Hi folks

 

My wife needs an automatic and is looking to change her car as she has has a manual currently.  She has been looking around and 2 of the cars she has taken a shine to are Fabia vRS's.

 

One is a green 60 reg with 34,000 on the clock and the other is an 11 reg green one with a rather loud white and red vinyl wrap that looks kind of like it is team colours/mobile advert for Skoda and that one has 20,000 miles on the clock.  I assume these both have the earlier engine that folk sometimes complain about?

 

Also I guess at that age there is no Skoda warranty left so there would only be the dealers 3 month warranty.

 

My question is, reading all the doom and gloom here, what are the odds of her getting a healthy engine and gearbox?  I loved my Fabia vRS 1.9tdi but the folks seem quite a bit less positive about this version.

 

I'm not looking to cause a firestorm of negative posts, just hoping for a rational assessment of how likely she is to get a reliable car.    

 

Thanks for any thoughts 

Best thing to do is buy from a skoda dealer. That way you get a 1year warranty. Try for more if you can get it. There not all bad. Ring skoda uk and ask for the vehicles history, what warranty work it has had done. If its had a replacement engine. They are usually good (mine is) hasnt used any oil in 6000miles.

Cheers mate.

 

I don't mind topping up oil etc as long as the car is reliable.  I'll get in touch with Skoda about those cars but they are both at the same independent dealer.  

As said I would go with skoda if you can. But if you can get a good deal then so be it. Skoda will tell you the history anyway. And who knows. Maybe its a car that been owned by a brisky member

A wander to a dealers would be great but I live on a remote Scottish island.  A local dealer here sources stuff from south and has a good relationship with some folk south who seem very good at sourcing good metal.  

 

There are a few main dealers or satellite dealers up here but sadly there is no Skoda dealer.  

Welcome to the forum.

 

What remote Island are you on?

 

Maybe best to save any possible grief of having a car that would need to go to a Skoda Dealer if there was any problems.

unless you have a VW Dealership & you are taking out a Skoda Approved Extended Warranty.

 

The car runs on 95 Ron, but do you have any Garages that sell 97/99 ron petrol?

 

You might find a good vRS but you have a 1 in 4 chance of a bad one if it is pre late 2012.

One that has already had a replacement engine might be a good buy.

 

& the Green with Decals car is likely to be a 'S2000' Special Edition car. 

Basically a vRS with the Extras as standard and the White roof and wheels as Skoda Built them.

(Not worth any extra money.)

 

george

Hi George

I'm on Orkney - I must admit I don't think of it as remote but that is how we're described.

There is a dealer up here who was formerly a VW dealer and is still a servicing agent.

1 in 4 chance of a duffer isn't good odds though, I think it sounds like if she wants a vRS it sounds like we really need to get into the main dealer network.

Cheers

brian

Brian,

 

in reality do you need something like a vRS on Orkney?  It is a lovely island with some great little roads but at the end of the day it is not that big so not sure that the risk of a vRS against the desire for a punchy 1.4TSI balances out.  I had a good vRS, very little oil use between services but it was the concern over what happened if it all went wrong that forced my hand before the warranty ran out. Having lived in Thurso in the past I can understand the issues of having to get a car 'down the road to the dealer' is a bit more than most people appreciate, both mine had to be shipped down to Inverness for unrelated issues at different times, one warranty, one dealer ineptitude. If I was in your shoes I would be more inclined to go for a more main stream marque than the vRS or choose something a bit more subtle which has the DSG, if that is the driving force. If you are happy with the ex VW dealer for servicing then something like a Monte might be better.

 

All that said the vRS is a nice little car with a punchy engine. The basic car is good but handling is not so but can be improved by a RARB, it is just a shame it has been tainted by the whole 1.4TSI oil use issue which the never really sorted out.

Hi

 

It's not so much for on Orkney that my wife liked the idea of a vrs.  But whenever we go down the road it tends to be to go to North Wales or Heathrow/Gatwick.  

 

So the journeys tend to be between 600 and 800ish miles in one trip and a bit of performance is nice, though i've done it in some very staid cars over the years.

 

After reading the forums this evening she has gone off the idea of the vRS a little and I think will go in a different direction.

Don't listen to all the doom mongers, there are far more good vRS than bad ones! Just talk to the previous owner! Details on logbook! I have done more than 75k in mark 2 vRS's now, with absolutely no issues at all! My current car is the best I have ever had!

The problem with car forums is you hear all the bad bits about cars and so failures look more prevelant. Many of these cars may well last a good long time, some won't but can't see that being much different to other marques.

