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I may be biased but Velvet Red in the sunshine is hard to beat....

For me it's the combination of space (boot is huge, easily as much useful space as my previous superb estate), performance and price that pushed me to the vrs. No regrets.

Octavia has a higher residual?

Im sure if its coming from Germany there shouldn't any additional charges if they have included VAT already - I looked at Autodoc £250-260 per strut. On Ali express a pair is c £220!

£700+ for a couple of bits worth £100 at the most. If they were precision engineered items I could understand it, but it’s clear form the failure rate, they ain’t. God I’m sick of rip-off parts prices, especially when one knows what the mark-ups are on these.

Hi Folks, my summer trip is over. We did 4500 miles from East of the UK to Newcastle, (ferry), Amsterdam, Berlin, Warsaw, Gdansk, Warsaw, Gdansk (you can see the pattern), Warsaw, Amsterdam, (ferry), Newcastle, home. We got almost fully specced IV60, three people on board and a hell of luggage (because we haven't seen our families for almost two years). Long story short: I would buy this car again. Long story longer: I would also modify the spec. So from the start. I love how this car looks, in-and outside. Let me say that Newcastle border officers were so amazed that THIS is Skoda that they completely ignored the fact that we were carrying WMD (7yo with an urge to resume his Rammstein playlist). At every single charging point (If we were not alone), someone was there with questions. It looks crazy good. Now, interior. We selected Lodge to have a bright eco-friendly (as much as possible) interior. I love how the fabric knee rest stays soft and cool on extremely hot days (yes, sometimes I am driving in shorts). I used to hate front cupholders, I am still unhappy, but thanks to a really spacious driver zone, I can live with door pocket bottle holders. The rear bench... well, I can just tell you that thanks to EV architecture and no middle tunnel it's marvellous. I can sit behind myself without any problems and I can switch Isofix mounting while being inside instead of running around the car. top three packages that you 'must have'. 1) driver assistance - OMG. I love it. really, got the Plus version, this greatly reduces your fatigue on the motorways. All you have to do is to control the environment and squeeze the wheel every 45-60 seconds. Other than that it's almost an autopilot (on motorways). Two negatives: sometimes the system reads speed limits from the past (roadworks?) or from the road above/below. Trust me you don't want to feel an emergency stop to 60 km/h while you were going 164km/h. The second, system is VERY lane centric, so if some safe-distance-sceptic driver wants to cut in front of you, your car will start to slow down only when his beemer hit the middle of the lane. too late. Same case with bikers. The system tends to completely ignore them if they are overtaking you by going next to the edge. 2) light and view - IF you plan to travel at night this is 'night and day' (sorry, I had to). The lights are amazing. One weak spot. IF your motorway got mid-size lane separators, you will blind truck drivers, as the system will not see their main lamps, so will not cut the light. Sorry folks! 3) HUD. shows everything you need in a better way than the main cluster. Sadly AR nav works only with terrible onboard navigation. Now, what I would change. I could any day forget about the sleeping package and trunk controlled towing hook to get a motorised tailgate. I hate this hatch. I have to close it twice to make sure it's closed only to discover it's still open when I start the car. In the past, I was the person who said 'ignore the battery size, charging speed is more important'... and no, or.. yes and no. Because I had to go across Germany (twice) and Poland (four times), I was forced to use motorways, and with a 60kW battery, it was like 1:10h of driving 45minutes of charging, rinse and repeat. The 60 is a perfect size for everyday use, but as soon as you plan some truly serious distances, you should consider a bigger battery, especially if in your country you don't have a lot of really fast chargers. Meeting Tesla owners in a queue for a single 50kW charger is not a pleasant experience. Because I don't plan to repeat this trip next year I am fine with my 60. But I was really surprised how hard is to find a fast charger when you need one. What I miss: * rear bench domestic plug (for the UK spec). Seriously, we paid the same price, continental Europe got the plug, we got a cover. On the longer trips, you really want to plug in your laptop while you are charging your car for the