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Folks, I can't speak for YOUR insurers but the policies we issue (for insurers who include LV=) don't have any such exclusion. I too saw an article on this in the press and it seemed to be an excuse for the 'expert' they cited to get their name in the paper. They didn't add any substance to the headline beyond a recommendation that you check with your insurer. There were no examples of anyone being refused cover or claim payout and the main thrust of the article was about what was essential travel and how much the fines were. The only useful thing they said was that if you cancel your cover for lockdown, make sure the car isn't parked on the road as you could be prosecuted for that. If I hear anything different in the coming days I'll post it here. best, Nick

Update: I noticed the sensor wasn't at a right angle to the road, so I got out a measuring tool and adjusted it so each side of the sensor was the same distance away from the bumper in the hope it fixed it, and it did!

2 updates : 1. So much easier to remove when that side bolt is removed. And it 16mm 2. All fitted just need to take it for a test drive. the local skoda specialist said it would be a new gearbox. Makes you wonder

Greetings from Croatia!

I've been out in the car tonight and only managed to find a DLA setting which was turned on already. An off/on didn't sort it and neither did a lock/leave. Time to up the ante with a soft reset - but that didn't work either. Contemplating a partial infotainment reset and thought to check the light switch position. Lo and behold it was in the dipped beam position and not auto! Problem solved but I'll leave this here as a reminder to firstly check the obvious.

Possibly a bit more bling, it depends how much you value bling and how sensible you are.... I like bling and I'm not sensible........

Weight wise the detachable hook is relatively peanuts. and secured safely and securely in the boot storage. And you never know when it will come in handy. I always have a recovery rope in the boot as well.

VW Group Dealerships love their Schedules / Guidelines. You have your 4 year Cam Belt, 4 year / 40,000 miles DSG oil Changes. 3 Year Haldex Services, 3 year then every 2 year brake fluid changes. MPG / Emissions so the VED is a small part of running costs, with the tyre and brake wear and service intervals it shows that in 2020 VW Group ICE vehicles are outdated. Problem is that VW Group have yet to get the Software of EV's fit for purpose. Surely it will not take decades of messing about in the way it has been with Water Pumps, Belt or Chain timing and tensioners.

There are only two service intervals really: - Fixed: 12 months / 10,000 miles whichever is reached first. - Variable: Up to 24 months / 20,000 miles, the car decides for itself. Then there are only two types of service too, with the third element all being extra... 1) Oil, oil filter, visual inspection of brakes, tyres, suspension etc. 2) As (1) plus pollen filter, air filter, fuel filter (diesel), spark plugs (petrol) 3) As (2) plus brake fluid (at 3 years old then every 2 years), DSG gearbox oil/filter and Haldex 4x4 oil/filter. If your Yeti is 3 years old, has 20,000 miles on it and has already had a service then it was set to 'fixed' from new and serviced at 1 year old (you hit the time stipulation before the mileage). At its first service it was then changed to 'variable' (personally I would have left it on fixed given your annual mileage), which two years later now means you've hit the time rather than mileage stipulation again. So, you're looking at a minimum of oil and oil filter, but you'll need the dealer to confirm with you what else they're planning on changing to be able to determine if the £250 is good value or not. Personally after seeing how the main dealers from other non-premium mainstream manufacturers charge for servicing we often forget how good we have it at Skoda. £250 for a service every two years, you can't say fairer than that. It's cheap to such a point it doesn't really matter what they're actually changing.

You know... it doesn't look any worse for it. But it's about the same as putting Shame McGowen in a tux.

Surely they would have to issue amended policies with exclusions if they wanted to do this?

yes, like any VAG car with it, it activates automatically when you turn the engine off

Phil245 - Yep, current mileage 250 miles per MONTH, because a) I'm retired so no commuting, & b) current Covid restrictions curtail much of the travel we used to do such as meals out & retail therapy ! Once the pandemic situation is resolved I still only envisage a monthly average of approx 400 miles, so my running costs will be minimal, probably £20 at most compared to the Karoq's petrol cost of about £50 plus. Over my 4 year lease that's quite some saving in addition to a) having an even better car than the Skoda IMO, & b) doing my bit to save the planet LOL ! E-Roottoot - I'm already with Octopus, and after my Pod Point wall charger is hopefully installed tomorrow, will look further into my options with them - we have solar panels so sunny days might even produce free charging too ! With regards Tesco free charging stations, I see them regularly in use with vacant ones always available ( at present anyway - being retired I can choose the best times to visit). You mention needing plenty of time needed to re charge at Tesco's ( it would only be for a quick top up needed anyway), you've not seen how much time my missus takes when out shopping !!

