Had a chat with the Skoda dealer service advisor in Inverness yesterday about the cost of getting the cambelt replaced in a couple of months time and explained I knew about the change in Skoda UK policy that the recomendation for the belt to be changed age wise was at 5 years no longer applies.

The quoted cost of replacement was £1273.58, at my request he contacted the senior technician who confimed that the coolant pump is not driven by the cam belt as it is located in another part of the engine.

The Karoq will be 7 years old at the end of January and mileage is around 35000 miles so something to think over if I decide to keep the car for 5 to 6 more years.

Was this @ Hawco? Now in Peterhead as well. Simply Clever is avoid their ridiculous prices. Best get the price from Victoria Garage Maud. The thing is it does mean the car needed all day if you have it done. Get a B&B and still cheaper than the rip off that is Hawco. They have all the gear and more than ideas at Victoria Garage Maud.

Edited 18 December, 202518 Dec by Evolution13

Skoda / VW Group in the UK and the 5 years / 50,000 miles was unique really. Their nice little earner for UK Dealerships. Then people were not paying £800-£1,200 and trading in cars and Dealers did not want to have these cars with the Manufacturers Schedule, Guidelines or advised work done at their expense and a techs day spent on them. So Simply Clever, drop this nonsense. Not all Dealerships had the time or locking setting tools / qualified yechs.

I think that there is still some nervousness in owners, and some workshops minds over the "quite longer than long" mileage/years that is currently given for this job, probably based on previous mileages/years offered by many other manufacturers - and then dropped back quite a bit when experiences proved that some mileages/years quoted did not tie in with real world workshops and owners personal experience.

Having said that, I waited until 10 years and 55,000 miles had passed before I handed my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI in for this job, okay it "only" cost £650ish at VW Group proper Indie as that car does not have ACT and so the labour time is a lot shorter.

So, to the OP, I'd suggest leaving that job for now, my mate "through West" has a late 2019 VW T-ROC 1.5TSI 150PS and he has asked me about when should he get this task done, a very tricky question to answer maybe, he will have done a lot more miles than my wife's 2015 Polo, giving a friend this sort of advice, ie "I'd leave it for now", and then "bang" is not what I'd hope to happen.

At the end of the day, if you, the buyer and owner, plans to keep this car for another say 8 years/50,000miles, then why not just get it done at around the 10 years mark so that you can hopefully stop worrying about it and also make some use out of spending that sort of money.

Edit:- oh, and the "money taker" at that local VW Group proper Indie said to me as I was heading back out after collecting the Polo, "that will be you for another 5 years" - I turned round and muttered something and gave him a funny look!

Edited 18 December, 202518 Dec by rum4mo

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and yes it was Hawco Skoda Inverness now part of the John Martin Group I visited yesterday which is 80 miles east of where I stay on the west coast mainland.

Motor Trader

John Clark Motor Group acquires Hawco & Sons

John Clark Motor Group has acquired Hawco Group and its dealerships in Inverness, Elgin and Peterhea...

I have e-mailed Victoria Garage to see what their charges are for doing the cambelt change but they are around 170 miles one way east of where I stay but it will be interesting to get a cost comparison from them, sometime.

Many avoid John Clark Group in Perth or Aberdeen and instead use Dundee Skoda / SEAT part of the John Clark Group. It comes down to the standard of the techs. They can not all be useless, there are very good ones. Pity about the hourly rates and these are maybe justified when it is a qualified & experienced tech doing the job well or supervising trainees work properly..

Edited 18 December, 202518 Dec by Evolution13

TBH we should start getting some real-life data soon enough in terms of life expectancy and mileages. EA211 TSI engines have been around since 2012 and the ACT versions since 2017 IIRC. So if failures due to age and / or mileage are starting to happen earlier than suggested by the recent changes to the service regimes / manuals then we should have started hearing by now... or we will do soon.