ive had my car for 2 months now i bought it second hand from a small garage in ireland(carrick on shannon).Before i bought the dealer said they were going to fix a traction control problem which required a new part which they never told me the name of.that was grand anyway till about a month ago there came a knocking noise in the steering which has now turned into several knocking noises as i go for a full lock either direction then the headlights suddenly went out of focus which turned out to be a broken passenger side headlight motor for moving the beam up and down,got that fixed and now driving home today the traction control light came on and stopped working and there is an engine management fault light on aswell,so now i have to get this looked at,

anyone had similar experiences?do you agree that the car is on a whole reliable.

my car has 69000 on it and its 2002 mk1 vrs....... interested to hear from you all

:confused:

Had a coilpack blow, but thats common. Other than that been fine. 2001 Y plate, had it for 5 months.

Well I've had 2 of them and they were faultless..... I'd have another tomorrow if circumstances changed

Its Bit like asking is a Vw Golf reliable. The answer is yes They use the same parts.

I've had mine 8 months and it's been good. I've had to change the MAF and Coolant sensor. Total cost for both (MAF is genuine but not from dealer) £58. I also have a slight knock on the steering which has not yet been diagnosed. On the whole I am very pleased, I don't expect used cars to be faultless but this has been far more reliable than any other car I have owned (and a fair few have been new!)

How the car has been treated - or mistreated - during those 69000 miles could be very relevant to the problems you are now having with it. My 2002 4X4 has had a new (modified) Haldex ECU fitted under warranty and a new modified water pump to replace one which was breaking up. I rate it as very reliable.

i think i will keep my mouth shut here;)perhaps i have just been unlucky:rolleyes:

I had the rad mounts changed under warranty and the FNS wheel bearing

had started to whine after 41K but no other problems.

in 3.5 years I had a coilpack go but replaced under warranty. The cars been great really

The problem is that cars have more and more things on them, electric windows/mirrors, central locking, engine management systems, immobilisers, air conditioning - the list goes on.

Basically there is more scope for something to go wrong and when it does, it is not always a DIY job to diagnose or fix which will cost. With better design some problems would not occur. For example take the water pump, a plastic impellor fitted on a metal shaft (great for a cost saving in production), we took one off a car the other day - the shaft had started to corrode and the resulting expansion had caused the impellor to crack. There is an identical problem with the Fabia anti roll bar. I haven't got a problem with that it keeps garges in business.

On the whole the Octavia is no less reliable than any other car, more so than some French cars, but with any mass produced car they are built down to a price, if a manufacturer can save pennies on a component, it will.

I can't see one lasting beyond 10 to 12 years though as repairs will become less economically viable as the cars value becomes less. It wouldn't surprise me if the Government introduces new 'safety' legislation to make it a requirement to have the airbags replaced at 10 years (as the manufacturer recommends), that would certainly spell the end.

do you think there would be any tell tale signs of abuse on a car prehaps on the interior, is 69k over the normal milage for a 02?

I had one for 4 years, and then my brother had it for another year before selling it. In that time the car covered 54K miles and the only thing to go wrong were 2 coilpacks.

Hi

Had an 02 plate and did 65k in 3 years apart from coil packs she ran perfect,still see the old girl now and again with 98k up and still going strong.

Ive got a mk2 now but still prefer mk1.

Steve

In my opinion its a shame about all the poor design problems we read about here, wiring loom corrosion, leaky pipes in the boot, obliterated water pumps, duff coil packs, etc, just to name a few. Of course things like this are bound to happen in production cars, i just feel as though VW have shot themelves in the foot in trying to better the Skoda name, maybe a little more time, thought, design, long term consideration, etc, would have saved the doubt that I think many people here are beginning to have whether buying the Skoda was a good idea or not...

Had my 2003 vRS for about a year , only ever have to put gogo juice and water in her.

do you think there would be any tell tale signs of abuse on a car prehaps on the interior, is 69k over the normal milage for a 02?

Could you do a check on the mileage, I heard of a Mk1 which had a lot more mileage on it than what the speedo said.

In my opinion its a shame about all the poor design problems we read about here, wiring loom corrosion, leaky pipes in the boot, obliterated water pumps, duff coil packs, etc, just to name a few. Of course things like this are bound to happen in production cars, i just feel as though VW have shot themelves in the foot in trying to better the Skoda name, maybe a little more time, thought, design, long term consideration, etc, would have saved the doubt that I think many people here are beginning to have whether buying the Skoda was a good idea or not...

MkII solid as a, well you know

I had a nissan primera 7 years only faults were a wheel bearing after 2 years and a battery after 6, i now have an octavia air con compressor is faulty, door loom corroded, boot door rusty, boot open light faulty, the sort of problems i didn

I've had my 2001 Vrs for a year now and no real problems (touches something wooden) the dealer replaced the usual turbo pipe and valve, front a/roll bar bushes and fitted a new aerial. I replaced a temp sensor last month, otherwise she's been great. Regularly get 30mpg average or more.

Ian