Mine is three years old, has had a sensor on the engine go, cd changer pack up, exhaust bracket go, indicator switch fail and a puncture, though I will let skoda off the puncture.

It may do well in the JD Power survey, but I suspect Skoda owners have lower expectations and the dealers offer better service. Judging from the problems a Golf owning colleague has had, I think VW reliability is crap compared to the Japanese manufactures.

I too switched from a 1.8 Civic VTi to an Octavia 1.8T.

I agree with what you are saying, the Honda never missed a beat, it got to the point where you forget that cars can break.

In the nine months I have owned the 02 plate elegance it has blown a turbo hose, melted a clutch, had a trapped wire on the ignition causing it to cut out and now it is overheating with a suspected water pump failure. I have been back to the dealers at least 15 times!

My local dealer is not a patch on the Honda one I used.

The Octavia is a far better car than the Civic, but I am fed up with using half of my days off, taking it back to the dealer for another repair.

I won't buy another, but I am not sure what else to go for for that sort of money :(

Agreed, my last car was a Corrado, and VW main dealers are a nightmare, so by comparison SKoda is a joy, but an 02 52 plate 4x4 with 32k on the clock should not have a busted central convenience unit that costs £357 to fix, thats madness!

If you get a broken exhaust mounting on a Skoda you also get it on an Audi and a VW and a SEAT. If your control unit for the central locking packs up on your Octavia it can also happen on a Golf as they are the same parts. As mentioned the only way to 100% avoid a car not breaking down is not to have one.

Cars break down, even Toyotas but generally you pay more for them at the outset.

Another point to keep in mind, generally speaking your car is made of components manufactued by the lowest bidder.

Mine is three years old, has had a sensor on the engine go, cd changer pack up, exhaust bracket go, indicator switch fail and a puncture, though I will let skoda off the puncture

Mine's also had a puncture, 6 days after I got it!

It may do well in the JD Power survey, but I suspect Skoda owners have lower expectations and the dealers offer better service. Judging from the problems a Golf owning colleague has had, I think VW reliability is crap compared to the Japanese manufactures

I have always had the same concern about the JD Power survey, if I bought a Mercedes or something I would not expect to have to see the dealer at all, apart from servicing, as a result *any* failure would be looked upon negatively, no matter how small... Where as your avervage Vauxhall owner will expect a few niggles!

I too switched from a 1.8 Civic VTi to an Octavia 1.8T.

I agree with what you are saying, the Honda never missed a beat, it got to the point where you forget that cars can break.

In the nine months I have owned the 02 plate elegance it has blown a turbo hose, melted a clutch, had a trapped wire on the ignition causing it to cut out and now it is overheating with a suspected water pump failure. I have been back to the dealers at least 15 times!

My local dealer is not a patch on the Honda one I used.

The Octavia is a far better car than the Civic, but I am fed up with using half of my days off, taking it back to the dealer for another repair.

I won't buy another, but I am not sure what else to go for for that sort of money

Yeah, that kind of sums it up for me too. When the coil pack went I thought I was imagining it to start with because I'd kinda of forgotten cars break. Then I realised it was actually knackered it was quite a shock.

As an aside I have owned a Westfield for 9 years now, the engine currently produces 2/3rds more power than Ford ever intended it to and it has *never* and I do mean never failed to get me home. I carry a toolkit in the boot of it, and it has been used more times on other cars than the Westfield. I have had the Skoda for 6 months and it has already failed to get me home once...

waiding into this one is quite intresting.

I would say that my octavia is great, it is only 18 months old though. the only thing that I have had a problem with in the last 12 months of owning it was water in the 3rd break light and I wanted it replacing even though the dealer said it was nothing to worry about and that they could pick up on it at the next service.

I have expeinced 2 dealers for skoda and countless other dealers for different makes of car and I would say that the skoda dealer who I am now using is the best car dealer I have ever used.

the local dealer also deals with vaxuhall and they treat the skoda customers like vauxhall drives need I say any more.

the dealer which I use is over 20 miles form home and they are amazing they will come and pick the car up from home and deliver it back again and this is not a problem.

On servicing costs I expcet that the cost to service my car on 2 years variable will be less that the combind costs of 2 years service on my last car not to mention the time with out it

on the issue of parts for skoda's they are not much expencive than most other manufactureres and if you know what you are buying there are plenty of companies selling VW bits which are the same for some very good prices.

I think it is like everything else you will get good cars and bad cars but also how the dealer handles you will give the compleat picture. good dealer support and they are great. a dealer who is not intrested then people will moan. I think that this is very much true about jap cars in that owners are not happy to admit problems becuase that is why they chose them.

In summary I still get in my car every day and think yes this is a great car.

Have you got this fixed yet?

