This follows on from my post from a few days back

 

Having got the car booked into my local Skoda garage, they have now come back and told me the unit has failed and my only option is replacement. I was hoping it might be a software fix, but no luck there.

Cost to replace, £2100 for the unit + £100 labour, and to make matters worse, the unit is on backorder so may have to wait 2 months to get one.

The car is undriveable without it because there is no analogue backup for speedo.

Car was a good'un until this happened.

Part number is 565920790A and looks like I can get one here

https://www.cars-equipment.com/en/shop/instrument-clusters-5/oem-565920790a-virtual-cockpit-instrument-clusters/

but I'd need to find someone who could fit it. My garage won't of course, because they haven't sourced the part themselves.

 

Does anyone know if this cars-equipment site is ok to deal with? They get 4/5 on Trustpilot.

Also, I'm in South London and need to find a garage/technician that could fit that thing for me. Any recommendations?

 

Many thanks!

 

 

Maybe @ApertureS  will know of someone / someplace.

52 minutes ago, r0b1n said:

The car is undriveable without it because there is no analogue backup for speedo.

 

 

Not sure of the legality of this, but you could use a GPS app on your phone to show speed.  Or even a nav app like Waze, which shows the speed.   I find myself glancing at that now and ignoring the car's speedo.

2 hours ago, r0b1n said:

The car is undriveable without it because there is no analogue backup for speedo.

 

If someone is charged with the offence of driving a vehicle that does not have a working speedometer, it is an adequate defence to show that steps have been taken to have the defect remedied by replacement or repair as soon as possible.

So once you have arranged a repair and can prove it, you do not have to wait for the repair to be completed before driving the car.

 

If someone gets a NIP for exceeding the speed limit the defence of the speedo not working is no defence if they wanted to challenge the speeding offence.

I have used HazzyDayz in Markyate for retrofits, and they used to refurbish  car electronic items. Might be worth giving them a ring.

1 hour ago, Ootohere said:

If someone gets a NIP for exceeding the speed limit the defence of the speedo not working is no defence if they wanted to challenge the speeding offence.

 

Nor would "the speedo was working and indicating below the speed limit honest guvnor!" be any defence.

 

I can understand someone not wanting to drive a car without knowing what speed they are going but the chances of being stopped and prosecuted for a non working speedo are next to nothing except for a complete wreck lacking lights, indicators, bumpers, seat belts etc, then they might just throw it in for good measure.

 

Having had a bike engined road/race car with a wildly inaccurate speedo its surprising just how accurately an involved driver can estimate their speed without instrumentation.

I wonder if there's a case for a claim under the Consumer rights Act, as not of Satisfactory quality under the durability clause ?

One would surely expect a digital dash system to last more than 5 years ?

I'd have a chat with Citizens Advice...

Things break, that is life!

 

The MTBF of a digital dashboard may well be predicted to be 20 years but no-one will know for 20 years whether that was accurate, even if it was 50% will have failed by that time, a significant amount of those will have failed within a very short time of manufacture and be replaced under warranty.

 

This is a five year old vehicle for Dogs sake! Many of us remember that you had to really look after a vehicle and spend lots on repairs and maintenance for a vehicle to go beyond 5 years and not be scrapped.

 

The mid to late 90's and early 2000's were the sweet spot for longevity, vehicles produced then would often last more than 10 years without any attention, people would scrap a vehicle at 10 years old when it needed its first ever repair, an exhaust replacement, the 2009 scrappage scheme resulted in hundreds of thousands of excellent vehicles being destroyed that would have gone on for another couple of decades.

 

Vehicles made since then have not had nearly the same build quality or rust prevention and as each year goes on gain more fragile electronic modules for which the manufacturers deliberately place a stupid price on like this Digital Cockpit nonsense, make no mistake each new "desirable" flaky feature like this costs them significantly less than its predecessor, their aim is for you to sell on the vehicle once it is beyond warranty and purchase a new one from them, this happens by default where vehicles are lease or PIP purchased or whatever that nonsense is called.

