Post warranty blues...

[Honkey]

My machine is an Octavia, 2ltr DSG. Elegance wagon. The machine has done some 57k faultlessly, and I consider to date a comfortable chariot covering the needs of my partner and I. Most kilometers have been highway miles. The machine is some 3 months our of warranty.

A little over a week ago when doing some local shopping I was a little miffed when the engine light glowed orange. I had noted that Skoda Preston had closed in a short statement via email. After consulting RACV. I made an appointment with Volkswagen, Epping. While initially being consoled by the receptionist that Epping would cater for my servicing needs, there was initial confusion when talking to Epping service staff as to their affiliation with Skoda and associated responsibilities. After some discussion they agreed to diagnose the fault at $120. The result was the 'engine shut off flap', and, the 'cooling fan opening circuit' were faulty, quoting costs of $751 and $1020 respectively. I am not sure whether this involves labor. The staff further informed that they could not handle warranty issues for Skoda and I best approach a Skoda dealer in the area, and was advised that this dealer would want to diagnose the engine fault independently. I approached Essendon Skoda and was informed that they would need to do another diagnosis, at $150.

I have previously owned three Subarus and five Toyotas. All went faultlessly bar routine service and the occasional miscellaneous battery or tire replacement. Part of my decision for the purchase of the Skoda was their solid reputation for reliability: My bar may be considered high, however that is just in alliance with the espoused reliability of the machine, and my previous experience of other brands. I acknowledge the machine is out of warranty, however as Skoda are; establishing the brand, consider espoused reliability of the product as part of their appeal, and the factor my machine is still relatively fresh, consider paying full cost of rectifying the faults. Not only do I consider the scenario of having to pay for two diagnosis mind numbing and blatant up-selling, but also for my machine to have the fore-mentioned faults inconsistent with the brands desired appeal. I thus expect that Skoda will accept full liability for the faults and fix at no cost to me.

Tomorrow my machine goes to Essendon Skoda for the second diagnosis at $150. I have been informed that a, 'good will application' will be forwarded to Skoda. I will keep you posted.

[RSOK]

I would expect they might at the very least cover the basic diagnosis costs as a gesture of goodwill, but then they'll turn to you and say to you that you'll have to cough up for the repairs.

I'll be interested to see the outcome of this situation, but I really do suspect from what I've read from other posts here that VAG Australia (in its capacity as Skoda Aus) will sadly probably give you the cold shoulder and stick strictly by its obligations, ie you're out of warranty, you're out of warranty, tough.

[johnw]

I don't mean to give you false hope but my Passat went out of factory warranty in Feb this year.

Last week the steering wheel buttons went dead (diagnosed during service, approx $880) and they put in a "goodwill" application for warranty.

Just got a call 20 min ago saying it's been approved, waiting for the part.

I know mine is VW and yours is Skoda, but they MAY not give you the cold shoulder all the time so best of luck with your application

If not, you can always take it to an independent VW/Skoda workshop that will charge you less, since it's out of warranty anyway. Just tell them that IF they refuse to cover it.

[brad]

I can only refer you to my own Skoda thread about warranty & the dealerships & Skoda/VWs lack of willingness to find a mutually agreeable solution.

It's a shame you had to find out the hard way that VW & Audi Service Centres have no ability or authority to carry out any warranty work on a Skoda. Infact, they also don't have access to any Skoda software updates & their ECU scanning equipment is marque specific. This is in total contradiction to Skoda's assurances on service & warranty when the brand first appeared in Australia.

Pssed-off with them? Too right I am.

[Greg Roles]

The shut off flaps largely fail due to oil blowby buildup jamming them physically, at which point the electric motor burns out.

Get yourself an oil catch can / Provent pronto!

[AndyW]

Whilst I wish you luck in getting your warranty claim sorted, from my experience skoda will follow the warranty responsibility to the letter, with little room for "goodwill" gestures.

[buzuki]

Interesting read, at the dealership i work at we have quite a bit of luck with goodwill. Again depending on repair, but ive had cars well out of warranty with blown gearboxes and they get goodwill.

I had a caddy 07 model 245000klm blow a box and got the box covered, owner payed labour only. Dont lose all hope, there definitly is lucky customers. But judging by most peoples comments it would be a bit alike winning the lottery.

[K1W1]

Whilst I wish you luck in getting your warranty claim sorted, from my experience skoda will follow the warranty responsibility to the letter, with little room for "goodwill" gestures.

Graeme Samuel the head of the ACCC has some interesting thoughts regarding warranties. Basically he has said that the manufactures arbitrary time on warranties may not be relevant and that if a fault can be shown to be a manufacturing fault or caused by an issue that the manufacturer is or should be aware of then the warranty can still apply from the consumers point of view.
This situation is one where taking your vehicle to authorised service centres for routine services usually pays off. If you have been supporting your local service manager and getting the books stamped they will generally push your case and in my experience I would expect that the repair would be done as warranty job.