We have recently had the same problem, and were quoted

It may be a different part, if it's described as a "sealed black box unit", though Skospares just break Skodas, so probably have what you need second hand for much cheaper, if you know exactly what it is the dealer are ordering for you.

On our Octavia, the motors for the central locking have packed up on two doors, but the hole latch has to be replaced, because the motors are built into the same unit, over £70 each, with labour, quoted £350!

Any car can have problems it's how the dealer handles them that's more important.

Honda's aren't that great BTW, the front suspension on my Civic Type R collapsed after it was only 6months old.

Honda v. Skoda.

Had a Civic 1.5, Civic 1.6 (Rover 400 shape) and a CR-V before the Octavia.

Honda dealer servicing efficient but extremely expensive. If buying a second hand car you also need to factor in parts prices. The Civic 1.6 had to have new front disks at what I considered was a ridiculously low mileage and stupendous cost. The 1.5 needed a new wheel bearing just before it got written off in an accident (not my fault !). I recently got a full service at a small independent on my wife's 5 year old Fiat Bravo 1.6 (a much underated car BTW). for less than that cost.

The CRV had 30000 miles on the clock when I changed it for the Skoda. Never missed a beat like the other two but I reckoned it was just about to reach expensive routine replacement part time. The overall Octavia package of price, spec and economy won me over this time.

Not had to have a service on the 2.0TDi yet so too early to comment. I hear good reports of my dealer though. Done 4000 miles in 3 months trouble free so far.

Having said that, if buying second hand I might still go for a Honda and hope nothing breaks (unlikely, but very expensive if it does).

You may be surprised to hear that after the Hondas my wife's Bravo is the most reliable car we have ever had. Bought a year old from a car supermarket with 10000 on the clock. Four years and 40000 miles later only one major failure - clutch hydraulics (cheap as chips to fix) and a niggle with starting due to a misunderstanding over need for new plugs when changing to a different dealer for servicing. Also goes surprisingly well

It may be a different part, if it's described as a "sealed black box unit", though Skospares just break Skodas, so probably have what you need second hand for much cheaper, if you know exactly what it is the dealer are ordering for you.

On our Octavia, the motors for the central locking have packed up on two doors, but the hole latch has to be replaced, because the motors are built into the same unit, over

I wouldn't worry about it, it's actually a good thing, as they want to make sure you get the right part. There may indeed be differences. So what part is it you need, a control module or actuator/latch?

This is a pre facelift Octavia I am working on, I used to have a post facelift 2002 4x4 Octavia and there are differences, such as I can tell the central locking is different, it sounds very different, the light switch is a different design and the dashboard is backlit in red rather than green. So there must be differences in the numerous parts and they need to check you are both talking about the same thing.

Martin

I wouldn't worry about it' date=' it's actually a good thing, as they want to make sure you get the right part. There may indeed be differences. So what part is it you need, a control module or actuator/latch?

This is a pre facelift Octavia I am working on, I used to have a post facelift 2002 4x4 Octavia and there are differences, such as I can tell the central locking is different, it sounds very different, the light switch is a different design and the dashboard is backlit in red rather than green. So there must be differences in the numerous parts and they need to check you are both talking about the same thing.

Martin[/quote']

Martin, no news until tomorrow, I only sent them the number today, I think mine is the post face lift 2002, in that I have the new rear light cluster, but my dash is still back lit in green, I though it was just the rear light cluster that got a make over in 2002! I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks again

Tom:thumbup:

It dosent matter what car you have you will always get a bad one now and againthe law of averages i guess. I have just bought a timing belt kit for my octy and got 12p change from 100 quid being fitted next monday CHEAPER BY FAR than my mates audi A4 whos belt just broke a bill of

Y reg 52K and i've had trouble free motoring a few niggly things have happened;

Speed sensor replaced 3 months after buying it,

Window wiper linkage seized,

Central exhaust mount broke.

Not the end of the world is it. Cars fail it is part and parcel of owning one. Some people get a dog of a car no matter what make it is, it happens from time to time.

My Octy has been reliable and has never failed me once.

Been to the dealership this afternoon to try and get it confirmed as a dickie sensor' date=' and when the put the test machine on the only code it pull up was 17705.

Turbo Pressure Loss...

:rotz: [/quote']

UPDATE: Skoda have had the car a couple of times now since this problem was found, they had a look at it whilst the temp sensor was being done, and had another look at service time, and have never been able to repeat the fault.

Well it was booked in a few weeks ago specifically to look at this problem because the warranty was about to expire, I dropped the car off last night so they could have it from cold and they have at last found the problem!

Some kind of problem in the pipework between turbo and inlet manifold. They haven't got the parts in stock but they are ordering them and they can be fitted 'While You Wait'.

At last... No more sh*te running when cold!