29 minutes ago, Rockinghorse said:

Hi RagingRebecca

 

Ist of all may I say how sorry I am to hear about your dads poor health. If that is not bad enough the last thing you need is this issue with Skoda.

As you will have already seen, there are many posts on Briskoda about this issue as well as on the wider Internet, but Skoda will not accept that they have a manufacturing problem. My car was leaking badly which was found to be the windscreen which was replaced along with anything else which was water damaged, but luckily this was found during the initial 3 year warranty, but I still had quite a battle with the dealership in order to get the work done at  no cost to me. It was because of this problem that I took out the 'All In' extended two year service/warranty plan after my 3 years expired. There is still some question as to wether Skoda would honour a repair if the water damage was to reoccur but they would certainly have a battle on their hands. Do I take it that your Dad didn't take out this plan? How long into the forth year did he notice the leak?

Does his car have a sunroof? because this is a favorite failure point as the drain pipes can become blocked and /or become detatched and allow water to get into the boot.

There are othe failure points such as the rear hatch leaking, either at the window seal or where the rear number plate light moulding is attached.

You may well find that the water has now run into the whole car floor and has saturated some of the key electrical conrol boxes under the seats and carpet which is why the garage found the diagnostic problem.

I had the same experience with Skoda head office - they are not interested and told me that the system was to deal with the local dealership. I was very forceful and after several weeks they finally agreed to look into the problem.

I fear Skoda will never own up to this water ingress issue even though it is widespread. I think you need to contact either your local television station and/or Watchdog as you need some real exposure of the problem and it is amazing how that can push companies to do something.

 

I hope you have some success with these problems as I know I no  longer feel the same about my car since the water ingress.

 

Best wishes

 

Rockinghorse

Thank you so much for such a detailed reply. The car does indeed have a panoramic sunroof and we certainly suspect that is the problem. Unfortunately my Dad did not take out the extended warranty because it had such low mileage and was in perfect condition (how ironic)! I appreciate your advice regarding going to the press etc but I don’t know that we have the energy as Dad only has a short time left and we don’t want to waste that time (although I completely agree that Skoda would then have to sit up and take notice), as need to make other plans for him. 

I am so sorry to hear your Dads time is so short, this is not fair on him or you.

As far as the car is concerned I do find it hard to believe that it is as bad as being termed an official write off as it could be that your local garage is loathe to get involved.

A lot of electrical components can be perfectly fine once they are dried out so I am sure all is not lost.

Modern cars are well protected against corrosion if they are dried out without delay, but we don't really know how long the problem has been going on.

Are you or your Dad a member of the AA or RAC by any chance? If so it may be worth giving them a call and asking if they can help.

As Aspman says there is the Ombudsman who may well take up your cause, so don't despair I'm sure someone will help but I appreciate this is not a time that you want to waste.

I wish you  both all the very best.

 

Regards

Rockinghorse

1 hour ago, Rockinghorse said:

I am so sorry to hear your Dads time is so short, this is not fair on him or you.

As far as the car is concerned I do find it hard to believe that it is as bad as being termed an official write off as it could be that your local garage is loathe to get involved.

A lot of electrical components can be perfectly fine once they are dried out so I am sure all is not lost.

Modern cars are well protected against corrosion if they are dried out without delay, but we don't really know how long the problem has been going on.

Are you or your Dad a member of the AA or RAC by any chance? If so it may be worth giving them a call and asking if they can help.

As Aspman says there is the Ombudsman who may well take up your cause, so don't despair I'm sure someone will help but I appreciate this is not a time that you want to waste.

I wish you  both all the very best.

 

Regards

Rockinghorse

The local garage have been excellent so I don’t think they are trying to avoid doing the work. They genuinely said the electrics have suffered such damage, that it wouldn’t be worth fixing. Looking online, this model would only be worth around £10,000 now so as far as I am aware, a write off is declared if repairs will cost more than 50-75% of the market value. The car has been sitting for around 4 months absolutely drenched in water inside. We tried applying gorilla tape around the sunroof but I wouldn’t stick in the low temperature and the dampness of the vehicle. Literally nothing is working in it, we can’t unlock it unless we do the manual override, the battery won’t charge, we can’t see any electrical component that is actually working.  I think we will have to pursue this with someone higher within Skoda or then go down the ombudsman route. 
Thank you very much for your best wishes, it is much appreciated.

The cars original battery might well be not taking a charge, but a fresh battery on is needed to see just how bad things are. 

As far as a 'write off' goes and value that concerns accidental damage, fire, theft and recovered.

