I think I'm broadly in agreement with you Mike. However my experience with SEAT/Skoda has been pretty good over the years. Mostly the examples we've had in the family fleet have been remarkably reliable and I like the "sensible" way they engineer stuff - compared say to Peugeot Citroen. I will qualify that by saying we had a lot of problems with the 1.6CR engine in my boy's Fabia Scout but the PD in his previous Fabia and the really old VE in my Cordoba were brilliant and pretty easy to work on. The vehicles generally were also "sensibly" screwed together. The present generation, with their wee turboed very complicated engines - who needs two thermostats, variable volume oil pumps, two water pumps (one belt driven the other electric, I could go on - are probably Ok when relatively new but I wouldn't want to own an old one, especially as the electronics now work in conjunction with, and require connection to, the VAG system (you can't simply connect up your VCDS scanner and carry on for some procedures like I can with the old
Multiecuscan on Becky).
Regarding warranty, again I think you are largely right. If it meets all the criteria then you're on. If it doesn't then ? My older boy's Kia, bought new with 7 year warranty impressed me greatly until I started looking at the terms of the warranty as it ages. With each year the things covered by the warranty steadily decreases!
At approx two years old the Ibiza suffered the wastegate problem which was a known problem on the earlier design of turbo on these engines. Warning lights lit on dash and engine in "limp". I stopped and checked everything I could, so visual inspection, coolant and oil levels and all the stuff you would look for. Everything Ok just no boost. I had the grandchildren in the car on a country road so decided to risk driving gently home, which went ok, before ringing SEAT Assist. In less than half an hour a very "posh" SEAT Assist factory van drew up outside the house. Asked me what symptoms I'd noticed. Took a very quick look under the bonnet, fiddled with something down the back of the engine (which I now know was that he was checking the wastegate lever to see if it was seized) and asked if I was prepared to drive it the 5 miles to the main agent while he followed. When we got to the garage I overheard him say to the reception desk "it's another wastegate" and he reassured them he hadn't cleared any fault codes. Then he gave me a lift back home in his van. On the journey we had a good chat all about it which was where I learned he was going to at least a couple of these a week and a redesigned wastegate lever system had been introduced. Apparently the old system corrodes solid so usually a new turbo complete is needed. A few hours later the garage rang to say they were going to replace the turbo completely under warranty but it would take a few days for the new turbo to come. Actually took over a week for it to come and would I like a hire car? I decided not to take it as we had the Panda to fall back on. The whole thing was a great success and the car was fine (except for the gearbox nightmare) until I sold it. When I went in to pick the car up I asked why the Assist man had mentioned he'd not erased any codes. Oh, she said, we have a lot of problems diagnostics wise if they do that so all our people know not too. Unlike the men in the yellow/orange vans who invariably erase the codes which means reading them is pointless. Interesting eh?
I'm now of the opinion that either you run an older vehicle, built before all this connectivity stuff with the manufacturer became an issue or you buy a brand new car (preferably a prereg like mine) and keep it until the warranty runs out then trade it. Some of the finance packages work quite well if you decide to take this route. I think electric vehicles may be best bought this way although I doubt if I'll ever buy an electric car.
Used car warranties need very careful scrutiny. There are some good ones out there but you need to read the small print very very carefully as many are riddled with get out clauses which leave you high and dry. If I'm not buying a new or nearly new vehicle I like to buy from a smaller "family type" garage. Used vehicles from large dealerships are a very mixed bag as to where they are sourced with many being fleet trade ins. The wee guy near us, who I've now known for years, individually inspects every vehicle he sells and has some absolute crackers for sale. I think he takes so much care because he specializes in automatics and they, as he puts it, have to be "right". Of course he takes manual transmission vehicles in part exchange but only keeps and sells on the very best. The rest he sells on to the trade. Consequently the small number of manual trans vehicles on his forecourt are beauts!
forgot about the rust!
