Back Room: skoda fabia electrical problems whatdo ya think about this? does it put you off buyin a fabia now? could prove expensive in the long run?

that was an old thread , the car probably only needed a new battery and a PAS sensor

Based on having read the post at that site I reckon it is a fairly well-known set of problems.

I've driven a fair few different cars over the years now and I guess I've been lucky with most of them.

There has been a fair bit of cost-cutting which always goes too far until the pain hits the manufacturer where it hurts, in loosing customers and/or warranty jobs. That's where the cost cutting tends to get reversed/slowed down a very, very minor amount to get the claims down sufficiently.

Cars are going to be more and more like the US model, where after a few years the car is effectively useless / beyond economical repair.

Oddly enough a lot of the stuff that makes cars supposedly more eco-friendly causes this to happen more quickly, leading to cars being written off/failing emissions tests :confused:

The faults described are quite common, similarly the head gasket on the 1.4 petrol is known to be a weak point. Plastic impeller water pump is another on most of the VAG engines.

Regarding dealerships - there may be some good ones out there, and there will be those with good/excellent experience with Skoda dealers. My experience is at best a mixed one, and as my warranty has expired (60k+) and my car is modified anyway, I'm sticking to VAG trained specialists that are cheaper and appear more 'proud' in the job they do. There ARE good dealerships out there, I'm sure. It does depend a lot on the people employed and how they run their business.

It wouldnt put me off purchasing a Fabia, nor any other car for that matter, as when the time comes for a different car, I'll investigate what's about and go for the best option. It could be a VAG car, or something else, no idea

If I hadn't allready owned several skodas before then i don't know wether i would have bought another after reading forums and internet sites. However after reading the aforementioned sites I doubt I would have bought any other make either, and would probably be using a push iron:rofl:

In the main only the bad bits get moaned about on review pages, but I honestly believe that cars are getting more and more like white goods, ie they are only built to last as long as the warrenty is sustainable. :eek: Hard cheese if you can't afford to change cars every 3 years or so :( but for approved used substitute re-conditioned and you have a tv or vac or washing machine.

The thing is , as the cars get older , doing these repairs is going to become more and more uneconomical. My car is probably worth about

I have had VW's and Audi's I now have a 1.9TDI 06 Plated Fabia Elegance, i can honestly say that what ever the car or maker there is forum site somewhere with a whole host of problems with that particualr model or make..... thats life, i would say the Skoda Fabia is no better or worse than most other mass produced modern cars... you just have to live with the costs or take the bus.

I have had VW's and Audi's I now have a 1.9TDI 06 Plated Fabia Elegance, i can honestly say that what ever the car or maker there is forum site somewhere with a whole host of problems with that particualr model or make..... thats life, i would say the Skoda Fabia is no better or worse than most other mass produced modern cars... you just have to live with the costs or take the bus.

Probably quite true! However , I suspect the Lexus club site (if there is such a thing) hasn't got as many problems posted up!

The thing is , as the cars get older , doing these repairs is going to become more and more uneconomical. My car is probably worth about

Pah! Sounds like they got off lightly

Chris

Lol i could basically have written the original posting myself, my fabia was 5 years old when the dash decided to start lighting up like the proverbial xmas tree with a nice variery of warning lights, it came to be more of a shock if i went a week without a light coming on!

In the space of 8 months i had the power steering sensor replaced, the water pump replaced, the temperature sender replaced (twice!!) and numerous other bits and bobs done too!

I think the poor thing got addicted to being wired into the garages diagnostic programme!

Throughout it all i couldnt fault my dealer, it was out of warrenty of course so i had to pay for everything but they did their best to sort things and the customer service i got was great.

To get back to the original question of whether it would put me off, well the fabia finally had to go so on december 20th 2006 she was traded in at the dealers for................... a brand spanking new skoda fabia - guess that answers that for me then!

All cars can and do have probs but when i looked at the new cars out there, the skoda won hands down on its features and price and i dont regret going for another fabia for a second!

:smrbow: