:thumbdwn:We have a 55 plate Octavia Elegance 14o bhp dsg.Have now done 25000 miles and since i have been on Forum i have never seen anybody mention poor paintwork before. I told the dealer at 8000 miles about the small scratches and chips all over the car, he just shrugged and said its the water base coats they give them now.Ours is in metalic blue and i seem to be everlasting trying to polish out the marks best i can with blue polish, which covers them up for a while.As i said these marks appear even on the roof. My wife had a Primera for 13 years and when she sold it there was not as much marking on that compered with the Octy. Any body else have these problems?.

sounds like you need someone with a PC machine to go over it.

Hi,

We ordered a new Oct for February 08 delivery. The car was damaged prior to delivery and went to a body shop. When we went to pick the new car up we could see the repair and noticed small scratches and paint imperfections in many places around the car. The perspex dial cover in the dashboard had dirty marks almost covering the inside of it which in the sunlight refected shadows all over the dials and drivers information. Suffice to say we walked away from the purchase and got our deposit back. We were very dissappointed......:thumbdwn:

:thumbdwn:We have a 55 plate Octavia Elegance 14o bhp dsg.Have now done 25000 miles and since i have been on Forum i have never seen anybody mention poor paintwork before. I told the dealer at 8000 miles about the small scratches and chips all over the car, he just shrugged and said its the water base coats they give them now.Ours is in metalic blue and i seem to be everlasting trying to polish out the marks best i can with blue polish, which covers them up for a while.As i said these marks appear even on the roof. My wife had a Primera for 13 years and when she sold it there was not as much marking on that compered with the Octy. Any body else have these problems?.

Sounds like you need to stop driving behind those gritting lorries

Hi,

We ordered a new Oct for February 08 delivery. The car was damaged prior to delivery and went to a body shop. When we went to pick the new car up we could see the repair and noticed small scratches and paint imperfections in many places around the car. The perspex dial cover in the dashboard had dirty marks almost covering the inside of it which in the sunlight refected shadows all over the dials and drivers information. Suffice to say we walked away from the purchase and got our deposit back. We were very dissappointed......:thumbdwn:

Interesting - did you deal with a Norwich-based Skoda dealer? I did and had problems with paintwork which they and Skoda deny.

:thumbdwn:We have a 55 plate Octavia Elegance 14o bhp dsg.Have now done 25000 miles and since i have been on Forum i have never seen anybody mention poor paintwork before. I told the dealer at 8000 miles about the small scratches and chips all over the car, he just shrugged and said its the water base coats they give them now.Ours is in metalic blue and i seem to be everlasting trying to polish out the marks best i can with blue polish, which covers them up for a while.As i said these marks appear even on the roof. My wife had a Primera for 13 years and when she sold it there was not as much marking on that compered with the Octy. Any body else have these problems?.

the paints are definitely water based these days which are not as hard as the older paints. i do not have much of this chipping problem though. maybe something to do with your route of commute?

i am not sure how much it costs, but you can always give it a new layer of clear coat that is relatively harder.

Thats a bit extreme but would work. Mine is blue too and its easily marked, but those surface marks are also relatively easily removed. The Leon I have is the same and its black which is like trying to keep glass clean. I have had chipsaway on the Leon twice and they have always left it looking good. I also use Maguiars 3 stage polishes every couple of months and it gets a lot of marks out. Its the price we pay for the "green" brigade to remain happy!

Waterbased paints are prone to 'marking/scratching'. Often the cars are built so quickly and shipped it hasn't even 'hardened' properly. Dealer then makes matters worse by (usually) getting a YTS type employee to slop a damp chamois leather from a bucket of dirty water all over the car and then heavily polishing the damn thing inducing heat into the still 'soft' paint, this usually gives what is known as a 'hologram' finish that refracts the light as the name suggests and also shows all the lovely scratches in the paint. Best cure is to leave it 6-8 weeks and hand polish using a good quality natural wax polish - trust me!!!!

some of your problems maybe down to the way you wash your car, how do you wash it?