@PetrolDave @e-Roottoot @CJJE Thank you all very much for your answers. I appreciate it a lot. @e-Roottoot Thank you very much for the welcome. The truth is that I have been a member of the forum since April 2016. Before i get my first Superb III 1.6 MY17. I got it on December 2017 and sold it last February. So I've been reading you ever since. But I had never added content until now. This is my first time writing. Now i'm waiting my new Superb III FL 2.0 tdi DSG MY21. It had a construction week 40. I will have it in late November or early December. And yet what CJJE writes is true. In order for the factory warranty to remain valid, we are obliged to visit only the official Skoda garages, for service or for any repair. If we go to another workshop outside the official network, the warranty expires.

Just a heads up. New map update available from Skoda download site.

Oh, stupid me, tried every time during the daylight thanks

It's switches the lights in the steering wheel buttons on and off when the headlights are on. So you can turn them off if they are distracting.

Pod point wall charger installed today, a brilliant job done. The tethered cable is 7.5 metres long & easily reaches the connection point at the front of the car ( I prefer reversing into my drive). Just had to test it !! I needed 83 miles to top up fully, & despite being a damp, dismal day with minimal solar power, it cost £3.16p in total. Petrol cost approx £10 for that mileage, therefore about £7 saving already ! I know it's an expense to get the car, wall box etc, but in my humble opinion, as I was due to change cars anyway, it's well worth it, PLUS, I'm helping save the planet !!

Replaced with the Octavia RS 245hp 370nm TSI lump.

It'll leak from the rack into the bellows.

@Bap33 I tried the rear screen wash trick today for the rear view camera and was pleasantly surprised to find it works very well so cheers for the tip. I really should RTFM sometime....

Some DPF equipped VAG vehicles have a catalyst located immediately prior to the DPF to help with heat generation, mostly on vehicles where the DPF has been retrofitted part way through the cars life-cycle and thus wasn't originally developed with a DPF in mind, or where restrictions meant the DPF had to be located further away from the engine than would be ideal for optimum heat generation. The increased fuel injection period is used in conjunction with the catalyst.

The Sportline is terrible value. It is basically an SE Tech with bigger wheels and a hefty increase in price.

On the sportline lane assist is a opinion should be standard but its not

Had Cam Belt and Water Pump, Aux Belt etc changed in September, car is now 5 years old but only 20K on the clock, to me Cam Belt change every 4 year or 40K miles is ridiculous on a modern car but I could not risk not changing it, luckily my friend runs his own garage, so it was done at a very reasonable price using genuine Skoda parts. I am now at the point where I am asking myself if an ICE car is really suitable for me and the journeys that I now make, cam belt change every 4 years regardless of mileage is the deciding factor.

Indeed. This certainly make a LOT of sense at rapid chargers (or Tesla's super chargers). I think it's something like if the car isn't disconnect after 10min, fee gets added. Doesn't stop people hogging the charger to slowly get to 100%, but it's a start. I believe Polar network rapid chargers also add surcharge after 90 minutes. Similarly, Ecotricity EH chargers will end charging session after 45 minutes. Rapid chargers are meant for splash-&-dash. Exactly like petrol station at motorway services. They function similar to petrol stations, you shouldn't leave the car unattended for long period of time and you shouldn't use it as parking spots. But for slow destination chargers, expecting one to move their car after charging finished is unrealistic. They are essentially parking spots with benefits for EV's. Thus I think at premium locations, a time-based fee for using those parking spots make a lot of sense.

I seem to think that Tesla's have a compromise system which starts charging extra for the time in excess of whatever % has been set in excess of a complete charge.

