Colin170CR

That price is more than strong!! 🫨 I filled up with Tesco 99RON Momentum last week & I think it was £1.47p/litre. I haven't used a BP station since my local one was involved in a bank / credit card PIN number scam. A camera in the ceiling above the card machine was reading people's PIN's as they paid for their fuel & purchases at the till. Money was being taken out of their accounts or used to pay for items elsewhere in the world. First I heard about it was when my bank rank me & asked if was currently in India? I wasn't so they had picked up the suspicious transactions. Not saying BP were knowledgeable as it was probably the staff acting alone but the damage was done I far as I was concerned. I didn't lose any money because my bank covered the amounts withdrawn. That was 20+ years ago. Haven't used or visited a BP since.

MoT due on my 280 next Monday.🤞 Should be OK. Only a few thousand miles since the last one. I'll do the usual checks this weekend but not expecting any surprises.

Ouch.

Slow loss of coolant is probably water pump leaking. It's a common fault on this engine. My low coolant level light came on a few years ago. I topped it up & it took another 4 months to trigger the alarm again. I looked but couldn't see or find a coolant leak anywhere. I had it checked over when it went in for it's annual service at my local independent VAG specialist & they confirmed it had a leak so it was a new water pump, seal & other bits to sort the problem. Not a cheap repair either. Main dealers charge over £1,000. I think mine cost around £750. Be prepared for a big bill!!

Our Zappi has an an EV ultra extra tuff cable which has extra coms cables inside for CT's with the main conductor cables. However, after having problems with WiFi signal & dropouts I've connected my Zappi charger, Eddi (solar diverter) & Solar Inverter/battery system direct to my router via a separate CAT6 ethernet cable & 4-way plug & play ethernet switch. I ran a cable from the router through the front porch in some mini trunking & into my attached garage to the ethernet switch. Then wired up each device back to the switch. Made off & crimped all the RJ45 connectors by hand myself so the cable runs are nice & neat with hardly any slack coiled up anywhere. Works a treat & so much more reliable than Wifi. Also future proof if I want to change my router / broadband supplier in the future in that no reprogramming of passwords will be needed for any of the directly connected devices.

I can't advise on the Elroq per se as we don't have one. However, my 2p worth is of the two, Elroq & EX30, I would go for the Elroq. The EX30 doesn't have a driver display or any buttons because everything is on or in the central tablet screen thingy, ala Tesla's. The boot & rear legroom are much smaller than the Elroq as well. As for tariffs & home charging, my wife has a Hyundai Kona 64kWh (our 1st EV) which we charge at home overnight on a Zappi charger & Octopus Intelligent Go tariff. 25p/kWh during the day (don't use much as we have solar & batteries) & 7p/kWh overnight from 11.30pm till 5.30am plus cheap rate offers outside of the cheap rate times as & when advised. We hammer the overnight cheap rate tariff charging the car as needed to 80%, charging the LFP house batteries to 100% (20kWh) & running any appliances that can be delay timed to come on overnight. The granny charger "should" come with the car. Same for the main type 2 charging cable. Our Kona came with both cables but we've not used either because our Zappi came with a tethered cable attached to it. And yes you will have to pay extra for the charger which must be installed by a qualified electrician. You may also have to have your main house fuse upgraded to take the extra kW / amp drawn through the mains cable. We had to have a bigger 80amp main fuse installed by our DNO. However, check with Skoda as to what cables come with the car as standard. Note that you will not be able to access any special EV tariffs unless you have a proper 7.4kW home charger / wall box. A granny charger can only charge at 3kW on it's 3 pin plug (not recommended & cannot be used on an extension lead either) so will take twice as long to charge any car than a proper wall box charger. e.g. A 48kW car battery would take 16hrs to charge from 0-100% with a 3kW granny charger (longer than any cheap overnight tariffs) vs 6.4hrs on a 7.4kW wall box charger. We tend to charge our Kona to 80% overnight when it gets down to 20-30% of charge so it can easily be charged in the cheap rate 6hr window. Never yet had to charge it to 100% for any longer journeys. Check the Octopus website for your address / area to see what cars & chargers are compatible with their EV Intelligent Go tariff & what the prices are. My understanding is that as long as the charger is compatible you are good to go even if the car isn't. In our case the Zappi & Kona are both compatible with the Octopus system which takes over control of the car charging when it's plugged in at home. We haven't used a public car charger in nearly 3 years of ownership as the Kona can easily do 280+ miles on a full charge. TBH I would throw up at the thought of having to pay 70p/kWh or more at a public charger when I only pay 7p when charging overnight at home!! If we plan to go on a trip that's longer than the Kona can manage or there's no "cheap" destination charging available, we'll take my Superb which has far more space for luggage anyway. As an aside, we are looking to change my wife's Kona soon & are waiting for the new Skoda Epiq to break cover. Smaller & cheaper than the Elroq & similar in size to the Kona we have but with a bigger boot. Almost a "Goldilocks" car for my wife's requirements. If we do it, it will probably be our first ever lease car as well since previously we have always bought used cars. Happy hunting.

Sounds like Admiral were ripping you off at £700 if they were prepared to match the £400 Aviva price. Out of principle I would not have renewed with Admiral. Good price for your age & location. My policy is that any supplier gets just one chance to quote me & give me their best price. Anyone who comes back with a subsequent lower price when told I'm cancelling, I'm not renewing or not accepting their quote, doesn't get my business. It's the only way to keep them on their toes - at least in my mind.

Renewed my insurance a few months ago & to my surprise existing insurer also dropped my premium. Quick check around & quotes were generally lower than previous years. Not sure what is causing this but I ain't going argue!! However, I hit 70 next year which is normally a trigger for higher premiums.