[Transporter]

I'm sure that Mr. Samuel can think whatever he wants, but why is it on the paper that the warranty is 3 years, why?

Don't get me wrong, if my car would brake down shortly after warrantry I would have the same demands. But in all fairnes I know that 3 years warranty means exactly that, ...3 years.
...and unless the reapir wouldb be in several hundreds or thousands of $, I wouldn't stress my heart too much about it.

[brad]

I'm sure that Mr. Samuel can think whatever he wants, but why is it on the paper that the warranty is 3 years, why?

Don't get me wrong, if my car would brake down shortly after warrantry I would have the same demands. But in all fairnes I know that 3 years warranty means exactly that, ...3 years.
...and unless the reapir wouldb be in several hundreds or thousands of $, I wouldn't stress my heart too much about it.

As graeme Samuels is part of the mechanism of formulating policy & law, I think his thoughts are quite relevant. Are you aware of the Competition & Consumer Act 2010 & it's affect on any goods or services sold after 01 jan 2011? It basically makes a warranty a minimum period rather than a maximum. I know quite a few friends that have recently had goods repaired or replaced that were outside of warranty when they stopped working.

[dazag]

Hey Brad, I'm up in Newcastle and we dont have a specific Skoda service centre, but I get all my Skoda work done through the Audi service centre and they have been a wealth of knowledge, have all the gear and push hard to Skoda for any kind of warranty or Goodwill support. I can't fault them. I know the VW service centre at Maitland is no good for Skoda work though. I think it must depend on the sevice centre....... the service centre at the Sydney Skoda dealership I bought my car through was crap, I'm glad they forfeited their Skoda franchise

I can only refer you to my own Skoda thread about warranty & the dealerships & Skoda/VWs lack of willingness to find a mutually agreeable solution.

It's a shame you had to find out the hard way that VW & Audi Service Centres have no ability or authority to carry out any warranty work on a Skoda. Infact, they also don't have access to any Skoda software updates & their ECU scanning equipment is marque specific. This is in total contradiction to Skoda's assurances on service & warranty when the brand first appeared in Australia.

Pssed-off with them? Too right I am.

[K1W1]

I'm sure that Mr. Samuel can think whatever he wants, but why is it on the paper that the warranty is 3 years, why?

In this case what Mr Samuels thinks is actually all that matters. What is written on the piece of paper is a result of the manufacturers marketing company and lawyers decided what the minimum they can get away with is.

Under consumer law manufacturers must provide a warranty against manufacturing defects.
There is no provision in the law about how long that warranty should be.
The warranty length is largely determined by the manufacturer in relation to what they feel they need to do in the market hence in this case some cars have two years warranty, some three, some five and some have up to 10 years on specific components as well as time some manufacturers impose mileage restrictions (3 years/100,000km) and some don't (3 years/unlimited).
In Australia the ACCC is the final judge of what is acceptable and what is not. If the ACCC (headed by Mr Samuels) decide that a problem which otherwise falls outside the terms of the written warranty should in fact be covered by warranty then they have the power to force a manufacturer to heel.

[woofy]

Totally agree with the ACCC call, in Australia we have a statutory warranty that quite often comes into play. So far though Nissan with their early 90s bad fuel pumps, then the 3L diesel in the Patrols and now the X trail all have got away with selling cars they knew full well had a fault they didn't bother to ever correct. Mazda snuck some sneaky engine killing faults with the 323 SP20 (loose butterfly valve screws sucking into the intake and killing the engine) and some of their own faults with the diesel Bravo/BT 50 engines that they ignore as well.

Its all to do with perception of quality and seeing as Skoda chose to position themselves as a more premium car (with the prices to match) here compared to more established countries, they will be an easy target to be held accountable. What defies logic, is that they tout the 5 cars they sell each month and matthew talks like they are working hard, but they can't even do simple things right.

Part of Skodas appeal in the UK is that customer service, and dealer service, we see very little here and most of it stems from VWA. I can't think that Matthew can be that naive about their crap performance, so he is either in the dark or pretending he doesn't know. Either way his ass should be gone from the position.

[brad]

I can't think that Matthew can be that naive about their crap performance, so he is either in the dark or pretending he doesn't know. Either way his ass should be gone from the position.

I assume he is a typical Australian style CEO. Reads reports from all his managers that state everything is rosy (or "tells a good news story" as my boss suggests the house style should be) and he never gets out in the weeds to see what is actually happening among the operations/production people. If the managers (at most large enterprises) spent as much time getting things right (& kicking some arses) as they did manipulating KPIs & making everthing sound shipshape, then a lot of companies would be far better off.

[Transporter]

they have the power to force a manufacturer to heel.

You're kidding me, right?
Where is the lemon law then?

It was the competition that extended warranty from 1 to 2 and to 3 years, not ACCC.
In the case of Hyundai it was after the big recall for loose spot-welds on the front cross member that they came with 5 years 130,000km warranty, hmm and the Mitsubishi we know why they extended their warranty, but it didn't save them anyway.