I didnt activate any pumps when draining. I'm sure there is a specific way of doing this. Maybe someone can elaborate on this. I drained the cooling system by removing both hoses from the rad and removing the expansion tank (this was to be changed anyway) i also removed the hoses at the bulkhead for the matrix and then flushed it through with a hose pipe, both ways until it ran clear. I then let all the water drain out and then rebuilt it. As i stated in my post i put G12 coolant in (I plan to change the coolant again in the spring)

Ahh but you can Either via ODIS or a quick hack. I have it on my 2014 Octavia vRS. It's hardly worth it though haha, I never use it!

I've heard no such publicity?

Shocking news! Doing things inefficiently costs more money! Proven using maths! I wonder what people would say about those Chelsea tractors..... Realistically, would anyone solely rely on this single charging spot, always only top up 80-100%, over 1000 miles? (the basis of their calculation) Also who in their right mind would move their car from a slow charging spot the moment it finished charging? Slow charging spots are like parking spots, no one waits around for charge to finish. So the calculation had left out a large chunk of cost in their calculation. They missed the opportunity to use the headline "EV cost more than 10mpg petrol car" The way Source London levy their fee by time make a lot of sense. I hate to admit, but I've abused pay-by-kwh before. I hooked up to central London pod-point, free parking for 4 hours, but I had almost full battery so costed me very little. The charging spot need to be either pay to park with per-kwh charging OR per-minute charging session with free parking. In central London, the latter makes more sense.

The electric parking brake works (for us...). but I'm not sure if it does activate when the car is locked. (You can't remove the key if it's not in park.....) I'll check just how it behaves in the morning, it's too late to open the garage door right now.

OK, just an update. The passenger rear door dead locked itself a couple of weeks ago. Seemed like there was no power to the lock. I tried the usual banging around the lock whilst pushing the lock/unlock buttons on remote and door switch. No joy. Door was stuck shut. Phoned a couple of locksmiths and they didn't want to to know. So I thought I'd sort it myself. Easy fix as long as you have a new lock assembly (15 quid on ebay). I've read some posts about using a dremmel to cut away part of the lock casing to wind back the gear cogs. Far quicker and easier to chisel off the plastic part of the lock. Once the motor assembly is out, the mechanical side of the lock springs down and unlocks the door or you can get a screwdriver in to unlock it manually. Took about an hour to sort. New lock in and working fine👍

Good choice, I think. Would have done the same...

M340i would have many of the features I look for, specially the engine. I wasted some time setting up an M340i on bmw website and I got up to 85k €. I fold. Totally agree. Modifying a car is a waste of money for the most, but for me it's turning money into pleasure of driving. For sure I don't expect to get any of this costs back. I'm also interested in the halex controller...

@Kobayashi Next time you change your oil and if the reading is showing in Area A on your dipstick just measure how much oil you remove. Suck it and then drain with the sump plug out or just drain. If it is 3.9 or 4 litres oil in is not overfilled. The 4.2 that some Dealerships techs put in certainly is. Far too many Twinchargers run low oil quantity and run hotter oil that takes more cooling.

If I remember correctly, the 1989 UK regs state "The total wattage of any one reversing lamp shall not exceed 24 watts". However, your car will actually be covered by the ECE regs rather than the UK ones. In this case, it's R23 that covers reversing lights and it's got much more complex requirements. Just for example, 6.1.3 states: That being said, there are no brightness checks/requirements for the UK MOT

Try and drive both engines, regardless of trim level or bodystyle. Make your decision and then find the right car. Personally I went straight for the 280 and haven't looked back, I'm sure the 220 is fine for everyday driving but I did get tired in my Leon 1.8 TSI with ~220bhp after a remap which spun the front wheels a fair amount.

Chip and crack on panoramic roof... that costs almost as much as my cars engine rebuild. Good thing your insurance covered it.

@silver1011 Can maybe show the rack he uses on the Kodiaq. A bargain compared to the Thule rack i use. EDIT, Taken from another thread. Just until he maybe see this.