Here it is a car that has been allowed to get to the condition, it was not flood damage through accidental circumstances, and it is possible that someone in the trade might very easily make an economic repair of it. 

 

PS

I re-read the OP and that another battery was fitted and diagnostics hooked up. 

Still i am in doubt over just how bad things really are with the car.

 

Getting it undercover and the windows open would have been my priority and most peoples i would have expected.

Edited 9 March, 20233 yr by toot

This is so odd. Whatever our opinions are of a main dealer, they are the 'creme de la creme' as far as the industry is concerned.  So I'm asking myself how is it possible someone from an insurance company on the other end of the phone say that the main dealer, who's physically inspected the car, is wrong? At the very minimum your insurance should be organising an engineer to at least appraise the Skoda mechanic's verdict.  That's just not how insurance companies work - they don't say "it doesn't sound as if it's a write-off" and leave it at that. That's so weird. They can't turn down a claim without evidence.

 

I'm assuming your dad doesnt have recovery services?  ( if he does, call them. Perhaps he took it out as an option when he renewed his insurance?).  You don't have to be a member of recovery services like AA or RAC to use them - you can call them, take out membership and they'll come along and help.  At least they'll test your car and if they can't get it going recover it to the dealership or any garage of your choice. ( I'd suggest recovering it to another Skoda branch ). If that dealership maintain the car isn't worth repairing then the insurer doesn't have a leg to stand on.

 

The only issue then is how much did your father contribute to the problem i.e. if this issue has been going on for sometime and he hadn't done anything about it, the insurer then may claim neglegence.

 

First think tho is to get the car seen to a.s.a.p.

 

PS  - have alook if there are any 3rd party VW or Audi garages near you. They may well have encountered this problem before. Essentially a Skoda is a rebadged VW / Audi so most failures are common to all brands.

 

 

 

 

Edited 9 March, 20233 yr by kodiaqsportline

45 minutes ago, toot said:

The cars original battery might well be not taking a charge, but a fresh battery on is needed to see just how bad things are. 

As far as a 'write off' goes and value that concerns accidental damage, fire, theft and recovered.

Here it is a car that has been allowed to get to the condition, it was not flood damage through accidental circumstances, and it is possible that someone in the trade might very easily make an economic repair of it. 

 

PS

I re-read the OP and that another battery was fitted and diagnostics hooked up. 

Still i am in doubt over just how bad things really are with the car.

 

Getting it undercover and the windows open would have been my priority and most peoples i would have expected.

Unfortunately my Dad lives in a small cottage with no access to anywhere undercover to protect it from the weather. Me and my sister live around 2 hours away, and the car lives on a drive at the bottom of the garden that Dad can no longer walk down easily. We have tried to dry it out by opening the windows and the doors, but as soon as we shut the car up, it is streaming with water within minutes. We have tried to book the car in with the dealership but they have said there is a 6 week delay each time, and they have refused to come and collect the car when we explained we couldn’t get it to them. Equally it has taken us ages to get a response from Skoda customer services so it has therefore got worse and worse whilst sitting on a drive. 

30 minutes ago, kodiaqsportline said:

This is so odd. Whatever our opinions are of a main dealer, they are the 'creme de la creme' as far as the industry is concerned.  So I'm asking myself how is it possible someone from an insurance company on the other end of the phone say that the main dealer, who's physically inspected the car, is wrong? At the very minimum your insurance should be organising an engineer to at least appraise the Skoda mechanic's verdict.  That's just not how insurance companies work - they don't say "it doesn't sound as if it's a write-off" and leave it at that. That's so weird. They can't turn down a claim without evidence.

 

I'm assuming your dad doesnt have recovery services?  ( if he does, call them. Perhaps he took it out as an option when he renewed his insurance?).  You don't have to be a member of recovery services like AA or RAC to use them - you can call them, take out membership and they'll come along and help.  At least they'll test your car and if they can't get it going recover it to the dealership or any garage of your choice. ( I'd suggest recovering it to another Skoda branch ). If that dealership maintain the car isn't worth repairing then the insurer doesn't have a leg to stand on.

 

The only issue then is how much did your father contribute to the problem i.e. if this issue has been going on for sometime and he hadn't done anything about it, the insurer then may claim neglegence.

 

First think tho is to get the car seen to a.s.a.p.

 

PS  - have alook if there are any 3rd party VW or Audi garages near you. They may well have encountered this problem before. Essentially a Skoda is a rebadged VW / Audi so most failures are common to all brands.

