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Part two. Having rejected the Haval we waited for 1/4 hour and were presented with a Toyota Corolla Cross, these are probably, along with the Toyota's mentioned earlier by Gaz, one of the most common everyday cars you see on the roads of South Africa. Over the two weeks we were there we covered a little under 2000 miles, the car itself was ok but I'm not a fan of the CVT gearbox, it's like driving a car with the clutch constantly slipping every time you accelerate, ear defenders should be standard! Here's the Toyota with the Haval in the background.

That's exactly what it was. Never seen one before but quite a few in South Africa. You don't leave anything on view in South Africa due to smash & grab so a careful 10 minutes was spent fitting everything in the boot, we jumped in, started the car and waited for the usual warning lights to go out, which they never did!. Had a word with the guy on the desk who said it will be fine and don't worry about it but I wasn't having any of that so rejected the car, you don't want to breakdown especially in South Africa.

The Landcruiser can be seen everywhere in South Africa, quite often in 'sand' colour, and we did get a ride in one while being transported around a wine estate. As the saying goes: "If you want to go into the bush take a Land Rover. If you want to get out of the bush, take a Land Cruiser".

I think it was a case of RTFOM , went into infotainment system and found the adjustment was set to car with 5 people and the boot full , set it to correct adjustment and voila perfect lights. Happy days.

The early Mk4s are a mixed bunch. Many teething issues fixed through s/ware updates and some h/ware replacements - all electronic components. A shame that covid shortages and perceived rush to market back in 2020 got in the way of an otherwise very good car. If the fixes are applied (Škoda shied away from what I would call a proper recall programme), they ARE a very good car, as my 5yo 1.5 TSI is proving to be. And yes, Petrol Blue is the best colour for the estate.

Toyota Landcruiser? 😄

Apologies for the thread revival! The car started to nag with a "Inspection now!" message, so decided given its about half a year since the last oil change to just do so. As it was Black Friday last week, the usual barrage of emails arrived of discounts of various sorts, and one stood out enough that I decided why not: A 2000kg capacity tilting car lift. From SGS, although CJ Autos is the other one who normally sells this sort of thing. At £450, I thought it was worth a punt. Not going to add it to the running costs as its a more general use tool. I've had my eye on one of these for a while, although ironically the cars I would want to use them on, like the Elise, don't really work with it. Also turns out that even though its about 15cm lowered, it's still not able to clear some of the cars we have. Once the wider extensions were fitted as per the pic above, slid the thing under Skoda to see if it lines up to the sills: Normally, I'd be worried about this sort of thing for the sills, but for whatever reason decided the hell with it, and got one of my cordless drills and started: It kinda worked, and I basically lifted it up enough to get under (with a jack under some area of the subframe in case!) and start an oil change. I bought 20l (4x5l) of Mannol 504 507 oil for £78.85 so should be good for maybe 3 oil changes, maybe 4. With a couple more oil filters, my usual Mann branded ones, for £21.83 for the pair. Turns out the VCDS doesn't reset that inspection one amusingly, and it looks like you can just use the dashboard trip meter button to reset it. Looks like I've committed to twice yearly oil changes, which is probably no bad thing. As for the lift: It's a little on the large side, so I really need to tidy up the garage before I find out whether it may or may not make my life easier, but I imagine once I lift up the Skoda and tilted it forwards, it would potentially provide amazing arounds of room to work on the rear, which would be fantastic should I brave renewing all the rear suspension and bodywork area. I'm hoping with fashioning some sort of ramps or whatnot that it can lift some of the other cars and with all four wheels off the ground, would make wheel changes and brake jobs a whole lot simpler. Probably nowt more until the Spring, so Merry Christmas everyone! Maintenance: £3086.43 (+£100.68) Upgrades: £4617.27 Miscellaneous: £827.47

I agree. My September 2020 car, which I bought in March ‘21 with 2500 miles on it (ex demo), was back with dealer to fix issues on the conversion from km to miles and LHD to RHD problem with the ACC. Was with them for five months during which time I had a loan car and was tempted to reject my own. Only the fantastic rapport with my dealer saved the day; and 65k miles later I am very pleased I still have it. One of the best cars I’ve had - roomy, comfortable, huge luggage space, fabulous fuel economy and it looks good too.

