Hi, I bought a Kodiaq in 2018. Since then, I don’t think I’ve had a single week where something doesn’t work. It is constant - the  car randomly stops starting for 18 month period, the foot activated boot opener doesn’t work, the driver door boot button won’t work, the windows won’t go up and down, the lane assist doesn’t work, the Apple car play doesn’t connect, the water pump breaks down while on holiday in a remote part of New Zealand, the Bluetooth stops working, the engine temperature thermometer randomly spikes.... and so on. I’ve probably forgotten a whole heap too. This is the most unreliable car I’ve ever owned. Has anyone else had these problems or did I just get the lemon of the century? 

Probably should've used the CGA to get a refund for the car. Nothing stopping you from doing so if you have a paper trail.

In Europe, Skoda cars, including the Kodiaq, seem to do pretty well in the various reliability surveys, especially when you take into account the driving conditions encountered (in the UK, many cars suffer suspension problems, because of the abysmal state of the roads - especially in the area I live in)

 

But, simple binomial stats (component fails or it doesn't) means that some unlucky person - that would be you - will have a car with a lot of faults.

I think I too would hate my Kodiaq if I had the same experience. 
The water pump/ overheating problem is unfortunate but does seem to be a weak point on the Diesel engines, was it replaced under warranty?  You don’t say what mileage you have covered and service history.

All the other faults could all be attributed to a weak or faulty battery.

I've had 2 and they've been almost faultless.

12 hours ago, ZacDaMan72 said:

Probably should've used the CGA to get a refund for the car. Nothing stopping you from doing so if you have a paper trail.

I’ve asked for the entire service record. In hindsight, I probably should have. However, I’ve done 100k in it now. Once the warranty runs out, I’ll be getting rid of it.

1 hour ago, GreenlineIIEstate said:

I've had 2 and they've been almost faultless.

If it wasn’t for the reliability and the never ending problems I’d love. I did once love it. But after 3 years of the inconvenience of always having something wrong (minor and major) I’ve had a gutsful. 

9 hours ago, Kenny R said:

I think I too would hate my Kodiaq if I had the same experience. 
The water pump/ overheating problem is unfortunate but does seem to be a weak point on the Diesel engines, was it replaced under warranty?  You don’t say what mileage you have covered and service history.

All the other faults could all be attributed to a weak or faulty battery.

At one point after a year of randomly not starting, they replaced the ECU. Had to wait months for that to arrive though - in the meantime, being late for appts, not able to get home at night with kids in the car etc. Now they just test it and say, “Well it worked perfectly for us”. I’ve gotten to the point that I take video evidence of any fault before I take it in. 

10 hours ago, SinglePointSafety said:

In Europe, Skoda cars, including the Kodiaq, seem to do pretty well in the various reliability surveys, especially when you take into account the driving conditions encountered (in the UK, many cars suffer suspension problems, because of the abysmal state of the roads - especially in the area I live in)

 

But, simple binomial stats (component fails or it doesn't) means that some unlucky person - that would be you - will have a car with a lot of faults.

I don’t understand that... why would one person randomly end up with more faults than other person? We have pretty crappy roads here in NZ too. My friend, who also bought a Kodiaq after I raved about mine two weeks in, has also had a number of issues, including the starting fault. Which, to be fair, is a pretty major fault!!!! She hasn’t had as many as me, but still quite a few. 

2 hours ago, Kitchengirl said:

I’ve asked for the entire service record. In hindsight, I probably should have. However, I’ve done 100k in it now. Once the warranty runs out, I’ll be getting rid of it.

You could probably seek some compensation from ŠKODA New Zealand if you take them to fair go haha 

 

My two Kodiaqs have been pretty reliable apart from both having door rattles that never got completely sorted out by the dealer. 

Edited 27 May, 20215 yr by ZacDaMan72

15 hours ago, Kitchengirl said:

I don’t understand that... why would one person randomly end up with more faults than other person?

Because that's the way stats works

7 hours ago, SinglePointSafety said:

Because that's the way stats works

I'm an outlier, but it doesn't mean its random. I think mine was put together by a stoned prisoner on a Monday morning, or last thing on a Friday afternoon, when he just wanted to knock off for the day and have a bevvie. My takeaway from this though, is that Skoda's "diagnostic tools" are absolute crap. They are unable to diagnose why a fault exists and fix it. 

On 27/05/2021 at 12:21, ZacDaMan72 said:

You could probably seek some compensation from ŠKODA New Zealand if you take them to fair go haha 

 

My two Kodiaqs have been pretty reliable apart from both having door rattles that never got completely sorted out by the dealer. 

