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Been quite some time since I did a detailed update on my wife's Moon White Karoq which we bought on 26th January 2018. The original Braga 18" alloys and Michelin Primacy 3 tyres (215/50R18 front wheel drive size) are sitting in our garage after 27,000 miles on the car. It is currently fitted with the 19" Superb Vega alloys which are 1" wider at 8" and have Bridgestone S001 Performance tyres in 235/40R19 dimension. These have increased fuel consumption by around 10% but I have been impressed by the increased grip in corners and very little extra tyre roar and still excellent ride comfort. Starting the year after 23 months ownership the car had done 22,500 miles and 11 months later it has now covered 28,336 miles. The main reason for the reduction is that my wife like so many now works from home so only uses it for home visits and when helping her service users with shopping. She is a Social Worker dealing with Adults With Learning Difficulties. The good news for us is that the Council pay a generous mileage expenses when she uses the car for work so she usually gets more for her mileage than the monthly fill up requires. This year I have put 572.80 litres of regular unleaded at a total cost of £623.97 and the car has covered 5,795 miles (126 gallons exactly) which works out at an average of 45.99mpg which is not too far from the indicated 46.4mpg Long Term figure in the maxidot onboard computer. We have had no problems this year following 2 issues last year which were resolved around the car's only service so far at 18,700 miles in October 2019. They were just to recap the long awaited software update which has improved the cold engine skippy nature of the car from new which seems to be low torque related and possibly connected to the alternator. It has not completely gone but is much more driveable than before. Another issue which many early KESSY equipped Karoq's suffer from was the failure of both key fobs in quick succession after 21 months which was diagnosed eventually to a batch of faulty key fobs which were both replaced under warranty thankfully. The second service (variable service plan) is not due until October 2021 when the brake fluid will be changed for the first time. The first MOT is due in just 2 months time and the original wipers (all 3 of them) are still in excellent condition and they will also be replaced at the second service which should be at around 35,000 miles. The gearbox has been getting better with age and is now very slick even comparing to the 6 speed manual on my previous Octavia Vrs245. Compared to my current 150PS diesel 2020 Superb DSG the Karoq feels like a sports car owing to it's relatively light 1,360kg kerbweight. The Superb is around 1,500kg and takes about 10 seconds to get to 60mph (but compensates with 66mpg average so far) whereas the Karoq does the sprint in around 8.5 seconds. Overall we are very pleased with the car and it replaced a top of the range Skoda Rapid SE Sport 1.2TSi 6 speed manual which also averaged around 46mpg over 28,500 miles and 3 years between 2015 and 2018. We find the high standard spec of the SEL and the practical 3 rear vario flex seats which can fold up cinema style or can be removed completely so if you need to load long or bulky items (I used the Karoq to collect laminate flooring boards for our kitchen, lounge and master bedroom) it is as practical as the Roomster or Yeti were before it. We paid £23,500 including metallic paint and the RRP is now around £27,500 before discounts. We like this car so much we plan to keep it for 10 years and then sell it when we retire and move to a sunnier climate somewhere.

Police replace Holden vehicle fleet with Skoda - NZ Herald The New Zealand Police have chosen to replace the Holden Commodore (Vauxhall Insignia) police cars with the Skoda Superb Wagon. A no brainer given the space in the Superbs - the Police had to replace their liftback Commodores due to rear passenger space constraints. It seems to be that the 220PS motor will be used for general duties while the 280PS variant will be used for highway patrol.

Relax @Powerred, this relates only to the sale of new cars.