Speaking from my own experience and FWIW, I think it's unfair to generalize the MK4's reliability issues. I would argue 4.5 being a 'very different' animal, or the 4.0 being 'dreadful'. My '22 build (MY23) 4.0 has been a great car, no infotainment glitches, in fact nothing other than an occasional bulb failure warning which is entirely due to a slight drop in 12v battery voltage, not a blown bulb. If anything, either the batteries or the alternators could have been a bit beefier for these cars and I see no evidence of that being different with the 4.5. Notwithstanding the teething problems some owners experienced with the 2020/21 builds, I rate this car as one of the smoothest and nicest driving cars I've owned.

Evening all, I pick up my Velvet red VRS estate in one weeks time, - can’t wait! 🙂

The mark4 and to be honest most VAG products of the same time seemed to be plagued with software issues. I’d imagine any car you’d buy now that has had all the updates would be ok. However the 4.5 is a big step forward in many areas and seems to be pretty right from an infotainment perspective out of the box. Modern cars for good or bad are largely software defined vehicles so this is a very important point.

Sound like Rex's rent a wreck! 🤣

I'm sure you've seen it. But, Richard's yellow MK1 is now for sale. A lot of time and effort put in to ask strong money. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1634192436827448/ £3750 2003 Škoda Octavia · Hatchback · Driven 117,000 kilometres 2003 skoda Octavia vrs 117000 miles, Lots of history an receipts Some service history, Forge Front mount intercooler, Various Polybushes including the dogleg, Spax full adjustable coilovers not that old, Rear arb Strut brace Deletes done,ie 249 and Sai Replaced starter motor, Replace steering wheel, New alternator to battery fuse box loom, Decat-2.5 inch pipe with 1 back box not overly loud, sounds nice, Stage one Re-map, New Ramair cone filter/with Neuspeed heat shield New engine bay fuel pipes Engine dress up, Boost gauge, amp gauge, Double din stereo, Cambelt water pump @ 115500 March 25 Cam cover gasket, changed June 25 Power steering fluid changed june25 Fuel filter+pollen filter+new plugs,June 25 oil + filter changed May 25 Both sills repaired professionally , April 25, New power steering pump, oct 25 Recon steering rack, oct 25 New battery Oct 25 Private Plate included Mot till May 2026, Any more info pls pm

Agree with @SteveTheElder that they were a bit of a mixed bunch, looking through the forums it appears to me that there were more issues with UK market cars than anywhere else for some reason. I know they are slightly different spec to the cars we get down at this end of the world, though a lot of the electronics are shared. Might just be perception vs reality though.... FWIW my vRS was new in early 2021 and apart from the occasional glitch with infotainment, usually something like a parking sensor warning that always goes away on restart it has been trouble free and a lovely car all round. I guess some glitching is to be expected as there are so many computers/modules that all have to talk to each other at some stage you're going to get a 'computer says no' situation. This is not exclusive to Skoda or VAG cars either to be fair, seems nearly all late model cars have the odd problem, just the nature of the beast IMO, just like every now and again your PC or phone will do something weird, but nearly always solved by turning it off and on again. I was watching Top Guns: Inside the RAF on TV last night and they had a situation where two Typhoons were scrambled to intercept some Russian planes straying to close to NATO airspace, and one of the Typhoons wouldn't power up, so the pilot had to leave it and use a spare jet. The RAF mechanics ended up resetting what they called a "flying computer" after the glitch which was an altitude mode dropout (fairly serious!), resolving the issue by simply "turning it off and on again". And this is a circa 100 million GBP aircraft.....

