Dear All,

I bought my year 2000 Fabia 1.4 16v Elegance in August after selling my 11 year old Fiesta which was super reliable but starting to corrode. I went for a Skoda after hearing great things about the new VW owners influence on reliability. My limited budget forced me to get an early model but i was hoping to maintain my roughly £3-400 outlay per year on servicing and maintainence. I do about 13000 miles a year. Since i bought it i have had the following problems-

-Water leak behind glove box and soaked carpets. Sorted after helpful advice from Briskoda members.

-Ususal rear door seal water leak.

-Right front wheel bearing. £130

-New alloy wheel. £130 (granted probably due to previous owner's driving)

- Main problem is Intermittent cutting of engine on the motorway. Looked at 3 times under Skoda warranty which came from the previous owner but never able to be fixed by Skoda dealer. The warranty expired a couple of months into my ownership. Still happens and could be dangerous if overtaking etc.

-Lambada sensor

-ABS sensor. Warranty

-left front suspension spring smashed. £100 (I drive sensibly over bumps)

-Lumpy idle and stuttering acceleration diagnosed as exhaust blowing. £180

-Rear electric window has stopped working.

I accept that some of these problems are just bad luck but it is the feeling i get that the car is always in the garage for work! I have considered replacing the car but i am reluctant due to the money i have spent to keep it on the road and also i basically like the fabia and is a good car when it works!

What do think? sell it and try again or persevere?:confused:

P.S. Sorry for the long post!

- Main problem is Intermittent cutting of engine on the motorway. Looked at 3 times under Skoda warranty which came from the previous owner but never able to be fixed by Skoda dealer. The warranty expired a couple of months into my ownership. Still happens and could be dangerous if overtaking etc.

My Dad's golf did this, dealer tried all sorts, never did get fixed... just cut out randomly :s

If it was reported when the car was in warranty, the dealer should be obliged to fix it.

Sorry but I, or at least my wife also had a Fiesta 1994 for 9 years and 85,000miles despite what I thought about the car and Fords in general it only needed 2 indicator switches, 1 timimg belt and waterpump change, 1 rear strut, 1 battery, 1 set of rear ARB fixings, 2 track control arm bush changes, 2 exhausts, wipers and some tyres. Her next car Polo 2002 so far 4.5 years and 41,000 miles almost £1000 spent on repairs only - mainly front suspension stuff. These cars are not for keeping in my opinion, VW is living on its previously well earned good name. Good business for VW garages though!

Before I bought my 1400 16v Fabia I had always had Golfs - old ones, but Golfs.

The last one became a real pain, cutting out for no reason at all - the power would go and Id sit there like a lemon until an AA man turned up and then hed say turn the key and the damn thing would start immediately. After a few AA call outs, Id just sit for 10 minutes, start it up and continue my journey.

After literally dozens of times of this happening and no garage knowing what it could be I sold it for spares or repairs.

I then met a guy who worked as an inspector for a big car insurance company and told him about this mystery fault with the VW. He told me that it was to do with something that cooled down the engine. If it went doolally it would literally freeze up - so after it stopped and you sat there it would melt and then the car could restart. It seemed to make sense as I could virtually time when this damn car was going to stop - it was after the same number of miles every time.

Sorry I cant remember the techi details re what actually cooled down too much, but someone may know what I mean.

However, as you say if you are on motorway journeys it could be very dangerous - try ringing the SKODA customer service at their head office and make a stern complaint, mentioning Watchdog or something and the fact it was under warranty when the fault started.