Hi All,

I've had my Octavia since January, and have a few niggles with it, which I've contacted the dealer about. It's a 21 plate, but was built in July 2020. The issues are if I activate the automatic high-beam on the matrix lights it dazzles every oncoming driver. For Bluetooth it doesn't auto-connect to the phone unless I start the car with drivers door open. For the climate controls the SYNC function doesn't get remembered after the car is turned off. As this is all issues that have been discussed here I sent the dealer links to the issues here, along with my own videos of the climate and bluetooth issue:

Climate Link

Bluetooth Link

Matrix Lights Link

 

However, they've come back to say that they've been unable to find any issues relating to my vehicle. As I've sent them videos from the car they know I do have these issues.

 

The software on my car is 1668, and I know some people are on later versions. Are some of the fixes of issues related to specific software/hardware versions on the car?

 

The dealer is having the car for a day in May, and I do get on very well with them, I just don't want it to be a wasted day!

 

My car is also running 1668, and have issues with the CarPlay auto-reconnect not doing so, sometimes. Can’t comment on Matrix Lights ‘cos I don’t have them fitted.

 

For the climate Sync memory, it seems that Škoda forgot to change it from LHD to RHD. If I put it to Sync and adjust the temp on the drivers side it loose Sync - but if change temp on the passenger side it’s fine, even on the next journey after parking up (though the word Sync doesn’t display). Tedious I know - but I never normally use the Sync function so doesn’t bother me.

From what I could see my car's matrix light dimming was working ok, dimming the side that faced the oncoming traffic.

However that did not stop many drivers from flashing their lights at me since they obviously felt that I had not dimmed my lights.

So the feature is useless if does not stop me from irritating other drivers.

 

I've stopped using it completely now, as it's not fair on other drivers. One of my friends has a Vauxhall with the Intelllux lights, which I believe are effectively the same as Skoda's Matrix system and he's been very impressed and not been flashed at all by oncoming drivers.

 

For me it's frustrating that issues I've reported to the dealer are being treated as issues that have never been reported before, when it's clear many drivers are suffering from the same set of issues that are probably all down to poorly written software.

I have only the climate sync problem. My headlights and bluetooth work fine. Think my car was built in May 2021.

Just had an ota update today and I've noticed the Clima sync is now working correctly on the drivers side (rhd) 

So, an update... the car went in last week. A few hours later I was contacted by the dealer to state all the issues were fixed. Apparently, on the request of Skoda, they performed a reset, and a software update, and that had resolved all the issues.

 

However, I quickly realised that the issues had not been fixed at all. I'm not sure what software was updated as the infotainment system is still showing the same versions.

 

I also wasn't sure if they were testing the car without a user being logged in. As soon as I got the car back I re-connected my Skoda ID, and quickly noticed the issues with climate sync and bluetooth were still present.

 

With regards to the lights they commented that they'd had a few customers complain about the matrix lights. They said they'd checked the alignment and it was fine. My response was that I didn't think it was related to the alignment, it was related to sections of lights being deactivated when it detected oncoming vehicles. They said that "maybe the camera isn't reacting quickly enough'...

 

I've got a notification of an OTA update today as well, so I will see in the morning if that at least fixes the climate sync.

 

On the updates... I told it to start the update when I got home, and then turned off the car. Will it perform the update in the background and have completed it by morning? Or do you need to keep the ignition on for the update to be performed?

My ota update took 3 days to finally install unless there's been a couple to install. Should install when the car is locked

I had a major issue with my matrix lights dazzling other road users as shown in this video. It went into the local garage around 3-4 times before the garage finally took it out on a night drive and saw the issue within 5 minutes. Part of the reason they took so long was that they were testing the matrix lights by pointing the car at a MOT test wall. whereas the matrix lights don't really do anything until the car is moving at night. 

1 hour ago, fox2319 said:

I had a major issue with my matrix lights dazzling other road users as shown in this video. It went into the local garage around 3-4 times before the garage finally took it out on a night drive and saw the issue within 5 minutes. Part of the reason they took so long was that they were testing the matrix lights by pointing the car at a MOT test wall. whereas the matrix lights don't really do anything until the car is moving at night. 

Did you ever get a fix for the issue?

10 hours ago, JamesK said:

Did you ever get a fix for the issue?

Yeah, he rejected the car! 😅

 

Shame it had to come to that but it appears Skoda UK is not that great at customer service, or so it would appear from this forum. For that matter is it my imagination, or do the majority of cars with issues come from the UK?

Edited 10 May, 20224 yr by CS363

8 hours ago, CS363 said:

Yeah, he rejected the car! 😅

 

Shame it had to come to that but it appears Skoda UK is not that great at customer service, or so it would appear from this forum. For that matter is it my imagination, or do the majority of cars with issues come from the UK?

It is a shame that a customer has to reject a car because the manufacturer is unable to resolve issues which should've been discovered and resolved during the testing of the software.

 

I am now on my 3rd Octavia, having brought my first vRS back in 2011. I loved it so much I kept it 10 years, which is way longer than I have ever kept a car previously. I have found that Skoda UK customer service has declined in that time.

 

With regards to the issues, I think the car software hasn't been properly implemented to handle right hand drive. The issues with the lights and climate sync seem to confirm this when you look at other forum posts and the workaround for climate sync. Again, to me it goes back to properly testing the software.

 

I was hoping the big software update that is meant to be coming would fix everything, but then I read in another post that the "B" hardware version of the infotainment cannot handle the latest updates, which really isn't good for a car that's only 1 year old!

8 hours ago, CS363 said:

Yeah, he rejected the car! 😅

 

Shame it had to come to that but it appears Skoda UK is not that great at customer service, or so it would appear from this forum. For that matter is it my imagination, or do the majority of cars with issues come from the UK?

We seem to have had mixed responses from Škoda UK. In contrast to some, my experience was fine, albeit with a frustrating 5 months whilst they got my car sorted during which time I had a perfectly good loan Octy 4 estate.

 

Since I got mine back, last September, it’s been great, a few minor niggles that’s all.

 

I’ve had a few OTA updates just lately and it has greatly improved the CarPlay reconnect niggle. Another update awaits so will see what that does for me next time out.

7 hours ago, JamesK said:

It is a shame that a customer has to reject a car because the manufacturer is unable to resolve issues which should've been discovered and resolved during the testing of the software.

 

I am now on my 3rd Octavia, having brought my first vRS back in 2011. I loved it so much I kept it 10 years, which is way longer than I have ever kept a car previously. I have found that Skoda UK customer service has declined in that time.

 

With regards to the issues, I think the car software hasn't been properly implemented to handle right hand drive. The issues with the lights and climate sync seem to confirm this when you look at other forum posts and the workaround for climate sync. Again, to me it goes back to properly testing the software.

 

I was hoping the big software update that is meant to be coming would fix everything, but then I read in another post that the "B" hardware version of the infotainment cannot handle the latest updates, which really isn't good for a car that's only 1 year old!

 

It might be that UK models have different software as I know there's a few differences from other RHD markets as some of the options you guys in the UK get we don't even get offered.

That said, mine is a 2021 build RHD and I've had no real issues at all, there was some sluggishness with the Android Auto connecting etc., with my old Samsung S7 but now that I've upgraded to a S22 it connects really fast and the apps also work a lot better. The only other issue I had was with the coding for the towbar electrics but I think that was more because it was the first vRS they had fitted a towbar to, so I was a bit of a guinea pig on that - still sorted in two visits.