Well after five years of Skoda ownership I am off to pastures new. I had a fantastic Mk3 TDI vRS and I absolutely loved the car, manual box, leather seats, just lovely. I then bit the bullet and went for a Mk4 TDI vRS 4x4 and I had so many problems in the first month that I had to reject the car. 

I was incredibly disappointed with the car, and I still can’t believe that VAG released the platform and in the three years since have not managed to resolve common issues. Some of the challenges I encountered in my brief ownership include:

 

• Complete loss of audio – no phone, music, or sounds at all from the infotainment system.
• Rear park display camera – PDC failed.
• Lots, and I mean LOTS of warnings appearing on startup – PDC, Autohold, Start/stop, etc.
• Parasitic drain on the battery leaving the car unable to start.
• Adaptive cruise control failed and picked up the vehicles I was passing on the dual carriageway, suddenly braking the vehicle - I was nearly rear-ended by the vehicle behind the first time it happened.
• SOS system failure.
• Infotainment restarting during driving.
• Satnav (inbuilt and android auto) directions disappearing permanently from the head up display.

The car came from a main Skoda dealer, that I won’t name and shame, and was two years old, with a one-year Skoda approved package. I’d had the car less than a week when things started to go wrong. It went into the local Skoda dealership (in Scotland, the car came up from England) and had the SOS fixed and all updates applied. It resolved things for a short duration before it all started to go really wrong. 

Digging into the Erwin history, the car in the first two years before I purchased it had numerous software updates, modules replaced and a new infotainment system fitted – the tech I spoke with could not believe how much work had been done on a car in such a short period of time.

There were other issues to do with the condition of the car on delivery that were in conflict with the Skoda Approved Multi-Point Checklist but to be fair to the Sales Manager, he worked professionally to resolve.

I have now moved on to a lovely BMW 530d M Sport Touring which is one year older than the Skoda and with 20k more miles and was £2k more expensive. The BMW quality is fantastic, the automatic box is so much better than the Skoda, but I realise that I’m not comparing apples with apples, a £57k (new) car with a £36k (new) car but the BMW just works and I’m not spending all my time waiting for something else to go wrong.

I would like to wish everyone on the forum all the best and thank you for all your help over the years (I had a different username for the Mk3 forum).

 

I also want to leave on a positive note, and stress that I absolutely loved my Mk3 TDI vRS and enjoyed many years of fun driving in it 😃

 

 

34 minutes ago, BigEyeLittleEye said:

Well after five years of Skoda ownership I am off to pastures new. I had a fantastic Mk3 TDI vRS and I absolutely loved the car, manual box, leather seats, just lovely. I then bit the bullet and went for a Mk4 TDI vRS 4x4 and I had so many problems in the first month that I had to reject the car. 

I was incredibly disappointed with the car, and I still can’t believe that VAG released the platform and in the three years since have not managed to resolve common issues. Some of the challenges I encountered in my brief ownership include:

 

• Complete loss of audio – no phone, music, or sounds at all from the infotainment system.
• Rear park display camera – PDC failed.
• Lots, and I mean LOTS of warnings appearing on startup – PDC, Autohold, Start/stop, etc.
• Parasitic drain on the battery leaving the car unable to start.
• Adaptive cruise control failed and picked up the vehicles I was passing on the dual carriageway, suddenly braking the vehicle - I was nearly rear-ended by the vehicle behind the first time it happened.
• SOS system failure.
• Infotainment restarting during driving.
• Satnav (inbuilt and android auto) directions disappearing permanently from the head up display.

The car came from a main Skoda dealer, that I won’t name and shame, and was two years old, with a one-year Skoda approved package. I’d had the car less than a week when things started to go wrong. It went into the local Skoda dealership (in Scotland, the car came up from England) and had the SOS fixed and all updates applied. It resolved things for a short duration before it all started to go really wrong. 

Digging into the Erwin history, the car in the first two years before I purchased it had numerous software updates, modules replaced and a new infotainment system fitted – the tech I spoke with could not believe how much work had been done on a car in such a short period of time.

There were other issues to do with the condition of the car on delivery that were in conflict with the Skoda Approved Multi-Point Checklist but to be fair to the Sales Manager, he worked professionally to resolve.

I have now moved on to a lovely BMW 530d M Sport Touring which is one year older than the Skoda and with 20k more miles and was £2k more expensive. The BMW quality is fantastic, the automatic box is so much better than the Skoda, but I realise that I’m not comparing apples with apples, a £57k (new) car with a £36k (new) car but the BMW just works and I’m not spending all my time waiting for something else to go wrong.

I would like to wish everyone on the forum all the best and thank you for all your help over the years (I had a different username for the Mk3 forum).

 

I also want to leave on a positive note, and stress that I absolutely loved my Mk3 TDI vRS and enjoyed many years of fun driving in it 😃

 

 

Can I ask how much hassle was it rejecting the car back to dealer?

 

I’m currently looking at options to reject mine back to them due to issues but worried it’s going to be an utter mare to sort out. 
 

All the best with the new motor! Adios!