Skoda's website has a general recalls campaigns page (https://www.skoda-auto.com/services/recall-campaigns), a specific page to the Takata airbags fiascos, a specific page about diesel engines, and then a page for (apparently) any other type of recall campaign (https://recall.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com, or, seemingly specific to the Spanish market where I live, https://recall.skoda-auto.com/572/es-es).

Entering my Spanish market vehicle's ID, the 004/en page says "Sorry, this service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later." (this has been consistent for days), the the Spanish page (which I only found just now) says "Please contact your authorized service partner." So, what's the point of having these pages?

Is there another recalls campaigns search page that actually does something?

Or, as the Spanish page suggests (and I have not found super helpful here in Spain), I have to try to get a Skoda dealership to actually care about a car sold five years ago and really do a lookup? (My experience with Skoda workshops has been .. not great).

thanks,

Sadly pretty pathetic stuff with Skoda. Even in the UK the Skoda Recall Action / Service Campaign page can miss actual SAFETY CRITICAL RECALLS that show in the UK.Gov DVLA Recalls site for checking by Reg Number or just vehicle and year. Skoda / VW Group Main Dealers in the UK can even sell Skoda Approved Used cars that have not had Service Campaign, Recall Actions / Workshop actions carried out, or without checking TPI,s. in the UK

6 hours ago, JayLibove said:

Is there another recalls campaigns search page that actually does something?

As far as I know sadly the answer is no there isn't.

As with UK there might be some sort of Government forced Recall but that's for safety recalls (too) few of those are actually done, car manufacturers are allowed to get away with a lot in the UK.

Seems like VW might have been caught out in Spain about something as in the UK they easily avoid Recalls they don't want to admit to by simply not admitting to the need for a Recall they don't want to know about or keep things hushed up at the Dealerships and see if they can get customers to pay for the resolves rather than do them or make a partial contribution.

Good luck.

I had sent a question about both my own car's VIN and about the two failing web portals, to Skoda Spain.

I got a phone call the same day, confirming that there are no recalls that affect my car, and agreeing to forward the comments about the two web portals to the "digital" department.

No idea how fiable (Spanish: reliable) either of the claims are.........

UK Government Site Recalls. TSI 2.0 Engine Covers and then PHEV,s. & the SOS.

Thanks @Evolution13 . I tried the UK gov't's site, but it doesn't like my Spanish VIN (which is 17 characters long).

So, Skoda Spain called me back, and confirmed that my car has no recalls.

They also said that the Skoda brand websites are not only not under their control, they don't even have a way to talk to that part of Skoda to provide feedback about the websites.

I sent email to the contact address on the malfunctioning webpages, and got an initial non-answer which just also told me to call a Skoda service partner.

Pushing back on them about the websites, they replied that the sites cannot be relied on!

I sent back to them "Then take down the worse-than-useless sites"....

And I commented that, although Skoda makes some good cars, my customer service journey with the brand, from the very beginning, has been disappointing.

sigh I hope when it's time to replace my Scout in a bunch more years, I can afford an Audi or at least a VW...

Thanks for reporting back

Most/all big companies websites have loads of errors and omissions on them and out of date information and broken links, they tend to be so vast and "legacy" that they have become partly uncontrollable and this is because, to put it into car terms they have been allowed to become this way by lack of proper full regular and timely servicing, maintenance and repair, and when they are attended to the parts and work quality may not be the best (sound familiar at all).

It has always been beyond me why in this century the believe that the German car marques are so good continues, great marketing and undeserved loyalty from customers, or they don't want the truth out as they need to get a high price for their German car when they sell it.

I am not sure why you think another VW/VAG brand will be any or much better than VWŠkoda, they are still VW (who the courts know well). I am sure VW/VAG will not mind you paying more for one of their products with the VW or Audi badge on it. I was told by someone that knows a lot about cars that Audi are great cars to drive but never get a modern one out of manufacturers warranty - but even then I have know brand new Audi owners to have lots of trouble whilst in warranty.

Do you not have IMO better brands available to you in Spain, like the Japanese (not Renault/Nissan) or Korean.

But as always it is each to their own and it is your money and your choice to do as you please - but do not expect much from a large manufacturer of cars or their aftersales networks and companies and they do not always attract the most caring of people and even if they do they leave or get ground down to go along with it all.

Good luck.

Yeah, there is the possibility that higher-end variants of the same manufacturer group provide also-poor customer service, but in general a key difference between made-on-(almost-)the-same-assembly line, but badged higher-or-lower is the service quality.

