u/PsychologicalBit2997

Hi,

I just wanted to summarize my experience trying to purchase a Nivona nivo 9000 (9101/9103) outside of Germany to hopefully save others the hassle.

TLDR: don’t bother

The longer version…

I’m based in Sweden. There are two companies that sell into Sweden, but no official resellers. One seems to be based in Estonia, the other in Denmark.

I was looking at the Siemens EQ900 but happened across a review of the Nivona 9000 series. One of the things that I look for is total cost of ownership and the Nivona seemed to really hit the mark- low cleaning costs, fixed price service, and seemingly a long support period (8-10+ years based upon other postings here).

It really seemed to check all of the boxes. Except there are no official resellers in Sweden.

As I have had my current machine for 11 years, I am looking at the long haul and what happens when things go wrong. I have been very fortunate that I have been able to fix a lot of the problems on my current machine over the years though spare parts purchases (Saeco Gran Baristo).

The Danish Nivona reseller would offer a prepaid shipping label during the warranty period (which at 1 year, is rather short). After that, shipping would be my own cost - I calculate 75 EUR to send it back. And questions about the fixed price services were completely ignored. The last thing that I want is to spend 75 EUR to send the machine back to a reseller that then is not knowledgeable about the machine or wants to make a huge profit on service- given their complete silence on the questions about service costs, I can only assume the worst.

Writing direct to Nivona, initially they stated that there were no resellers that would ship to Sweden, but then confirmed that the Danish reseller could serve this market when I asked specifically about them. They also initially stated that I could send it back to Germany (using their fixed price contracts), but when asked for some clarifications, stated that everything had to go the reseller and that they “could not answer any more questions and that I had to talk to their reseller.” Questions about what would happen if the reseller went out of business were unanswered.

In short, it looks like a really nice machine, but unless you are based in Germany, there are too many unknowns.

Very sad that so many years into the EU, there are still so many little fiefdoms and companies treat countries so differently.

Currently driving a 2010 Superb TDI Wagon 125kw with 263k km. It’s been a quite reliable car, but am starting to wonder if the maintenance is worth continuing.

Have been very proactive at maintenance. Timing belt at 175k, RCV valve at 200k, clutch at 210k, new suspension at 215k, turbo pump at 220k (still not exactly sure what that was - broke down in DE and the dealer fixed it - only time that something breaking affected my travels), engine mounts at 230k.

Never had the diesel software upgrade completed.

Intake manifold has been problematic- changed at 200k and again just now at 261k

Brakes are in good shape and I change the oil every 15k km. No noticeable oil consumption.

Starting to get small spots of rust in what seems to be common areas… along the back quarter panel above the bumper and at the front of the rocker panels behind the mud flaps, but stay on top of it with a dremel and matched paint and clear coat.

Most of the car was repainted about 3 years ago and the front window replaced as well (dump truck had an unsecured load and sprayed me with gravel). Had a couple of dents removed a few months ago and cosmetically, the car looks great.

The problem is that I have a periodic white smoke problem that I can’t seem to eliminate completely. I have added treatment to the tank a few times over the years and that has solved the problem temporarily. Most recently I ran two cans of diesel purge direct through the engine about 4k km ago, but now the problem is back. The car seems to be worth about 3-4k eur, with new or refurbished injectors costing about half the value of the car.

My all in cost for the car for the 13 years that I have owned it is 3.58 sek/km (.32 eur) (fully depreciated over 10 years), with the most recent two years running at 2.65 sek/km (.24 eur). This is all car costs except parking (including fuel, insurance, registration, etc).

Looking at the enyaq, superb iv and Kodiak iv as potential replacements (as well as BYD tang and Hyundai Santa Fe), but seems that I would minimum double my costs. Peaq looks interesting as well, but am loath to buy a first model year car.

But what else can go wrong? What big failures are lurking in the wings… I don’t mind dropping 1500 eur into it if it will last another year or two, but at what point am I throwing money away.

Anyone with old/ high mileage superbs/octavia/kodiaq that has experience?

We live in Sweden and would like to rent an RV in Alaska
next year. We seem to have two choices - Cruise America via a German broker or direct with Great Alaskan Holidays.

The German broker offers a $2m liability supplement, but then we are stuck with a Cruise America RV, which are not very nice.

GAH has really nice models but they only offer the state minimums for liability and no ability to supplement. We have used them before and were very happy with them, but without the liability supplement, the state minimums are too scary to think about.

Does anyone know of an agency that offers liability supplements for RV rentals?