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Needing a larger family car that would cope with long journeys I started digging around for something. I was mainly after something interesting. So after spotting a Maserati Quattroporte online I popped up to drive it and after a short and fruitful haggle I bought a Maserati Quattroporte V6d. It's fairly rapid (275hp), huge inside, and possibly the quietest car I've ever driven. The ICE is dated (probably dated when it was new) but does bluetooth and DAB and that's 95% of my needs. Some of the switchgear is a bit meh (Chrysler stock) other parts of the car are pure quality. Dash is walnut and leather. Dealer put on a full set of front disks and pads (OEM), two new front springs (caused a 6 week delay), oil and filter change, and a very good valet. Bought from the dealer owner who owns a GTS version and is clearly a Maserati fan himself, I'm guessing the previous owner was also very careful as it it mint. Already terrified of kerbing the alloys and it's a total PITA to park as it is over 5.2m long. But, just look at it....snaps knicker elastic at 100 yards.

Lovely British seaside weather 😂

It's only illegal if you get caught

I think the EV market is nowhere as huge as it’s perceived to be, simply because such a large proportion of UK property have nowhere to charge EVs at home due to no off road parking. There are 17 houses in our road and no drives and surrounding roads are all similar and it’s the same in every town.

Agreed that 14 miles is not that long but from a cold start and urban light traffic I'd be expecting to be averaging about 50mpg in about 5 miles in my 2014 mk3 manual1.4tsi Octavia estate. That would be 'nursing' it through warm-up and from then it is quite easy to maintain that sort of consumption as I approach busier areas. I've not driven the 2.0tdi but when I transitioned from the 1.9pd to the 1.4tsi it took a while to get the best from the petrol engine which I think requires a bit more effort to get optimal consumption. There is minimal engine braking from the petrol compared to the diesel engine and, as using brakes is just wasting fuel, you have to anticipate the road a lot further ahead to get the full 'no fuel used' coasting distance advantage. When my wife drives the car around town she gets about 30% worse consumption than I do and it is purely because she does not anticipate as far ahead so uses the brakes more and also is slightly heavier on the throttle at constant speeds on our flat urban roads. There is an optimal point with tsi engines where on low revs and light throttles they achieve a very lean burn. From what I read once, the stoichiometric condition is concentrated around the spark plug from the direct injection but the rest of the cylinder has very little fuel dispersed. If you drive the car with instant consumption display at a constant low speed then you will realise how easy it is to push the throttle and consumption over that optimal point with no apparent acceleration just an increase in displayed consumption. Unfortunately the very interesting article I read on the three or four (?) different operating conditions of Bosch direct injection system has been lost from the internet. On an open faster road then there is little difference between my wife's and my consumption in the Octavia. I suspect the OP's Fabia is not running quite right yet but once it is and also some small technique adaptations then I think local driving consumption could be better than the diesel although unlikely at higher speeds and distances but the Fabia should be in the 50's imo. AND what I have written above may well be BS, but that is what sharing experiences and discussions like these are all about. So fire away

Bird walking on a roof ... more like a ticking sound? Could be exhaust tick down as the exhaust/heatshields etc cool it can have a ticking sound for upto 5 mins after switching off, or as already suggested the aircon going into a ventilation mode and moving flaps about to cool the car /purge air after a journey. just some suggestions. 🙂

I've owned a 2017 1.6 diesel.. since brand new .. its now got 227k miles.. full skoda service history.. never had a problem.. no dpf issues the engine is just bloody brilliant

You have probably seen the thread with guide here...

So these car will have been filled with G13 coolant mix at the factory, it seems to be that someone worked out that at least for some engines, trickle feeding the G13 with extra Silicate is needed to retain the initial corrosion protection. Some years ago I bought a tin of "coolant test strips" these have 2 areas on them, one area for checking %age of coolant-water and the other area for checking the ph of the coolant, ie how it is degrading towards being acidic from initially being slightly alkaline - now these strips are now out with their recommended "use by" date, but as I have them I am continuing to use them, and what I discovered was, the old G12+ or G12++ tended to stay slightly alkaline over a period of 12 years, and the 2 cars that I check that have G13 in them, are moving towards being acidic, even the car that has a silicate pouch still in it - the other G13 car was not fitted with a silicate pouch at the factory. Okay that is only a sample of 3 cars, one with G12+/G12++, one with G13 and no silicate pouch and one with G13 and a silicate pouch. The car with the G12+/G12++ I changed to G12 evo maybe 2 years ago, the car with G13 and no pouch, I plan to change to G12evo as it is 8 years old and 40+K miles, the car with G13 and a silicate pouch - well I've suggested that the pouch might be better being removed and then change the coolant to G12evo, but its owner does not like spending money where it is not absolutely needing to be spent. I'm not sure if I'm pleased or not that I made the effort to buy in from USA these coolant test strips, but as I did buy them, I am using keeping on using them. Back in the "good old days" it was easy to work out when to replace coolant as the cambelts needing replacing frequently and on older engines, the smart money was on changing the cambelt driven water pump at every other cambelt change - and so the coolant was renewed.

