Driving to the in-laws in Italy from the UK with April 2012 bought Roomster TDI 1.6, had to get the car repaired at the local Skoda/VW registered dealer for what appears to be an exhaust gas recycling valve problem (got flashing glow-plug light while driving and car going into 'limp' mode).

 

UK delear confirmed car still under guarantee and suggested local Italian dealer proceed with repairs as if the car was under local (Italian) guarantee, but guarantee in Italy only 2 years and local dealer umming and arring about whether they can do it like that.

 

Has anyone had such an issue before or have some advice about dealing with it? Reading on the forum it seems this is 1) a common problem, and, 2) expensive to fix, hence anxious to get done under guarantee.

 

Any advice much appreciated.

In the third year you get it repaired and pay the repairer and then you claim it back through your dealer.

 

It's in the warranty book, in this link: (on the beginning of page 5)

 

http://www.skoda.co.uk/sitecollectiondocuments/brochures/warranty-booklet-single.pdf

Thank you very much fordfan. The documentation is in the car at the dealers' over the holidays, so very useful to have the link. I am a little concerned though about the different advice given by the UK dealer I bought the car from and through which I would have to then process the refund..

It's quite likely that your dealer has never come across this particular set of circumstances before.  It may be an idea to prime them by pointing them in the direction of the warranty book so that they can get acquainted with the correct procedure ready for your return.  My advice would be to get from the repairer as much detail as possible with regards to their diagnosis (fault codes) and their repair on your invoice.

Thank you very much. That's very good and helpful advice; much appreciated.

 

Have to say that the three-year Skoda/VW free road assistance has proved very helpful under the circumstances and I didn't even remember it was included till I started going through the documents at the garage.

For the sake of completeness I thought it would be good to provide a follow-up regarding the resolution of this problem as it may be of use for others on the forum in the future.

 

The car was repaired by the local official VAG dealer. Everything was OK, apart from taking a long-ish time as it was the holiday period and in addition to New Year, there is another national holiday on the 6th of Jan in Italy and the garage was closed for a number of days.

 

The fault was diagnosed as a broken EGR cooler/radiator, with the repair coming in at around EU940. The local dealer did it as if it was a local guarantee job in terms of documentation and entering all the details into the Skoda intranet, but I had to pay myself. Then, upon return to the UK I had to submit all the documentation/invoicing I had to my local Skoda dealer who in turn submitted this to Skoda UK for a refund. It was very helpful that while in Italy I had contacted Skoda UK via their customer support form on their website and someone got back to me straight away and explained how to proceed and gave me a case reference number. This was very useful when I got to my local UK Skoda dealer to submit my refund.

 

I am glad to say I have now received the cheque with the refund and all seems to be resolved.

 

All in all, apart from the inconvinience of the breakdown and the inevitable delay in the repair due to the festive calendar in Italy, my experience was very positive.

 

The Skoda assistence included in the 3 year guarantee was excellent in resolving all  the practicalties regarding the arranging of onward transport to and from our ultimate destination and flights back to the UK for the rest of the family as I stayed on to collect the car once the repair was completed. Also, Skoda UK and their customer support were very helpful and efficient and quick to get in touch and advise regarding the way forward.

 

After some initial head scratching regarding the guarantee, the local Italian dealership, Autocommerciale in Bologna  were also very helpful and curteous and did a good job with all the reporting and repair. The same applies for the UK dealer, Malborough West London, who also had not dealt with an issue like this before, but once discussed were quick and efficient in processing the refund.

 

Overall, very pleased that everything worked well (or was resolved with good-will) and without any hitches or foot-dragging.