Hi,

I've purchased a 2014 Octavia Greenline III 1.6TDi in June with 96,000 miles on it and have been inundated with problems since. 

After a few days - the alarm developed a fault and kept triggering . (warranty sorted this)

On my first long journey the metal coolant pipe leading into the back of the engine burst due to corrosion emptying the coolant all over the road (warranty sorted this)

My number plate warning comes on intermittently even though the light is working.

My reverse sensor is very temperamental and when it does come on it tells me I'm about to crash when there's nothing there.

My DAB radio signal is always cutting out.

My window regulator has just died (warranty sorting this)

My engine management light is on giving these codes:P047100 and P200200 DPF / Exhaust pressure sensor.

 

My last car was a used 2012 Honda CRV which gave us many years of trouble-free motoring and at the moment I'm missing it.

Have I bought a hunk of junk? I was under the impression that Skodas were reliable.

 

Advice please.

 

 

Very unlucky, mine's been an absolute peach.

Same for me. 2014 tsi rs baught new and zéro problems.

The parking radar tend to come up on traffic jams when the cars are way ahead or behind.

Besides that, 100.000km and no problems 

Edited 16 October, 20241 yr by nickytheshaft

you are comparing Japanese engineering vs 'German' engineering, it is not a secret that the Japanese have sorted this out better regardless of what people will say, especially on this forum :-). I owned a Mazda 3 in the past and it was perfect (I went for an Octavia because I needed the space). 

 

Yes, my Octavia also has issues but I wasn't surprised since I owned several VW group cars before.

My rule of thumb with any modern car is that 10 years or 150,000 miles is their reasonable, not too much trouble, lifespan. After 10 years there are lots of parts that die due to age. After 150,000 there are parts that are just worn out.

I’m not saying an older or very high mileage car won’t give good service but you’ve got to expect to spend more on repairs.

Just unlucky by the sounds. My TSI VRS 2015 just ticked over 96k miles and I've had no problems in 3 years of ownership, just general maintenance.

My previous car which i had for 5 years was a 2013 A3 2.0 TDI. Best car i've ever owned. went up and down the country taking it well over 100k miles and it never missed a beat. Sometimes you just get lucky or unlucky as the case may be. 

On 14/10/2024 at 21:56, Norman73 said:

Hi,

I've purchased a 2014 Octavia Greenline III 1.6TDi in June with 96,000 miles on it and have been inundated with problems since. 

After a few days - the alarm developed a fault and kept triggering . (warranty sorted this)

On my first long journey the metal coolant pipe leading into the back of the engine burst due to corrosion emptying the coolant all over the road (warranty sorted this)

My number plate warning comes on intermittently even though the light is working.

My reverse sensor is very temperamental and when it does come on it tells me I'm about to crash when there's nothing there.

My DAB radio signal is always cutting out.

My window regulator has just died (warranty sorting this)

My engine management light is on giving these codes:P047100 and P200200 DPF / Exhaust pressure sensor.

 

My last car was a used 2012 Honda CRV which gave us many years of trouble-free motoring and at the moment I'm missing it.

Have I bought a hunk of junk? I was under the impression that Skodas were reliable.

 

Advice please.

 

 

I've had my car for 4 years and the only thing that's gone wrong with it is water ingress to the rear lamp cluster, which I'm sorting out for the cost of a hairdryer and some silicone sealant.

It's the most trouble-free car I've ever had, but mine's only 5 years old and under 23K miles.

VAG cars are not like 2012 Hondas. They need meticulous maintenance as well as planned preventative maintenance, if you want trouble free motoring, IMO.

 

It might be you have bought a troublesome car. Have you performed a vehicle checks on the car, to see if it's been in a big crash?

Has it sailed through most of its MOTs without issue, or has it had a shopping-list of advisories every year for the last few MOTs?

What's the service history of the car like? Complete and meticulous, or every 2 years/20K miles?

When was the coolant last changed, before it spilled out onto the road?

I've had plenty of issues with my last 2018 and current 2019 1.5tsi act Octavia dsg. I think I jumped ship a bit late on the vag reliability front. None of them have been major issues, just software/hardware glitches, false alarm activations, rear hatch lock failure, rear wiper motor failure, spark plug failures under 2 years old, ongoing rear hatch water ingress issue with my previous octavia hatch.  I've only owned Skodas for 2.5 years so far, so within my opinion very average on the reliability front. My current Octavia has 68k on the clock, fsh. Previous under 50k when I'd sold it, again fsh.

They''re great for space, both dsg dq200 transmissions have been excellent, zero issues, 1.5tsi act engines also very economical with enough power for me. 

I'd expect some issues with a car 10 years plus old though with nearly 100k on the clock, Although I've previously owned low mileage cars (none vag), had issues with them, too. 

 

2 hours ago, EnterName said:

I've had my car for 4 years and the only thing that's gone wrong with it is water ingress to the rear lamp cluster, which I'm sorting out for the cost of a hairdryer and some silicone sealant.

It's the most trouble-free car I've ever had, but mine's only 5 years old and under 23K miles.

VAG cars are not like 2012 Hondas. They need meticulous maintenance as well as planned preventative maintenance, if you want trouble free motoring, IMO.

 

It might be you have bought a troublesome car. Have you performed a vehicle checks on the car, to see if it's been in a big crash?

Has it sailed through most of its MOTs without issue, or has it had a shopping-list of advisories every year for the last few MOTs?

What's the service history of the car like? Complete and meticulous, or every 2 years/20K miles?

When was the coolant last changed, before it spilled out onto the road?

Very detailed service history, well looked after and always passed MOT

12 hours ago, Norman73 said:

Very detailed service history, well looked after and always passed MOT

That's good to hear.

No vehicle check to see if it's had a major shunt?

No, it’s been really well looked after

5 minutes ago, Norman73 said:

No, it’s been really well looked after

So you said earlier.

nonetheless, have you run a vehicle check to see if it has had accident damage recorded?

A check like this.

https://www.carcheck.co.uk/CarCheckExample.pdf

 

A friend in the motor trade has run a check and it’s not had any crashes.