Warranty Issues

[bobski]

I have to wonder why anyone is still claming that DSGs are no worse than the equivalent manual gearboxes, despite all the information available to the contrary.

Well, I didn't put it that way. All mass produced products will have a failure rate. And you will hear about it when they do. Especially on a forum devoted to that product. The failure rate compared to a manual may be higher, it is a fairly new thing. Engineering of products is an iterative process.

The US recall was found to be limited to 2008/2009 models, so it doesn't prove a 2010+ model is going to explode in the street, raining chunks of molten metal.

Most people's complaints are about jerkiness, which a test drive quickly shows as a different driving characteristic (like a notchy gearbox), and I'm happy to drive around it for the benefits.

I'd like to see the stats too. I'd be surprised if VW are selling a product with abnormally high failure rates, and I'd be surprised if they didn't fix engineering problems found in 2008/2009 models.

And no - I'm not worried about the resale value of my DSG.

[AndyW]

Sunday Arvo update...
Got my car back on Thursday, a day and a half for the workshop to fit and test the new Mechatronic unit on my Octavia. (total of 5.5 business days in the workshop)

With my car back, the new unit feels good,seems to be a bit smoother on take off than the previous one and most importantly no gear slipping.

Skoda/VW warranty have come through and offered to reimburse half of my initial car hire expense (from the period between taking the car off the road and the day the part went on its little detour). Better than nothing, however still leaves a bad taste in your mouth when the Customer Service people advise me one day that they will be able to cover the cost of a hire car only to deny this a few days later when I took the matter in my own hands and hired a replacement car. Had I been able to wait from Saturday morning to Monday I may have had a different result.

Cheers

[RSOK]

50% of something is better than 100% of nothing in the end I suppose.

Still, the up-front customer service could have been better, and you certainly shouldn't have had to get in their ear about it before being offered a resolution to your out-of-pocket expense. Good customer service dictates they should have been proactive towards keeping you a happy camper in that respect. Or is that just asking too much in this day and age?? Do the 'big' manufacturers (eg VAG) care about keeping customers in the fold or do they have such a large customer base that the odd unhappy customer can go jump unless they squeal and make a lot of noise?

In any case, hopefully this new unit puts to rest any further issues with your car.

[K1W1]

I'd now be negotiating with Skoda for a voucher or credit on upcoming services to the value of the half of the rental car costs that you have incurred. Failing that, a warranty extension on the car to 3years from today.

[Damo105]

Can add another warranty issue for my RS. I gave the engine bay its first wash recently, and gave the front of the radiator a scrub to remove the bugs, and noticed something quite unusual. On the part of the bumper that sits behind the grill at the base of the front of the radiator, the paint was peeling off like crazy. It's as if I'd used paint stripper on it. So that part of the bumper is now half blue and half the grey colour of the plastic. No idea what caused it, as all I did was use a fairly standard degreasing detergent on it. Looks as if the paint has never bonded to the surface, which in my mind is a warranty item.

[MarksVRS]

Can add another warranty issue for my RS. I gave the engine bay its first wash recently, and gave the front of the radiator a scrub to remove the bugs, and noticed something quite unusual. On the part of the bumper that sits behind the grill at the base of the front of the radiator, the paint was peeling off like crazy. It's as if I'd used paint stripper on it. So that part of the bumper is now half blue and half the grey colour of the plastic. No idea what caused it, as all I did was use a fairly standard degreasing detergent on it. Looks as if the paint has never bonded to the surface, which in my mind is a warranty item.

Can you post a photo? You got me worried....

[Damo105]

Will post a photo on the weekend.

[dArK5HaD0w]

...So that part of the bumper is now half blue and half the grey colour of the plastic...

i had a look at mine last night - its "half" grey & yellow, however there is no sign of peeling/flaking at all.
it seems pretty consistent across inside bottom of the front bumper.

looks "normal" to me. hopefully the others can confirm too.

[bradw]

Had several issues with my 08 octy 118 liftback:
1st is annoying rattle on coarse road surfaces from within trim of rear hatch which has been there since 2 months old - dealer seems incapable of rectifying.

2nd is squeaking front door seals that other people seem to also experience

3rd was the worst - Fuel pressure regulator shat itself near bairnsdale in victoria on the way back to canberra. Nearest service centre was 2.5hrs back towards melbourne. Skoda aus looked after us with accommodation and hire car but half arsed VW dealer in Morwell had no idea how to fix the car. It was obviously a fueling problem as the car would not rev or and instantaneous consumption readout would not go over about 8L/100. It took them 2weeks to work this out! and a furthur 2weeks to get the part and ship the car back to canberra, which arrived at the local dealership absolutely filthy (had been left outside in a dust storm with the bonnet up or something) and no paperwork to identify the owner (me) or indicate the work that had been done. Thankfully for us skoda paid for a hire car (jetta) for the period.

Overall its a great car for the price, but the build quality could be better and their service network is crap. The car it replaced was a 92 model jap built corolla seca with 300,000 on it and not a single rattle!