Colin170CR

In the absence of a small Skoda EV (the Enyaq is too big & no Fabia EV in the pipeline) I have been looking at Corsa-e, E-208, Zoe & others. That new Mokka got a rave review from Fully charged & I do like the look of it. However, once again it is too expensive in EV form. I would have to wait for a used / nearly new 1.2 130bhp auto to become available for less than £20k. I have a real problem buying cars that cost more than my first house!! Even better, I could have a larger ICE Kamiq or better still a Cupra Formentor 1.5 - when used models become available. Plenty of Kamiq's available but they are a tad too large as is the Formentor but it does look good. My wait goes on.

Many old Saab owners now drive Skoda Superbs & Octavia's. I've never had a Saab. Not because I don't like them but they've just never come onto my radar. As for the Superb, I'm now on my 2nd estate. 1st one was a S2 170 diesel estate auto & bought to keep run costs down (easy 68mpg) when I was doing high business mileage. Now I'm not doing high mileage I have a S3 280 L&K which is a great car - space, pace & luxury all in one package. The ultimate sleeper IMO. The 4 x 4 system on the 280 / 272 is needed to handle power without which the front tyres would be shredded in no time. Even my old 170 diesel could spin front tyres quite easily. My current 280 has had a Stg 1 re-map so is now packing circa 360hp which is more than enough extra ooomph for me. If you want a machine to get you up to speed on a motorway slip road in a hurry this is the one to have.

Due to Covid, lockdown & work from home directive most people's average private vehicle mileage is definitely much lower than normal. My wife has only filled up her car with fuel once since March 2020!! Today I had to wait for tyres to be sourced from elsewhere for my wife's Fiat 500. The 500 has not got any special size tyres but none of the local tyre fitting centres seemed to have any suitable size tyres in stock which was a problem cos it has an MOT booked for Friday. Normally I would buy a mid range price tyre but nothing doing, nobody had any stock. In the end the only tyres I could get today were Pirelli's & the tyre fitter had to drive 50 miles to get them! Because I was buying 4 tyres, & I wouldn't normally have had Pirelli's, I managed to get a discount. They also threw in free tyre puncture / replacement insurance for 12 months, free wheel alignment on the 500 & 8 free alignment checks (over 2 years) for my car as well. All in the cost for 4 tyres including fitting was £380. It was fairly obvious that they didn't want to loose my business by not having the tyres I wanted so sweetened the deal to stop me going elsewhere. Whether the tyre availability issue was due to covid or not I don't know but reduced mileage is affecting tyre sales, fuel sales & many other automotive related businesses. Even insurance companies are offering cashback on their car premiums if you don't do your normal amount of annual mileage.

Tut Tut. Must admit the most I've done is in the last few months is an 8 mile round trip to the nearest Tesco to click / collect groceries every other Friday. Hardly the stuff of dreams. I think I've filled up twice since March 2020!

So how does the traffic get through the high street? Surely not a diversion around the back of the square which would never take the size of the lorries that come through there. Rush hour through Olney is not good at the best of times so right now must a complete nightmare.

Ouch. Even though inconvenient I guess the car work is under warranty so no financial hit? Not so lucky with the house / puncture unless you're claiming under insurance. Snap with the puncture. I was changing wheels & replacing a tyre on my wife's car after she picked up a nail on Sunday. First time she has driven the car in over 3 months!

Think I prefer those wheels. Was the plate expensive? Olney Square is looking strangely quiet. Normally rammed most days I've been.

I quite like the black wheels. Mines Black Magic which gives me an idea of perhaps re-finishing my stock Phoenix alloys in black at some point to match the black paint.

Just like a Top Gear James May thingy

It's true. The 280 is back. Below is from the UK site configurator. Only snag is that the L&K isn't what it used to be. I specced the current L&K to match mine & your looking at a £43k car now.

43,000 miles since Dec 2016 & 2 x MOT tests & my DCC is fine (touch wood). Not sure what the expected lifespan of any shock is but it will depend on age & usage. Like the previous poster I have never replaced a shock an any car that has failed before. The only replacements I have ever done previously were for better control of the suspension. Traffic calming speed bumps will reduce the life of all the suspension parts so I take these at very low speeds. My DCC is set to sport mode most of the time. I only change it to Normal or Comfort settings if the wife is in the car or if I have other passengers. If my shocks did fail I would consider replacing them with the new OEM compatible Bilstein made adjustable shocks or similar.

