Volkswagen Group Australia has conceded it hasn’t been able to fix a technical issue that has been bothering Skoda owners, and says it’s still working on a solution.
Owners have been reporting on social media, including on the AuSkoda Facebook group, since as far back as early last year about issues with the Travel Assist feature.
Vehicles such as the Skoda Octavia, Karoq, Kodiaq and Superb have been reported by owners as suffering from the issue, where chimes sound and warning messages flash in the instrument cluster as frequently as every few seconds advising “Travel Assist unavailable”.
Some – but not all – owners have had their steering wheels replaced as a consequence, though some have reported the issue has continued to occur.
“An initial solution did not succeed. A permanent solution is being sought with the factory for this issue,” said a spokesperson for Volkswagen Group Australia.
“In some instances, steering wheels have been replaced.
“The brand isn’t letting up on chasing this issue to ground.”
Skoda says its Travel Assist feature combines lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition and Traffic Jam Assist to control the accelerator, brakes and steering.
“I had the steering wheel replaced on my Superb a few months ago, but the Travel Assist is still faulty,” said one owner on the AuSkoda Facebook group.
The owner shared the response they received from their service manager, which they said read: “In the spirit of transparency, on the 1st June 2022, the repair procedure for the fault detected in your vehicle was updated by the manufacturer advising to ‘wait further instruction’ from factory”.
A Kodiaq owner posted they were told by their Skoda dealer they’d been instructed not to replace their steering wheel.
“No clue when a fix is available and advised they have been waiting 13 months for a fix and apparently replaced steering wheels still have the issue reoccurring,” said the owner.
“Best they could do was disconnect something in the steering wheel. Still get the initial ping and warning lights on start up and the warning lights now stay on constantly minus… the constant pinging.”
Volkswagen Group Australia says that both it and its dealers “have been in all respects responsive” but wasn’t able to advise a timeframe for when a fix would be deployed.