Personally I'd take the instant consumption figures with a pinch of salt, fine if using as a rough guide or pointer. Same for tankfill mpg especially if different journeys with different drivers and in different weather. Once you've checked the accuracy you could take the car's computer tankfill mpg figure as a comparison for future use allowing for variables, if you normally get about 45mpg and for no apparent reason it drops to say 35 (or whatever) then there's probably something you need to check or do. I've found before comparing with Australia on things like tyre pressures and mpg just brings up anomalies which could be in (and I've not fully checked so could be wrong or partly wrong) in the petrol, road surfaces, tyre materials, weather, same as with comparisons with the same cars over here there are still too many variables to get many very close matches on mpg (and then what is close). Some of the mpg figures I've seen on the Fabia same as my wife's I wonder how they're achieved and how accurate they are or realistic for others to copy in their lives. I think you always get less mpg from a petrol than a diesel as you drive it more than just being a passenger behind the steering wheel whether you realise it or not so as has been put you need to adjust your driving technique to shorten the gap a bit.

Usually 15 degrees minimum and yes it is displayed average consumption which I think IS a valid measurement if the display is verified as reasonably accurate when refueling. After all I'm sure the OP is quoting display figures. 50mpg is 5.6L/100km in my 'language' and yes it is good, even better than the NEDC figures for a 1.4tsi 90kw Golf at an equivalent 8km. However I'm not limited to the highly scripted and less than optimal routine the testers must follow. That's why autos often do better than manuals in the test if not the real world. I use 95RON with no ethanol so it theoretically has a slightly higher calorific value although I have to say the E10 I used in last years rental UK rental Corsa did not impact on the excellent consumption I got with that car. You are probably right that there would be a small consumption penalty with a DSG compared to a manual but they are pretty good none-the-less and the OP's car is smaller and lighter than mine so it probably evens out.

I hear loads of chat on Renault Zoe and Megane-E chat rooms, oh Renault are dumping the Zoes on the market and depressing the prices of our recently bought Zoes. Well boohoo, many of us bought them with massive subsistence from both the Government, Renault UK and the dealers so we paid a price much much less than RRP. We did so on cheap finance too. We have been using these cars and paying running costs about half of that of ICE cars with the cheap energy and cheap servicing. All whilst doing what many of us wanted to do which was to pollute the planet less for future generations. I am quite happy that second hand Zoes are cheaper. Both the ZE40 and ZE50 Zoes are cracking cars for range. A bit compromised as a full family car, as are many of the smaller EVs ie poor rear passenger space and smallish boot for prams etc, but I think can work as great commuter cars for many and save the users tens of pounds a month if not a week. Most do not see there is a revolution coming which is gather pace to a absolute gallop which make ICE cars more expensive both to buy and to run. Interest rates will fall quickly in a few months time, electricity will be cheap as more wind power comes online, especially off peak charging. I have only charged off peak on Octopus GO. 12k miles done, probably paying between 3 and 2 pence per mile and £99 servicing. Just waiting for work to roll out its 22 kW AC chargers at most of my office and happy days whilst reclaim 45p a mile tax relief from HMRC. Happy days.

If you are not the first owner, maybe the previous owner had the bag removed.

Getting parts from Scuderia isn't quite so bad allegedly. But I was guessing not much worse than parts for an M5 anyway. I've been nearly £900 for brakes on the Mrs JCW countryman this year. Interesting things are expensive.

I pryed upwards slightly from the bottom, as shown in the pic above, then pryed and lifted from the top, in a similar manner at the top to lift up the entire switch panel. There was no need for me to remove the gear shift cover. Then again, mine is RHD, so the switch panels r reversed.

There are various air flaps in the ventilation system under the dash that close as you turn off the ignition. Mine used to make a noise for a couple of seconds.

From the title I thought @Lady Elanore had sold her BMW... Regardless, woweeee that Maserati is bloody lovely.

