Custom24 wrote:I have no experience with the newer model, but these cars are quite well thought of and very reliable. The only person I know who has had trouble with one is Jon T, and I am sure he will be along soon.
oxtondriver wrote:I'm looking at replacing my 59 plate Ford Focus ST in the new year.
I think I have decided on a 6 month old Skoda Octavia VRS 2.0 petrol.
jont wrote:=
Not sure about the latest engine (220bhp) which is the one I assume you're looking at, but have heard of several issues with high oil consumption in the 197bhp petrol in VAG cars.
michael769 wrote:jont wrote:=
Not sure about the latest engine (220bhp) which is the one I assume you're looking at, but have heard of several issues with high oil consumption in the 197bhp petrol in VAG cars.
VAG engines are in general prone to high oil consumption. Anything up to 500ml per 6,000 miles is considered to be acceptable.
jont wrote:Custom24 wrote:I have no experience with the newer model, but these cars are quite well thought of and very reliable. The only person I know who has had trouble with one is Jon T, and I am sure he will be along soon.
<waves>
We also have a 59 plate petrol. It's the slightly newer engine (well, quite a lot newer ) camchain, rather than belt. SWMBO loves it. When it's working, it does about 90% of what you could ever want a car to do. We bought it about 2.5 years old from a franchise dealer. Just after (5 miles) its first service with us, it lunched its engine at around 30k miles. Skoda replaced it under warranty, then several months of ongoing niggling sensor faults followed. Each resulting in a trip to the dealer, sometimes on a flatbed, and always resulting in "we plugged the computer in. It said no fault found so we can't change anything. Oh, and because there's no fault, Skoda won't pay for the diagnostics". Skoda UK had little interest in sorting these out (although I did mostly get goodwill for clearing the faults), and refused to offer any sort of extended warranty when the one we bought the car with expired a year from purchase.
A couple of months on from that, it developed problems selecting 1st gear when cold. We had the clutch replaced, which helped, but didn't completely solve it. This was outside the dealer network - I suspect contamination when the engine was changed, but of course couldn't prove anything and had run out of energy to chase Skoda UK.
The next step to curing this problem suggested by the garage was new DMF or one of the selector forks. As an interim measure they also tried slightly thinner gear oil which again has helped but not completely cured it. We have left it alone for now, although with winter returning we'll see what happens.
Personally I'm highly reluctant to buy another Skoda and would be quite happy to be rid of ours (I thought it a shame when we had a tree fall down on the drive that it missed the car). However as I say, SWMBO loves it and is loathe to be rid, despite the issues. Unfortunately there are very few cars that offer the combination of space, performance and price of the Octy.
Not sure about the latest engine (220bhp) which is the one I assume you're looking at, but have heard of several issues with high oil consumption in the 197bhp petrol in VAG cars.
Mind you, if you do enough searching online you'd never buy a modern car. They all have issues, mostly expensive, and mostly dealt with by incompetent main dealers
sussex2 wrote:In fact I doubt I will ever spend considerable amounts of money on a car again; at least not until the reliability and quality of the electrics catches up.
jont wrote:sussex2 wrote:In fact I doubt I will ever spend considerable amounts of money on a car again; at least not until the reliability and quality of the electrics catches up.
Indeed. I distinctly dislike the ever increasing amounts of electronics which seem to be mostly courtesy facilities. Mainly in terms of courtesy to the main dealers pocket when they go wrong. They do very little for my enjoyment of a car Of course, at the point manufacturers are happy to warrant them for 15 or 20 years, then I might change my mind.
Return to General Car Chat Forum
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 51 guests