Thanks guy's for your comments. I live right on the coast and car is left mostly in the garage , as for those vehicles carrying grit ,i try to get back far as possible. For washing ,i either use water out of our rainwater tanks and it goes through a filter and hose , other times using same water and use my power washer sensibly.I also change my chamoise leather when it gets grotty. the cleaner/waxes i use are Turtlewax hard,Turtle wax wash,Autoglin wash and their polish.plus that polish which comes in colours, as i have mentioned this paintwork marks so easy that birds landing on the roof marks it now and again. I did think of having it sprayed but when they told me how much i gave up thinking.

Try a bucket of washing water and a bucket of clean tapwater.

Use a microfibre wash mitt or a lambswool wash mitt.

Wet the car first to get rid of most of the grit then use the mitt to pick up some soapy water and wash a small area at a time. After washing the area rinse the mitt out in the buck of plain water then load it up with soapy water and wash another area.

Then rinse the car over with clean water.

For more detail on that look up the "two bucket method" of car washing.

HTH

Interesting - did you deal with a Norwich-based Skoda dealer? I did and had problems with paintwork which they and Skoda deny.

Hi

Yes it was a Norwich dealer. They were fine with us and treated us very well feeling embarrassed about the state of the car. Couldn't speak more highly of them. Just a shame about the quality of the product..

I've had my two year old Octy for just over 2 months now and what I've noticed is that the paintwork is easier chipped. It was in very good condition when I got it - hardly any chips - only done 10000 miles and I reckon the previous owner probably didn't drive too far or fast in it. My commute involves a stretch of 70mph A road which probably means that the chance of getting hit by stonechips etc. is higher. I am amazed how many chips the front has taken in the short time I've had it. The paint must be very soft!! Even the wing mirror has quite a few cos it's down to the black plastic (I thought they were tar spots but when I tried to remove I saw the paint had come off). The colour is Sahara Beige - wonder whether this is why they've deleted this colour option and replaced with the near similar Cappacino Beige???

I can't be bothered with keeping cars looking good anymore but it does concern me that in a very short time, my car will be rather 'pock' marked!

My previous 306 had about the same number of stonechips in 10 years of ownership as the Octy has in 2 months!!! :(

Use a microfibre wash mitt or a lambswool wash mitt.

Wet the car first to get rid of most of the grit then use the mitt to pick up some soapy water and wash a small area at a time. After washing the area rinse the mitt out in the buck of plain water then load it up with soapy water and wash another area.

Then rinse the car over with clean water.

For more detail on that look up the "two bucket method" of car washing.

HTH

^ That does help to stop the scratches and swirls. Remember to start at teh top of the car and work your way down so you keep the worst of the grit till last. You'll still get some marks but much less than if you use one bucket.

And water based paints are soft. It's just a fact of car owner ship. I've a few noticeable chips on the bonnet (especially on the front edges) I've yet to touch up.

The paint on the Octy is much better than my old Renault. I scratched that a few times when washing it just with my fingernail.

I had a number of mysterious scratches on the bonnet of our Octavia. Puzzled as to how they got there, I asked my neighbour if he had seen any foul play, but he hadn't. It turned out from another neighbour that the local cats had woken him up by having a little "session", so to speak, and this is what had caused the deep scratches, as the underneath pussy (!) had hung on for dear life, apparently.

^

The paint on the Octy is much better than my old Renault. I scratched that a few times when washing it just with my fingernail.

Surely you must have a greater risk of scratching if you wash a car with just a fingernail. :eek:

Why not use a whole hand?

Hi

Yes it was a Norwich dealer. They were fine with us and treated us very well feeling embarrassed about the state of the car. Couldn't speak more highly of them. Just a shame about the quality of the product..

I'm pleased for you but they treated me terribly (that's how I feel and I'm sure they think they have done nothing wrong but we are all entitled to our opinion) when I raised an issue with the paintwork on my Octy and both them and Skoda UK washed their hands of it. This is my first and probably last Skoda which is a shame. I should probably get over it now but it has left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Surely you must have a greater risk of scratching if you wash a car with just a fingernail. :eek:

French car. Lay a hand on it and it goes on strike for a month and sets fire to any nearby sheep.

Just purchased Octavia Blue Metallic.Unmarked at present.

What would be best polish to start using ?.

Also Alloy wheels. Grateful for any ideas to keep clean

Congratulations for you iolz on purchase of your Octy hope you have many safe miles. However to escape chips scratches i would advise keeping it in the garage but seriousely i would give it a thick coat of wax of whichever is best where you are. i done mine after i saw all these marks which was a bit late.