Perfect! Great result FWIW don't feel bad, there's a lot to learn on these cars after coming from something slightly more analogue! Took me ages to find all the different settings and adjustments etc., and I probably still haven't found everything! The other day I found that the option of pressing and holding the button on the remote no longer lowered all the windows, even though the setting was on in the infotainment. Bit of a head scratcher, until I discovered that at some stage someone (maybe me) had held one of the window switches up or down too long which had reset the automatic feature on the windows, so not only did the remote not work but the 'hit the switch once' to wind the windows up automatically didn't work either. Simply reset by winding windows all the way up and holding the button for 3 seconds, and then all the way down and holding for 3 seconds - now everything works as it should again. 'Simply clever' - too clever for it's own good sometimes.... 🤣😂

Eat a loooot! So you can save on media for the blaster 😁

That's a Chinese Great Wall Haval H6...

The OBDEleven https://obdeleven.com/skoda seems quite powerful. Thanks

Hyundai Tucson?

The hire company we use is called Holiday Autos and from there we chose one from Europcar, car booked was 5 seat SUV medium size type. Almost there............

Probably even better, meanings of the startup time. Mine takes about 20 sec. Still getting updates (install according app to your phone).

You need to supply more base info - Hire company and size class of vehicle booked.

It's the latest software update, version 1989. There are mixed feelings regards applying the update, as some owners have experienced issues afterwards. There's at least one thread in this forum with lots of replies and information regarding this, take a look for a thread with 1989 in the title

Prices are before VAT, RRP at Skoda.

Hyundai i30? 😁 Edit: But on a slightly more serious note, one of the Toyota Yaris sized crossovers - Starlet Cross or Urban Cruiser (just looked up its name).

My blue bear, fresh from its ceramic coating, and thanks to the kind and fortuitous assistance of a driver who, while waiting for someone, pointed its low beam on my Kodiaq 😁: https://i.ibb.co/SDPYV6nz/IMG-1033.avif https://i.ibb.co/dsvYVfTB/IMG-1034.avif https://i.ibb.co/4gN7KHmx/IMG-1036.avif

Just get eating walnuts now! That google search I posted mentioned carbon build-up and another poster mentioned it as likely earlier too. Direct injection is the main issue but behaviour can cause it too - short journeys, for example. No harm in changing the plugs and coils anyway. And when changing the coils, to get the electric plug off, fingers behind, pull forward, push tag up with thumb. I’ve wrecked one trying to understand and the above method is super simple.

That's true

I think you have kind of answered your own question here. You need to do a LONG LONG run. A 10 min journey with a TDI is like death to it. It won't survive. Take the car on a minimum 100 mile journey - develop a heavy right foot and give the car some BEANS. (check the oil/coolant before you head off though). Plenty of foot flat to the floor. I also suggest filling up the car with some super diesel if possible. The engine needs to get frantically HOT and for a period of minimum of 20-30 mins for a full regen. A long journey at least once a week will help save your Scout. P.S. don't do a DPF delete. In most countries, it's not allowed and causes problems passing state testing/MOT testing etc

I think he is referring to what we would call dynamic or sweeping indicators?

@BabyDog Re your comment on the DVSA and not hesitating, kicking up a stink etc. Well that must be something very recent because they have spent years ignoring Drivers / Owners conserns like the Loss of Drive with DQ200 DSG,s that VW Group said would do a voluntary recall while outwith the EU / UK there was a global recall. Any court decision in England / Wales or in Scotland might well set a president. In Scotland in the past & in England / Wales VW Group would not go to court they settled out of court and had NDA,s signed. They were not prepared to put employees into court as a defence witness, and also have to reveal statistics on failure rates, warranty claims, settlements etc.

I have AAWireless first edition. Works perfectly.

Changed the N82 valve (Febi 171623) and now both pipes are hot, can feel warm air when the coolant temp reaches 40! No fault code from this valve but it must have been broke!

