My sister got herself locked into her car and I would like to know if this has happened to any other person on this forum as it seems a pretty serious fault. The Skoda dealer doesn't seem particularly bothered.

 

Here's what happened: She was driving homewards last Friday (21st Sept). She heard a whining noise and the dashboard lights that are usually on (like the passenger airbag symbol) went out. Then she heard the doors lock. On arriving home she found she couldn't open the doors or windows - she was trapped in the car. She had both sets of keys in the car. She phoned her neighbour and between them they tried:

• Lock and unlock on both key fobs
• try all door catches internally and externally
• start and stop engine.

 

She was getting quite panicky. She called the RAC. The neighbour discovered that the boot wasn't locked, and she crawled out through that. The RAC man couldn't fix the fault (dont know what he tried, but guess it included disconnecting the cars battery). They phoned the dealer who advised to bring the car in. As it was about closing time, they would have to leave the car at the dealers. The long suffering neighbour gallantly got in through the boot and drove it to the dealer followed by the RAC man who let him out. He drove a courtesy car back home.

 

She is now in negotiations with the dealer on replacing the car with one that has manual locking only. The offer from the dealer is £5500 for the Fabia,  which has a Parkers guide price of about £6500, because its defective, She bought it from the same dealer as an ex demo and the warranty ran out 1st Aug this year. They have always carried out the servicing and is got 25K mileage. They havent said what the fault is, and claim it wont be properly inspected until the electronics expert can get to it on Thursday.

 

They have offered the courtesy car (Citigo 1.0 MPI 60PS 3d 2018/67 2K miles) for £8.5K less £1k goodwill discount. They had it on the forecourt for £8.25K which I suspect was negotiable.

 

On Tuesday (25th Sept) they rang her up to say the deal was off because they would have to break the drivers door to see if the fault was in the door, and the car would be worth less as a result. About two hours later another rep phoned to say ignore that: they would stick to the original deal. As a result, she is desperate to accept the deal while its still on offer.

 

So my questions are:

 

Is this fault so serious that the dealer (as manufacturers rep) should be falling over themselves to put it right with minimum fuss, or am I overreacting?

 

Has she, by contacting the dealer, advised the manufacturer of the fault, or should she (or more likely, me) write to Skoda direct?

 

Should I report the whole thing to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) as a Serious Safety Defect or am I over reacting?

 

Any advice appreciated.

Frightening for your sister! Thank goodness it did not occur in an emergency situation.

I know on my mk2 Octavia it was possible to arm/lock the vehicle with the fob and if you or another person was inside it was impossible to unlock the doors or open the windows with the internal buttons on offer. You could only unlock with the fob, electronically (in or out) or of course use the physical key externally. I was not happy with that discovery. There were some complex instructions in the manual regarding internally unlocking the boot and exiting that way but hardly intuitive from memory.

No such problem on the mk3 Octavia, push the internal central locking button and it unlocks and I am much happier with it that way.

Others will probably have to answer this but does the Fabia have the Octavia mk2 or mk3 locking characteristics I describe.

 

Personally I don't think that you are overreacting at all and Skoda and the DVSA should be made aware of the issue she experienced and probably before the dealer fixes the actual cause of the problem.

If nothing else it may well give you a better negotiating position with Skoda rightfully involved in a potential fatal issue, certainly won't be worse.

Edited 26 September, 20187 yr by Gerrycan

Thanks for your reply Gerrycan.

 

The dealer has bought the car back as part of an exchange much as outlined in the first post. They claim to have notified Skoda UK and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) of a Serious Safety Defect.

 

I've just emailed the DVSA asking them to confirm they are aware. Not sure if they will deal with me as I'm not the car owner.

 

The main thing is that sister now has a car she trusts.

 

I will update the forum with any further developments

Appears to be a disgusting attitude from the dealer. Their ex demo car less than 2 months out of warranty clearly with a major and serious safety issue, nothing to do with the owners use. Not wear and tear. Car doors are expected to open close for life and not all (inc windows) fail unsafe at once. What if the car had been in an accident or caught fire with your sister in it?

 

Should have been a FOC priority investigation and 100% goodwill and give free courtesy car (or Skoda UK hire car). Obviously an electrical problem and some fault codes MUST be logged. Its not rocket science.

 

Talk about destroying the drivers door to investigate is ludicrous, and the initial suggestion that the owner should pay, well I'm lost for words (only ones I can think of would never get through the swear filter)

 

Its pretty obvious the dealer did next to nothing to investigate and Skoda UK perhaps were not involved when they should have been as a matter of urgency. Their sole intention appears to have been to take advantage and fleece a clearly distressed woman financially.

 

OR

 

If the key wouldn't even open the door the old fashioned way by inserting/turning the key in the lock - then Skoda have a serious problem. Maybe the dealer was told by Skoda UK to buy the car back to avoid publicity. Maybe its another dirty secret....

