Yogi-Bear

It's a bit late for that! I remember when people were in shock about the original Kodiaq VRS costing over £40k, and that was only a few years ago. Now you can easily spend over £50k on the top spec Kodiaqs or Enyaqs...

That’s really not bad at all… Really…? I took an XC60 out for a few hours and found it cramped in comparison. Can’t say the quality was much better either. Don’t get me wrong, they’re lovely cars to look at and it was nice to drive… I’m just not sure I’d say it was on a level above recent Skodas.

XC60, by any chance? Usual Volvo discount, or are they being a bit mean with everything going on? Don't blame you, by the way...

Ah, fair enough. Didn’t realise that wasn’t standard across the board. But on that topic, I’m convinced the reverse lights on the new one are a lot less bright, or at least illuminate less of the road behind you, than the old one. That’s a bit annoying for me.

What differences are you expecting? UK Škodas only have one fog light - or at least all the ones I’ve ever owned have only had one, including the new one.

I'm sorry, but that's wrong. Your phone will get UTC sent to it and will work out the time based on the time zone you select. It also knows about when to switch to DST and when to switch back based on the time zone you select. If that wasn't the case, I wouldn't get messages like this on my phone when time zone rules change (more often than you'd think). The 'set automatically' option here not only gets the time (from cell or GPS, could be either, could be both), but it also sets the time zone based on location (GPS).

Yes. As an example, let's consider everyone's phones... they self-adjust depending on where they are. The car has an accurate time signal, it also has a timezone, and it knows where it is. It should be able to work it out from there. The downside, as you point out, is exactly which timezone rules to follow as the car does not have a complete list of all timezones (if memory serves me correctly, it is a simple choice of offset from UTC rather than true timezones). However, as I said, the car knows where it is, so it could - in theory - work it out. It really shouldn't be all that difficult. But I would much rather they solved other niggles and issues with the system first, if I'm honest.

The GPS signal will almost certainly be sending UTC time to the car. The timezone setting then translates that to the time displayed in the car. Everything else that I own that has those two pieces of information also knows when to change the displayed time to take into account DST. The car really should also have the same capability. It’s a bit backwards that it doesn’t, and whilst it’s only a twice-yearly 10 second task, it’s still stupid that any manual intervention is required at all.

On both my Kodiaqs (1xMIB2, 1xMIB3), I've had to go into the date/time settings and tick/untick the 'DST' box as appropriate, even with the clock set to GPS...

Ah, I'd completely ignored that. Assumed it was just some dodgy mockup of a number plate - didn't realise that actually meant anything 🤦‍♂️.

Without wanting to delve too far into a philosophical discussion that takes us away from the point... where exactly would you draw the line? At what point does illegality stop being fun and start being serious? For what it's worth, I don't disagree with you (mostly) - spacing on number plates really shouldn't make a difference and it sure as hell won't fool an ANPR camera anyway. But using crappy cursive fonts or making characters look like something else by way of the number plate bolts or other trickery... that's the line for me.

Why is it illegal? XX00 XXX is the proper spacing for current style number plates...

For those still waiting… https://apple.news/AKb6cri69SN2DYm5Uj74IGQ Production restarting tonight on “most of Škoda Auto’s production lines”.

- you will get all 4 wheels !!! That's a relief... - you will also get center wheel caps with new logo FOR FREE !!!" Positively a bargain! To be honest though, I think I prefer the ones I've got... and it would be a lot cheaper to pay for just the centre caps 😁.

At least I used a winky tongue-out smiley to show that I was making a joke! 🙄

I hate to point this out, but all registration numbers are unique... that's kind of the point 😜.

I'm sold - much better without.

None taken - I'm not entirely sold on them either, but unfortunately there was no choice in the matter. The centre caps are part of the aero cover, which also covers the bolts. So although you can take them off... it's pretty obvious you're not supposed to.