Mine has that in the passenger door too Zach. Is where the grab handle joins the door card and depending on how door was last pulled shut etc. makes a bit of noise on course chip roads. I'm a bit wary of pulling off the formed plastic handle to get at the bolt to tighten it so just live with it.

I would think a start stop issue if dashboard is lighting up etc. like normal when start is pushed, could be more around the sensor on the brake pedal possibly or glow plug type warming issue with the diesel. Kodiaq definitely does different start times dependent on the outside temperature from when you push the button.

Edited 28 May, 20215 yr by snala

i doubt Fair Go will air the complaint, as Skoda have sponsored giveaways on sister show Seven Sharp. but you're right - getting them to acknowledge faults, even with clear evidence, is nigh-on-impossible. i'd actually spend the money getting a detailed list of faults from an independent mechanic, and using it as written proof. a social media post on the right page can do wonders

Not every car is going to be fault free, sad but a fact of life. Whilst I've only had my new car for one month I have to say so far its been fantastic.

@Kitchengirlit does appear that you've had a few problems and yes maybe you sadly got "that car" which has ongoing issues. As for the diagnostic tools part, that tool will only give you what the fault is, it's up to the mechanic/technician to verify the part itself is at fault or something else. 

I remember years ago when I was on the tools, I was trying to diagnose a fault. The JDS (Jaguar diagnostic system) kept spitting out different faults all the time for the same system that failed. This was in the late 80s very early 90s when the XJ40 was released and selling.

Bit more explanation of the stats of car reliability. What follows is very much simplified, before the 'proper' maths and stats people jump in....

 

Consider a car with, say, 5 components that will seriously upset you if they fail and might even stop the car working.

Let's assume that each component has a probability of failure of 10% in a given year. Thus the probability that your car is fault-free in that year is 0.9 ^ 5, where the symbol ^ means 'raised to the power of', so 0.9 ^ 5 = 0.9 x 0.9 x 0.9 x 0.9 x 0.9

0.9 ^ 5 = 0.59, so that you have approx 60% chance that your car is fault free.

 

The probability that all the components fail in that year is 0.1 ^ 5 ie 1 in 100,000. But, if the manufacturer churns out several hundreds of thousands of this car, it's pretty much guaranteed that someone will be unlucky and have every component fail in their car in that year. The same stats does of course apply to assembly, but that is largely automated and most faults (according to eg Which? surveys) are component problems.

Maybe no longer 'Friday cars',  but when you get a 'Lemon' that came off the production line and got through Quality Control then, Skoda / VW or whoever know which shift that car was produced on and with which parts from which source.

 

That means that Skoda / VW Group can very easily look at the pattern of the 'Lemons', they can know which might require 'Recall Action's or Service Campaigns, or TPI's covering them.

The thing is that Skoda are not telling, and even with the likes of the Zinc Inclusion they had, or Euro 5 TSI failings.  They wait until they have to act, and even then it takes a Country that can rip them a new one and make the penalties high before acting.

 

Do not Expect the Motoring press to be saying much as people have seen recently with Honest John and 'Software or Hardware' failings from some 2020/2021 vehicles.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/484705-kphmph

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/493264-how-many-are-rejecting-or-are-in-the-process-of-rejecting

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/493692-accept-or-reject

 

Edited 31 May, 20215 yr by e-Roottoot

Skoda will have certain quality control metrics applied to their components, for example the supplier will have to meet a target for the failure probability (with given confidence limits) of a component. But no component can be made perfectly and/or a non-destructive testing regimen (if there is one) may fail to uncover an inherent fault, and thus it is accepted that there will a non-zero probability of failure. 

 

As Root implies, Skoda will employ staff with statistical knowledge to see if there a statistically-significant deviation from the expected failure rate - for example the infamous airbag recall that affected many cars such as Honda and Toyota. The issue of the failure rate of the emergency call system in VAG cars has now (finally) made its way to the press.

 

All of the above does not change the simple statistical fact - if you sell enough cars, there will be some which, by sheer statistical chance, have a lot of faults, much more so than the average. As I said, that's how stats works. What matters is how the dealership (with whom the responsibility lies, not Skoda UK) deals with the problems. Many years ago we had a Volvo V70 which had just about every 'common' fault occur - but the dealer was brilliant and always found time to do the repairs/replacement, and the next Volvo we had was pretty much trouble-free.

@SinglePointSafety - We might approach some of this stuff differently, but we're doing the same statistics with the same results.

Skoda is a low volume car manufacturer.

They made a big song and dance about 'Supplying globally over 1 million vehicles in a year'  2 years back.

All Skoda models sold / first registered in the UK in a year is just a bit more than just what Ford first register in Fiestas.

