Reliability????

[bigjohn]

23 hours ago, Burroo said:

Ever wish you'd never started a post?????

 

Now I'm being accused of being a bad driver, unable to see and avoid potholes, not being able to understand that parts on older cars wear out etc. etc.

 

My whole point is that I looked into the Skoda Superb in great detail before purchase.  The car has full service history, last serviced 7 weeks before I bought it when it had 68K on the clock. I made sure that any replacement belts had been renewed.  I also asked questions on this site re reliability and the response was 100% positive.

 

I have had the car now since 21/07/17 and have only completed 5000 miles.  I am a 61 year old man who does not push his cars and really looks after them, so much so that I had the gearbox serviced on the Superb as soon as I bought it.  My mechanic has looked after my cars for over 10 years now and is very highly rated - I would never go to a main dealer to get work done as they rob you blind - he is a German car specialist so with Superbs being extremely similar to Passats he has absolutely no problems working on my car.

 

As I have stated I only had the car for 9 weeks when the first brake caliper seized, causing replacement of that and pads, I was very fortunate that the disc had not warped.  less that 10 days later another brake caliper seized, this time damaging the disc causing replacement (the caliper could be saved as per Uncle Arnold Clark).

 

I have now had to spend just over £1000 on this car in 10 months.  More than on any vehicle I have owned for such a short period of time in my whole 39 years of driving.  As has previously been mentioned in this stream by Italian Job, If I can't come onto this site for a good old moan, where can I go.  I feel we should be encouraging not slagging people off for making comments!!!!!  Remember my car passed it's MOT 6 weeks previous WITH NO ADVISORY NOTES.

 

What some people have been trying to say is the model is usually fairly reliable

 

You may look after your cars (and so do I) but what you can't be 100% sure of is what happened to it beforehand. Was it stored for a while before you bought it? With other peoples cars I've seen that cause all sorts of issues - brakes seizing (calipers and/or handbrake) , abs warning lights, damp in sensors, electric power steering warnings, failed coil packs (petrol), seized turbo variable vanes (diesel for now). Cars do not like being stood.

 

Almost all cars have surprisingly similar brakes where calipers can seize, brake fluid can absorb water(and then damage components such as ABS), pads/discs can wear, discs can rust, back plates can rust away, steel brake pipes can rust, rubber brake pipes can rot, ABS sensors can fall off(well the metal bracket it's attached too). At 10 years old ANY make could have any of the above issues

 

Personally I think once you have driven it for a while it should settle and at least where you have new brakes they should be good for some time. As you mentioned broken springs sadly are a fact of life with modern driving (pot- holes & traffic calming). Hopefully all will be well now and you can enjoy your Superb for what it is - a refined and comfortable mile muncher. 

 

There is one other potential issue - are you doing enough mileage of the right sort to not cause issues with a Diesel Particulate Filter(true for any make)? At least yours is the Common Rail, the DPF implementation on the pd engine (where fitted!) wasn't great. If you regularly do reasonable length runs you should be OK. With ALL MAKES of diesel from around 10 years ago onwards the emission components start to become much more complex and considerably more expensive to fix. 

 

 

 

Edited 29 April, 2018 by bigjohn

[Ootohere]

Full Service History, or Full Main Dealer Service History is often the issue.

 

http://skoda.co.uk/finance-and-offers/service-and-maintenance/simply-fixed 

Mean not much and not Servicing and maintenance has been done to Manufactures Schedules, or that Gearbox, Brake, Haldex Fluids have been changed or even wheels off the car from year to year.

As to a MOT that is the car on the day meeting minimum safety standards in the UK, nothing strict in that.

 

Even what is coming in next month is not really that strict.

[pinkpanther]

25 minutes ago, bigjohn said:

 

What some people have been trying to say is the model is usually fairly reliable

 

The Mark II Superb is a Skoda I'm yet to own, so little personal experience of reliability etc.

 

A number of the Skoda's I have owned however share a number of parts with this model and my general experience (~hundred thousand miles) is they've been generally reliable.

 

My current Yeti 140 BHP TDi is just about to hit 68k miles (3 3/4 years old) and has thus far proved (mechanically) reliable. I plan to run it until something costly breaks, but have factored in new discs / pads all round, in addition to a water pump & cam-belt this summer (£££). This is in addition to routine servicing.

 

This would indicate the Mark II Superb is slightly worse than average for reliability, although by no means an outlier: Reliability Index

 

Looking at HonestJohn the "What to watch out for" does appear to considerably out number the "Whats good": https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/skoda/superb-2008/?section=good

[bigjohn]

17 hours ago, Offski said:

Full Service History, or Full Main Dealer Service History is often the issue.

 

http://skoda.co.uk/finance-and-offers/service-and-maintenance/simply-fixed 

Mean not much and not Servicing and maintenance has been done to Manufactures Schedules, or that Gearbox, Brake, Haldex Fluids have been changed or even wheels off the car from year to year.

As to a MOT that is the car on the day meeting minimum safety standards in the UK, nothing strict in that.