That sounds like a bit of a mare...I think I'll be looking at engine specific Racingline, Revo & others induction kits to avoid the agro you had.

Which make of Turbo inlet pipe & elbow did you go for & where from? I'm considering this myself at some point. You may need some mud flaps for those spaced out wheels to help protect the body from road grime. Looks like 15mm is about the max spacer width the wheel arch can accommodate.

Diamond cut alloys have tiny concentric lathe tool marks on the face of the wheel. I've seen a few YT videos of guys re-finishing diamond cut alloys where they basically polish out the curb marks & the diamond cut marks & turn the wheel into a smooth finish instead of a diamond cut finish which is what I guess you are doing.

Humm. Let's see some more pics when you've finished.

Aren't those L&K wheels diamond cut? How are your re-finishing them? I've got 4 that need doing as well but will need to have done at a specialist @£83 each corner! I see your wheel emblems are still looking OK. I'm on my 2nd set & have switched to plain black (no emblem) ones which hopefully won't corrode as the previous sets did.

Amen to that.

New battery today. After 3 failures to start over the last 9 months & countless re-charge & trickle charge sessions I finally caved & got a new battery. Of course this is no longer a DIY job on a modern car because the car has to be re-coded after fitting the new battery & I do not have any suitable diagnostic tools - why would I? So annoying that even the simplest of jobs on most cars are now beyond the competent DIYER. After searching around I finally decided to go with Kwik Fit who charged £184 fitted & coded & they had a branch less than 1.5 miles from me & did it while I waited. All good. The guy who fitted my battery had to take the car for a run to clear all the residual faults on mine. When he returned he asked what the hell I had done to the car because it was "so $£$%^&% quick". He he. I just love it when the whole sleeper image of this car surprises someone. Made me smile all the way home.

Beginning to think I'm better off with regular rear bulbs - albeit converted to LED fittings.

After wasting time & money on a set of cheap replacement silver on black Skoda wheel emblems last year which have now corroded, I replaced them with these gloss black ones today - nothing to tarnish or corrode this time (hopefully). They fitted with a satisfying "click" & sit a bit further in on the wheel centre than the old ones. They look OK on the std L&K wheels. £9 on Amazon. Not so good yesterday was a flat battery. After driving 15 miles to take the wife for her 1st Covid jab I waited for her outside for 25 mins listening to the radio. After she returned the battery did not have enough juice to restart when it was time to leave. A good battery should be able to run a radio for more than 25 mins without any any restarting problems. This is the 3rd time over the last year the battery has failed to start the car & has confirmed that it's way out & not capable of holding a charge. Having learnt from my previous experiences I did have a battery jump start kit on board which got the car started & got us home. I guess I now need to hunt for a new battery & fitting service so the car can be re-coded after fitting. Apparently fitting a battery is not a DIY item any longer . I was going to look at using Halfords mobile fitting service (£184 all in) however, it seems it is not available in my area (Milton Keynes) at the moment so I need to find some other options. Has anyone got any suggestions? RAC looks a bit pricey at £215 so if anyone has any other suggestions (other than main dealer) I would be grateful.

Couple of turns of black electrical tape to take up the slack should do it if needed. Where are you getting them from? I have to replace my wheel centres again as the cheapy ones I got last year have corroded already.

Pretty good looking. Will Skoda wheel centres fit?

My doors are worth more than your two 2cents.

After washing & waxing the car yesterday, today I removed the snow baffle from air filter intake. I'll see how it goes & if there is no appreciable difference it may get re-installed. I also fitted some door edge protection stripping to all four doors. My car is black so this black rubber edge stripping blends in quite well. The pics below are not mine but give you an idea. Careful cutting is needed not to expose the internal metal U clips which could go rusty. Other than that it was a doddle to put on. It should protect the doors from over enthusiastic passengers but sadly not from other car doors!

Fuel Evap Canister replacement was the answer in my case. I had to do this on my 280 cestate last year. No fuel leaking out but a strong smell of petrol at the rear of the car - especially on warm days. Mine was out of warranty so if memory serves I had to cough up around £85 (parts & labour) & it is a known problem on many VAG models that use the same fuel system components (Passat, Octavia, Seat & some Audi models I think). The fuel canister itself was on back order at the time I took mine in which indicated that it was in high demand. I had it done at the same time as a Revo Stg 1 remap which went someway to softening the blow.