sixth time. * A/Ced compartment. this is an EV. having a small cooled compartment in the glovebox or in the armrest is something that sounds like a natural idea, you don't have to care about power! but no. * 40/20/40 split and adjustable rear bench. Like I showed in my previous posts you lose a lot of space because of rear seats angle. If you could make them more upright the trunk would be so much more useful What I don't like, also known as 'the first world problems list': * laura. * central cluster, lucky for me I got HUD, but listen. On your central cluster you can't find information about the current status of the battery (in percentage), you can't check your energy usage (in m/kW or kW/100km), but you can see that you have a charging port on the right!! and that you can have D or B mode. No seriously. You have a constant reminder that the charging port is on the right. Like you forgot about that since last charging, it was yesterday after all. * right thumb fidget spinner. If you buy a driver assistance package the controller under the most powerful finger of your body is obsolete, to compensate that Skoda decided to hide ACC distance controller at the top of an additional controller on the left side, constantly hidden behind the steering wheel. Why? Because **** logic (or because we decided to reuse some parts from older models). * shutting down the car instantly after raising your butt from the seat. As a UK driver on my continental Europe trip I had to leave my seat to pick up motorway toll ticket, parking entry ticket, buzz myself in, pickup my sweet chilli twister, venti latte macchiato with double caramel, triple espresso and pumpkin spice at least four times a day. and after every single raising my bum off the seat I had to wait two minutes to reconnect my android auto, resume navigation, restore ev notify. because the car wanted to save 0.0000000001kWh of energy. * laura. * single wireless charging mat without any ventilation - self-explanatory. after 10 hours I decided to switch to cable. I could not afford to get my phone exploded. * touch-sensitive control for the roof. the worst solution ever. if only some assistant could open and close the roof for you, or wait... * laura - the most useless part of the car * rear window wiper - you waste 80% of liquid because the jet is so much on the left * front window jets - fine in the UK, but above 120km/h they hardly hit the middle of the window * shortcut buttons - they work as a separate layer, which means that if you press clima button, and then you want to switch to android auto with the favourite bar, you have to close the clima menu by clicking the button again even if the shortcut is still visible. * user experience of infotainment - best example, climate control. you got three controls for each seat, blue minus, a numeric representation of temperature, red plus. Now my expectation, if I press blue minus, the temperature is reduced by half of the degree, if I press the number I got a numeric selection, the red plus increase the temp by a half degree. Easy, right? NO! pressing anything turns the screen to almost black, then you can select temperature from numeric selection (while plus/minus automatically change temp by half deg). You were watching navigation while your wife decided that's too cold inside? bad luck. Another example? When you turn your parking assist on, sometimes (quite randomly) you got a settings menu that covers the top of the screen, just where your fronts sensors and camera are. So you can't see how close you are to a concrete wall, but you can launch the menu to change the brightness of the screen. Seriously? The same thing with the air purifying, when you start the option you see the HUGE logotype in the middle, you touch it and nothing happened... because the button is in the top left corner. just close to the continental driver, and the most hidden place for the UK driver, because who would check the spec of the car, right?. Another one? If you turn the climate off, in the top right corner you see the vent with the slider, which suggest that you could just touch it and turn the climate on, right? No, you have to find the climate button behind your cups, press, turn it on, press again to turn the menu off, why... oh why... (also, I am available if you are looking for user experience quality tester) * laura even if the negatives' list looks extensive, this is nitpicking (with a small exception for laura, she is really useless). I still consider this car as the best in the segment in June 2021 (still have to check Ioniq 5 and EV6). I truly miss P2 acceleration, but then I remember the single cupholder and I am happy with my choice. See you on the road!