 

Even what is coming in next month is not really that strict.

 

I usually end up checking up on the servicing on my car when I check it over twice a year as I swap my summer/winter tyres. Thus far I'm quite impressed with my local dealer (DM Keith, Hull).

 

When my cars get to a certain age I swap to my local independant who are great. With a full service they strip your brakes to check and always grease metal brake pipes.

 

As well as my Superb, I also have an old 2001 Octavia and a Fiat Panda - Recentley I had a problem with the old-timer when I had a handbrake issue (er just after it passed an MOT!) which turned out to be the drum back plates rusting through. Garage couldn't find new backplates other than from the Skoda dealer (many £100's just for the back plates). By the time you'd replaced the back plates at fitted all new brake parts and a couple of advisory bushes there wouldn't have been much change out of £1k - scrap the car time! Fortunately spotted a parts company in Czech that sold fully assembled new backplates for 67 Euros each! This reduced the bill  by more than half!  OK I've got a soft spot for it as I've owned it from new. It lives - for now!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 29 April, 2018 by bigjohn

[Ootohere]

It is good to have slider pins greased and other such maintenance & preventative maintenance work carried out? 

Full Service History and Main Dealer service histories has so many think things like that are done as standard practice.

Too few do.

Edited 28 April, 2018 by Offski

[Googolplex]

19 hours ago, Burroo said:

Ever wish you'd never started a post?????

 

Now I'm being accused of being a bad driver, unable to see and avoid potholes, not being able to understand that parts on older cars wear out etc. etc.

 

My whole point is that I looked into the Skoda Superb in great detail before purchase.  The car has full service history, last serviced 7 weeks before I bought it when it had 68K on the clock. I made sure that any replacement belts had been renewed.  I also asked questions on this site re reliability and the response was 100% positive.

 

I have had the car now since 21/07/17 and have only completed 5000 miles.  I am a 61 year old man who does not push his cars and really looks after them, so much so that I had the gearbox serviced on the Superb as soon as I bought it.  My mechanic has looked after my cars for over 10 years now and is very highly rated - I would never go to a main dealer to get work done as they rob you blind - he is a German car specialist so with Superbs being extremely similar to Passats he has absolutely no problems working on my car.

 

As I have stated I only had the car for 9 weeks when the first brake caliper seized, causing replacement of that and pads, I was very fortunate that the disc had not warped.  less that 10 days later another brake caliper seized, this time damaging the disc causing replacement (the caliper could be saved as per Uncle Arnold Clark).

 

I have now had to spend just over £1000 on this car in 10 months.  More than on any vehicle I have owned for such a short period of time in my whole 39 years of driving.  As has previously been mentioned in this stream by Italian Job, If I can't come onto this site for a good old moan, where can I go.  I feel we should be encouraging not slagging people off for making comments!!!!!  Remember my car passed it's MOT 6 weeks previous WITH NO ADVISORY NOTES.

But it's a 10 year old car.  Things can break on cars of that age.  MOTs won't flag up when brake calipers are about to seize or springs about to break.  You've just been unlucky, and it certainly doesn't make the brand unreliable.

[silver1011]

No one is saying you can't come on and moan, after shelling out £1,000 then it's natural.

 

Your opening post seemed over critical of the car, a 9 year old car. A car that's been driven and treated for 9 years by someone else. A well used car with a relatively minor fault.

 

It isn't unreasonable for a caliper to seize after 10 years. The fact they've both failed at the same time suggests that this isn't an isolated incident. We don't know how the car has been treated. Have the calipers been jet washed every week? Has the car been sat for lengthy periods? Do we even know if they were the originals?

 

This is the risk we take when buying a 10 year old car. A lot of the components, especially wearable components will be nearing the end of their design life, depending on the type of life the car has had. Mileage and service history can't be used as a definitive measure of a cars condition and life expectancy.

 

Personally, buying a 10 year old car, I'd be factoring in an average of £2,000 per year on maintenance, up-keep and servicing. I think the issue is that you feel aggrieved at shelling out £1,000 with the first year of ownership.

 

If this hasn't been the case on your last few cars of a similar age then I'd say you've been lucky, rather than unlucky with the Superb.

[Gdcobra]

Got to agree with Silver's last post. Bottom line is there is no cheap way to have a car.  You can buy new and have a car which, even if it sufferesuits a failure, should not cost you money but you lose a ship load in depreciation. Or you can buy second hand, this will be cheaper and depreciate less (hopefully) but will cost more to maintain (the bigger gotchas come at higher mileages) and any failures will cost you if they happen, if they don't then that's a bonus. Another problem is that a £1000 bill on a car worth (say) £5000 seems a lot higher than the same bill for a car worth (say) £20000.  

[jafo]

On 26/04/2018 at 16:18, hwr1983 said:

Almost the same as my wife not letting me use the DSG sport mode if she's in the car...

 

Chip or remap and you won't need to use Sport mode

[jafo]

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Edited 1 May, 2018 by jafo
Duplicate

[Shaunieboy]

On 29/04/2018 at 09:59, silver1011 said:

Personally, buying a 10 year old car, I'd be factoring in an average of £2,000 per year on maintenance, up-keep and servicing. 