So an update on the Tesla Model 3 Standard Range plus experience. Several software updates later they have fixed some niggles, broken a few things along the way and then fixed the things they broke. The fix they applied was (among lots of minor things) to finally make spotify sort music in alphabetical order so you can find it and they added playlist functionality, standard stuff on your phone but not in a Tesla until now. Unfortunately the update also disabled all audio output, radio, USB music, streaming you name it none of them worked. That lasted a week until they rushed out another patch. This is the joy of over the air updates. The other thing to report is my first proper long distance trip, Edinburgh to Northampton and back, around 700 miles. And this was easily done. The car is very efficient, much more so than my Nissan Leaf ever was. I set off around 3pm, stopped 2 hours later for some food at Tebay. The car was around 35% charged when I arrived. I plugged in and headed in to the services for food and by the time I had garbbed a delicious lasagna the car was back to 80% and I headed off. By the time I got to Birmingham I was desperate for the loo so again I stopped at a service area with a tesla charger and while I emptied my tank the car refilled itself. I spent 10 minutes watching some netflix wjile it finished and then headed to Northampton. There was a charger at my hotel in Northampton so I refuelled back to around 70% before hitting the sack. The next day there was a charger at our Northampton office so the car refuelled to 90% while I was at work. That afternoon I headed North again. After a couple of hours I had to stop for the loo at Charnock Richard so I put some juice into the car while I was at the loo and picking up a coffee. Then it was back to Tebay, this time for steak pie and chips while the car refuelled just enough to get me back home. So refuelling wise and range wise it was dead easy. In both directions the driver had to stop before the car had to. Bladder range / fatigue range is shorter (in my case at least) than this shortest range tesla. But what about the famed Tesla auto pilot? It has been very erratic in use, I've had quite a few cases where it tries to auto steer "for safety" and veer into the outside lane so for thsi trip I ojnly used adaptive cruise. Tesla owners often report a phenomenon known as phantom braking, typically this is described as the car hesitating as it overtakes trucks, or gets spoked by bridge shadows. I experienced nothing worse than a gentle slowing down as I passed trucks, easily overriden by pressing the accelarator. Bu then it got dark. Once night fell the car freaked out for no obvious reason - on 6 separate occasions it jammed the brakes on, a full on emergency stop would have happened if I'd not stamped on the power. Not a very comfortable driving experience so I switched off cruise and just drove manually. I raised this as a fault with tesla but after they scanned the car they said thwere was nothing wrong and this behaviour is a "feature" of the current software and they say it will get better as they develop it over time. So much as with my previous report, it's a bafflimg mix of the brilliant (range, power and efficiency) and the downright lousy (auto headlights and wipers seem to have a mind of their own and the cruise control is quite possibly possessed). One of these days they will have it up to the standard of my old 2015 Octavia in terms of the tech, but as before there is still no way I would go back to a fossil fuelled car.

You're probably right, and yet it "feels" like some places sell crapper fuel, that is less efficient by MPG. I always top up in the morning; apparently fuel in cold underwater tanks is more viscous, meaning you get more in your tank (as the pump measures litres per second regardless of consistency).

She was a Fifth Gear TV presenter for 14 years from 2002 to 2016, and comes from a racing family background. I preferred Fifth Gear to Top Gear, as it was a motoring show about the cars, whereas Top Gear became more a show about the presenters.

Yep. Pure and simple.

Depending on what you tow (weight and aero drag factors) you may well operate your engine much closer to maximum power for long periods of time, so this will impact the cooling system requirements. It probably used to be the case that cooling systems were engineered to have significant safety margins (over-engineering) but with 'value engineering' these margins will have been reduced. Cost saving for everyone that doesn't tow (and the manufacturer). Another factor is that any openings in the grille at the front of the car negatively impact the overall aero of the car, so are minimised to get good EU emissions figures. If you want to dump a lot of heat, you obviously want lots of fresh air getting to the radiator, so versions of grilles with a higher proportion of 'openness' may be specced for cars built with towing as an expectation.

Had the Golf in with my Trusty Mechanic Today, As I mentioned I have had both of the Rear Brake Calipers replaced aswell as the Brake Fluid Changed. As I suspected the NSR Brake Caliper had Partially Seized on the Handbrake Portion, It was getting worse too and although currently I go push it back by hand so it didn't Bind it would have totally failed so glad I got it sorted before Winter Sets in. The Rear Brake Discs and Brake Pads are still like New so these where left alone.

I miss my VRS dearly. Sold it last year for the pricely sum of £1200. Considering the age (2003 53 Reg) & mileage (18500) is was in very very good condition. Photos taken one week before I sold it........

"The number of petrol filling station forecourts in the UK is experiencing a gradual decline. Experian Catalyst 2019 highlights that the number of petrol forecourts in the UK has fallen to just 8,382, compared to the 1967 high of 39,958. Of these forecourts, 7,402 have a kiosk/shop." {snippage] "Conversely, the number of registered UK vehicles at the end of March 2019 was 38.5 million (DfT Vehicle Licensing Statistics)." https://www.chorley-guardian.co.uk/business/new-chorley-petrol-station-scheme-co-op-store-create-30-jobs-3045977

The SSP for the 132kW engine refers to a dual circuit cooling system on page 21 with two thermostats.

CTS is coolant temperature sensor, there's no such thing as an oil thermostat.

i like your honesty about it. it is very easy to only report on how brilliant a thing as expensive and allegedly fantastic as a Tesla is day to day, and gloss over the quality problems.