It's at 32k I was planning on getting it done In the next 6 months or so! I'll try the readaption first and see if that does the trick. Cheers man

Was down the country and picked up some lights for the mk1. Initially I wetsanded them and clear coated them, only to have the clearcoat crack and craze on me. Great. Had to sand all off and go back up the grits to 2500. Then I polished them up as good as I could get them. Far from perfect but they are a decent improvement over the old ones. I broke one of the tabs on the passengers light as I put them in the boot at first and they started sliding around because I have a trunk liner in the mk2, my mistake. Bit of superglue sorted it. Anyhow, they're a bit fiddly to fit and the connectors were giving me trouble fitting them. The passengers light kept the indicator on instead of the main beams, maybe some sort of failsafe if the car thinks both bulbs are bust? I like the look of it if i'm honest. If I could wire them to work in tandem with the sidelights (and still work as indicators) I would. Waiting for the battery to charge again, this alternators scrap at this point so its always barely not got enough battery power to turn over. Will post some photos up of it outside once it has enough charge to start.

As reported in the Black Badging - Skoda Superb Mk III - BRISKODA thread, front and rear black Skoda emblems fitted (originally had the S K O D A on the boot lid):

Mini (new) same wheel base as freelanders, I think. Octy, essentially an elongated GTI. GTi will be better in twisty roads, McDonalds Car parks. vRS will be cheaper, possibly less to insure, not as good in the twisties... but able to keep up with anything sticking to limits of limits and if not those, then physics. Eg moors over the back of bolton, way back in 2001ish we used to go out, evo's scoobies, octavias, 330's... all had strengths and weaknesses, all got to the end of each leg about the same time. Only some of them cost <half the running mates & didn't need all the security hoopla. Should be plenty about too, vRS that is... exDemo's If it wasn't new you were after. Bit change from the ST mind I'd of thought. In that sense I guess the Cooper and gti will feel 'sportier'. Although another fun fact to close out... the polo, or is it the lupo, is the same size as the mkI golf Pretty sure you could fit it in the boot of the octavia. Good boot for travel, biking; I can fit my gravel bike wheels on in the superb hatch. Food for thought

@varaderoguy Yeah it's not many. 5.71 tonnes:25000 miles in a diesel vehicle doing 50 mpg (UK) src: https://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=4 So I don't do that sort of mileage, but I have lots of power hungry stuff and the driving I do do, tends to be local <30miles over hilly ( peak district ) so I use the 5.20 plan: https://ecologi.com/business/checkout That covers me at a most basic level. Of course one needs to decide if one trusts a checkout page with rough summaries or a bit of fact checking elsewhere. Because 12months of 0.9 is more than 5.71 tonnes. Then again there is all the home stuff, boiler, tv, internet modem, bar fire and so on... All said, anything is better than nothing, and something is a start For less than a round (4 people) I feel slightly better about ragging a 2l petrol car up and down dale... slightly... goes of to punish myself.

My opinion , GTI looks good without those stock wheels but theres loads on the road. I keep getting noticed in my VRS as there very few on the road especially in meteor grey ( discontin colour ) Why wait 54 weeks when you can get a similar performance , same engine and most parts the same too. Since no grey option , Velvet red looks good.

Thanks, I will give it a try, nothing to lose. On the flat the belt unwinds as it should and also locks as it should when pulled sharply which is how the MOT guys test them. There is also I believe the "inertia" mechanism that is something along the lines of an upturned saucer with a round weight inside, it if rolls up the side of the saucer through its inertia be it heavy braking or a shunt from any angle it will lock the reel, these mechanisms by their nature are affected by the inclination of the vehicle but should not behave like yours and mine at shallow angles.

Want the best performing and better looking hatchback get a GTI, want the best performing and better looking estate get a VRS. Simples.

UPDATE: I just picked up my Rapid from a annual service at Skoda dealership. They took a look at the wheel noise but they had just couple minutes time for it after the service. The mechanic told that the problem could be caused by the rotary coupling unit. I will be in contact with the salesman after this problem came just in a day after buying the car. I will keep you updated.

Never in my case. If I'm wandering it's a warning that I need a break.

Volkswizard has just uploaded a good comparison of the GTI Mk8 with / without DCC. Springs appear to be the same, it's just the dampers which are different. Interestingly, the DCC version seemed to be riding a little lower at the back.

Yeah that makes sense, I hadn't thought of that side of things. Thanks guys, good info.

Vauxhall only charged £400 extra on cars with the Winter Pack that included 'All Season Tyres'. Isuzu have the option of BFG Goodrich 'All-Terrains' or KM2's. Option with the Vauxhall Combo Life MPV 5 or 7 seater or the Van.

No such device evident on the wiring diagram. They'd always be more than 2 pin though, I think; and as the OP says, mounted in flowing air.

Had an ex plod V6 Cavalier. Compared to the other V6 Cav I had at the time the ex plod one was a lot quicker, in spite of being heavier, (but no creature comforts).

All sounds like good advice thanks! I've not done any work on the door so not sure what has caused this issue. Thanks for the link to that thread!

Skoda have published article on some Police vehicles Different countries have different fixtures, from tubular poles for ramming vehicles that won’t stop, to sub machine gun cases. It is also noticeable how much extra dayglo seems to be used in UK. Clearly slapping it on lower doors is not needed in other countries. https://www.skoda-storyboard.com/en/skoda-world/skoda-cars-in-police-livery/

True but if the floor has some A393 mesh or similar in it then the bending strength should hopefully be there across the slab... Personally a 1m x 1m square pad 12" deep in mass C40 concrete doesn't sound adequate to me - I'd be looking for a much bigger slab with mesh reinforcement before I climbed under a lift...

Nice job. I keep meaning to put some soundproofing in the boot, but never get round to it. Very interested in the TPMS you've added. This really is something I should retrofit to mine.

