corradoboy

Finally got to the point my crappy Skoda couldn't be driven due to the slipping clutch, so it's in for a £700 raping of my empty wallet. Then, she announces that the washing machine has fubar'd Looks like the door switch has gone again, along with a small tear in the door seal and one of the drum springs snapped. Parts are about £60, maybe £90 to get someone else to fit them, but on a 15yo machine I don't really want to fit bits only for the motor or PCB to blow up next week. So, another £300 on a new washer Car tax is due too at £77, and we need passports for the whole family for our trip to France in May

FlightMan

Next month.

£300 deposit for next years holiday.
Car MOT and Service, another £300.
Both cars insurances need renewing. £400.

Ho hum.

SiPie

Know the feeling, just had to pay for our bi-annual flights to NZ (family out there) at Christmas.

£3,400 and that's economy

First time we went in 2005 it was around £780 each

DYK

You have been b1tching about this skoda for ages, mates got a vrs and i bought a vrs find them great cars,although i have been looking at the Audi S3,then took a look at the wrx sti.

think you bought a lemon or what.

richiewong

Know what you mean, just paid £1700 for a flight to Oz, need to arrange internal flights from Perth to Broome and know this will cost something like another £600.
Glad I'm stopping at a mates house!

corradoboy

All the VAG cars I've owned have been lemons The Scoob was virtually faultless for 3 years and 60k miles (O2 sensor (warranty), battery, and EGT sensor (£60)). The list of faults on all my VAG cars (2x VW, 3x Skoda) would take me an hour to type. Raised as the son of a mechanic, and being a qualified driving instructor I know how to drive a car with mechanical sympathy, understand how it all works and how it should be treated, and can repair most things. The constant litany of disaster from these cars has beaten me though, and it's only lack of money that prevents me selling them on. That, and the fact that to repair all the stuff prior to sale would cost me a small fortune

scousefly

Corradoboy if you have had so many issues with the VAG cars why do U keep on buying them?

corradoboy

I never will again. The Polo was the g/f's that she had when I met her, but it was my job to repair it. I had a Corrado for many years, my first VW, and one reknowned for apalling reliability. Ran the Scoob for 3 years after ditching that, and then the fastest, most economical car I could get insured on for driving tuition was the Fabia vRS. Bought one for each of us, and at first they were OK. Both only a year old, and anything that went wrong we simply let the dealer sort under warranty. Swapped one of them for the current Octavia when the kids started arriving, and again, under warranty I wasn't bothered about the niggles. However, the warranty expired and I couldn't afford the replacements I wanted, and the failures started mounting up, along with the expense. I used to joke that the Corrado never had less than five things wrong with it, and I always thought this was due to it being a bit of a mongrel, a back-room car that just happened to make it into production without all the usual testing. Having now experienced several other VW products I realise that they are all like that. Great as long as they're new and the warranty is in place, but God help you as they age and the safety net disappears.

GazTheHat

Really. I had a vRS for 2 years, mapped and did 120 miles a day for 2 years, most days "ooofing it". All problem free. The ex is driving it now, still faultless. One of the most reliable cars. OK, the STi was pretty damn good too, but i modded that to an inch of it's life, so everything was new on it.

vindaloo

On your Fabias, how many of these have you had?
Leaky doors and/or the washer pipes coming off
Console bushes fubared
Front ARB bushes or front ARB collars detaching and knocking
Coolant and/or fuel temp sensor replacement.
Starter signal wire breaking and car not starting
Alternator signal wire(s?) breaking and not properly charging the battery
Flywheel and/or clutch (check, you've coughed to that)
Alternator freewheel clutch breaking down

Must say I've not had all of the above myself. Mine will need brakes and boots together with a service before long though...

J.

corradoboy

Add...

Paint bubbling under side strips
Blower rheostat (going again)
Brake light switch
Brake light wiring loom (still to sort out)
Rear screen heater (linked to washer pipe leak)
Rear calipers leaking
Handbrake fail after rear brake change (add Audi A3 spring √)
Timing belt/water pump/tensioners/pulleys to do
Front pads and discs to do (got parts)

On Octavia...

