Seat frame of my Rapid TDI completely rusted & on the brink of collapse

Mine is a 2012 model and I learnt that Skoda announced a recall for the same in 2013 but I was never informed.

BHPian torque18 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello,

Looking for some urgent help.

I have a 2012 Skoda Rapid TDI. Last week, I got the front seats taken out for the installation of seat covers. However, what caught my immediate attention was the seat frame, completely rusted and on the brink of collapse in a few places.

On further investigation, I learnt that there was in fact a recall for seat frames sometime in 2013 and the same was widely reported in the forum also. However, my car was never called in for such replacement.

Now, when I raised this with Skoda India, they expectedly shrugged off any liability citing the age of the car and also informing me that my car was not a part of the recall campaign.

As I see it, it is quite improbable that the seat frames would give up like this unless there is something seriously off about them. Surprisingly, there is not even a glimpse of rust anywhere on the shell or any exposed panel of the car which further makes me think that the frames were indeed not properly coated/galvanized or whatever ought to have been done. A known issue should be attended to irrespective of the age of the car. Maybe I would have continued for some more time with these rusted frames had they not been opened up for the seat covers.

I plan to escalate this to Skoda and would be glad if some references could be shared or emails of relevant personnel could be provided to effectively take this up. The customer care email available wouldn't yield much help in the matter.

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