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your comments. I was also confused as to how the insurance company could make such a judgement over the phone. Dad has always belonged to a recovery service but I thought this would be a specialist fix, and they would simply try and get it started which is currently impossible. The local garage is a Skoda specialist hence the reason they had said they had seen this type of water ingress plenty of times and told us to take it up with Skoda, who simply don’t want to know. The garage were also insistent that the insurance company would pay out given the extent of the damage. I can appreciate that some people think he has been remiss in letting it get this bad, but our priority has been trying to find alternative solutions in getting him to hospital for his appointments, whilst waiting for Skoda’s responses. Also, today my Dad has had a letter from the ‘dealership’ where he bought it, saying that they will no longer be a Skoda dealership, which I think is quite telling. 

18 hours ago, kodiaqsportline said:

This is so odd. Whatever our opinions are of a main dealer, they are the 'creme de la creme' as far as the industry is concerned.  So I'm asking myself how is it possible someone from an insurance company on the other end of the phone say that the main dealer, who's physically inspected the car, is wrong? At the very minimum your insurance should be organising an engineer to at least appraise the Skoda mechanic's verdict.  That's just not how insurance companies work - they don't say "it doesn't sound as if it's a write-off" and leave it at that. That's so weird. They can't turn down a claim without evidence.

 

I'm assuming your dad doesnt have recovery services?  ( if he does, call them. Perhaps he took it out as an option when he renewed his insurance?).  You don't have to be a member of recovery services like AA or RAC to use them - you can call them, take out membership and they'll come along and help.  At least they'll test your car and if they can't get it going recover it to the dealership or any garage of your choice. ( I'd suggest recovering it to another Skoda branch ). If that dealership maintain the car isn't worth repairing then the insurer doesn't have a leg to stand on.

 

The only issue then is how much did your father contribute to the problem i.e. if this issue has been going on for sometime and he hadn't done anything about it, the insurer then may claim neglegence.

 

First think tho is to get the car seen to a.s.a.p.

 

PS  - have alook if there are any 3rd party VW or Audi garages near you. They may well have encountered this problem before. Essentially a Skoda is a rebadged VW / Audi so most failures are common to all brands.

 

 

 

 

It might be worth raising a complaint with the insurance company. Appreciating the futility of this you will probably need to go through several rounds of the complaints process before they actually make an effort. As mentioned they should have had the car assessed properly before making such a statement.

I would also phone the ombudsman they will probably be very helpful even if they cannot get involved yet.

I would also consider writing to the local press, again I appreciate you only hav so much energy but unfortunately adverse press is the thing most likely to get things moving.

19 hours ago, RagingRebecca said:

Thank you for your comments. I was also confused as to how the insurance company could make such a judgement over the phone. Dad has always belonged to a recovery service but I thought this would be a specialist fix, and they would simply try and get it started which is currently impossible. The local garage is a Skoda specialist hence the reason they had said they had seen this type of water ingress plenty of times and told us to take it up with Skoda, who simply don’t want to know. The garage were also insistent that the insurance company would pay out given the extent of the damage. I can appreciate that some people think he has been remiss in letting it get this bad, but our priority has been trying to find alternative solutions in getting him to hospital for his appointments, whilst waiting for Skoda’s responses. Also, today my Dad has had a letter from the ‘dealership’ where he bought it, saying that they will no longer be a Skoda dealership, which I think is quite telling. 

 

Please forgive me ( I'm a pain in the butt when it comes to stuff like this ) but I'm even more confused now.

 

If the car is covered by a recovery service is it not worth trying them?

If the car cannot be started what other option do you have but transporting it to a garage? You've already paid for someone to do this so why not use them.

 

Calling out the recovery guys would be a no brainer. If the recovery guys say the car is knackered that's only another plus in your case against the insurer.

 

From what you describe, I've heard of water ingress issues ( not always caused by sunroof ) but only going on what I've read where water gathers, I'm really struggling to try and understand how that would affect the part of the electrical system which starts the car.  Even cars that have been submerged during floods aren't automatically written off.  I can see it affecting other issues in the electrical system but....  Look I'm only an armchair expert in that regard, but iot does sound odd.  Was it actually the Skoda main dealer who said the electrical system was kaput or was it a local garage who is just a Skoda Specialist?  If the latter then that would explain to me Skoda UK's reluctance to get involved.

 

I've already said how does the insurer know the engineer is wrong, but equally, how can the garage insist the insurer would pay out? That's crazy. I think you're being very poorly advised.

 

If the Skoda dealer who supplied the car is no longer going to be around then recover the car to another Skoda dealership.