I'm going to go "without" - if only for the fact that it took me less than 2 minutes to whip all 4 off the wheels. If I don't leave them off, I'm sure someone else will help themselves at some point. Does mean I need to buy some centre caps though 🙄.

That's like saying they should give all A3s the RS3 bodykit... Absolutely. Didn't set a route on the built-in nav. There is some element of personalisation, but I'm still to figure out exactly what or how. I managed to log in, connect it all up to my Connect account, and it seems to work. I will have to try a second user and see what happens then. As for paying after the first year is up... I may well not do as I much prefer using CarPlay for everything anyway.

Oh, and I should have said this in the first post, but a massive shout-out to Richard @ Heritage Skoda, Gloucester. Very helpful, kept me up to date when there were things to tell me (as per my request), and helped get me a pretty good deal in the first place. Also to Luke for agreeing to up the p/x value on the old car 2 days before collection and to Ross for a smooth handover in Richard's absence. Thanks guys 👍.

Now I've had chance to stop, sleep, and reflect on my first day of ownership... here's the good, the bad, and the ugly so far. The good... It is a very smart looking motor. As much as I think the original Kodiaq still looks good, it just looks 'old' when next to the new one. Maybe it's more the difference between an Edition with chrome everywhere compared to the vRS with black... or maybe it's the more angular appearance. The wife says it looks grumpier than the old one! Although I don't think I've been above about 2.5k rpm yet, the motor is obviously incredibly eager and willing to pull the big thing around at a fair lick if and when I let it. It was noticeably less effort for it going up a couple of the steep hills round here (though I still maintain the 1.4TSI in the Edition was perfectly adequate). The sunroof - going back to black headlining after the light one in the Edition was one of my main concerns... I was worried the feeling of space would be lost. To some extent, it is, but the roof counteracts that brilliantly and even on the grey day it was yesterday, the cabin still felt light and airy. USB-C port by the mirror - perfect for the dash cam. Would be even better if you could have another one on the tailgate for a rear facing camera... Matrix headlights. Just... wow. Seriously, you can see them working and blanking out the lights when there's a car in front or when one comes the other way. Utterly awesome. The bad... Need to see what happens with directions from the built-in nav on the virtual cockpit, but direction arrows from CarPlay are... inconsistent. They're correct in most scenarios, but when on a motorway and approaching your exit, the arrow is telling you to 'bear right' rather than left. The arrow on the main infotainment screen (i.e. on the CarPlay screen) is correct, so something is getting lost in translation. The driving mode now resets completely to 'normal' every time you start the engine. On the Edition, the mode would stay set but the gearbox would always be in normal (even if the mode was sport or eco). That's actually very annoying already. The ugly... I had a few issues with getting my Skoda Connect account linked to the car, but it was relatively painless (and I had issues at times with the MIB2 in the Edition). The MIB3 is mostly the same, but there are a few differences that are annoying. Haven't used the nav or much of anything else as I use CarPlay - but from glancing at the nav stuff briefly it just doesn't look as user friendly as the MIB2 nav. Maybe it's just because it's different rather than worse, time will tell. The sound generator. Just no. It's a loud, annoying buzz. Fortunately you can control it - including turning it off - in the 'Individual' drive mode. Otherwise I would have to be finding it and cutting the wires. Never had a problem with the one on my Octavia vRS, but this one just sounds ridiculous. DCC - if I'd paid for it as an option, I'd be disappointed. Comfort is like a cruise ship rolling around on rough seas, Normal is well, perfectly fine. Maybe Sport will be useful once I start to explore more of the engine's "characteristics" later on... 😜. Apparently on the Enyaq it's different and there is a slider so you can tune it to your perfect setting rather than having three presets. Would be nice if that could be 'retrofitted' through an OTA update, but I don't see it happening.

Conti Sport Contact 5.

Definitely "Marmite Wheels". I'm still bouncing between 'naff' and 'cool'. May try to take the aero covers off and see what they're like without at some point.