My Fiancée's basket case Skoda and its woes...

Yeah it’s got to be worth a few grand at most even if it didn’t have any problems? Bin it and get something else quite frankly. You’re gonna end up spending half or more of its potential value on fixing it as I can’t see the finance company doing much to help with such an old car. What kind of finance is it? HP?
 
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My friend had a similar situation. He purchased a Jag from a dealer a few hours away. Test drive seemed fine, but then on the way home it started to throw up fault codes. Other things went wrong with it fairly quickly, but he did have an email record between himself and the seller.

When the seller wouldn't go any further, the finance company fairly quickly came in and made them take the car back. I think as long as you give them what they ask for the finance company can be quite helpful.
 
mccarf said:
My friend had a similar situation. He purchased a Jag from a dealer a few hours away. Test drive seemed fine, but then on the way home it started to throw up fault codes. Other things went wrong with it fairly quickly, but he did have an email record between himself and the seller.

When the seller wouldn't go any further, the finance company fairly quickly came in and made them take the car back. I think as long as you give them what they ask for the finance company can be quite helpful.
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I think finance companies can also decline working with specific garages as well, so if they threaten this and go down that route, it could cause them untold loses in future sales. It's probably a cut your nose to spite your face situation, as the finance company would also lose sales from that garage, but it probably is enough to get them to accept the loss.

My HPA finance via Halifax had to use specific garages that they approved or the finance would go no further.
 
Whilst I agree that it's probably not worth chucking money at it, for the sake of confirmation from the finance company I would take the car to Skoda or a Skoda specialist (I'd prefer a Skoda dealership) for a full diagnostic check, covering all issues. The fiance company will surely not argue against what Skoda say.

Normally I wouldn't take such an old car to them but in this case it leaves no stone unturned in terms of reputation or finance company push back, even though we know main dealerships aren't the best.
 
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GarethSouthgate said:
Whilst I agree that it's probably not worth chucking money at it, for the sake of confirmation from the finance company I would take the car to Skoda or a Skoda specialist (I'd prefer a Skoda dealership) for a full diagnostic check, covering all issues. The fiance company will surely not argue against what Skoda say.

Normally I wouldn't take such an old car to them but in this case it leaves no stone unturned in terms of reputation or finance company push back, even though we know main dealerships aren't the best.
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There is a main Skoda agent a few miles from me, although the car is in a different part of the city, as it's a non runner we'd have to get it trailed there at our own expense.

I'm going to speak with my garage tomorrow and see if they could assist with this once I've spoken with Skoda to see if they are willing to help.
 
You have to weight up the costs of the inspection, it’s likely to be £200-400 on a car that can be replaced for around £1800-2000 going by autotrader prices.

It’s going to be hard to prove a timing belt/waterpump failure started 18 months ago when the car was purchased I’d expect an inspection to say it was a sudden failure.
 
Dangerous Dave said:
You have to weight up the costs of the inspection, it’s likely to be £200-400 on a car that can be replaced for around £1800-2000 going by autotrader prices.

It’s going to be hard to prove a timing belt/waterpump failure started 18 months ago when the car was purchased I’d expect an inspection to say it was a sudden failure.
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Yeah. It could be considered wear and tear/within reason when considering age of car now. I was thinking more about the other items but if you can't prove the date on those either I'm not sure what the best course is here.

I'd double check everything with the finance company also, especially if it's going to cost to get it towed there.
 
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much as it sounds like cut losses and run , it doesnt account for the fact your only 18 months into a possible 4 year finance, so in fairness best possible solution other than finance trying to retrieve money from retired garage is to chuck the cheapest second hand engine in it.
when i had the frv diesel i had to fit 2 engines before i got a good one , luckily first came with a 30 day guarantee and when i explained the faults they refunded everything bar delivery and told me to keep the old engine.
1st engine removal and refit about 4 days working at home on my own. 2nd engine out on the wednesday and in and running on the thursday night, amazing how quick you get:).
i would be looking at secondhand with new belt and pump and service, if needed stick a clutch in and run it till finance has finished.
the longer it drags on the more chance the garage and girlfriend will get fed up .
best of luck.
 
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We've had a response from the finance company, basically as I thought, as we are well outside the 6 month period where we could have returned the car without any issues, unfortunately their get out is "fair use and wear and tear" given 18 months has elapsed and it's done roughly 25k miles, so, it's a case of dropping another engine in it (bearing in mind it has numerous other issues) or getting a replacement vehicle.

Were minded to just find another vehicle as this one is a lemon, yes we're in for a load of pain down the line with the finance company as she can only afford to pay for one car, not two, but, she needs a car and we have zero faith in the Skoda...

Going to ponder it over the weekend, but I don't see many alternative solutions....
 
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