1998 Skoda Felicia review from UK and Ireland

The car an intermittent problem with losing power, cutting out and then being difficult to restart. The garage had several attempts at fixing it (under warranty) with no success.

The engine used excessive oil - about a pint every 1000 miles. It was not leaking so I can only assume it was being burnt. Again the garage were unable to fix the problem.

The ignition lock failed just prior to me taking delivery of the vehicle, and as a result the dealer had to change this and all the locks.

There were also a number of more minor problems (all fixed under warranty), including leaking sunroof, squeaky electric windows, radiator expansion bottle leaking, indicator loose, headlight flasher switch failed, etc.

Just for good measure, paint started flaking in a couple of areas, which the garage had to get re-sprayed (again under warranty).

As you can see from the catalogue of problems above, this vehicle was very unreliable. I would expect an 18 month old car to only need to visit the garage for routine servicing, but this one was in virtually once a month.

Skodas may be cheap and come with free servicing and long warranties, but from my experience they still have the reliability record that has made them the butt of jokes for so many years.

(S)till (K)nocking (O)ut (D)odgy (A)utos... :)