Yes its true here in Ireland You always see broken down Fiats on the motorway!!!, yesterday l seen one broken down in clondalkin at newlands garden centre. one on the N81 one on the Belgard road outside Aldi and even one on the M50 at the tallaght exit!!. Yet Skoda has the bad name. We should remember Fix It Again Tommorow or tom!!
As perviously mentioned, l see a lot of FIATS on the road broken down, although l would say a micra or toyota would be more popular as for pajeros! ''the mutisbushi Carsima diesel engine sounds like a bottle bank in an earthquake!'' So l would like more varaition and not just skodas are best or fiats are grand if serviced! there on the motorway broken down! no micras no skodas and definitly no toyotas and so on.

Skodas used to be awful in the 80s, then they were bought by VW/Audi. Nowadays they are made from most of the same parts as VWs/Seats/Audis. So modern Skodas are good, and Fiats are just poo.

I've noticed since I've moved here to Nashville, Tennessee that there has been alot of FORD (Found On Road Dead) vehicles dead along-side the road. When l lived in New York (not the city - Upstate), there was NEVER a car on the side of the road dead.

l think mainly the difference is that when l lived in New York, we had to have our cars inspected every year by law. Thus in terms allowing us to determine any sort of problem with our vehicles & giving us time to get them fixed before we were allowed to drive them legally on the roads.

Unlike here in Nashville, the law does not require us to have our cars inspected. Which l feel contributes to the problem.

Maybe if the law required people to have their vehicles inspected, there would be A LOT less ''dead'' vehicles on the side of the road & giving us a longer run with our vehicles before dishing out another $30,000 for a brand new car, every 2-3 years.

Although, l can not speak first-hand about ur situation, but l can definately speak first-hand about the same problem here in the US.

Before Skoda where bought be Volkswagen group they made really awful unreliable cars that rusted in front of you. Hence all the jokes about what do u call a Skoda with a sun roof? etc..Now VW own them u get a VW car for less money with more extras.

l have been a proud Skoda owner for 2 years, l paid 15000 GBP for my top of the range Octavia with leather seats, electric everything & a 130 bhp Tdi engine. It is identical in every way to the VW Bora except for the badge.Now the VW Bora of equivalent spec cost 20000 GBP. So would u pay an extra 5000 GBP just for a VW badge & the knowledge that its assembled in Germany instead of Eastern Europe (although to the same VW qualtiy standards)?

Some people will, because of the stigma attached to owning a Skoda, hence their advertising campaign with the slogan ''Its a Skoda Honest''. l think the joke is on the guy who paid 5k extra for the VW badge. The VRS sport model has an excellent reputation & is used by the UK Police as a traffic pursuit car.

As for FIATs l know of 3 people who owned FIATs & had nothing but trouble, one actually caught fire in a car park because the electics shorted out. Their prestige brand Alfa Romeo is no better, l see them broke down & the Sat Navs have a habbit of deciding to suddenly start giving directions in Italian without warning.

Maybe in your case Skoda has a bad name, but in the rest of Europe it is a great car! And Fiat! Fiat makes the best race cars ever!

It depends how care u take on ur car. l know many people that have Fiat Puntos (including me) that have not given trouble at all. Then there r those persons that do not do any maintenance on their car at all. And then there comes the trouble.

On the other hand the skoda r very reliable cars too. A friend of mine has a skoda of the 1987 & it is so heavy duty for him because he does not take care of it. He only do the services on his Skoda but he drives it very carelessly.

Remember this though, Fiat nowadays r the most selling cars & so there r many of them in the European streets & motorways. Do not forget also that when a thing is produced with mass production, there is always gonna be those producted which r faulty. For example the Mitsubishi says that every 100 Pajeros in production, 1 is faulty. So the ratio of the Pajero, which is a Japanese car & everybody knows how good the Japs r in cars, is 100:1. Maybe the Fiat (a European car) is 100:20. So the Fiats have 19 faulty ones more than the Pajero per 100 produced & u see more Fiats than Pajero & so there r more faulty Fiats than faulty Pajeros on the streets.

l am not saying this because the Fiat is the best car but all l wanted to say is that the more cars u have on the streets the more faulty ones u will find. l know that there r cars much better than the Fiats but l know that the world is greatest brands such as BMW, Mercedes & VW r having guarantee problems & l know this because l work with the cars sector & we share our knowledge as well.