they'd only had them a few months from new before the update was applied so still covered by sales of goods and lemon laws

Is that the engines updated after the VW emissions scandal?

Yeah it was to do with that. All I know is they were brand new cars, needed an update and it broke them. Must have been bought just before the update was released.

According to Skoda's website the EA189 Service Action (ie the update after the emissions scandal) started in June 2016.

https://www.skoda.co.uk/owners/ea189

As far as I'm aware the problem only affected Euro 5 diesels, and the last of those would have been shipped in 2014, so would have been a minimum of 1.5 years old, more probably two years old.

In fact if I hadn't looked up the dates I'd have guessed the cars would need to be a bit older than that even. I bought one of the last Euro 5 VWs in spring 2014, and it seemed like a good while before the emissions scandal broke, and seemed like an eternity until they eventually finalised the update. But I suppose if it was announced mid-2016 then I must have had the car for two and a bit years by then.



Of course, things that seem to drag on for ages at the time often seem to cover a lot shorter period when you look back on them a few years later

As far as I'm aware the problem only affected Euro 5 diesels, and the last of those would have been shipped in 2014, so would have been a minimum of 1.5 years old, more probably two years old.

In fact if I hadn't looked up the dates I'd have guessed the cars would need to be a bit older than that even. I bought one of the last Euro 5 VWs in spring 2014, and it seemed like a good while before the emissions scandal broke, and seemed like an eternity until they eventually finalised the update. But I suppose if it was announced mid-2016 then I must have had the car for two and a bit years by then.

Of course, things that seem to drag on for ages at the time often seem to cover a lot shorter period when you look back on them a few years later