 

I knew that moving from a 2006 EU4 Octavia to a 2015 EU5 Yeti I would leave myself wide open to the extortion, its an educated choice that I made and I accept the consequences, I would deserve to be laughed at if I started whinging and invoking the Consumer Rights Act.

Whilst it is a 5 year old vehicle, how many  members in this forum have had to have old fashioned analogue dials replaced? In my 50 years of car ownership I’ve never had any issues with traditional dials - the expectation is that the electronic version would be at least as good. 

3 minutes ago, thamestrader said:

Whilst it is a 5 year old vehicle, how many  members in this forum have had to have old fashioned analogue dials replaced? In my 50 years of car ownership I’ve never had any issues with traditional dials - the expectation is that the electronic version would be at least as good. 

Unfortunately, a whole lot more to go wrong with an electronic device - and when it does, it will usually be a complete fail.

Quote

how many  members in this forum have had to have old fashioned analogue dials replaced?

 

and if they did, it would cost nowhere near £2000.

Manufacturers have decided that digital dash's are easier for them, they can use the same part across a wide range of vehicle. They then get them produced as cheap as possible and then have the gall to try and charge £2000 when it goes wrong. Maybe they should be brought to book and made to produce this stuff to a reasonable quality not 'down to a price'

2 hours ago, NottsIan said:

 

 Maybe they should be brought to book and made to produce this stuff to a reasonable quality not 'down to a price

Absolutely agree, the designed lifespan should be at least as long as the what it replaceds.

3 hours ago, NottsIan said:

Maybe they should be brought to book and made to produce this stuff to a reasonable quality not 'down to a price'

 

It is made to a very reasonable quality, manufacturers dont want failures within the warranty or a typical 3 year lease period, it will be made for the lowest possible price and cost them delivered to the production line less than two percent of the price they put on it as a replacement part when .

 

In their defence the supply chain logistics and inventory costs of spare parts are far higher than the same parts fitted on the line when those costs are effectively zero especially inventory.

Richter Automotive In Bletchley  Link Vehicle Install Services | Richter Automotive  they well be able to help.  I used them to fit the towbar to my Karoq. Chatting to the Service Manager this morning about the technology in cars  I mentioned the cost of replacing things like the digital cockpit display screen. He said that they are usually able to get them repaired, typically for half the cost of replacement, and its often the module behind the screen rather than the screen itself.

Thanks everyone for your contributions. I've just caught up on the thread after a couple of weeks away. Makes for very interesting (and entertaining) reading.

 

Thanks also, thamestrader for the info about Richter Automotive. I'll definitely get in touch with them.

 

Update on my situation is that in order to have our driving holiday around the UK and Ireland I bypassed the speedo (as suggested in this thread) using a cheap OBD2 device bought on Amazon Arestech 5.5 inches A8 OBD2 Windshield HUD Head Up Display and yes it does look like ar*etech when you read it :D.

Checked with my insurance that they would continue to cover me. They said because the car had not been modified in any way, they would honour any claim and it was noted on file for reference. It worked perfectly over about the 2000 miles we covered and is actually pretty cool to use apart obviously from not being able to see all the warnings/info about cruise control etc. It even allows you to change various settings including calibration so you get an accurate mph/kph (used phone GPS to verify) and all for 30 odd quid.

 

Meanwhile, I got the Skoda customer satisfaction team involved after my Skoda garage refused to offer me a discount beyond 50% of just the labour cost (ie. a saving of not a lot).

They were fairly helpful. Actually spent a good hour over two sessions on the phone to them while they took notes to understand the full situation and history of the car.

They explained that any discount/ concession had to be initiated by the retailer (ie. the Skoda dealer) and then Skoda would enhance/match the retailer offer. They put some pressure on the garage based on what I'd told them and the outcome as of last week is that they have agreed to give a 50% discount, so now if I want to go ahead then I get it replaced, including labour costs for £1150 inc vat. 

 

So I guess now the question is assuming Richter automotive can repair it for less, is it of any value to have it replaced by the dealer and keep my service record all sparkly, or just go with whatever option is cheaper?

 

 

Edited 3 September, 20241 yr by r0b1n