It's easy, just follow the magic footprints, don't rush and don't cut corners.

The damage is likely to have already been there when the wheel was last balanced...usually when the tyre was last fitted. If someone has driven with underinflated tyres that will also make them more prone to pothole damage. The problem is, some potholes can be very deep and hidden by a puddle of water...so even wheels with 225/45R17 tyres aren't immune to damage from big potholes. I doubt it would have happened if they had been 205/55R16...especially on stronger steel rims. Also steel rims don't cost much to replace. Alcar 8667 Steel Rims 6.5Jx16 ET46 5/112 57.1 https://www.autodoc.co.uk/alcar/14750766

Interestingly Germany has also seen a similar trend so it's not something thats just specific to the UK. The number also peaked at around the same time with 46,091 at its peak and now 14,449 in 2020.

It means lower secondhand values, as in a few years all these new shiny New Zealand police cars will flood onto the secondhand market.

Of course it'll work, stop with the superstition already, it hasn't blown from overheating so there's no damage, the gasket just needs replacing.

What has a video of ICE Skodas being built got to do with it's electric models?

Hi everyone, just really to put a marker down I have the same issue on my new Octavia. It refuses to accept an entry against Miles in units and repeatedly defaults to Km although it is showing Gals UK and Speed in MPH. Awaiting verdict from Dealership!! This is our 3rd Octavia since 2013 and have never experienced so many faults!!

When a car get run around town a lot, exhaust soot builds up in various nook & crannies inside the exhaust system. When the MOT tester does the smoke test, he floors it which blows out all the soot, which then gets measured with the machine giving a high soot reading. It's always best to give the engine a good thrash before the MOT & blow out all the soot. Get onto a fast open road, put your foot down in 3rd from 2000 revs & watch the cloud of black soot in the mirror.

-488 im the new owner

I've put a link on your other forum thread that discusses this topic. Not sure it will be helpful in your case. My own opinion is that your car is rated by Skoda to tow up to 2200kgs I believe. I seen written nowhere that any cooling upgrades are necessary to do that and I'd like to think that if Skoda have rated your car thus, then that would be in standard form, but if any extras are needed to the cooling, I'd think that Skoda would make that plain. Again, my own opinion: for your intended usage i.e. small trailer and bike rack, a cooling upgrade would not be needed. A caravan is a different proposition due to weight and wind resistance. As you know. I have a tow bar fitted to my 2.0Tsi and I trust the dealer who's details I gave you to have told me if a cooling upgrade were necessary. As to whether you should have a Skoda or aftermarket tow bar fitted is your choice. I'm happy with mine given I only use it occasionally for carrying bikes, although it was originally fitted with the intention of towing my caravan. You might benefit from going on the Skoda live chat facility and asking them your questions. I've used them to find out about the braking system on my car and they answered my questions.

The advantage is that you can do all of the above on the driveway for free. Which obviously, won't be ok for remap companies. Believe it or not. I didn't have any interest in arguing tuning box vs. remap. I simply wondered how it was going, but it seems the OP isn't responding, so it's irrelevent.

Should be... Just as an example, this is an MK3 Octavia headlight and you can see the two white adjustment screws quite clearly:

One other thing to check before you order is whether or not your car has factory towbar wiring prep. The option code for it will be printed on the options label inside the cover of the service manual (there's also a copy of the label in the spare wheel well). Go to http://igorweb.org/equidec.aspx and enter the codes printed on the label to see if you have towbar prep or not. If you do, you need a different wiring kit.

British police cars can be found hiding behind hedgerows.

I did have to change some coding with VCDS to get the Columbus to show when the tow bar wiring is connected and to turn off the rear parking sensors. Also the ESP is changed to know a trailer is fitted when plugged in. If you fit a universal kit, non of these changes will be enhanced. Just a few ticks req.

Those wheels on the Blue car just shows the rusty discs/ hubs and not very nice calipers that get rusty too, & those wheels are not aero for an e-Corsa. The Sports Pedals are a waste of time if they are going to be like the slippy ones on a e-208 or as already on 1.2 petrol automatic Premium Nav cars. Trim differences and wheels are so so, but what the cars need are tyres better than Michelin Primacy 4, maybe Michelin CrossClimates would suit many driving them in the UK. Wind Deflectors and mud flaps as standard fit from a Dealership would be 'simply clever'.

Please note you missed this posting in your updating:

2021 Vauxhall Corsa-e gains SRi performance-style trim (autocar.co.uk) corsaultimatenav.jpg (900×596) (autocar.co.uk)

Latvian police cars can be recognized by three roof antennas all 280ps AWD

Thanks for your reply , i have bought a second hand engine from a salvage yard for £1.050 with 30k miles , they sent me a video of it running prior to removal .

