Colin170CR

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.

And re-program your cruise control so you are 2mm away from the car in front..

Steady on or this thread could go down the toilet real fast......

What's behind you does not matter - unless it's the rozzers ! Personally I have to have clean / clear glass all round & estates are the worst for having dirty rear ends

Mine's a keeper as well - at least that's the plan for now. A stg 1 360hp remap certainly spices things up & is very addictive. Like you say, it's a wolf in sheep's clothing & gets you up to the legal limit in the blink of an eye.

Looks good. Enjoy.

Interesting. The first one sounds good but is far too fruity for me &, as you say, the 2nd one has fit & finish issues. The local plod would hear you coming with either which takes me back to my boy racer years when I used to get regularly stopped by police in a very loud Vauxhall Viva GT 2.0ltr with stg 2 head & cam, tubular exhaust header leading to twin straight through Thrush side pipes - 2 cylinders into each pipe! Those days are over so I want my 280 to be visually as stock as possible so that means keeping the std tailpipes. I might play with the exhaust flaps (code them open permanently) & see if that gives just a bit more of a rumble at low revs. Work in progress.

Very noticable. The extra 80bhp & 130nm over stock is more than my wife's car has in total . The extra torque in D means it doesn't always have to drop a cog or two when pressing on. The extra muscle just launches the car up the road. I find myself using D mode more than I used to. S mode to get on / off roundabouts & onto motorway slip roads but D most of the time & make use of the extra torque. I don't use the paddle shifters or manual tiptronic much either. I have experimented with Eco mode & coasting but I gave up with that as I'm used to the engine braking effect to slow the car down. I often knock it into S when approaching lights & roundabout to get more engine braking effect. Being on Jersey there can't be many roads where you can exploit the full potential of the 280 can there? I tend not to drive at high speeds, just quicker to get up to the target speed. Mpg has stayed about the same. That said, due to lockdown, I haven't done any long runs in it since it was remapped. Currently it's averaging 25mpg (short local runs) & the best I've seen while I was working & commuting 80 miles per day was 36-38mpg. I am considering intake / filter changes & perhaps a mid silencer delete (for a bit of extra rumble) but I will keep the stock tail pipes to keep its appearance standard. It would be interesting to hear what yours is like after your planned mods.

Used for me. The savings are huge. The only snag with buying used is getting the right car with the right options & preferred colour. I bought my 16 reg L&K 280 estate at 2.5years old & 24k miles. It was less than half the price of a new model. The only options it didn't have that I would have liked were, variable boot floor, reversing camera & sun roof. On the other hand it has a few std fit options I could easily live without e.g. park assist. Mine is black & wouldn't have been my first choice as it's a pain to keep clean. That said it does look good when it is clean. If all goes to plan I will be keeping mine for at least 10 years. I kept my last S2 Superb Elegance TDi 170 for 8 years before I traded it in with 170k on the clock for the 280. Buying used takes a lot more time & work to find the right car - especially if you are a bit picky about what options you want. However, the savings are worth it as someone else takes the 1st big depreciation hit.

Same here. Stg 1 Revo remap done in June last year with 360bhp & circa 480nm torque (mixing my units of measurement). No DSG remap & no problems with the stock 6 speed DSG. Up changes in sport mode at full tilt are a bit more aggressive but nothing major. No intake or exhaust changes either - yet. Like many others I've not done much mileage since last year but all good so far.

So that's 8bhp to us imperialists. Got any stripes cos they add at least 10bhp

Polishing exhaust tips could turn into a full time job. I did mine during lockdown 1 & even with minimal mileage they have carboned up again pretty quick.

Looks really good. How much did they charge for the work?

And maybe in 10 years time prices for EV's might have reduced to a more reasonable level! Right now I think all manufacturers are taking the p*** with EV prices. Price differences of up to +50% over ICE models are no incentive to switch - especially for private buyers doing lower mileages where the run costs savings (including the cost to change) are non-existent. If EV prices were more in line with ICE models I would buy tomorrow but they're not & I think that is by design because manufacturers have loads of ICE models to shift before they can switch to full EV model production so the way to do that is to keep their first EV model prices artificially high. I've been looking at small EV's for the wife for a while now (city, super mini or maybe even a small SUV/Crossover) but I simply can't justify the extra cost of an EV over an an ICE model. Even used EV's are stupid money & the run cost savings when you are only doing 4-5k miles or less pa are just not there. I think my wife has filled her car up 1 time since March last year. It would have been cheaper for us both to have used cabs than own 2 cars for the mileage we have both done! That's why I'll be keeping my Superb 280 for a while yet & I'll probably buy another used small ICE car for the wife sometime later this year. For me EV's will have to wait & as ShyVRS245 said, perhaps then EV range, the charge infrastructure & vehicle pricing will be much better. My hope is that EV gets some proper competition from Hydrogen Fuel Cell which seems to be back on the agenda for some manufacturers. That said the infrastructure for Hydrogen is virtually non existent & more complicated to put in place so it could be a long wait. The way things are right now, there's a 90% chance that I will never get an EV vehicle in my driving lifetime.

At the risk of being censored I'm gonna resist the obvious statement.

Should be OK if properly serviced. Check if cambelt / water pump has been changed - needed at 4 years if I remember correctly. I had a CR170 diesel SII DSG Superb (no Adblue) & the cam belt got changed at 90K & 4 years. I traded it in for my current Superb at 175k & 10 years old. It never missed a beat during my time with it & it got a regular 1 year long service at an independent specialist garage. 65mpg on a regular 80mile commute - the 150TDI should be able to better that mpg. Check for uneven tyre wear - especially on the inside of the rears. Rear camber settings might be out of wack. Other than the usual things to check the car should be fine for a good few years of use.

I guess your height pretty much dictates what type / size of car you can have - the Ed China syndrome, if you get my drift. Based on that, the Superb is just about the biggest internal space car, at a reasonable price, on the market. It is also very comfortable. I'm on my 2nd Superb estate which I find hugely practical (more so than an SUV) & in L&K trim very plush & a great cruiser. My previous Superb was a 170 Elegance diesel which was mainly used for an 80 mile daily commute at which it excelled & regularly returned 65mpg. My current 280 L&K is not so fuel frugal but I no longer do high mileage so I'm OK with 25-36mpg. You should get on well with your new car.

Lowered? How about getting the existing wheels powder coated black to match the black sportline trim. For me I don't think red calipers would do it on an L&K which is all about being more subtle. Mines black so perhaps black calipers to match.

Yep. Just been watching a couple of You Tube videos of guys painting calipers on their cars. Quite a bit of work & as usual the prep is all important. I have no garage (well not one I can get the car into) so I will have to wait for warmer weather.

OK. Like many my hubs are a bit grotty as well & the calipers could do with a spruce up. I might have a go at them when the weather gets a bit better so I was interested to find out how yours were done. I've been polishing brass this week (don't ask) for something to do so I might use my mini dremel tool to help clean up the hubs with some metal polish. Might as well put the trolley Jack & axle stands to good use & rotate the wheels / tyres while I'm at it. As for caliper paint I will have to investigate but I assume any paint suitable for engines would be OK. Question is what colour?