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Tbh, this doesn’t surprise me. Mrs Mac’s Arona went for servicing yesterday at the VW/Audi/Seat/Skoda dealership she bought it from. They gave her a courtesy car - Brand new Cupra Leon 1.5l 150bhp dsg. I think a hybrid, but didn’t get to see it as I was gone to work, and she was returning it again before I got home. Sticker price - 45 grand. For a Leon hatchback. That’s insane money, I don’t even want to think about A3 equivalent’s price tag. So why wouldn’t people look to Chinese brands when the majority see a car as no different to a washing machine purchase?

On my previous car the front discs and pads lasted to just over 130k miles - lots of long drives at a steady speed on the motorways and dual carriageways the brakes don't get used much for mile after mile, the discs also stay in really good rust free condition.

Auto hold came in on the Octavia with the mk4 - basically if you have a traditional handbrake lever you haven't got 'auto hold', but you may have 'hill hold'.

Those figures don't surprise me either. As with @mac11irl some of the prices being charged by the established brands are crazy and the quality and value of the newer Chinese brands is often far better. I'd have no qualms about going with any of the big Chinese brands these days... Some of the BYD and Omoda stuff is looking very enticing.

I usually average around 3k a month, on an exceptionally busy month I might do 4.5k (but that's unusual), average speed around 42mph and average 60mpg, lots of longer drives usually on motorways sitting in 7th gear at 70mph and 1600rpm so nothing really wears out, front brakes still on original discs & pads with a good amount of life left in them, rears were changed not so long ago. Had it from new, 7 miles on the clock the day I picked it up, still really enjoy getting in it and driving it.

A 2013 Mk1 will have a MIB1 Bolero, no MIB1 unit can have CarPlay enabled. If you want an OEM solution then you need to replace your MIB1 Bolero with a MIB2 unit from a 2015 on Mk3. Best person to ask is @pab567 so I've tagged him.

Yup, Sorry guys, it’s a 2013… my bad Good start to joining the forum 😂

Hi All, I thought an update on my exhaust would be useful. I've had good experiences with Kwik Fit in the past, but not this time. I explained what I thought was wrong, but they could not see the fault, they could not source the replacement back box from any of their suppliers and advised me to go to the Skoda dealer! I went to my usual independent garage for the MOT and while it was up on the ramp the broken exhaust was obvious to the eye and it failed, although the car was perfectly quiet to drive. The garage fitted a Klarius back box for £155 all in. The part number is SK121K and is available from ebay and other suppliers for around £75. Because the original exhaust is one-piece the pipe needed to be cut to fit the back box and I didn't fancy doing that lying on the driveway so I was happy to let them do it.

A 7 litre V8 👌😁

Interesting comparison of the Duster 130 4x4 with a Yeti (ok the blue 1.8 tsi heritage fleet car). Lots of positive reflections on the Yeti. £6.50 or flick to page 124 for a cheeky browse in a local newsagent near you 😀

Yeah, as long as it's not some precursor to a catostrophic failure 6 months from now, I'm happy to just put up with it until I have the funds for a full damper swap. I've got ten months warranty from the (non-skoda) dealer we bought it from so I might try and get it looked at before it runs out. B6 with the standard shocks will do me nicely. Any lower, the speed bumps might become an issue.

Thank you yes I would really appreciate that. Who would have thought buying a wiper blade would be so difficult 😆

Hope to have an opportunity tomorrow. Many thanks for your time and advice.

As long as it's genuine VCDS you hover over the figures and you get pop ups to give you the rough figures to expect. MAF and MAP logged together I think I'd go for but I'm not a tuning or logging expert. Make sure throttle opening is included (I think it will be) possibly shown on VCDS as 'Load' in %. It does need to be done on a nice clear road with a warm engine and full throttle through say third and fourth to show up maximum boost. A good hill is handy to get the boost level up (and stop you getting pulled up by the fuzz!) Don't forget to use the 'Start' button after clicking 'Log' and the 'Stop' button when you have finished. :) The logs are a great long list of the recorded numbers from your drive which can get a bit confusing so I like to upload the whole unopened log to Tunzilla's free graphing tool. You might have to sign up for a free A/C but it's a handy tool. From there you can see the peaks more easily. The reason I said unopened is because I think if you view the log with something like Notepad first it alters it very slightly and Tunezilla's tool might not recognise it.

