If anyone who reads this has seen any of my other posts you will know that I am not a happy bunny!

Currently I own an 05 Octavia 1.9 Tdi Classic Estate and a Fabia Vrs and it would be fair to say that the octavia/lemon as I like to call it has had more than it's fair share of faults.

My most recent purchase of a 56 plate Fabia Vrs comes complete with an interesting PHENOMENON (as Skoda like to call it, but I call it a fault) which means it has a throttle stutter at 1.7k rpm, which makes the "performance" Fabia a horrible drive around town.

Does anyone else think that skoda have dropped the ball on quality???

17k rpm!!!! Mental!!

This would be known as the dreaded stutter, and would appear to be a characteristic of Fabia vRS with the new Euro IV compliant engine.

And a characteristic of all 1.9 TDI Euro IV cars

I have a euro IV emissions car and no problem to drive around town and in some cases could probably be made worse depeneding on driving style. i've done nearly 10k in my fabia and it's not got any worse. I probably notice it a couple of time each 1k miles

Not sure of a reduction in quality as such, suspect that Skoda quality was over exagerated in the first place in the period after VW bought the company.

I can only speak for myself, but a 54 Fabia vRS that still leaks water through the doors, even after being in for repair, has had a gearbox that crunches into second gear from new, hd an ABS fault from new, and has the apparently common pull to the left is not exactly going to inspire me to buy another Skoda, or for that matter any VAG car.

In answer to your question directly, I think Skoda are utter rubbish (IMHO). But, in relative terms they're probably average. All 5 Vauxhall's that have passed through the family were also rubbish and all had recurrent engine management problems, the Rovers were total junk and fell apart around you as you drove them, and the Renault experience from the dealers was an abomination.

In short, cars are pain in the backside.

The one shining light has been our 2001 Polo TDi, which has never gone wrong of it's own accord. It's just unfortunate that the moron VW dealers managed to over adjust the handbrake so badly that smoke was rising from the rear brake discs, that they fitted the hatch spoiler wrongly (3 times), and dropped it off a ramp and damaged the sill. So, good car, muppet mechanics.

Flicking at (I think) Feb's 'What Car?' last week, I saw buried amongst the many pages, a column on reliability (rated as warranty claims per 100 cars). Fabia was listed the main sinner for supermini's :eek: (something like 45 per 100). Best was down at 15 per 100!

Flicking at (I think) Feb's 'What Car?' last week, I saw buried amongst the many pages, a column on reliability (rated as warranty claims per 100 cars). Fabia was listed the main sinner for supermini's :eek: (something like 45 per 100). Best was down at 15 per 100!

weren't most of those problems relating to water ingress through the door panels:(

Undoubtedly! So why didn't Skoda design a fix if it were such a widespread and common fault. Not exactly a commitment to quality if they just ignored it....for whatever reason.

I wonder if the new Fabia will be burdened with as many problems?

And a characteristic of all 1.9 TDI Euro IV cars

Nope.

Do these water problems happen on the Octavia.

I'm sure ive seen posts in there about it too , also Felicias! You might be safe with a Favorit!

And a characteristic of all 1.9 TDI Euro IV cars

Not in my case, my 1.9TDI 105bhp is fine, no stutter present at all

Undoubtedly! So why didn't Skoda design a fix if it were such a widespread and common fault. Not exactly a commitment to quality if they just ignored it....for whatever reason.

Exactly!

However, they have no need to do this because..........Skoda UK say (and I quote)

can confirm that there is no known type of defect of this nature with the Skoda Fabia and therefore vehicles were not recalled to have alternative seals fitted.

So there you go, that is how much Skoda care about their customers, and their leaky cars

Blimey - :weeping: with spin like that, they'll be getting the contract for putting together government press releases at this rate! :(