I may well take it to the Skoda dealer and make sure the rattle is heard and verified by an employee before leaving it with them.

If you do decide to go in please let us know how it goes. Hope you get it sorted.

Edited 13 June, 20169 yr by MasterJediAlejandro

I see you are quite correctly not worrying about the initial driving style that you applied. I've been a tech and engine designer for many years during my career and as the guys are saying, it's best to take it a little easy as per the manuals instructions. However, many cars (rep and hire cars for example) are driven virtually flat out from the start and it has no discernible effects on the motor, but if this is done to the extreme it can shorten the engine life a little and cause the engine to start to use oil early. VW uses a mid plato honing process in the cylinder bores and that means you can not easily harm the engine during initial running in. Couple that with the fully synthetic oil which has a film strength far greater than semi synthetic oil, and you are good to go for huge mileages before the engine gives up the ghost. So no damage done, you can be pretty sure of that! Just enjoy and post here often.

Actually, can I ask you a question mate? Purely put of curiously and maybe you will have some insight. Press demonstrater cars, the ones the likes of Top Gear and other reviewers get a hold of and then thrash for hours on end, do they tend to have problems? Just I remember seeing a news article a few months ago about this guy who purchased a M4 from BMW, only to have problems with it. He eventually figured out why. He watched a episode of Top Gear and watched his exact car (identified it from the number plate) getting thrown around there track!

So is that common for demo units to have problems?

Thanks, Alex.