You need this part. Part number is K565955425B 5B01 Wiper Blade. At SKoda Dealers £27.12 its slightly more expensive than Halfords £9.89 for the one that doesn't fit! I had exactly the same problem with my 2023 Sportline and Halfords only had the wrong type listed - its just the end of the catch thats the wrong size.

I got a replacement for my 2024 karoq, it was the A335H

Travs, You are legend. Really appreciate the swift response. R

100k on discs and pads is bonkers. Good going!

AFAIK Auto Hold requires an EPB, which no Mk3 has.

What you describe is 'hill hold' which holds for a few seconds after removing your foot from the brake pedal, auto hold is different and keeps the foot pedal pressure active for several minutes, if you haven't moved after several minutes the car then changes auto hold to the electronic hand brake.

Isn't Autohold only for a few seconds. To allow your foot to move from the brake to the accelerator ? So my Yeti for example the car will just roll backwards after that few seconds.

OK

Living in France I still use Michelin Sport SP01's, I have gone from 50 profiles to 55 profiles and yes, I think the ride is a little softer but then again French roads are kept in better condition than are uk roads

I have an Octavia 2021. In September 2023 I took it to France for a holiday - as we got down south the Infotainment exhibited the issues mentioned by the OP and it remained unusable for the duration of our 2 week trip. 2 days after returning to the UK it reverted to normal behaviour. I contacted my dealer who said they could not diagnose if the system was now working. In 2024 I again travelled to France and exactly the same issue occurred - curiously at exactly the same place (a service station the Aire de Boismande). On my return to the UK the car again began working normally. I insisted the dealer diagnose the issue and they told me a software update was needed, not covered by warranty. I paid up and considered the situation resolved. In 2025 I again travelled to France - this time to the south-east. You guessed it, just outside of Valence, the same issue recurred and the infotainment system remained unusable until my return to the UK, when it began operating normally again. I contacted my dealer and - interestingly - was told "This is a known issue associated with a country code problem. The system functions as expected. There are no instructions from Skoda on how to fix it. Please contact them directly." To cut a long story short, I have spoken with Skoda UK - they have asked me to book the car into a dealer (which I have done) and they 'will send instructions to the dealer on how to resolve the issue'. I have asked them to tell me what the fix is, but they have so far responded with 'this is not customer-facing information'. The car is booked in for October 21st - I shall keep you posted on the outcome. :-)

I think the OP may have made a typo in his post?

As above, is it a 2013 mk3 or a 2003 mk1? There’s… a lot.. of differences 🤔

A 2003 car is a mk 1 and won't have a Bolero.

Indeed🙁

Get a set of small Torx screwdrivers for the fiddly screws. If you are systematic it's easy. Also, make sure that the SD card reader is seated correctly in the PCB before putting everything back together.

Hi, Not today but last week. And not me, but someone else generously let me a nice dent on my passenger door! 😑 "Fortunaltely", paint doesn't seem to be cracked. A professional dent remover should fix this easily, I guess. But still time and money consuming... Anyway, as I had in mind to have the tail gate repainted, to get rid of 2 scratches awfully smeared with a touch up pen by the previous owner, I'll do it a bit sooner than expected... Work is booked for early November. I'll also have a bodywork treatment done at the same time.

The Superb had it's first MOT today, all good except a nail was found in the rear tyre which is shown as an 'advisory', luckily it was in a repairable area so they fixed it before I picked it up.

