2012 Superb Wagon Questions

[Monkeyman]

G'day All,

I just purchased a 2012 Superb Elegance wagon from a dealer in Gosford, it was manufactured December 2011 as a MY 2012. The car wasn't complianced in Australia until March 2013 which seems to me to be an awfully long time, what is the usual lead time from manufacture to arriving in Aus?

The good news is apparently it still has new car warranty until March 2018. I'm definitely not complaining, but I though warranty was 3 not 5 years?

Does anyone have any hints as to why there is greater than 12 months from manufacture to compliance?

I'm currently overseas and I am yet to see the car, by any stroke of fortune does anyone know the history of the car? (White elegance wagon DDE 31K)

Interestingly while looking I found one in Melbourne that it turns out is a stolen and recovered repairable writeoff. It would be fair to say that the "gentleman" selling it was not forthcoming with that information, and when I called him on it (it came out in a security register check) he lied about it.

Anyway, hopefully someone can help me decipher the mystery of my new Skoda

[blueSup]

Hi Moneyman,
My Superb was manufactured in June 2016 as a MY17 and will (probably) have a September compliance plate.
The trip from factory to Oz can take three to four months so if your car was a December 2012 build then everything would look right.
Given that there is an extra 12 months on top of that the dealer should be answering some questions.
If you had the VIN you could enter it into the Skoda iPhone app and it would tell you the date it was manufactured. You could also approach the shipping company to see if they could provide the shipping record which will help determine if it sat here for 12 months or in some other place for a period of time.
Global Shipping & Logistics Solutions | Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Shipping Tools -> Track & Trace

The original owner may have purchased a 5 year warranty so it transfers to you when you buy the car.

The number plate (DDE31K) looked familiar. I must walk past it on the way to work each day. Asking questions at the dealership for you might be a little difficult as that was the dealer that seemed disinterested in selling me a new car and never got back to me about a test drive.

If all else fails you could try contacting Orbiting Skoda HQ, info@skoda.com.au, in the hopes that a Customer Experience Ambassador (yes, the real title) might return your email.

[Albervin]

If the car was a Demo or company car then they were selling them with 5 year warranties at some stage. My car was one of those and it was a Dec. 11 build and March 12 compliance sold as a MY12 Superb Elegance Combi V6.

[woofy]

Likely it was a demo that got registered later on, or maybe just sat in stock for quite a while, that happens to at times. Dec build would have landed in Oz around March/April. Because it was built the previous year and then sold a year later they would have included the extra warranty in the usual clearance of previous year build/complianced stock.

[Monkeyman]

Thank you for all the responses, I guess my main concern is the year between when it should have arrived in Australia and getting complainced. I will try and dig into it with Skoda when I get back home and the car arrives.

[woofy]

Actually I missed the compliance bit. If it was a demo it would still be complianced. I have a Santa Fe that I bought late 2011 in the end of year stock clearance of 2011 vehicles sale most companies do. On the contract etc it had 2011 etc and Feb Build (this was in Nov). About 6mths later I realised looking at the build plate while cleaning the car that it had actually been built mid 2010 and complianced April 2011. I bought it in Nov 11. It doesn't take that long to get complianced, they just keep them in a holding yard and do it closer to sale time so they can say its a 2011 car. I never won that argument from the dealer even though my invoice says built April 2011 and it clearly wasn't.

[Ozsko]

Skoda had a large stock of unsold cars and put 5 year warranty on them as part of the deal.

[Monkeyman]

I got to the bottom of the compliance issue - Skoda don't compliance cars until the first day of registration so there is no concern with the extended period from manufacture to compliance. I booked it in to the local Skoda dealer to get an airbag light looked at, also the park assist was not working - it kept saying "speed too low". While I was there I asked about the pitted chrome on the rear badge and the milky white blotches on the chrome window surrounds. I was told the badge was "scratched" (it's clearly pitted) and the milky white chrome was probably due to environmental factors and not covered by warranty.

Interestingly I was also initially told the warranty had expired. When I pressed, as I'd been told it had a 5 year warranty, the service manager looked again and is noted in Skoda's system as having a 5 year warranty. His immediate suggestion was that it may only cover driveline. I've subsequently checked and I'm satisfied it's a full manufacturer's warranty.

[Ozsko]

Try another dealer and see what his reaction is, you never know he may be more agreeable to your thinking. I may be wrong but I think Skoda only do full warranty extensions, he was just trying it on to see your reaction. Dealers do not get paid full workshop rate for warranty work and I bet he was trying to avoid any involvement for that reason.

[Monkeyman]

Try another dealer and see what his reaction is, you never know he may be more agreeable to your thinking. I may be wrong but I think Skoda only do full warranty extensions, he was just trying it on to see your reaction. Dealers do not get paid full workshop rate for warranty work and I bet he was trying to avoid any involvement for that reason.

Unfortunately there's only one dealer where I live. I would have thought the opposite actually, if they can generate work by processing a warranty job they would. Even paid at a lower per hour rate it's still generating an income and giving them work they otherwise would not get.