Car Problems? What an understatement!

Skoda sceptics will nod their heads, and say 'Typical'. 

Our new, beautiful red Skoda Superb Elegance, 2 Litre, 170 BHP, 4x4, sat on the road in front of our house for a mere five nights. Then the dashboard came alive with orange lights; the diesel particulate filter light, the emission warning light and the engine light.   And the car went into 'limp' mode.  So it went back to the Toyota dealers, where we bought the car, 

So for the last three weeks and five days we have been driving this teeny, tiny, city car.  A new car, great, and a Toyota, but a very basic model.   Not in the same league.   Has a great turning circle though, and Jackson added that there would be no problems with carsickness, as the back seats were almost in the front seats.   No sway there.   

The Toyota dealers sent our Skoda to the Skoda dealers to have the Diesel Particulate Unit, which lowers emissions, replaced.   Not a great problem really, as these units are compulsory in all new cars, and due to the low milleage in our Skoda, the previous owner obviously did not take the car on long enough journeys to burn off the emissions in the unit.

While at the Skoda dealers, the ECU (Electronic Control Unit), the brain of the car, started playing up and giving out strange signals.  So they decided to replace the unit.  Fair enough.  Expensive, but the car was under warranty.

And from that point there began a story of lies, poor customer service, and incompetency.  The Skoda dealers had an old catalogue and could not locate the correct ECU for the car, so instead of getting advice from Skoda.co.uk they made up stories, which they told Walter and the Toyota dealers.   Stories such as 'the unit had become lost in transit', 'would arrive tomorrow', 'arrive on Monday', 'need to order another unit', etc, etc.   They complained to the Toyota dealers that Walter was constantly ringing them and annoying them.  

All we wanted was our Skoda Superb Elegance back.  And there were days when we thought it was never never going to happen.  Anxious moments.

In the end Walter contacted Skoda.co.uk who investigated the problem.   And then Walter was told the real story.   The unit had never been ordered because the local Skoda dealers did not know the type of unit to be ordered (every car's computer is slightly different) so they put the 'problem' in the 'too hard basket', and made up stories instead.   Such a show of incompentency and dishonesty.

Consequently the new ECU was ordered immediately, with a delivery time of seven to ten days. It has now been fitted.

So tomorrow morning we collect our beautiful Skoda Superb Elegance from the Toyota dealers, who no doubt will be pleased to get their little Toyota city car back again.

And all will be well.   We hope.