As the title said, my dealer who we have  had for thirteen years is at Eastbourne which is 80 odd miles away,Having moved to Essex the Skoda dealer is about twenty odd miles. Been there twice and although dealer sounds ok the  journey seems about 50 miles .The Eastbourne journey although longer but when you are there one can do/see much more whilst the Chelmsford one is a matter of sitting in the showroom or if they give you a car I would be at lost where to go apart from going back home again. What is yours?.

3 miles-ish

Mine is roughly five miles away. And I wouldn't use them if they were the only garage left in my City!! Not too sure I should contribute here!!

5 mins walk

Longer to drive

With a 61 plate / 8 year old Octavia I would be using a good trusted independent garage rather than a franchised Skoda main dealer.

20 hours ago, silver1011 said:

With a 61 plate / 8 year old Octavia I would be using a good trusted independent garage rather than a franchised Skoda main dealer

 

I went to a VW near us just to get windscreen fluid, I asked them about the horn fitted to ours , they replied "we have not got the training to do Skoda". I did say our horn is most likely to be same as theirs, "I don't think so" they replied.

I've had several issues with my main dealer. Hence the comment above. On one occasion, with my mk1 vrs, it was cracking front screens in the same place. Probably twice in 3 years. Total mystery. I booked it in to get checked, only to greeted by the nasty and arrogant male receptionist on arrival. Dragged me up there for him to ask me what I expected them to do with it!! The car was old what did I expect, it's probably been in an accident (which it hadnt). The final straw came a few years later. They'd previously fitted a new oil pump and strainer due to an oil pressure light being on. All was well to be fair until a couple of years later when the same fault came back. I'd started doing a lot of my own repairs by then so removed the sump myself and couldn't believe that standard of work was carried out by a main dealer. That much sealant had been applied it had spilled into the pan and completely blocked the oil strainer. Never again will I use them. I did see a nice Octavia vrs 170 once on their forecourt and tried to negotiate a price with them. Needless to say that proved futile as well. The salesman rang me every day for a week tweaking different parts of the deal which still meant I'd be paying for a new cam belt and service. I had to threaten to speak to his boss in the end to get him to stop ringing!!

About 20 minutes drive away, found them really good to be fair; and being in he motor trade (mot tester) they have to be for me to use them as i would not normally go anywhere near a dealer.

 

 

About 2 miles away for me. Was convenient the other day when I needed some new engine mount bolts as mine had sheared off! The parts guy even gave me some discount on the bolts. 

My Skoda Dealer is approx. 2 min drive. Don't use them too much. Dad took his Yeti in for a service recently and checked it when he went home to find the oil on the bottom of the dipstick. Called in there the next day to complain for a mechanic to come out, dip it and say that's fine. My Dad retorted that he had only just turned engine off so needed to drain oil into the sump for an accurate reading, the mechanic then proceeded to try and argue with him that you should always check the oil with the engine hot and just turned off. Dad dropped the bonnet and said forget it. Bought oil and topped up himself. 

 

Its quite scary the lack of knowledge in the dealers, and also the customer service and attitudes can be disgusting. 

But your dad should check the oil as per the owners manual for the VW Group engines other than the 1.2 44kw ones which is cold.

*But then VW Group different brands have different things in different owners manuals, but the VW Line is 'Check at Operating Temperature.

so that is above 80*oC & can be above 90*oC.*

 

So @ Operating Temperature, on the flat & after a few minutes.   (a 'few' being just a few, 10 minutes is not a 'Few' but then translation is crap from VW.)

 Obviously there should be enough oil in when cold as well so not at the bottom of the dipstick.  So you can check before driving off, and after some muppet does a Oil & Filter change.

 

 

Edited 23 January, 20197 yr by Skoffski

10miles and about 20 minutes drive due to mostly 40mph speed limits and fixed camera sites to make you behave yourself.