No VAG car I have had since the 90's (and they have been the majority) had that feature but its probably more true to say they actually did but I never read the manuals!!! I will have to look at the Yeti tomorrow, I'm just happy to have a lanyard and to not be losing any more fuel caps.

VCDS/ODIS Service How to adapt a new battery A little guide I made to help you adapt a new battery to your vehicle VCDS How to adapt a new battery.pdf ODIS Service How to adapt a new battery.pdf

As per the title I had a short spin in an Atto 3 yesterday courtesy of Stratstone MK - previously a Jag dealership. It was not bad at all. It was our first time in an EV so me & the Mrs were curious to find out more & whether something like the Atto3 could be on our list as a future replacement for one or both of our current cars. It's a well specced & built car - even the base model has an opening pano roof & all the driving aids. Only £2k extra for the top spec model which adds V2L, a powered tailgate & a few other bit's. LFP battery with 260 mile range, a bit of a wild interior, 7.1 secs to 60mph reasonable size boot & rear passenger space. No frunk but quite a bit to like. BYD are offering £3k contribution for their finance plan at the moment. We have previously looked at an MG4 & ZS but not driven either. By comparison the Atto3 is a better built & finished car. More expensive as well. Unfortunately it's out of our price range as a new car. If it was selling for the same price as it is in OZ & NZ (£10k cheaper over there) it might have been a different matter. I guess we will have to watch the market & test a few more makes / models before we make a final decision. Either way it will have to be a used model of some sort, prices for which are starting to get a bit more reasonable. I quite like the look of the Polestar 2 but used prices for them are still in excess of £30k & it doesn't have a rear wiper - a pet hate of mine & an essential item for any hatch, estate or SUV / crossover in the UK, IMO. The search continues.

I was in chill mode, my wife just didn't like it, plus the phantom braking she refused to believe wasn't me, I mean what car would randomly do an emergency stop for no reason? And on a local diual carriageway it invariably swerved and said "autosteer applied for your safety". I am much happier with the enyaq, it's just a better all round package and hasn't had a single problem in 22k miles

The pump storage is one answer as is battery storage with which the price is falling like a stone. Elon Musk built a 100 MWh storage plant in less than 100 days in Oz and a country with so much solar and the ability to build onshore wind turbines is meaning Oz is going from a very dirty continent to probably the cleanest in a few years. EV sales also is going from nothing to a big chuck of the market getting quick supply from China. On a personal level my Bluetti EB180 and Allpower S2000 pro given me over 3 kWhs of power and next on the shopping list is the Allpowers R4000 which is 3.6 kWh and has an inverter to handle anything in the house, just waiting for the price to be right which will probably be around Black Friday. Cyber Monday or thereabouts. pay about 50 to 60p wh storage and only use batteries which can be recharged thousands of times. Reckon it saves a good £1 a day at the moment but come end of my Octopus Go 7.5p per kWh I may need to look at another Octopus tariff and/or squeeze my use of day time electricity, which is only 40% of what I use, even more.

Heatsoak in a diesel reduces torque, in a turbo petrol it can lead to detonation, diesels like hot air, petrols hate it.

that is a properly lovely car ive o ly ever sat in one, while picking out our wedding car, waaaaay back when i was a brisky n00b its really on my list of "space and money no object, what would i drive" cars

We use G12Evo concentrate and Quantum mixing water 40/60 as the default fill in everything now. You can get ready mixed but that is 50/50 and technically a little too strong for our climate.

Are you OK now?

It is indeed an uphill battle to un-do the harm that were done by poorly researched main stream media articles. The batteries will outlast the car and charging times doesn't matter because you are not holding the plug for its duration. The EV market is big, over 60% of UK households have off-street marking, exact number depend on which article you read: https://www.transportxtra.com/publications/parking-review/news/66621/a-third-of-uk-homeowners-don-t-have-a-driveway-or-garage-to-install-a-home-chargepoint/ https://www.nationwidevehiclecontracts.co.uk/car-leasing/guides/off-street-parking-index That means minimum 60% of cars can be electric. Current market penetration is way less than that. I say minimum because EV's don't need charging every day, I manage fine 2 EV 1 charger. There are many households with multiple cars. Personally, I think it's about time cars are cleaned up from the streets. Make roads open and not littered with personal items.