 

 

On 10/03/2023 at 17:49, kodiaqsportline said:

 

Please forgive me ( I'm a pain in the butt when it comes to stuff like this ) but I'm even more confused now.

 

If the car is covered by a recovery service is it not worth trying them?

If the car cannot be started what other option do you have but transporting it to a garage? You've already paid for someone to do this so why not use them.

 

Calling out the recovery guys would be a no brainer. If the recovery guys say the car is knackered that's only another plus in your case against the insurer.

 

From what you describe, I've heard of water ingress issues ( not always caused by sunroof ) but only going on what I've read where water gathers, I'm really struggling to try and understand how that would affect the part of the electrical system which starts the car.  Even cars that have been submerged during floods aren't automatically written off.  I can see it affecting other issues in the electrical system but....  Look I'm only an armchair expert in that regard, but iot does sound odd.  Was it actually the Skoda main dealer who said the electrical system was kaput or was it a local garage who is just a Skoda Specialist?  If the latter then that would explain to me Skoda UK's reluctance to get involved.

 

I've already said how does the insurer know the engineer is wrong, but equally, how can the garage insist the insurer would pay out? That's crazy. I think you're being very poorly advised.

 

If the Skoda dealer who supplied the car is no longer going to be around then recover the car to another Skoda dealership.

 

 

UPDATE:

Firstly, I wanted to thank everyone for their advice and help, it is much appreciated. The insurance people seem to be saying that they will never cover for electrical damage as it will always be repairable. However, I don’t think I am completely getting across simply how much water is involved here, wherever it may be coming in from. It is simply everywhere - in the inner skin so that the seatbelts are dripping when you pull them out, every footwell and the boot, and it simply rains from the whole of the roof all of the time. 
However, my Dad is simply so stressed about the whole thing that despite me offering to take this further with Skoda, press, ombudsman etc, he has contacted a scrap merchant and has sold it for salvage, and they are going to collect it tomorrow. I will probably write one final letter to Skoda to fully express my utter disappointment that it has ended like this, just to make me feel ever so slightly better, but obviously I am not expecting anything from them. Thank you everyone once again for their input. 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/511492-electronics-died-after-leakage-from-panorama

 

What a terrible story.

 

It now appears that my problem has been caused by the drainage pipe being completely split. My mechanic is now going to have to remove lots of internal trim, including the roof liner, disconnect the multitude of airbags and have the car for 2 days just to replace it.

A sunroof in Andalucia?  Is that on a Karoq or a 2012 year old Yeti?

2012 yeti

Hi everyone 

I would like to update you on my water ingress issue I reported back in February. So the dealer took the car in to investigate the passanger footwell flooding. They said the had stripped the car down to the metal but after extensive testing, could not find the cause of the leak. In all they had the car for two months to try and find the cause but to no avail. I therefore asked for a full refund under the sale of goods act, which to be fair to the dealer they agreed to immediaty and with no fuss. I have lost faith in the Skoda brand after this experience and have now bought a Qashqai which I an very pleased with and more importantly its waterproof. I'm sure I've just been unlucky, so I'd like to thank everyone on the forum for the useful help and advice and hope you have years of happy trouble free driving in your Skoda. 

I am so pleased you got a good result and a full refund. As my car was outside the 1st year of warranty my dealership told me they could not give me a refund but they did at least find my leak and repair it. I have never felt the same about my car since this experience and although I loved my previous Octavia, I would not buy another Skoda. I think you made a good choice with the Qashqai as although I'm not keen on the styling my daughter has one and it has been brilliant. With 115,00 miles on the clock the engine still pulls like a train and it has much better suspension than my Karoq which I have always though rather harsh over poor road surfaces and as that is all we have these days you have done the right thing. Best wishes!!

4 hours ago, Rockinghorse said:

As my car was outside the 1st year of warranty my dealership told me they could not give me a refund

 

Shocking misinformation in that statement.   A refund  ( or rejection ) has nothing whatsoever to do with warranty and everything to do with consumer rights - in the UK at least.

Edited 22 May, 20233 yr by kodiaqsportline

I hear what you say but as many people have stated there appears to be little you can do after the 1st year. You have to give the dealership the opportunity to repair the vehicle. Skoda UK were not interested and told me my contract was with the dealership and not them. I have had a number of issues with the car which have been repaired under warranty but it has put me off completely. It was the 1st brand new car I have owned and it will likely be my last as it has had more problems than any car I have had.

I have had many new company cars in my working life and never had any problems with any of them so this was a real disappointment. As I have yet to reach 18000 miles in four years I hope it will last me out.