I always focus on wet braking and handling. All tyres seem to perform acceptably to me in the dry, even the budget ones. Obviously the best tyres are better than the worst, but even the worst tyres (in good condition) don't give cause for concern in the dry. But in the wet, that's a whole different issue and I've previously given away a set of crappy budget tyres because they were downright dangerous in the wet. (The person I gave them to has been very happy with them, but she does drive very slowly and cautiously.) I was thinking about getting another set of Turanza's, but it seems the T005 wet performance isn't the best, so I'll probably go for whatever is good in the wet at the time of purchase. Tyre performance seems to change every year, so it's not like I can just buy a set of Conti Premium Contacts every time I buy tyres, as this year they seem to have focussed on dry performance rather than wet. (They used to be amazing in the wet.) The T001's I have on the car at the moment have been fine, though I haven't particularly asked much of them in the wet. If I was buying today, I'd be looking at Michelin Primacy 4, or something with better wet performance if I could find it.

I understand that. I have had 3 ex police vehicles and none were standard. A Ford Granada 2.8 V6 Auto, a Granada Scorpio 2.9 V6 auto and a Volvo S60 5 Cylinder auto. It had police spec suspension and the engine that was in it before it got replaced was tuned.

2015 to 2017 gets the MIB2 unit. 1st pic 2018 to 2020 gets the MIB2.5 unit. 2nd pic. 2021 onwards gets MIB3 units. U can upgrade from MIB2 to MIB2.5. Many have done it. But u'll need to also change the unit in the glovebox. If u do upgrade to the MIB2.5 unit, then this opens the door for u to upgrade to a digital/virtual cluster.

I've had 2 stage 1 maps (1 on an old diesel pd Golf and one on our current Mk1 vRS) both done by post. The first one, by Liam @ FADR, was problem free.. paid him the money, he sent an ecu, swap the ecu, Bob's your others brother. The one on the vRS was done by a chap called Adam off a forum.. I've known him, via the forum, a few years and he's apparently quite well known - been doing this years. I sent him an ecu I'd bought, he stuck a map on it and returned it. That chucked up an eml for ABS.. sent it back to him, he re-re-mapped it and it's perfect now. There's also a chap called Mark Bowdery on Facebook, seems he's quite good at this too. Might have a chat with him.. If I were going stage 2 I'd be taking it for a custom map (probably Nick at RTech tbh).. don't really see any need for stage 1 on an otherwise stock engine.

lol, all good. but i'm not sure, maybe, though i highly doubt u'll b able to spray it with a nozzle of some sort. if u have access to a car lift/hoist, u might b able to get a better view to see if it would be possible at all.

yeah.....nah! to get to the front swaybar clamps, u need to drop the sub-frame - no thanks!!!

You can, my Red one was originally done by Ben at Shark Performance (all done via the OBD2 port). But, for some reason the owner before me claimed it was using to much fuel and had the remap taken off by a VW/Skoda specialist and the original factory one put back on. Even though mine is staying OEM, I would still like a remap on it, as standard, it’s no fun, and very slow. I’d really recommend getting a stage 1 map, and a custom one at that. Because you will notice the difference going back to stock. I’ll be going to see Niki at R-Tech hopefully at some point to have mine done. If the car is stage 2, it needs the supporting mods in order to achieve it. You need a bigger front mount, either a decat or sports cat 200cell down pipe and a nice free flowing system.

Not a turbo engine sadly so not that effecient. Missed a trick here. Would have added a grand to the price but would have been awesome.

I can't see why they can't just use a plain vanilla DQ200 with a mild hybrid engine. All the mild hybridness is contained in the engine in the guise of the belt driven oversized alternator / weedy electric motor. Add a bit of a lithium battery (0.7kwh iirc) and some electric power management and all you have is yet another ice engine. Just stick a standard DQ200 on, maybe tweak the dsg software regarding coasting etc. Hybrids like the GTE or iv are completely different architecture

Scottie , i hear from so many drivers that they get 20k plus out of tyres on a FWD car. Ive never had that. My last car was a Superb , so big heavy engine on the axles and best was near 13k. Now i don't ever go to legal limit of 1.6mm , i change at just over 2mm or near 3mm if its the winter, I also never buy budgets , i'll drop to mid range say Falkens, Toyos but mostly i buy premium like conti 5 or 6 , Mitch 4 or Goodys. i do this as frequently I'll be on the road to Aberdeen or Inverness. As the only thing between you and the road , i want the assurance that my tyres are of good qual. What do you forum guys think , todays budgets are ok for long distance after all they do have to have all the UK accreditation? What do you guys replace OEM's with , what mileage do you get from a front set?

Of course you should, you'll be wondering why you didnt do it sooner. No mods required really. More bhp did mine who are in Crewe but back in 2006/2007 came to me.