I'd say the digitizer from past experience, random radio channel changes and self dialing calls also pop up, more so when its cold I found when mine died. Its a cheap DIY fix in about an hour with a set of Torx screwdrivers and a new digitiser from ebay. https://ebay.us/m/xD9PVC this video is for an infotainment unit with a CD player but the process is the same, just make sure everything is seated correctly, I accidentally dislodged one of the SD card readers and had to disassemble it all again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZAVyxZF8IM&t=3s

Have you tried looking for your car at Emden? You will need to zoom in a bit. 🙂 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Port+of+Emden/@53.3451354,7.1681393,3041m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x47b6374fcb0136a7:0x529aa28e057a42c9!8m2!3d53.3355556!4d7.1836111!16s%2Fg%2F1229cmsd?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDkyNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D Thanks. AG Falco

So I had a T belt change recently....at 310,000km. I'm pretty sure it was the original. Looked reasonable still but no idea if the idlers were a bit done. Seemed like a good thing to do at that mileage. I reckon 300K is a good run. Bearing in mind my Landcruiser has a 150K interval.

Generally these are 'all show and no go', or an old classic 'Peco, does not performance make'...

@IslandDweller Google Maps used to be the same - The turn instructions appeared in the drivers display with Android but not with Apple. Google Maps has been updated recently for Apple so that it displays the turn instructions in the drivers display (and heads up display) in the same way that it does for Android. Hopefully WAZE will get around to updating theirs too. I do prefer the built in maps because of the map display between the dials.

Do you have screenwash in the washer bottle and does the water in the boot smell or taste of it? If so then that could be the cause if you have a split hose or similar within the rear hatch.

The Firmware & Dataset i have

So...the car was detailed almost two weeks ago, and the guy did an amazing job of getting into the areas that I thought I'd done a good job of; the stitching in the creases in the seats are immaculate now, and the steering wheel was matte again (there's a lot more to it, but we all love the instant visual improvements!). I've managed to pile on almost another 1k miles on it since then and the wheel's started to go a little shiny again, but he told me to use Koch Chemie Pol Star (which he used) to keep it clean and looking matte. He spent a good 5-6 hours on it, deep cleaning everywhere he could get access to, finishing off with an air deodoriser/neutraliser machine (not ozone), which did leave a pleasant smell, and as informed, has faded to neutral. The cigarette smell is now almost non-existent, but it has started to come back ever, ever, ever so slightly with the sun on the interior; I can still smell it if I stick my nose on the steering wheel, and there's a focussed bit on the driver's seat, somewhere around my left shoulder, which I pick up when I look to the left, but it is sooooo much better, and I'm sure with a few more basic cleans by myself I'll get rid of it completely. I think if I can find a leather cleaner/protector which has a bit of scent it'll be gone completely, because it only seems to be in these small areas now. On a different note, the Pirelli SF3 are a dream in comparison the Runway ditch-finders; we headed down to the south coast last weekend for a bit of sea kayaking but it was far too choppy to get them off the roof all weekend (that was a downer, especially with the hit to MPG!), but the SF3 gripped like poop to a blanket in the heavy downpours and strong winds we encountered. Mrs Cubbington even commented how much safer the car felt to drive, and she'd hardly spent any time behind the wheel until then...she also really likes having her own user profile automatically moving the seat and mirrors into her driving position 😁 Also tipped over 5k miles yesterday since picking up just over 8 weeks ago - it only did 3k miles last year, and 5k the year before, so it'll be funny to see the spike on the MOT certificate in 10 months' time...I'll have more than likely doubled it's 43k (when I bought it) mileage in a year 😂

Kinda liked the wheel so stuck one in my mk2 fabia as well 😂

Hey all, First time posting here, I’m picking up a 2003 mk3 Octavia soon with the bolero head unit but would really like to get Apple car play. I’ve seen loads of Android units but I’m a fan of keeping thinks as OEM as possible. Is there a “best” way to equip Apple car play on the Bolero head unit? Would I be best to upgrade to another OEM unit? I’ve use the Apple Car Play modules in the past that are like a match box that you stuff behind the head unit and uses the AUX channel. Sorry if this has been covered before but I can’t see an obvious way to do this with being new to Skoda. Thanks! :)