Roomster tale of woe

[newforester]

I have a '10 reg. Roomster Scout 1.9PD as a company car. Bought as an ex demo now done 82k miles. Can be fun to drive good performance as it's quite a big engine for a relatively small car. A few problems fixed under warranty (reverse sensors and a failed dash display) but the big expense was just outside of warranty when the bolt holding the aux drive belt tensioner sheared at 70 mph on the A303 in June. The result was a fading battery and a 50 mile drive to get home with no power steering! I never knew there were so many warning lights on the dash. the bits stayed in the undertray which is why you should always refit it! Repaired at the company's cost £300 or so. 80,000 service and new cambelt followed, usual main dealer prices, then a whopping oil leak the following week. This turned out to be the intercooler pipe grinding through the alloy sump, another trip to the garage and nearly 400 quid bill. Could have been a major blow up if not spotted. The pipe mount was damaged by the falling debris in June, allowing it to rub the hole in the sump. Not spotted by the garage despite the repair and a major service.

No offer of any compensation  for repairs of hire cars needed to do the job while the car off the road, so company incurred about £1000 inrepair costs during 2013. Forgot the tailgate latch failing in June, fixed this myself as I was on holiday, bought the bits from Skoda Barnstaple.

Not my idea of reliability, worse than the Vauxhall Omega I had a few years back. Not as bad as old Fords is all I can say.

[bobspark]

Really if you think about it the car could still be called"reliable" as the whole chain of events was brought about by the bolt holding the aux belt tensioner shearing.But for this everything would be well.

Just one bolt and a very expensive domino effect!

At 80000 miles the cam-belt was due so that was going to happen anyway.

[grafitti]

Seems too like the garage could have done a better job thereby avoiding the second saga.

I take mine to a very good independent specialist in Reading whose prices are somewhat lower than main dealer but confident in the quality of work - very well reviewed by customers. I could see my car having a host of problems with its high mileage and assorted failings if it was serviced by someone who didn't put the extra effort into it

[bobspark]

Yes the more i think about you do wonder if the dealer damaged the sump etc.. whilst doing the cam belt change.All seems a bit suspicious to me?

Grafitti,s right Id rather trust the work to a good independent.

[newforester]

Erratic reverse sensors, failed instrument console and failed tailgate lock in 3 years means unreliable to me as each needed trips to the garage and would have cost plenty if I had to pay the full price of the job. First two done under warranty and the third cost parts only as I did it myself for convenience. Not much change from £600 if this had all been chargeable I guess.

Broken bolts shouldn't happen on a modern vehicle but the biggest failing was the garage not seeing the consequent damage when doing the tensioner repair or the 80,000 service. Changing a cam belt involve a lot of groping about in the area of the engine by  intercooler pipe that did the sump in. You would assume a main dealer would have a better knowledge of their own vehicles, when odd things go wrong like this. Perhaps there are just not that many high mileage Roomsters around?

 

There are good points to this car, still on the original brakes/clutch/exhaust for instance, but having 50 plus mpg economy is wiped out if garage bills keep mounting up. I suspect some suspension work coming up for the next MOT as there is a bit of clattering from under the front, we shall see!

[grafitti]

I can't comment on the rest of the engine as mine -fingers crossed- has been problem free, but if you're still on the original bushes they may be pretty gone, especially if it's the hollow ones like mine were... those had to be changed at 60k of (mostly) B road driving, and they were pretty much shot to bits. I heard somewhere that Skoda now provides uprated ones, or there are 3rd party solid ones which are alot more durable, which is what my mechanic fitted.

[newforester]

Well now it's my car as I bought it from the company- it was cheap. Now up to 114k miles, and redeemed itself a bit. Nothing been replaced since the last post apart from usual servicing (by an independent). Still on the original brakes/battery/exhaust/shocks/clutch etc. New set of tyres every 30,000, OE Bridgestone Touranzas each time. No advisories at the last MOT last month, 0.43 on the smoke test. Fitted high powered bulbs as the headlights were terrible.

Went to Heathrow yesterday, 180 mile round trip at 58 mpg. Those average speed cameras on the M3 do wonders for your fuel economy!

The Mondeo I had before this as a company car was falling to bits at this mileage, but it hadn't been looked after. Guess I'll keep it till the next cambelt change anyway.

 

[faradaycage]

Well now it's my car as I bought it from the company- it was cheap. Now up to 114k miles, and redeemed itself a bit. Nothing been replaced since the last post apart from usual servicing (by an independent). Still on the original brakes/battery/exhaust/shocks/clutch etc. New set of tyres every 30,000, OE Bridgestone Touranzas each time. No advisories at the last MOT last month, 0.43 on the smoke test. Fitted high powered bulbs as the headlights were terrible.

Went to Heathrow yesterday, 180 mile round trip at 58 mpg. Those average speed cameras on the M3 do wonders for your fuel economy!

The Mondeo I had before this as a company car was falling to bits at this mileage, but it hadn't been looked after. Guess I'll keep it till the next cambelt change anyway.

I really hope it stays reliable for you from now on,the Roomsters are cracking little cars,mine is coming up to nine years old and during my ownership and the previous 2 owners has only ever burst a rear screenwash hose and blown a glovebox bulb.The previous owner had it serviced at a BMW agent after poor customer services from the Skoda local agent....me....I will never let it near a main dealer,from past experience with various makes of car,thats when knock on prooblems have occurred.For any Skoda owner driving an out of warranty car,a good VAG independent is always the best port of call.

Edited 28 April, 2015 by faradaycage