Yes! Mine has started doing this randomly in the last month or so and it always occurs in the first few minutes of the journey. I tried to get a video of it but, typically, it doesn't happen when I'm pointing a camera at it 😁. Interestingly it happened the other day when I turned on the ignition (but not the engine) and was sat on the drive waiting for everyone to get in the car. I had a front parking sensor replaced recently so I was wondering if it was related to that?

Maybe the majority who want an EV have one? And there is a lot of publicity fearmongering about battery lifetime. It doesn't really matter if that is nonsense or not if a majority belive that the battery in a used EV is about to fade like some cheap AAs. If the used prices drop because of the papers FUD headlines it'll drive up lease prices as well. A lot of public charging has gone from free to at cost as well. My neighbour has an EV and he relied on using the council funded chargers for the last few years.

There are lots & lots & lots charging at charging hubs, super market chargers, park and ride chargers their business use car or van or private use ones. Many have no home chargers. You get to know people and what their charging regimes are when you talk to them. The UK market is not 'perceived' it is an actual figure of BEV's already registered, those on order and how many there are going to be registered when new ICE cars are no longer available to buy in the UK. 'Statistics & Projections' http://heycar.co.uk/blog/electric-cars-statistics-and-projections http://www.zap-map.com/ev-market-statistics I would like to know how many BEV's in the UK have been scrapped in the past 15 years because they were at end of life, or even written off. Maybe SMMT or the DVLA have that figure someplace.

The Quantum & Castrol might and should be VW 504 00 / 507 00, so 507 00 for your TDI, and 5w 30 FS III or 0w 30 FS III. But Quantum in the UK is produced by Fuchs Oils, they are the supplier to TPS and Castrol is from Castrol.

What MPG are you getting around town?

Hi, My mistake, I do have the 18inch tires/alloys

I doubt you've screwed it. I have a hunch that the car likes to know where the headlights are so it knows how much up/down adjustment it has and keep it within an optimum range, like it can self level through VCDS/OBD11 but if manually adjusted it's just not where it thinks the lights are. I suspect if yours are still working fine and still doing the calibration thing there can't be anything wrong with it. If it was lowered to be basically on its ass, and you manually adjusted it I suspect it would have more of a problem as it would be massively out of tolerance.

Hi Everyone, I have recently picked up a new Octavia VRS estate (Petrol) having been a fan of Audi for years. I wish i had made the change earlier, absolutely love my VRS and such good value for money. Still a few software glitches and annoying features which hopefully will be addressed in a software update soon. Happy motoring everyone. Cheers.

Wow! You experts are really delivering VCDS isn't a full ECU flash tool but a modifier of EEPROM calibration settings: interesting approach for the ECU. From @JoePeddos, the target switch stalk is on a 2015 fabia. Backtrack from @nta16. I will investigate and report; many thanks!

Hi guys, Didnt think I would become so addicted modifying my RS 2.0tsi so much lol. Now remapped to 320HP and 450nm torque with Eventuri air intake and after opf straight pipe exhausts only with a anti drone resonator. See pic. Now looking into downpipe replacement with sport cat and 2 mufflers with valves custom made and custom remap. Still surprised about the racing line figures actually. 510nm.. Anyone already going more than 350hp so far? For me it would be a stage 2 remap. Direct fit upgrade turbo seems not to be available yet. All your feedback is welcome!

Absolutely fantastic. And to see it being used nearly 35 years after build. 1988 was IIRC before VW went to the factory and actually reduced the build quality.

A very small amount of progress was achieved after factory resetting all settings - the DAB traffic announcements is now no longer greyed out. I think the traffic flow setting was also not greyed out initially, but has since become greyed out again. Still no traffic events being pulled through via TMC. I am going to try a general query to Skoda about whether they expect TMC to function for the lifetime of the vehicle, or if there are any problems with their own renewal of the TMC service. Will report back in due course.

The first thing I did was go and spec the exact car I wanted on Carwow and go from there. We then found two dealers that wanted our business and played them off against each other, saved about £4K on ‘list’ price 👍🏻

Still cannot believe that it is true, but it is! Delivery date: 2023/04/07 (order date 2021/09/13)

Thanks the video, very useful! Learnt more about the car than the Skoda website itself! 😀 As for Tesla, the company is rotten top to the bottom…I had visited their showroom about this mess they caused and I was told it’s my problem if I cancelled my order not theirs!!! What a load of bunch of w….s I am definitely learning much closer to Enyaq, least will have a peace of mind. I am based in Ireland though 😔

The light that burns twice as bright lasts half as long. I will see what the pcp deals are, as some believe EV prices are tumbling pcp rise. I have seen Zoes been quoted at 500 a month! The big saving with salary sacrifice makes the pcps much more affordable.