Seat fabric came apart
Seat height adjuster dodgy
Airbag warning light (passenger seat loom)
Fuel temp sensor
Rear wiper intermittent
Side repeater failed (LED in mirror)
Autochanger packed up
Radio amplifier failed (water ingress)
5 of 8 bolts sheered changing RARB
RARB pin bushes
Both front CV boots
Timing belt/water pump/tensioners/pulleys to do

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

The insurance on each of my cars is twice your total for both.

£300 deposit on a holiday can hardly be called an expense ..

DYK

When i called my insurance yesterday to cancel my renewal because they wanted £165.00 more off me for this year,they checked all my details just too see if they could offer me a better deal,no they couldn't get near to what i was already paying.Now i decided to go on confused.com this morning to get a quote,does all my details etc,then it came up with the list and quotes.When i looked at the list,the insurance that i had just canceled my renewal with was on the list,and was quoting me a cheaper price than what i paid for last year.So just by going on confused,i've actually got the same insurance with the same company,cheaper than what they quoted me on the phone,and cheaper than what i'm currently paying.

OH Directline your quote was laughable

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

Can get decent branded washing machine for £200 too.

My £200 Indesit going still strong after c.10 years or so.

Every little helps.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

When I bought the Clio for the misses confused gave me a quote of £200 less than the best from calling round.

When I called to activate it, they questioned an incidence where a garage had crashed and written off my car .. I wasn't involved in the claim nor was my insurance company so I didn't declare it .. they put my quote up my £1000 !!

I called Aplan, they said that's BS and made me an offer of only £40 more than the lowest quote from confused and they agreed the "claim" had nothing to do with me.

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

Ins. co.s seem to make the rules up as it suits.

tony de wonderful

Expensive week for me too. I sold some stuff on ebay but blew half of it on a new guitar lol.

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

Not looking forward to May: MOT and insurance.

Although quietly confident car will sail through. (Famous last words lol....)

Leslie

Buit think of the endless hours of pleasure you will have learning how to play!

Les

tony de wonderful

I can play Les, just not very well.

I'm one of these people who jumps right in. I can play AC/DC riff type stuff but I have very little clue about theory, scales, keys etc and most open chords I can't finger.

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

Guitar playing.

'Les Dawson' style.

GlesgaKiss

Nice one. Got to start somewhere! I was playing 'Back in Black' yesterday actually. If you have decent kit you can just enjoy playing rock like that... being precise almost takes away from it.

corradoboy

Well, clutch done, and boy did it need it. Plate was thin as rice paper, fly badly worn too, and fly bearing had play. £741

Add the £305.90 for the washer and £74 VED and I'm skint

Maz

iTrader: (34)

£700 for a clutch?! That's steep, replaced the one in wife's Fabia (1.4) and it cost about a ton supplied and fitted. She's had the Fabia for three and half years and from the list above it's only had (infact still got) leaky rear door. Also had the front wishbones changed when she got it as the bushes were knocking.

EddScott

I would have fixed the washer.

The bits you describe failing are wear and tear. The electrics in old washers don't tend to go very often because of their simplicity.

corradoboy

Clutch kit - £162
DMF - £264
Slave - £36
Labour - £279

Mechanic reported that all the nuts and bolts were so tight they risked snapping every one, and of course, no grease had been applied during manufacture. Also, all the electrical connectors are brittle and ready to snap at the first attempt to disconnect them. All sounds typical VW to me

corradoboy

When I replaced the last door switch we found it had also blown part of the PCB. Got a local guy to look at it and he said it's very common on that range, and it sometimes takes out the whole PCB. He was able to bridge the blown parts and it's been fine for 3 years, but I just don't want to throw money at an old machine that could fail in another 3 weeks, 3 months or 3 years. I did that with the bloody Corrado, fixing it time and time again. After 3 years of Scoob ownership I realised it's actually cheaper to fork out for the fuel than it is constantly repair a VW.

EddScott

Fair enough.

As for the VW comment I'm about to swap my aged Jeep Cherokee for an A4 TDI. Its the first truly sensible car I've ever really wanted to buy (bought a few sheds for the wife to ferry the nipper around ) and can't help but think it's going to slap a big bill on my lap at some point. Something that neither Jeep and neither Impreza ever did.

As for an expensive week? I've got the wifes car to tax, 2 months worth of afterschool club, A school weekend trip to pay for, just filled the Jeep up so at least thats doubled in value and I'm currently paying all the wifes bills at the moment because her business has gone quiet. All in the same month as I've decided I want to start RC racing again... *****