucky you, they must have liked you! Internet purchases; arrive in 2 to 5 days, order in a "shop" - normally 10 to 15 days plus rrp for the tyre and 25 euros to fit it! I bought my last 4 tyres online from blighty, got here quicker (and cheaper) than popping down the road....

Bienvenue en France - the customer is always a nuisance!

:-)

By the way - I'm not moaning, I love it here; it's just the way it is. Once you understand how it all (doesn't) works then you can deal with it. ;-)

+1 ^

although more customer based here i Finistere, you just need to know where to go for service / 'stuff'(Brittany doesn't class itself as French because in 1488(?) the french took all their dosh, battles around Fougeres(?) - there is a line of castles from Clisson sth east of Nantes up to Fougeres very like the Welsh Marches in UK, they were the ancient boundary of Brittany / France)

Hah haah, same here they regard themself as Bearnaise not French - evidently it was forced upon them by the nasty people in Paris all those years ago (well actually, not that far back in relative terms - I was chatting to an old fella a month or two back- hes 80 something- he told me that he was the first in his family to speak French as well as Bearnaise/Occitan!).

Down here if you come from anywhere more than 2 villages away you are a foreigner....

Bit like parts of N Yorks !