Welcome to the site. I can't claim to be a specialist, there are better qualified people on here for that! Having said that, I've had the same issue on both rear doors. Each time it was the wiring between the door and car that passes through the rubber tube. I repaired the snapped wire and they have worked fine since. This might not cure yours but have a look as it's a relatively simple fix. The same thing happens on our other car between the car and tailgate. After a while one of the wires snaps and needs repairing. My bodged attempt is here on page 13 I can't really help with the clutch, it's not something I tend to mess around with. I usually leave that up to my friendly garage to sort. As for the rough idling, it could be one of many things. Are there any air leaks in the system? I had a similar issue and there was a split breather pipe. Having said that, it could be coil packs as that has happened to me on a previous Octavia. Also, what mods do you have on the car? To get to 260bhp there must be a few. I'm assuming it has a different turbo, injectors and fuel pump to reach those figures as well as an uprated clutch as the standard components rarely manage to get to those numbers. Depending on what modifications you have it could be one of those that's causing the rough running. Hope you get sorted.

Got my Octavia a week ago. The first 900 km have been driven and I am very satisfied with my choice.

No problem for me, 20+k miles in.

I’ve a lot of complaints about my car, the vent position isn’t one of them lol

I'm with you on the paint choice Actually quite partial to the flat (+ free) blue and opted to spend the cost on extras which benefit us on a daily basis. Mine is a Karoq, although think both vehicles suit the dynamic blue.

I have a full answer to this, but TL:DR AutoHold is a game-changer on this issue and my car doesn't have it. That said.... As I'm sure you know, the DSG is a dual clutch gearbox that operates automatically. It's far different to a traditional automatic gearbox. While the DSG offers the convenience of a traditional automatic, with improved fuel economy and the ability to shift gears more quickly than a manual gearbox, it has the same basic operation as a traditional gearbox, though with two clutches and two banks of gears. Gears 1, 3, 5, (and maybe 7) on one bank, and gears 2, 4, 6 (and maybe 8 ) on the other. Pre-selecting the next gear with the clutch disengaged on the other bank of gears to the one in use with the clutch engaged, is what gives the DSG its speed advantage. To change gear, the active bank disengages its clutch, and at almost precisely the same time, the inactive bank engages its clutch and the car has changed gear. The DQ381 gearbox and manual handbrake set-up on my 2019 car is not one of the very latest gearboxes, and so it still needs to be driven with some of the considerations that should be would used when driving a manual gearbox. I suspect the newer gearboxes featuring electronic handbrakes with AutoHold really do not need to be taken out of drive mode when at the lights, and are perfectly happy sat there for some time with the clutch completely disengaged. As I indicated originally, my gearbox does not completely disengage the clutch when stationary in drive. The Octavia manual does not need to change, because it tells drivers what they may do, without prescriptively telling them what they should do. So for me "The selector lever position N does not have to be selected if stopping for a short time, such as at cross roads." means "Don't worry about burning out the clutch on the 1,3,5,7 bank of gears waiting at a junction in drive, so long as you're only going to be riding the clutch for a short time." For cars with AutoHold, "The selector lever position N does not have to be selected if stopping for a short time, such as at cross roads." means "Don't worry about burning out the clutch because you can't, but it's probably a good idea for road safety to put the car in neutral and bung the handbrake on if you're going to be sat for a while." On mine, the gear selector and handbrake are big levers that invite use. On the cars with electronic handbrakes and AutoHold, the gear selector and handbrake controls are reduced to switches, which are not intended to be used in the same way, because they don't need to need to be. AutoHold does automatically what I have to do manually. As I seem to be getting a hint of rheumatism in my elbow, if that gets much worse, I may start to think of electronic handbrakes and AutoHold as very good ideas. In summary, I suspect a few of us have been talking at cross purposes here, without fully understanding the intricacies of the vehicles involved. I certainly didn't know about AutoHold at the start of this thread. There have probably been a few people who understood the difference between cars with and without AutoHold, who were wondering what we were arguing about. Oh well, hopefully this thread has shed some light on the issue and we managed to do it without anyone getting angry about it. Lovely! 😊

So - yes, you should do the following: Perform a Factory Reset on the car prior to handing it over (to include all personalisation) Remove the car you have in Skoda Connect. The dealers don't ever do it correctly (because a lot of their technicians either don't know how to do + neither do the sales people).