Yes originally VX got the 4X4 Cav quite a bit wrong - in fact they had to stop manufacture until they solved the leaking seals on the viscous coupling. I never had any real problems with my 1991 Cav GSI 4X4 - well except ABS controller failure early on and the normal cam cover oil weeping problem. I had that car 9 years and 75K. The new Vectra 4X4 should be okay with some Subaru input (maybe).

ABS back then was a headache for most of the firms, as you said the 4X4 problem was leaky seals, but at least Vx held their hand up to it and stopped it rather than carrying on blind with it, if they are gonna use Scooby mechanicals this time I agree it should be a good option.

Like I hope i've mentioned earlier, my main gripe is 80% Skoda and 20% Superb, when using a GM car despite what ppl might think I have very little probems and thopse I do have the GM dealer sorts out quick and efficient.

Vauxhall dealers are not so good , I have had a mix of superb / vectra taxis running , only complant against skoda are the price of spares , vauxhall dealers seem not to be able to cure ecu light faults , turbo vacuum pipe faults , abs faults , wiring harness faults seem to regard an oil change as a full service , and have the same take it or leave it attitude as all the other main dealer networks . At least the superbs still feel like a fresh car when they reach 150,000 miles , not the loose bag of bolts vauxhalls or fords feel like . However the huge discounts you can get on both ford and vauxhall on list price is some help , but you do get what you pay for .

Once again, not all dealers are the same! Just because they all look the same, that doesn't mean all the staff are the same!

...rant off.

i have owned in excess of 30 cars in the last 13 years,and i can honestly say that all dealers are not the same,dm kieths in bradford wouldn't retourn my callsand that was before i bought my first skoda back in 2004,simpsons in colne,who correct me if i am wrong you work for(or preston now;) same company)i have now had 4 cars off,technicaly have been awesome,i will allways recomend them they are the best dealer i have ever seen,and i have seen a lot:thumbup:

Vauxhall dealers are not so good , I have had a mix of superb / vectra taxis running , only complant against skoda are the price of spares , vauxhall dealers seem not to be able to cure ecu light faults , turbo vacuum pipe faults , abs faults , wiring harness faults seem to regard an oil change as a full service , and have the same take it or leave it attitude as all the other main dealer networks . At least the superbs still feel like a fresh car when they reach 150,000 miles , not the loose bag of bolts vauxhalls or fords feel like . However the huge discounts you can get on both ford and vauxhall on list price is some help , but you do get what you pay for .

I've owned and ran as cabs 7 VX's of various models, the last being a Vec C 2.0 DTi which got wrote off thx to some DD doing a red light on me, the only ones I've ran to very high miles 140k + are 2 Cavalier's and an Omega, they all felt as good as the day I bought them when I sold them on tbh, dealers can be a mixed bag I admit, but even the reported worst one local to me was a lot better than the Skoda one at both fault finding and 1st time repairing, the Skoda one backed up by SUK point blank refused to come test my car on a road that showed the fault up because it was 3 miles away, and this is the reason I won't buy another Skoda, how is a mechanic supposed to find a fault when he doesn't know what he's looking for? head in the sand comes to mind, anyway it's all individual choice at the end of the day, for me this brief defection away from VX can't end too soon for me, I went all over the country to get this car and as far as I'm concerned I hope it's gone before I hit 80k because I think it's going to cost a fortune by then in repairs.

anyone can post horror stories of any model or any brand...

simple fact of most models and most brands is most owners get on fine.

inherantly forums attract 2 types. those who come to praise and those who come to slate.

if you have a bad one sell it.

had this with a Jag - worst car i ever bought. so i sold it.

if you have a bad dealer change.

had this with a vauxhall - changed to another a few miles away - diff was startling.

non of this is worth losing sleep over.

A good post Paul - you are absolutely right. You get the NEGATIVES and the POSITIVES. I agree that cars can be well made or dogs depending on who made it. Dealers can be good or bad depending on a number of things but again mainly the staff. There a good manufacturers and bad and I think you comment about get rid if it is a problem is right. The 2.5 V6 engine has had some negative feedback by one or two at most - but the majority of owners past and present say they do not regret it. That must say something for the car surely.

Regards

john

A good post Paul - you are absolutely right. You get the NEGATIVES and the POSITIVES. I agree that cars can be well made or dogs depending on who made it. Dealers can be good or bad depending on a number of things but again mainly the staff. There a good manufacturers and bad and I think you comment about get rid if it is a problem is right. The 2.5 V6 engine has had some negative feedback by one or two at most - but the majority of owners past and present say they do not regret it. That must say something for the car surely.

Regards

john

having worked in the motor trade i have seen it too many times. a dog will be a dog all its life. when i worked with mercedes if we had a cust in a problem car we would offer then a great deal to get them out of it... then send the swapper to auction so that it didnt cause us any more grief.