Whenever I eventually go to buy my next vehicle, I will check to see who offers what. When I bought my current vehicle (an April 2020 Octavia combi Scout), it was a fairly unique offer (as, sadly, demonstrated by the fact that, as I understand it, Skoda have abandoned the Scout variant entirely :-( ). It's a supremely practical vehicle, a bit higher off the road, with more cargo space that much larger, more expensive vehicles; the all-wheel drive, a bit of armoring against bottoming out on not-too-rough but definitely-unpaved roads, the 2.0L diesel, etc. I didn't find anything else (except the VW Passat Alltrack and the Audi A6 Allroad, both of which are much more expensive) from any brand that was really a comparable vehicle. And the Scout is perfect for the way I use the car.

35 minutes ago, nta16 said:

Thanks for reporting back

Most/all big companies websites have loads of errors and omissions on them and out of date information and broken links, they tend to be so vast and "legacy" that they have become partly uncontrollable and this is because, to put it into car terms they have been allowed to become this way by lack of proper full regular and timely servicing, maintenance and repair, and when they are attended to the parts and work quality may not be the best (sound familiar at all).

It has always been beyond me why in this century the believe that the German car marques are so good continues, great marketing and undeserved loyalty from customers, or they don't want the truth out as they need to get a high price for their German car when they sell it.

I am not sure why you think another VW/VAG brand will be any or much better than VWŠkoda, they are still VW (who the courts know well). I am sure VW/VAG will not mind you paying more for one of their products with the VW or Audi badge on it. I was told by someone that knows a lot about cars that Audi are great cars to drive but never get a modern one out of manufacturers warranty - but even then I have know brand new Audi owners to have lots of trouble whilst in warranty.

Do you not have IMO better brands available to you in Spain, like the Japanese (not Renault/Nissan) or Korean.

But as always it is each to their own and it is your money and your choice to do as you please - but do not expect much from a large manufacturer of cars or their aftersales networks and companies and they do not always attract the most caring of people and even if they do they leave or get ground down to go along with it all.

Good luck.

Apparently the VWŠkoda vehicles made in the Czech Republic (or at least Mladá Boleslav) have better quality control than VW German assembly factories and only recently an ex-VWŠkoda technician (he was far too nice to work in an English Dealership for too long) told me that Porches (another overrated VW AG brand) were sent there to be painted.

I have no idea about the roads in Spain but in many parts of England all-wheel drive are totally unnecessary other than for the 4x4 badge imagery and perceived status and certainly if more practical wheels and tyres were used even less necessary but wheels and tyres have been a faction items on vehicles for decades, high heel shoes worn with both party dresses and work overalls.

Switching off some of the driver "aids" and "assists" also often negates the need for all-wheel drive, even with the silly electronic-handbrakes fitted.

There are plenty of vehicles with higher ground clearance now because of the obsession with (what used to be called) "sports utility" looking vehicles. For various reasons vehicles are bigger and heavier (so much for fuel economy and omissions) now so as manufacturers like VW AG cannot make enough profit on small cars they happily build and promote oversized (footprint) vehicles that they can market as bigger and more upmarket to sell for higher prices to (they hope) keep them in business.

In the UK you would have to go up to the VW Bentley brand to get any real difference in customer service (only today I put about all the VW AG Aldi Audi marked plastic and other bits are under the Bentley skin and how decades back Toyota starting the Lexus brand and Dealerships in the UK with the famous LS 400 forced Jaguar and Mercedes to up their treatment of their customers (if not their products), BMW and their customers remained as they were. Later the stereotypical "a'holes" that as a total generalisation, used to buy BMWs, often used, in the UK went over to, often, used Audis. That image of Audi driver's in the UK remains and often is correct (same for many Golf owners).

I have no idea what brands are sold in Spain but less fashionable brands in Europe may still be about that use previous good bits from other brands that had moved on to newer and less good stuff in their own brands. 2020 on (or perhaps a lot sooner for the likes of VW) vehicles are not generally overall in the medium and long term the best period to buy. Many more people are beginning to wake up to this realisation often by the costs, hassle and reliability of these vehicles as they age (and even from new).

Make the most of things as much as you can for as long as you can or accept renting/hiring/leasing vehicles now and in the future, despite the higher costs of doing so. Elon has helped illuminate the possibilities but the likes of Ford considered the ideas many years back.

Rant over. 😄

Good luck.