Sold, So Long Avensis

[Bosnjo]

When I got the car it was my first Toyota, but sadly I hope it was the last one I owned.

1.8 VVTi Saloon with extras, January 2005, 20.000 km on the clock yesterday.

I wrote so many posts here about problems car had. So many visits to dealer and I just got tired...

Sold it yesterday, lost a lot of money because of that, but I just couldn't take it anymore...

Ordered Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDi Sport.

Thanks to all of you guys for help and support during almost two years I owned the car. I also hope I helped some of you with things I could. It was nice to share experience at this great forum. I'm gonna miss it.

I just hope nobody gets the new car with so many problems the way I did.

So long

Bosnjo

[campioni06]

Sorry to hear that Bosnjo but yeah I do recall you had enough problems.

Good luck with your S.... S.... dam just can't type it :P

[uumode]

Sorry to hear that Bosnjo but yeah I do recall you had enough problems.

Good luck with your S.... S.... dam just can't type it :P

I'm surprised at the problems, but problems are problems.

Skoda in the surveys I've seen do very well. Though VW cars which share a lot of the engine components do not and have a lot of ECU issues. So I'm a bit confused, must be the chekz assemble the cars better than the Germans??

[Bosnjo]

Sorry to hear that Bosnjo but yeah I do recall you had enough problems.

Good luck with your S.... S.... dam just can't type it :P

I'm surprised at the problems, but problems are problems.

Skoda in the surveys I've seen do very well. Though VW cars which share a lot of the engine components do not and have a lot of ECU issues. So I'm a bit confused, must be the chekz assemble the cars better than the Germans??

Every people in the world is known by something. If you take japanese as known for electronics, franch for wine... then czechs are known as auotomotive engineers. Sounds funny, doesn't it? But it's true. They were stranguled over decades in socializm and just couldn't make it through. Now they have the freedom and they make what they want. If they just weren't under VW they could even do better. VW doesn't let them develop enough as they have already many inventions tested, fearing to loose customers for VW cars. Anyway, arround 40% of Skoda customers are ex-VW owners. That says enough, I guess.

Cheers

[Chris Dance]

My cousin has a Skoda and he just loves it; no problems with it at all but you can say that about some Toyotas. I wish you all the best with your new car.

[Shoto]

Good luck with the Skoda. I tried the Octavia Estate but found we didn't have enough space in the rear seats for our family and the front seats just were'nt comfortable enough. Shame as it's a nice car to drive.

Was considering the vRS TDi but ended up ordering a new T180 Tourer.

Our local Toyota dealer also gives really good service, not so the local Skoda dealers (in my experience).

Here's hoping we both enjoy our new cars.

[Avensis wagon]

Hi Bosnjo,

I’ll be sorry to see you go, too, due to your positive, logical and helpful input. But yes, if I had those problems I’d change make too, possibly forever.

I looked at the Skoda too when buying my new Avensis last year, but found it a bit small (large for its class, but it is in a smaller class). Mind you, it was tempting to overlook the narrow seats and hard-to-read display since it drove so well and had such a good engine. Not bad looking either. Life is a compromise. I suppose money comes into it too, otherwise perhaps we would be looking more seriously at the Passat, Audi and BMW.

Good luck!

Andrew

[Bosnjo]

Thanks to all for such a kind posts.

Just for the record, I'll try here to compare two dealers: Toyota and VW (VW, Audi, Skoda) as I already owned 7 VW's and one Toyota. My new Octavia will be serviced at the same VW dealer as my other Golfs were:

TOYOTA:

When you come to reception you'll find little room, like 3x5m where they receive clients. It has two tables with receptionsts behind. If there were more then 10 clients waiting, nobody can tell who's next. As they finish with one, they just say "Next!". Try to imagine how many times I had to discuss who's next, me or him... If you come for waranty claim, first answer you get is: "It's normal...". Then if you show some skills in mechanics, they try to listen to you and convince you from technical point of view that it's still normal. I'll give here two examples:

1st, it was handbrake question. It would lock on 13th click. Answer: "It's normal", then a bit of discussion, then service book where it was written: "The best arround 7th click but it can still go until 9th". Me: "You see...?", them: "it's still OK, no need to adjust, and even if we do you have to pay because non of adjustments are covered by waranty." Went back home and done adjustment by myself.

2nd, it was tyres question as all four got oval after car was 2 month old and had something like 5.000 kms. They said it was my fault because I've probably done some hard long braking and as wheels blocked tyres got oval. Me: "...wheels blocked????? What about ABS? Are you kidding me?" Them: "well... (long silence), ABS don't work if you go for example 10 mph on dirt road and brake instantly...", Me: "I still think you're kidding me, 10mph on dirt road if I fully brake, car will stop in 2 meters"... They took the car to Bridgestone Dealer and they cahged all 5 tyres, saying they had a knowledge about problem on other cars too.

I've never solved the clicking steering wheel (it's normal, they said), noisy brake pads on irregular roads without braking - had to go to the dealer each 2-3 months for them to lubrificate something to stop the noise, noisy dashboard, behing the radio, whistelling wing mirrors above 140 km/h (had to close them on that speed, it was driving me crazy), and so on, and so on...

VW

When you come to reception you'll find huge room, like 30x50m where they receive clients. At one end of that room, there is beggining of the showroom, so if want you can go see new cars while you wait. There are a lot of confortable sofas arround with newspapers from the day and free cofee machine. 4 tables with receptionists and above their heads huge plasma screen with names of the clients, the time to be received, name of the receptionist, licence plate number. This is for apointments made by phone. If you come without apointment, there is one side-reception where very kind lady take your name and you go on the list on that big screen. If you come for waranty claim, no need to make the apointment. You just go, talk to the lady and your turn will be in 5-10 min. One receptionist gets up behind the table and go to your car with you. Once I had on my Golf wing turning sign full of water after washing (car was one month old). Receptionist went to call mechanic and there he was after one minute comming with new turning sign in his hand. Replaced it less then a minute and I was ready to go. They have never asked what hapened and why it got the water in. And yeah, there is a service (I don't know if it is only in Portugal) called "Mobility 24" which means if you have your car serviced regulary at VW dealer, you have the right, if your car breakes anywhere on the road, for towing truck, hotel, taxi, and then replacement car if you need, all free of charge.

Thanks for all best wishes you gave me.

Bosnjo

[aven_man]

Sorry to see you go Bosjno but it looks like your good advice here came from dealing with a problem car. Hope you have better luck with the Skoda.

I too am looking into changing the Avensis as it is now starting to burn oil with 46k on the clock, not going to rant about it just going to get rid, same reason I got rid of the last one. Looking at Subaru Legacy 2.0 estate if I can wrangle a good trade in. The only way I will stay connected to Toyota now is through Lexus but can't justify all that money.

Best of luck, stay in touch.