Car ordered. Thanks guys. Went petrol

Hey there! I have the 1.5 TSI manual with optional sports suspension and 18" wheels. I ordered it simply for the looks and that's what I got. It's not really stiff and it doesn't give great handling that you could expect from a similarly priced aftermarket set of springs (e. g. Eibach). To be honest, compared to the standard suspension which I tried on the demo vehicle, the difference in driving feel is not that big. It doesn't bounce, it doesn't crash when going through potholes and it's still better than the standard suspension which I had on my 2015 Octavia MK3. Would I order it again? No, because a set of Eibach's would probably drop the car a little lower and it would look and handle better. Would I order it again if there would be no aftermarket alternatives? Definitely yes, because the standard suspension looks horrible This is how it looks:

ATE ceramic pads.

Surprised they're classing it as a write off with some light panel damage, that's still a bummer though! Enjoyed reading your previous build threads. Would imagine it'll be a "Class N" which means it can be used on the road.

When haldex is due, make sure to get the dealer to clean out the filter. Plenty of haldex 'failures' for Golf R owners are due to dealers not cleaning out the filter inside the haldex unit.

Hi girvatron Totally understand on the tax. That's why I changed and I'm sure the cost of running will still be cheaper for you I've always had diesels but the cost to run them was just spiraling out of control and city centres will soon be a no go. I filled up for the first last Friday and according to my app I have done 178 miles at 157mpg. The fuel tank is still showing as full which is incredible but that's because I'm travelling to work from home which is a 20 mile trip and my journey is total e mode. I have heated steering, seat and the lights on and when I get here i've still got about 40% or 11 miles left. I charge at work in the afternoon and then travel home. On an evening I have been out and of course tried Sports mode a few times so I have definitely used petrol with the battery This is excatly what I wanted to do. Reduce my monthly PAYE tax and my diesel cost. My travel to and from work is battery powered now and using the app (EV Energy) with my Rolec home charger, the car charges overnight between midnight and 7am at a reduced cost. A full charge last night cost 35p! Charging when you get home isnt a problem with a dedicated wall charger. It's a pain in the backside with the 3 pin plug cable (for me personally) as I had to put the cable through windows and leave doors open but with the dedicated point in front of the garage, I pull up, put the cable in and schedule the charge for overnight. This morning I got up and when I got in the car, the heating was on and I was charged and ready to go! I used the Rolec 7kw charger which cost £595. No matter which point you use, filling in the forms, upgradimng your home supply etc was a complete pain and not straight forward. If you need any advice on this, let me know. This is where I got mine rolecserv.com/ev-charging/product/EV-Charging-Points-For-The-Home The car itself is mega smooth and really comfortable and so quiet. It's very refined and I'm sure you wil love it. Still got niggles with the things I mentionned earlier but those are massively outweighed by the rest of the car.

With my children finally exiting private childcare I no longer needed to drive the motoring equivalent of purgatory (Kia Ceed SW) as my family car but still needed a lot of boot space. I also wanted some pace with decent handling whilst not being too expensive to run. My original budget was up to 10k but I somehow ended up with rampant budget creep and ended up looking at mk3 Octavia estates. I also considered the Leon Cupra estate and Golf R estate but the greater space and more staid image of the Skoda appealed. Spotted this a week or so ago at a Skoda dealer in the New Forest and put a deposit on it as it was almost in my ideal spec being meteor grey with black pack+, front parking sensors, low mileage and the silver interior stitching. Being Skoda Approved I paid a fair whack but I'm happy with the service I got and the 12 month warranty etc. I picked this up on Tuesday and have been enjoying driving it since then, including a 150 mile journey back from the dealer. Initial thoughts are mainly positive but with some negatives. Let's do the positives first: I love the colour (but realise it's a bit marmite). The car is in excellent condition. The ride quality on the 19s is surprisingly good I think it's a handsome car for a family estate The boot and rear space The car feels very good for the quoted power and torque figures Handles well enough Glad I went for the manual gearbox Negatives: I'm not a fan of the alloys which I think are overly large and a bit garish. I may change these. Also not a fan of the fake exhaust tips and fake engine noise in sport mode. Booms a bit at motorway speeds Not much steering feel Wheel hop... Before I bought it I thought about a stage 1 remap and fitting an underseat sub but I don't think either are must haves. I will probably get the underside and cavities dinitrolled as I plan on keeping the car for a long while. Anyway, enough rambling, here's a picture