2k a year? That jumps out as being pretty excessive. You could lease a decent brand new car for that and be done with any of the maintenance hassles and depreciation. 

 

[bigjohn]

2 minutes ago, Shaunieboy said:

2k a year? That jumps out as being pretty excessive. You could lease a decent brand new car for that and be done with any of the maintenance hassles and depreciation. 

 

 

Depends on your mileage. Leasing gets expensive for high mileage drivers. Must admit I'm wondering about leasing in a few years when my mileage drops (aka retirement!). A friend is on his second PCH Audi A4 for £199/month inc vat  (3+23 , 8k miles/year) - this includes car tax but doesn;t include maint or tyres. Saying that the first one was only calling for a first minor serice just before it went back

 

 

[silver1011]

£2K is belt and braces, and factors in some potentially expensive failures, DPF, EGR, turbo, clutch and DMF etc.

 

And let's not forget, with Skoda we enjoy access to relatively low parts prices and extensive VAG specialising independants.

 

It's fair to assume a Superb driver could easily be someone who might considor venturing into used Mercedes or BMW territory, at which point £2K becomes light!

 

I have two cars, one leased (2016 Octavia Scout @ £201 per month ammortised for 8,000 miles) and a 2011 Superb currently on 141,000 miles. The Superb being the cheapest by a long way.

 

But then I've been lucky with the Superb (clutch & DMF), and the Octavia is brand new and has all the toys.

 

You pays your money and takes your choice.

 

[Shaunieboy]

9 hours ago, bigjohn said:

 

Depends on your mileage. Leasing gets expensive for high mileage drivers. Must admit I'm wondering about leasing in a few years when my mileage drops (aka retirement!). A friend is on his second PCH Audi A4 for £199/month inc vat  (3+23 , 8k miles/year) - this includes car tax but doesn;t include maint or tyres. Saying that the first one was only calling for a first minor serice just before it went back

 

 

Yeah my mileage has always been far too high to warrant it unfortunately but I do support the argument for a lease in the right situation. 

 

Our second car is a 2004 golf with 207k on the clock (150k of which were done by me). Apart from the turbo going within a month of ownership, which VW paid half for, the cost of the car has been minimal. Wear and tear stuff; brakes, clutch, a shock absorber or two and a couple of bearings. Timing belts changed regularly. The total cost of all of that over 10 years of ownership is around 3k.

 

However, it seem like I've been pretty lucky. I also think when buying used (5yrs old +) a BIG factor which over the course of ownership can save you a fortune is; can you maintain it yourself? Brakes, oil, bearings (bolt on) , wear and tear stuff etc. This stuff is a FORTUNE at garages, it blows my mind. This stuff is what adds up and can make your used car seem like a money pit. 

 

If you're not 'handy' and do average or less miles surely a lease is the best option over a used car out of warranty.

Edited 2 May, 2018 by Shaunieboy

[TheRobinK]

2 hours ago, silver1011 said:

It's fair to assume a Superb driver could easily be someone who might considor venturing into used Mercedes or BMW territory

 

… or could be someone who staggered out of used Mercedes or BMW territory, searching for the fabled Skodaland where the service manager doesn't know the current price of a human kidney. 

[Burroo]

Sound advice, Pablomax

[Donbrig]

As a victim of the infamous Sachs Clutch scandal my Superb has been by far the worst car I have ever owned in terms of ownership cost.  

It's now coming up to 6 years old and has just passed 60k miles.  In that time it has had all of the following replaced

• Gearbox
• Clutch
• Dual Mass Flywheel
• Brakes due to caliper seizing on motorway

And this is a car that had its servicing done in the local dealer as per the recommended schedule (so add in the recommended timing belt replacement etc).

Going forward I will be getting rid of the car when the warranty on the Gearbox/Clutch/DMF repair runs out in a few months and heading to another non-VAG brand.

What has been really depressing is the arrogant and dismissive attitude of Skoda. 

They have point blankly denied that there is any issue with the Sachs Clutch even when Motorcodes agreed with me that there were too many incidents being reported for it to be just a case of "normal wear and tear" and that my case should be reconsidered.

Their response was basically, if you believe there is a case, we'll see you in court and you better have some independent engineering analysis to back up your allegation.

That I could not pursue based on advice I got from the CAB as I made the mistake of accepting out of ignorance their goodwill offer of a "donation" to the cost of the gearbox replacement at the end of 2016 (still leaving me over £1k out of pocket).

Apparently though, if VAG are forced to do a recall on the Sachs clutch due to safety there is then an opportunity for compensation - this is the site where people should report the issue and the clutch failure can be dangerous with at least one report of a Audi losing the clutch and gearbox whilst travelling at high speed on the motorway.

As silver1011 mentioned, at least Skoda parts are cheaper than Audi - sympathies to the poor sod reporting on the Audi forum that his bill for the Sachs clutch is £5327 - link