Sometimes it is the customer - not often but sometimes... take a 307CC that we had roof issues with repeatedly. 5 times we "fixed" it and it kept having issues. cust came in ranting one day... i can see the roof moving up and down on his car in the car park...

stopping then reversing then starting (all folding hard tops tell you in the maual that revering the mechanism half way through is not a good idea.) I ask him how its moving.. "oh my son is in the car he likes to play with the buttons" turns out he regularly leaves his 5 yr old in the car to play with the keys in the ignition.... and the reasons for his last few visits to the garage a: roof broken b: roof broken c: indicator stalk broken d: cd jammed in stereo e: roof broken f:window out of alignment g: roof broken.....

:rofl:

@ redbaron, yes two good and very true post's, my issues are under the car and the reluctance of Skoda to do anything about it, I have to admit I am a VX fanboy, 20 yrs of running them *including my Senna days* have shown them to stand up and I like others here reading me now get fed up with ppl looking at them like some cheap pile, when infact they are well built and reliable car's, over the yrs I've seen what needs expensive work to keep it on the road and what does the job, and the shining marques are Vx,Hyundai,Honda,Toyota and now if the grapevine is to be believed Skoda, what ppl don't tell you about the Skoda is I've seen quite a few Octavia's require new gearboxes at low mileage, and this is the 1st car I've ever owned where I can outpace the power steering, although this could just be aux belt trouble tbh.

We have all heard the octavia gearbox horrors , but how many have you heard done on a superb ! . I can only compare vectra to superb and feel the superb to be more comfortable and reliable , my personal drive is a 56 plate vectra 150 CDTI and have taxi superbs with over 80 k with less rattles , I run both 120 CDTI vectras and 130 pd superbs , but feel the superb to be a better car for my needs ie reliablity / high mileage . The reason I started replacing vectras with superbs is down to warrantys 2 years unlimited mileage with superbs and have never had a problem , vauxhall just dont want to know when the know its a taxi . the final straw was timing chain failure on a 20 k car and they dummy the warranty ,the service light had not even came on yet . the engines use 1 litre of oil per 2500 miles and that is OK ! I am not saying skoda are better than Vauxhall far from it but in my case I find both makes are capable hard working cars and both have faults that arise due to the nature of my work , but I just cannot find a car to compare . Thank god its not a ford .........

You should contact customer services if the chain snapped, I'm assuming it was a 2.2 DTi ? @ 20k if you had it serviced they shouldn't have been able to not warrant the repairs, I see you have a 150 now, ****ing great performer but not very reliable but thats to be expected when you bed Fiat isn't it, as for the Superb gearboxes as far as the tip goes they seem to have about 80-90k in them, I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping it's user abuse that caused the failures I know of.

yea Superbia , the 150 cdti is great performer ,and until now seems alot better reliabilty wise than the DTI, what faults have you heard off on them and at what mileage .

May be a bit unfair on the skoda, sounds like your case is slightly unlucky, I have done 35k in mine trouble free so far touch wood and all that, but I guess some cars seem to get more than their fair share of faults... avoid the dealers, I think this applies to all car makers, I always find a local specialist who do a better job for less...

yea Superbia , the 150 cdti is great performer ,and until now seems alot better reliabilty wise than the DTI, what faults have you heard off on them and at what mileage .

Swirl Valve, DPF, DM Flywheel, Inlet Manifold, turbos, if you have a late one you may be lucky that the parts have been modded to a better quality, it's still an absolute dream of an engine if it's running good, the 70-100 pickup is outstanding, I've never had a petrol car go like these do.

my current issues have been well documented and i wont bore people...but...

1. Lots of people are raving about their 30k motors - well sorry guys but i should HOPE so, my pug 405 did 300k and that i recon indicates reliability - this ONE of the reasons skoda currently do well in JD powers.

2, my issues is ths customer service ANYONE an have a bad car its how its dealt with.

3. if you have a bad gm/ford dealer its no problem spit and you hit another, this isnt true for skoda so the dealers have to be BETTER than the ford/gm ones....

4. I have had experience of only two dealers.

One i bought the car off:-

a) didn't pdi it properly ad it hadnt got stuff i had paid for on it

had 'lost' the service book and didnt include one

c) had serviced the car but hadnt reset the service indicator

the other

a) Service the car and dint reset hte light to 'variable'

Didn't stamp the book ('isnt in hte car mate' - when it was in the glove box...)

c) MOT'd the car and failed it on emmisons with an oil temp of 12 degrees indicated on the emmissions test report

....my recent issues are well documented..

these arnt difficult things to get right, nor is there any excuse for NOT geting them right BUT if skoda want to play at he market level the superb is aimed at hey MUST be got right.

Frankly its down to SKoda uk to start listening to customers and working WITH dealers (seems like they all like blaming each other a lot!)

Skoda should be like volvo who suck you in and hang onto you - the only reason im not STILL a volvo customer is ford took them over and the accountants moved in!

The superb is cracking car on balance, but that's only 50% of the ownership experience....if we think its bad now i wonder what it will be like when the new model is out......

Once again, not all dealers are the same! Just because they all look the same, that doesn't mean all the staff are the same!

...rant off.

Some dealers are very good, but it is unfortunate that these are few and far between, especially down south.

If you dealers vary so much then the warrenty is useless as if the car has problems miles from home how do you know what the cover will be like?

A product not being right is not the issue, it is how you are dealt with that is the issue.