Sharkrider is right and has covered a lot of miles in his cars.

The problem with getting a Used car like the vRS that is delivered by Ferry to Orkney is that you will want to know the the Service Campaign

items were already carried out at a Skoda Dealership, because they will possibly need doing at some point.

 

Like the Heated Seat Element, the ECU Update, and now the Service Campaign on the DSG which is coming in as a 'Recall' according the Skodas they send out letters.

 

**If you have a Skoda Extended Warranty or a Original or from someone else, you need to know the car has not had a ECU Remap that 

will void the Warranty probably if the engine does prove to have issues as a few have,

and there are a few vRS traded in that had Remaps and the Dealer or Private buyer were not aware,

some owners even had the engine rebuilt privately not using a Warranty to pay for this, and remapped and traded in, so it is a case of Buyer Beware.**

 

It is the same with any Used or even New car if there is no Manufacturers Dealer near you. 

It can be a PITA if you are going to the mainland and can not only arrange a 2 hour drop off for a Service of the car, but need to leave it for a half or full day.

 

Of course there are more good ones that bad, that is why i said a 1 in 4 risk, it might be only 20% bad ones and a 1 in 5 risk,

But until Skoda admit the failure rate among the 1,800 CAVE engine cars in the UK we will never know the actual percentage.

 

george

 

PS

Lots of owner, like 3 or 4 in every 5 of the early cars have had no issues, that then some got rid of the car when they were still good,

and did not want to run them out of the Original Manufacturers warranty.

What matters if that owner follows up on the car and the next owners and if the car stayed fine once it was 3-4 year old. JIMO.

Edited 16 August, 201411 yr by goneoffSKi

Don't listen to all the doom mongers, there are far more good vRS than bad ones! Just talk to the previous owner! Details on logbook! I have done more than 75k in mark 2 vRS's now, with absolutely no issues at all! My current car is the best I have ever had!

Agreed. Mine just done 40000 miles and it's been pretty good. I'm sure some here just love the misery...

If we all based our car buying decisions on internet forums we would never buy one. Go and read the fourms for all the marques and models and all you read are horror stories. People tend to join forums when they have problems and are looking to fix them. Out of the several thousand MK2 Fabia vRS sold, we now of less than 50 having issues so thats over 1700 potentially good ones out there.

 

We are lucky, we are a long standing forum that's been around for 13 years now and some of our members came on here with problem cars, and have since progressed to other cars without faults, so you get a good spectrum of members. I've been here since day one, and have seen many a MK2 Fabia vRS is good working order.

MartynVRS, LOL,

Or just do not want people spending their hard earned on buying ones that have been oil users and had Oil Consumption Tests and breather valve and pipe mods,

misfires etc, and get traded in without Engine problems being addressed.

 

Very few are like your vRS Twincharger and stopped using too much oil after needing & getting he Breather Mod.

Many got traded in, like you tried to, and are now the new owners problem.

Lots got punted where the owner found someone to take them.

 

george

 

edit.

mannyo, 

Only around 1,800 vRS CAVE engine cars in the UK, (& another 3,000 in the VW, Seat & Audi., also with the same rate of failures.)

one Dealership did 33 replacement engines in 2 years.

Several hundred Replaced Engines and in some cars replaced twice.

 

?

Do BRISKODA have the figures officially from SKODA UK?

Is the 1,750 the number of cars, and only 50 Engines replaced what BRISKODA understand is the number of replaced engines?

 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/294051-cave-cthe-14tsi-just-reply-please-if-you-have-had-an-engine-replaced

Edited 16 August, 201411 yr by goneoffSKi

Having had an oil user, the VRS is a wonderful thing, but I wouldn't touch one outside of the Skoda dealer network.

My wife went through some health problems recently and one part of the overall steps that she has taken to help involved moving from a manual car to an automatic. She also wanted something with 5 doors, relatively small and preferably with a petrol engine. When she went and looked for a car to fit the bill she found "Angus", her name for the wee green fabia vrs we have ended up with.

 

My wife had never driven an automatic and was a bit nervous, but now loves it. She loves the practicality the wee car offers, when the grandchildren visit it is so much easier to put car seats into the rear due to having back doors being one example. The fuel economy is not too bad, the car looks and drives good. It seems well made, is comfortable, and as the figures show there are far more properly good ones out there with no history of oil consumption than there are ones with problems.

 

And I say that as an owner who's car is currently in the middle of an oil consumption test as it has used a fair bit of oil. We look on this as a problem to be solved, not one to walk away from as we love the wee car for what it does even with oil related issues. We hope, with Skoda's help, to have our car join the list of good ones once we have this problem resolved.