U missed the bit where I said "pic below shows endlink at its minimum length, prior to adjustment" From the numerous forums and research I've read - they all mention, and explain why there is preload after the car is lowered. And I also saw it for myself - when I had the old endlinks removed and the car was on the ground, I could see swaybar's normal position, which was far off from the factory endlink's bottom point. This was because of the shorter Eibach springs Yes, u can push/pivot the swaybar upwards, but it requires a lot of force and the swaybar doesn't stay in that position, instead it rebounds back to its original position - as is expected normal behaviour for a swaybar. Try it for urself. This tension/resistance is the pre-load everyone refers to. Again, as I said before - it's not critical to do, and the factory endlinks will put up with "shortfall". I did it cause I wanted to.

Damn difficult in a FWD car to reduce oversteer if you get into a corner too quick and there is no grip traction at the front end and you are going straight into a wall, fence, hedge ditch or if lucky through an open gate. Good tyres all around is just 'simply clever' Not all are driving gods so even know what under or oversteer is, and those with ESP and good tyres might not even be aware the car is helping keep them on the road.

you can also buy Stainless and aluminium replacements if you want to seriously protect the engine etc etc i think they are like £150-200

It does not have any non return valves! It has a bypass valve internally as any decent oil filter would have in case the filter gets blocked. It also has a spring loaded rubber seal arrangement that seals off a return to sump oilway in the engine side housing when the filter is screwed down. The purpose of this is that when you unscrew it by a couple of turns, the oil in the filter will drain down to sump rather than spill all over the side of the engine, the alternator and aux belt. After all the filter is fitted upside down. Mann, Mahle, Bosch, others, they are all the same, just possibly different filter element design and material. The return to sump gallery is the smiley mouth in the pic below. This is sealed shut by the wide rubber O seal on the filter when screwed down. The seal is clearly seen uppermost here.

You went for the language pedant approach, and I was trying not to make a 'said the nun to the bishop' joke! Still, the point was clear, and it is odd that we talk about width, height, and depth and then switch to how long something is. Surely though the need for an even longer deeper boot in the Superb must be for fairly niche load carrying requirements?

Longer in depth - an interesting concept! There may be hope for me yet to become narrower in height

Yes, this engine is as thirsty as a camel...

Thanks @OGKhyamB, the Quartz Grey is a nice colour. You will have to put some pics up of the mods when you get them done. A couple of new pics I have added a sunstrip with VAG Society UK sticker. I kept it quite narrow, as I didn't want it to get in the way of rain sensor behind rear view mirror. Also added a white pinstripe to the Maxton Splitter and Side Skirts. Bought 6mm by 10meters off amazon for £4, as Maxton were charging £8 for 6mm x 2metres. Once the pinstripe was added I took the plunge and bought the Maxton Design rear side splitters - this was a huge gamble as on the website they are pictured with the stock textured grey bumper trim and they look really 'stuck on' rubbish. So I bought them with the hope they would go better with the custom gloss black bumper trim and if not would have returned them. I am quite pleased with how they look now with the pinstripe added. They definitely compliment the lines of the whole lip kit especially from side view of the car. The rear maybe feels like its missing something in the middle, but I really don't like the Maxton Valance and I am yet to find anything else that gains my interest even slightly. Next up for me is a rear wiper delete. Going to get the Racingline insert and do that at some point soon. Love the extended black glass tailgate, and removing the wiper will really clean it up. Other than that the only thing I have on my radar is to upgrade to EBC discs and pads, but at only 11k miles on the clock, I won't be doing that for a while. Anyway, enjoy the pics and happy modifying.

So sad watching Ant last night. I wanted to love it. They are going to drag out that programmes as long as they can 'American TV style', repeat bits over and over again . Not so sure that chassis is an original and had not already been replaced. Experts will be able to tell.

Do you know which spark plugs were fitted?

Pics before the rain corrupts her!

Rescue and emergency services do not rely on W3W, but will use whatever data the caller can give them. If W3W is the location system the caller has, it gets used. W3W is millennials re-branding a concept and thinking they have another new idea again. The better system in the UK is still the OS 6 or 8 figure grid reference as it places you precisely on a ubiquitous mapping system that is used by all rescue services. It is always available with no reliance on batteries or signals as it is carried in paper form very easily. Anyone out on the hills should carry the OS map for area and know how to use it. Sadly technology has made folks think this is obsolete. Instead of W3W app, folks should have the OS Locate app on their phone, which generates the exact grid reference of the location. I have used it to summon an ambulance to a remote road. They found us quickly and with no confusion.

That IS good to know. I look forward to trying it out - if they can get my Skoda voice assistant working. Since delivery it just gets stuck on "Loading Voice Control". After software updates that did nothing they have ordered a new infotainment control unit.

This one is lowered with Eibach springs and has front spacers 10 mm per wheel and back spacers 15 mm per wheel.