Our troublesome new Skoda Fabia has been in the dealer's for seven weeks - can we request a full refund?

In November 2010 we bought a new Skoda Fabia Greenline estate. On 10 April this year, the car broke down and we had be towed home by the RAC. The following day, the RAC towed the car from our home to the local Skoda garage (where we'd purchased the car) and the car is still there. As from tomorrow it will be starting its seventh week at the dealer’s. The dealer, we're told, is working with Skoda to try and find the fault. They have changed numerous components in the car, to no avail and each part, we've been told, is having to be taken off the production line in the Czech Republic, causing great delay each time.

From the beginning, we weren't getting the advertised mpg from this car, which surprised the salesman. Also the warning light kept appearing, telling us that the car had a bulb failure. When we took it back to enquire about this, the manager checked all the bulbs and said there was no failure and yet this warning light kept appearing. We are now wondering whether this had anything to do with an electrical/electronic problem.

As you can imagine we are now at the end of our tether. We have written to Skoda to say we can't take any more and want our money back. We feel they have taken our money and have sold us a rogue car. We had a message on our answer phone last Monday from a Skoda employee saying she would be the person looking into our problem but she was going to be visiting the Skoda factory in the Czech Republic until last Friday, which wasn't very helpful to us as that was another week gone by with nothing being done. We would value greatly any advice you can give us.

Asked on 21 May 2011 by AT, via email

Answered by Honest John
This is very unusual for a Skoda Fabia. You should be able to get your purchase price back in full less a small allowance for any mileage you have covered in the car. It is entirely unreasonable for a new car to be with a dealer for seven weeks starting within six months of buying the car. Invoke the Supreme Court ruling Clegg v Olle Anderson (trading as Nordic Marine) 2003. See: www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/consumer-rights/

Your dispute is not with Skoda. It is with the garage from which you bought the car. In real life, most drivers of most cars do not achieve the prescribed EC test economy figures. To see the truth go to www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg
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