 

Aside from the potential logistical problems that a lack of main dealer facilities through being on a remote island brings, I would advise not to walk away just yet but to do the homework on the car you want to buy by contacting Skoda UK to get an insight into history of the car. If there is a full service history, with all campaign/ recall work having been done and no recorded issues with oil then why not look at one? And you will get one for a good price.

I've got a car that uses oil. It's out of warranty and I've even taken it to stage 1 power. My car runs perfect and I trust it to keep doing so as I look after it like any other car I've ever owned.

Read my thread for a different perspective on oil consumption. http://www.briskoda.net/forums/index.php?/topic/322133-Confessions-of-an-Oil-user%2E

fella, get on a plane and come and buy this

 

£10995, white, £3k on clock, facelift, and from a skoda dealer , so if its more than you wanted to spend cheap finance ahoy.

 

I can;t see you will get a better deal than this and you are fully warrantied for two years and can then extend it out another two if you want to keep it long term.

 

http://www.skoda.net.r66.co.uk/carview.aspx?id=603047773

 

or if you want blue, but this is not facelift but does have over 2 years warranty 

 

http://www.skoda.net.r66.co.uk/carview.aspx?id=604270041

 

these deals are mental value for money and exactly the same as i paid few weeks back, i honestly can't see a downside

If we all based our car buying decisions on internet forums we would never buy one. Go and read the fourms for all the marques and models and all you read are horror stories. People tend to join forums when they have problems and are looking to fix them. Out of the several thousand MK2 Fabia vRS sold, we now of less than 50 having issues so thats over 1700 potentially good ones out there.

 

We are lucky, we are a long standing forum that's been around for 13 years now and some of our members came on here with problem cars, and have since progressed to other cars without faults, so you get a good spectrum of members. I've been here since day one, and have seen many a MK2 Fabia vRS is good working order.

Sorry but your comments, playing down the fundamental   problem of a poorly engineered main component, consistent failures with high oil consumption. Prize winning much flag waived power train has been the main reason for Skoda etc. not using it in a replacement mk3. Nothing to do with cosmetics(Monte)

 

Your figures suggest a failure rate of  approx. 3 % ,suggest you go look at the structure of your calculation again, as the detail across several threads on here would suggest 10-20 % failure rate on the CAVE units is more appropriate. Remembering that some customer have had more than one replacement unit.

 

Noting the history, shows on here and other forum across the world, that Skoda UK and VAG globally tried for sometime to conceal the level of the problems being exposed, with major design and development failings in the product.  

 

The Current crop of CTHE units would be more like the failure rates that you have quoted , as the changes in the upgrade have sown some marked improvement but some units have failed with a similar problems.

 

Guess it's just bad luck then if you get a bad un at £4500 replacement cost which would have been at owners expense going by your approach. That's 30% of the original purchase price of the new vehicle- this I think truly identify the cost to the customer as well as the drop of in residuals because of the exposed problem identified by forum member but not clearly owned up to by the manufacture. 

 

Perhaps if you had been involve personally with suffering at the hands of a failing product like this and had been frustrated by a reluctant manufacturer to fix the problem openly and own up honestly to it.

 

A key reason for me joining this forum was that it was starting to gain momentum in sorting out a problems experienced by MANY other, including me and my partner and hence the pressure applied by US on here has seen a marked change in the Manufacturers attitude and actions in achieving satisfactory conclusion for affected CUSTOMERS. 

 

Well done complaining Briskoda members, who are/ were not happy with accepting poor quality products! Exposing the offenders and getting Customer rights satisfied!

Hi folks

 

I've been in touch with Skoda and asked them about the history of the car my wife prefers.   It looks like we'll go ahead and get it unless there are any horror stories.  

 

The local chap has given us a very good trade in on the Insignia Sri and we choose to use him as he's always stood behind his cars when he's sold to us in the past.

 

I know buying out of the network has risks, but the car is from a proper source (traded in against a new car at a quality marque and underwritten away from the dealer) and I suppose we'll have the usual 3 month used car warranty - though I've never had cause to try to use it with this dealer.  During that time I would expect any problem would be visible on a car approaching 3 years old and hopefully sorted.

 

BTW Ant FR, the price of that white vrs is absolutely stonking!  

Hi

Just a quick update. A chap from Skoda UK phoned me up after I emailed them on Saturday.

He talked me through the service history and recall work and at what dates and mileages everything occurred.

Net result is we're buying the car.

Sounds like it got a clean bill of health. Hope your wife (and you) enjoy the car.