 

The deal the dealer did was BAD, goodwill discount my rrse. 

 

Name and shame the dealer I say.

 

EDIT: That car should not be offered for resale.....that's why I think it may have been intentionally bought back....whats its reg no?

Edited 26 September, 20187 yr by xman

All true, but from the dealers point of view they have settled with their customer, and in less than a week. 

 

Think I'd better wait for the Vehicle Standards Agency report before naming & shaming, including publishing the reg number.

 

I received an acknowledgement of my enquiry to the DVSA from the Vehicle Safety Branch, with a case reference number and promising an initial investigation within one month.

 

I will check with her that she tried the key in the lock, after escaping through the boot. I think she did, but an important point. Perhaps an alternative to smashing a window would be to somehow pass the key out of the car.

18 hours ago, Rich100 said:

 

I will check with her that she tried the key in the lock, after escaping through the boot. I think she did, but an important point. Perhaps an alternative to smashing a window would be to somehow pass the key out of the car.

Not sure how she is going to pass a key out of an electric window that will not open?

Key fob is not that skinny and cars have not had separate opening quarter lights for many years.

Smashing a window from the inside safely is not that easy if you do not know the right technique.

If you need to smash a door window from inside the car you can:-

Remove a head restraint completely from a seat and use one of the metal ends to hit the glass with.

 

Had one car where the doors wouldn't work because the door locking button in the dash was stuck in/on.

Can you change what opens and closes via the infotainment screen?

 

Note to self, another reason not to get a key less car.

 

Thanks AG Falco

I checked whether they tried to open the doors using the key from the outside. Car owner, neighbour and RAC man all had a go. They found that the rear left door unlocked once. Upon closing, it locked again and wouldn't unlock. So somehow getting the key into the external door lock, if you are locked in, probably no use.

 

The Vehicle Safety Branch have emailed that they have contacted Skoda and expect an initial reply in 28 days. 

On 25/09/2018 at 22:25, Rich100 said:

She heard a whining noise and the dashboard lights that are usually on (like the passenger airbag symbol) went out. Then she heard the doors lock.

 

The passenger airbag light ON light will go out after about 65 second of starting the car.

The switch for locking/unlocking the doors from the inside of the car is in the same place as the passenger airbag light symbol.

Could there be a connection with this.

If there is no power to the dash switches and is this then why the passenger airbag light went out as well?

Did the central locking/unlocking button on the dash also not work?

 

HTH

 

Thanks AG Falco

AGFalco,

 

Yes, she did try toggling the central locking/ unlocking switch on the dash. I should have included that in my bulletpoint list in the first post:

 

them they tried:

• Lock and unlock on both key fobs
• try all door catches internally and externally
• start and stop engine.
• Repeatedly operate the central locking/unlocking switch on the dashboard.

thanks

 

Rich

Deadlocking. That's a point. Did anyone try to cancel deadlocking by turning the key to the lock position twice, or pressing the lock (not unlock) button on the fob twice? The deadlocking should then be released and car openable from the inside.

 

Maybe unrelated but I have noticed on 3 or so rare occasions on our old 2009 fabia ii that sometimes the passenger electric windows just mysteriously stop working but the drivers is ok. Turning engine on/off, locking/unlocking etc makes no difference. But when left locked for half an hour then restarted, everything is all back to normal, not a switch or wiring issue, definitely an "edge case" software issue that sorts itself after a while.

 

So it may wiring or software or a combination that's at the heart of this worrying issue.

tompiper

 

That 'SAFELOCK' feature is presumably so that the car cant be unlocked by managing to operate the internal door catch from the outside, traditionally done using a wire coat hanger through the door seal. That might explain why the dealer wanted to  break the drivers door - it could be that some switch in the door lock has malfunctioned.

 

Doesn't seem at all safe. Really surprised that if that is the case, there aren't numerous cases of people locked in cars.

 

As just mentioned by XMAN, the keyfob should override this.

Edited 11 October, 20187 yr by Rich100

xman,

 

I'm sure they did try repeated pressing of the lock and unlock buttons on the fob, and repeated unlocking/ locking using the key, once out of the car. Its evident that the dealer couldnt get it unlocked either, and must have tried all known ways.

 

A variation on this theme might be a stuck 'lock' button on one of the two keyfobs in the car. I dont know if anyone thought to remove the batteries from both fobs, then try the key in the drivers door. We will have to wait for the SVB report.

 

I'd be surprised if they didnt try a reset by disconnecting the battery though. I'm pretty sure the RAC man tried it - its just the sort of thing they would do.

12 hours ago, tompiper said:

The radar system just comes on of its own accord, a loud continuous beep and that diagram comes up on the MFD. Skoda dealers are next to useless (as are their user manuals) and I also believe that the dealer should have bent over backwards to help, asking for the car to be driven back to them is sickening.

 

You can turn this off. see this thread for more details.

 

Thanks AG Falco