Not too bad. I was expecting you to say more. My AC seems OK at 67k miles & to my knowledge has never been re-gassed or leak tested. 🤞

Dare I ask how much? Obviously not repairable & presumably stone damage?

Good mod. Did mine a year or so ago. Got my new tank from Amazon for similar price. Only snag now is to remind my independant garage that coolant may need changing a bit sooner & more frequently than before. May also need a different coolant water mix.

I smoked for 40+ years in various company & private cars because that's what we did back then. That said , I always had an open driver side window to exhaust the the smoke & the but!. I packed up 10 years ago & I don't miss it one bit. None of my cars had yellow roof linings or cigarette smells & i was on 40 + a day. I couldn't afford to smoke now. 🚬 Government have taxed the hell out of it have lost a load of tax income as a result.

Deffo 2 cars for us at the moment. A mate of mine dropped down to a 1 car household & if they needed a 2nd car for anything he would hire one for a week. Worked out cheaper than keeping a second car on the road for him. Can't see that working for me personally but it's worth consideration.

Yep. Saw one on holiday the other week in Sussex. Boot maybe too small for me plus we already have an EV in the household. 1 x EV & 1 x ICE seems to be the right balance for us - at the moment.

Well that was a bit more than I expected - isn't that always the case🫣 Annual service, oil, oil filter, pollen filter. £150 Brake fluid replacement. £65 Activate Scandi rear lights with DRL's. £30 Replacement rear Anti-Roll bar links x 2 supply & fit. £170 Rear O/S ABS Wheel sensor supply & fit. £154.70 Total incl VAT was £683.64 ☹️ Advisories. NS & OS front lower suspension arm bushes starting to perish. Front discs lipped but pads OK. NS & OS rear suspension coil springs corroded at common fracture point. Tyre tread depth 6mm all round (new tyres last month). Well that's that for another 6,000 miles 🤞. Although the mileage is low for it's age the old girl is now 9 years old (7 years with me) so some of this is to be expected. That said it's still a big bill to budget for. On the plus side the back end feels a lot more stable & does not creek anymore when negotiating speed humps. Looks like the front end will need some attention by the time the next service is due.

Yep. I've been meaning to do this for a long time but without any VAG diagnostic tools I kept forgetting to ask garage to do it when it went in for a service. This time I didn't!!

I say fix it & keep it. I too have been toying with the idea of a car change. Reason - advancing age & mobility issues are drawing me towards a higher riding easier to get in & out of SUV / Crossover. I have noticed that getting in / out of my wife's Kone EV is so much easier than my lower slung Superb. However, like you, the problem is what to replace it with & still be happy with my choice. I don't want to sacrifice too much performance or the large boot I have in my 280 Estate. A PHEV with a decent amount of battery range seemed to be an ideal compromise. However, the only ones with a decent boot space are the size of a Kodiaq which is a bit OTT for what I need. I did look at that new Omoda 9 SHS PHEV with self charging capability, up to 90+ mile range on battery only, large boot, same length as my Superb, good quality interior, 449PS, twin electric motors + 1.5litre turbo engine so 4 x4 as well. Nice looking car & fuel consumption should be miles better than my Superb. However, even bought nearly new or leased it's over the £40k RRP tax threshold (£45k new) &, its insurance group 45!! Plus, it's Chinese made which doesn't sit too well with me. So having talked myself round in a complete circle I have decided to stick with my 2016 280 L&K Estate. It's just turned 65k miles & is the classic sleeper / Q car which is so hard to replace, even if I do struggle a bit to get in & out of it!!

Looks like mine is the same. Car went into garage this morning who called me this afternoon to tell be about the ABS sensor also, perished rear anti roll bar bushes & need for a brake fluid change. I also asked them to turn on the Scandinavian Lights feature (rear side lights on all the time with front DRL's). I will pick it up tomorrow & find out the damage 🫣

Car booked in for Weds this week. Service & warning lights. Hoping it's just something minor like an ABS sensor.

No I don't have a scanner. The battery should have been fully charged after a 171 mile run today. However, some of it was stop start on the A3 with the SS system kicking in continuously but the last 50+ miles were 50-60mph continuous with the AC on so nothing unusual. The car is due for it's annual service next month at my usual independent VAG garage which I could bring forward. Might be my only option if the errors persist.

Well it has been quite warm of late & checking my records I had the battery replaced & coded in March 2021 which makes it just over 4 years old.

So, we are driving back from holiday & are 2 miles from home when my dashboard lights up with a bunch of warnings!! ABS, ESC & TPM (flashing)🤔 Carried on driving until we got home. Turned off engine, locked car, unlocked car & re-started & drove down the road warning lights still on & stayed on. Returned to house & repeated the on-off routine, took picture below & still no joy. Any suggestions would be welcome. There has to be a common link here?

Been there done that. In fact it was 2 years after I bought my Superb (2nd hand) that I realised I had a virtual pedal. Wondered why the boot kept closing for no apparent reason when I was loading shopping in & out of the boot.🤣

TBH as I get older & my mobility deteriorates the easier entry & exit provided by higher SUV's / crossovers is becoming more & more appealing. I drive my wifes Kona EV a fair bit when we are out together & I notice how much lower my Superb is when I get in it. You step up & down to get in & out of the Kona whereas the Superb it's a step down to get in & a pull / push up to get out & is definitely more difficult as I get older. This would probably be the main reason for changing my Superb for something else. What that is I have no idea as I haven't given it too much thought. However, the more aches & pains I get makes me wonder whether I should start considering a change at some point.🤔

Somehow, long term privately owned & run cars become part of the family & it's hard to part company with them. Mine is 9 years old (7 with me) & has 60,000 miles on the clock. Unless I win the lottery I cannot see me parting with it anytime soon. Even then I'm not sure what I would get as a replacement?