I've been having connection issues lately with the same dongle as @nickytheshaft which used to work faultlessly. I'd checked for updates etc and connection was still flakey. Then I noticed "modes" on my phone (Sony Xperia on Android 16) which I hadn't noticed before a couple of updates ago (it's renamed my former Do Not Disturb settings as Sleeping which is how I found it) anyway in Modes there's a setting called Driving which recognises it's connected to a car's Bluetooth and "priorities safety on the road" I've turned it off and the phone now connects flawlessly again

I just put my headlights in auto and leave the system to do its thing. Brilliant system and one of the most useful features in the car in my opinion. I have it in constant use in the evenings at this time of year and find it helps fatigue on dark roads no end. Maybe try trusting it to do its job for a night or two and see how it goes. From auto, push the stalk forward to go into manual high beam, and then pull back to turn system off completely.

no, but very easy to see oil on dipstick, also is thicker and will stay on it longer to look. no mess and muliple attempts.

The arrow buttons on your steering wheel, right hand side, press left or right to scroll through available dash layouts

Hi, I fear it ain't possible to make the main beam warning light more prominent on a VC, unless having very high level computer skills... SLA is very efficient though, trusting this system sounds more simple...

Auto Lights coming on too early can surely not be an issue if just Dipped Beam. The real issue i see but the driver seems not too is only DRL,s on to the front and no Sidelights / Headlights because they never switched them on or relied on the AUTO Setting. Headlights during daylight / daytime do not annoy drivers / road users or pedestrians do they? DRL.s only in poor light do.

Benja77. Thanks for the information, but seems way beyond my abilities - a pity.

I think the lower (40 & 45) profile tyres with smaller sidewalls don’t flex as much as 50 and 60 profiles so they wear more when cornering. My previous VW did 50,000 miles on its first set of tyres, next set did 35,000. But I don’t expect to get that sort of mileage from the Karoq.

when i check oil, i pull dipstick out, clean it properly with some alcohol and leave it outside engine till next morning, cover the dipstick area with a cloth. than all oil will be at the bottom. in morning only 1st attempt, put it in, wait few seconds and pull out. since stick is not greasy, you will surely see very good line to which is filled.

Manufaturers Warranty & DSG Clutch Plates are covered. Extended / Approved UsedWarranty they are excluded. So 'All in Warranty' requires the reading of the T&C,s SKODA_Warranty_Terms_August 2025.pdf Approved used warranty booklet.pdf

Benja77. That very impressive. I don't suppose it was easy - have you described how you did this. elsewhere on Briskoda and was it costly to do. I wouldn't mind all those features too, as long as they work well. I find most of the 'advanced' features I already have on my Karoq SE Tech work pretty well and have done so for 6.5 years - including the controversial adaptive cruise control - but that's clearly not everyones cup of tea. However, I wouldn't take any of these features 100% for granted, they just remove some of the strain & frustration when driving and provide extra checks.

Between having or not having it, I'd choose having! if I found it distracting I'd simply disable it...

As Mrsecretpotatoe said, Blind Spot Detection is only available as part of the Travel Assist Package Plus option, at £635 incl VAT, and then only on the SportLine trim. Given that it's standard on many other makes and models, this is annoying.

Section 3 is only the dangerous elements they’re required to put on there for H&S. As much as anything, for first responders to review in case they’re called to an incident. That’s why Carnauba isn’t on there - you can get that in foods. There’s quite a mix of hydrocarbons in that - and while they say kerosene is less than 10%, it could make quite a difference; especially with the same broad statements about Xylene, Naphthalene, Octane etc. You could contact Soft99 and see if they suggest anything. Otherwise, bottom line (if you haven’t already as this is way old) - I’d just get some more.

My MY22 Karoq has the copper conductive heated screen as standard on the SE-L. This gives the screen a slight amber tint. A big improvement on the filament wires I think, which I could never un-see.

Yeah, but it has fetched 4k+ on both occasions that it has been auctioned this year. That amazes me, tbh! PS - when do I get put on the register? 😉 And, yes, I mean the WRC one...I've done nothing to warrant inclusion on any other!!