I have #977. Owned for approx 1 and a half years now. Just ticked onto 134k. Located Manchester.

I think I have only experienced what you described once in six years of ownership of my 1.4tsi on dry smooth tarmac. More right foot than usual in first gear to avoid faster than anticipated oncoming traffic. The turbo kicking in so vigorously surprised me and I experienced the wheel spin/hop, some torque steer as well but all manageable. There is not much weight over the front wheels with the 1.4tsi compared to diesels and that would probably account for a bit of the difference you experienced between the two. Although the mk3 1.4tsi is not that bad, my previous mk2 1.9pd was exceptionally stable in severe crosswind conditions and I always put that down to the extra weight under the bonnet.

#928 bought 28/8/19

thanks man totally appreciate it

But it's only available in Trumpland. Probably not for you anyway, way up North, as Tyre Reviews, though very impressed in most aspects including comfort and noise, said it wasn't as good as the X-Climate in compacted snow and ice and that latter tyre maybe doesn't anyway do as well in this respect as the competition. Interesting though and I wonder if the new Michelin Soft Touch Velvet Sidewall technology will appear in the new version of the X-Climate due next year. I'll be reading the 'Tyre Reviews' 2021 AW review before I change my car to AW tyres. Seeing your photos E-Root of Scottish Roads in other threads, reminds me we haven't been North of the border for maybe 25 years and we must go back again sometime, after the Pandemic. I've climbed Ben Nevis 3 times so don't want to do that again, but have really fond recollections of a trip to the Whisky area - we stayed in Stirling and Brora and as part of this did the drive right round the top coast including John O'Groats naturally. At Ullapool, people on the dock, including us, were being thrown fish from a Fishing Boat in port. Also a memorable drive back South via Balmoral. It's actually easier for us SE types to go over to France & I reckon we didn't do any more miles on a trip down to Core D'Azur some years ago.

Does the car have KESSY and do you maybe go out of the car to close a garage door or similar that triggers the "Key not found" alarm initially? (I know I do when I'm alone in the car). Thinking now the ping might be the acoustic confirmation of key found again (if there's such a thing...)

The Naturaly Aspirated 1.0 engine just has no real gain from any Tuning boxes or tunings. You bought the wrong engine, with a turbo one you could do miracles, with NA you do not have this freedom. Use higher rev's to get power, it is a 12 valve 3cyl engine, it breathes good in higher revolutions, where its peak power is also. Do not worry, NA engines love higher revs.

In fact, I had your thought too. But with the front all blacked out that shiny and chrome logo doesn't match in my opinion...

Love the alloys on that!

It says something for the oiltightness of VAG engines that there could be concerns of rust on a sump pan. Who would have believed that in the 60's, 70's or 80's!!

Seriously think about whether the sort of miles you drive will be suitable for a diesel with DPF - if you don't regularly do longish drives then a petrol may be a better choice.

17/11/20... It seems I have been cursed with the Dreaded Rear Brake Caliper Failure again, As with my 2 x Previous Fabia VRS's exactly the same Symptoms. I washed the Car last Friday and had it parked on the Driveway for most of the Day with the Handbrake on, I released the Handbrake and rolled the Car under the Car Port and noticed a small amount of Free Play at the bottom of the Handbrake Lever upto the 1st Click which I know was not there previously. I jacked the Car up and sure enough the NSR Wheel was reluctant to turn by Hand, Traced it to the NSR Brake Caliper which is not fully returning on the Handbrake Portion thus holding the Park Brake on slightly. The Cables and OSR Caliper are fine. The NSR Caliper does return when pushed by hand and then the Free Play in the Handbrake Lever disappears so its not binding/sticking enough to cause any problems but its only going to get worse and the OSR is bound to follow so I will be getting a Pair of Rear Brake Caliper's fitted next Week. To be fair the Golf is 9 Years old and they are known to fail on all VAG applications so its something I was expecting to need replacing at some point in my Ownership. I have gone for a Pair of Pagid Refurbished items from Euro Car Parts, The Rear Discs and Brake Pads are like new so I will be leaving those.

Hi bigade1, Great download, thanks for all your time and effort putting this together for us. Cheers

I think you'll find Scout is mechanically identical to S and SE models, the only differences being trim. Unlike S and SE models, Scout models came with roof rails - which might account for the additional 41mm of height.