No, not the purchase of a Dacia Sandero but following a visit to Mitchells Skoda in Ellesmere Port today, my wife & I are going to be the owners of a brand new Fabia Monte Carlo! We originally went to view the two nearly new red ones that they had in stock but when we looked at finance options and costs, it turned out the brand new one complete with 0% finance and free servicing was clearly the better deal.

 

We collect it on Wednesday and I can't wait. We (or rather my wife) went for red outside and black inside as it looked awesome and quite mean. I thought the 1.6 would have been a little flat but its quite a perky little thing. It'll complement my Octavia 2 VRS estate quite nicely on the drive

 

Only 4 more sleeps...

 

congrats, hope you enjoy it

Well, after less than 3k miles, 'monte' as the Fabia has come to be known decided to flash the glow plug coil light whilst my wife was returning from a conference is Harrogate. The car did feel down on power plus the mpg had dropped off from what we had been getting so we called Skoda assistance. Half an hour later we had a Vw technician on the doorstep, he plugged in the laptop and the codes are pointing to a failed EGR so as the car is a few months old, it's got to go back to a dealer which naturally will be Mitchell's as they are much better to deal with than the calamity showcase that is Lightcliffe Skoda service department in Warrington.

At 7:30 this morning, Skoda assistance called to keep us informed on what's going to happen, they will ring the dealer and arrange a replacement car (fingers crossed for a yeti) or if the dealer doesn't have one, we'll get something from a third party so long as it's not french, English or Japanese I'm not too fussed, and no bloody roomsters either.

So far, despite the being an issue with a relatively new car, I'm really pleased with Skoda Assistance!

Also, sad to say the Octavia is up for sale, it's on ebay at £3k which makes it the cheapest mk2 vrs estate on the market... It's a good car but priced to sell.

Hopefully it will be a simply fix.

 

Totally agree about the shoddy service from Lightcliffe in Warrington. Avoid them at all costs.

I had my springs done at lightcliffe and they werent too bad.. they did quote me 240 for the work.. then charge me 120.. but the guys advice was.. hmm.. yeah you guys are probably right i will avoid them at all costs in future..!!

Congrats on the new car,I've currently got one as a courtesy car and to be honest if I had the cash I'd consider trading my vrs in for one

Well, after an entertaining drive to the wirral on the m56 with a car in limp home mode, we made it to Mitchells only to be asked why we drove?! Thats what the VW technician told us to do... Do you have the diagnosis paperwork? Nope, we weren't given any. Ok, your courtesy car has been supplied by SIXT and is a 14 plate Octavia - Great, oh, it has scratches and the inside stinks of cigarettes and I mean really stinks, like a pub in the 70's.... and there's sicky stuff on most of the controls... queue phone call to Skoda assist. We now have a brand new VW Polo from Thrifty which I have to say is really nice. I'm annoyed as the new Octavia was a really nice interior, great seats, nice dash and the finish was much better than my Octy. Still, you don't expect a hire car with a massive no smoking sign on the windscreen to stink...

 

Mitchells will call on Monday once the diagnostics have been done with an estimate for completing the work. On the whole, still impressed with Skoda assist (the AA) service, especially because it wasn't an additional cost.