 

Skoda would do a lot better as would Dealerships if there was less time taken up at Dealerships with Warranty work.

Dealerships would do a lot better doing better PDI's and being less sloppy.  

 

Skoda would do lots better if they were the best Car Builders in the Czech Republic with better quality control and putting longer warranties on their vehicles.

 

EDIT, 

they are managing year on year to get more churned out even during a world wide pandemic, they just need to get the reliability improved and not punt them early if not fully fit for purpose just because VW want them to.

 

The Enyaq needs to be properly built and if there are snagging issues they need dealt with properly.

VW are not doing that with their ID.3's.  Or with Skoda Citigo iV's.

 

 

Edited 31 May, 20215 yr by e-Roottoot

Root, yes, I note that in some markets Skoda offer a 5-year warranty, unlike 3-yr in UK.  The Which? car survey still shows that Skoda cars - especially petrol variants - do well in the reliability stakes. Diesels probably suffer from dpf issues with those owners who should never have chosen a diesel because of their journey profiles (which of course, those honest sales people would have pointed out....)

 

KenONeil, thanks: the point I'm making isn't that cars are 'Friday afternoon nightmares' (that used to happen in the days when cars were literally hand-built) but now it's just the law of random numbers. Skoda's sales are easily large enough for these statistical variations to occur: someone, somewhere will get a vehicle with a lot of failures. 

 

There is of course a separate issue of poor design/implementation, as exhibited by the many folk on this and other forums who are having issues with the MIB3 infotainment system and linked ancillaries. That's not 'component failure' it's buggy, badly-written software and there's no excuse.

Almost every year someone posts the Results of Reliability Studies from the 2 big surveys.

This is maybe the biggest Skoda Forum.

 

I posted several years asking which members had taken part in the Surveys.  Silence was the reply other than from a handful of members.

 

It all needs taken with a pinch of salt, like results from MG Owners. 

Maybe there are too many MG Sales staff with time on their hands.

 

Go into a Skoda Dealership and they are all very very busy, maybe dealing with Customer Enquiries and After Sales Service, maybe biging up Skoda with

Which / AutoExpress Driver Power.

Skoda UK might like to publish the results of the Surveys that Customers return to them that they got from having visited a Dealership.

 

Forget this is in the Daily Fail, & they want a dig at the Germans, it was published elsewhere.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2542797/Germans.html

 

Edited 31 May, 20215 yr by e-Roottoot

Root, it's true that any survey has to be wary of selection bias in the cohort ("only those with a complaint fill in the survey" - that kind of belief). Certainly the Which? survey tries to minimise this and is upfront when they get insufficient data to make valid statistical conclusions. I've only had the Skoda for a year and have just taken part in the current Which? survey, and have done so every year for many, many years and been totally truthful about all of my cars.

 

Interesting that of all the surveys I've seen, the 'usual suspects' top the ratings - Toyota/Lexus, Honda etc, and Land Rover at or near the bottom, with some variation in between amongst the different surveys.

 

Of course the actual unbiased data - which we, the public, will never see because it's closely-guarded - is certainly easily available to the manufacturers. It's their warranty (and perhaps out-of-warranty) repair rate/cost. Any manufacturer will balance the desire to reduce this until the cost of making the vehicle becomes disproportionate. Don't think even the dealerships are allowed to see the totality of this data for the brand they sell, only what goes through their workshops.

Edited 31 May, 20215 yr by SinglePointSafety

'Which' gets responses from the kind of people that respond to 'Which'. 

 The Yeti was good, the Superb was and is good.  They get good marks from Yeti & Superb drivers might fall into that group that respond to Which.

 

 

Warranty Claims past the Manufacturers Warranty tells a bit of a tale, but then there is the kind that have Warranties because they think the vehicle they are buying needs an extended warranty, and they might or might not need to claim on it.

Warranty / Insurers of vehicles know what is what by how much they ask for a policy on a cars possibility of failing.

 

This have not changed much since 2013.

Edited 31 May, 20215 yr by e-Roottoot

Root, true, the potential bias in any cohort is hard to control - Which? members may not be totally representative of the motoring population, as is the case for those that inhabit these forums or indeed make the effort to take part in any survey whatsoever. Decent statisticians try their best.... Absolutely no-one can say "this car good, that car not so good" until the data from various sources is collated and checked for bias.

 

The warranty companies should indeed have some useful data for out-of-warranty cars, but again, there may selection bias - ie the people that actually buy 3rd-party warranties (where and how they drive the cars) and of course the age of the cars.

 

Even allowing for all of that, it seems from the various data sources that if you value reliability, buy a Japanese car, and don't buy a JLR one, especially used.