Colin170CR

Impressive. Don't think I've managed much better than 38mpg on a run.

Well that took me right back to my formative years. My family moved from Hendon to Kingsbury in 1960 & I went to school & stayed there until 1980 when I moved out to Watford to get my first house. The Kingsbury area is rich in Automotive & Aviation engineering history. Sadly most, if not all of it, has now gone & the area is almost unrecognisable to me now all these years later. I remember the petrol ration books & queing to get whatever 4* petrol I could at the local petrol station. I had not long passed my test at that time & thought I was going to miss out on driving a car if petrol was restricted. As it turned out I don't think we ever used the ration books but ques at petrol stations were a thing for a few years until things settled down.

Those big fat side wall tyes also protectected the wheel & allowed you to "feel" for the curb when parking. Unlike the low profile tyes we have today which offer no protection at all. Nice VP BTW. The VP trimming factory was at Church Lane Kingsbury NW London where I grew up. Nearly went there as an apprentice at 16 from school but landed up at GM (also in Kingsbury) instead where my dad worked.

I guess I've got some of this to look forward to? Mines at 64k miles but 🤞never yet failed an MOT yet. Famous last words. Like you I do a similar low annual mileage because we tend to default to my wife's EV for daily duties. However, after a week or so of driving the EV for a couple of weeks I get the urge to jump in the 280 for a blast up the local dual carriageway to get my fix of analogue motoring a bit more BHP than the EV has got (about 160bhp more). After that the 280 goes back on the drive for another few weeks or until we need to do a longer trip than the EV can manage.

Lots of smoke out the back for a bit I suspect. Or is that not a thing anymore with all the cats & EGR's etc?

Nice. Exactly the same as my Trinity wheels which I had powder coated black to match the car paintwork. I don't have any winter wheels so mine get cleaned on the car.

I'm also looking at the Epiq as a potential replacement for our '22 FL Hyundai Kona EV. We had a Karoq for a couple of years which I liked a lot but my wife found it too big for her as her daily driver. We started looking at EV's but at the time Skoda had nothing other than the Enyaq which was way too big. In the end we landed up with a 1 year old 64kWh Kona which is a bit of a Goldilocks car (not to big or too small) & just the right size for what she needs. However, the Kona is not without its faults chief among which for me is the ride quality which is very choppy on anything than a smooth surface. Front wheel tyre scrabble (205bhp) is also a problem which has resulted in excessive front tyre wear. New front boots are going on this week after only 12,000 miles. Boot space is a bit on the small side as well. Other than that it's been a great car & has saved us a packet on petrol (home charging only) & easily does 300miles on a full charge. The Elroq has now been launched & although I haven't seen one in the flesh having seen the latest reviews on YT it looks too big for what we need. So I'm now eagerly awaiting more info on the Epiq. I'm hoping it inherits the driving qualities & rear wheel drive of the Elroq. That said it looks that the range of the Epiq will be somewhat less than our Kona. The only snag for me is that I don't normally buy new cars so we may have to wait even longer until Epiq's hit the 2nd hand market.

5th MOT passed with flying colours yesterday. The MOT tester asked if I was thinking of selling my car he would be interested. Unfortunately for him I'm not. Although it doesn't get much regular use these days I think I would regret selling my car because there is not much out there to replace it with that is as practical, quick & flies under the radar as much as a 280 does.

Yep. R+ with DSG Sport mode is pretty savage. Mine's set for N which takes out the DSG hesitation nicely.

12v low voltage warning message came up yesterday after car had been sitting on drive for a week in cold weather. Now on trickle / conditioning charge for a couple of days. We are using my wife's EV more & more of late, except for a 1 week holiday to Somerset & Dorset recently, so the Superb isn't getting many miles.

Humm. It was only posted a couple of days ago so I assumed it was new. Hey ho, still a good watch though.

Jonny Smith reviews a 500bhp Sleeper Superb estate on the Late Brake Show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjopp-ySsdo

Colder weather will accelerate the demise of your battery as well. My battery started playing up at 4 years old during lockdown when it was parked on the drive for weeks on end. Start stop stopped working which was the first sign it was starting to go. I tried charging & trickle charging it which allowed it to start but even after a run it would often fail to turn over after I stopped & it needed a jump from a booster pack to get it going again. I think the VAG OEM batteries are not the best & are only designed to get through the warranty period. Had a similar problem on my previous Mk2 Superb & an Audi A6. At least I could change the battery on the A6 myself. Not the case on the Superb's as they need coding & I don't have the gizmo to do it.

I would like some of those changes on mine. Stop / start definitely, Scandi rear side lights as DRL's, Audi throttle &, if possible, speed sign recognition in the Matrix. I can't justify the cost of a VCDS so will probably ask my Independent VAG specialist to have a look for me when it goes in for service next.

And there's the problem for the DIY guy. If you have no covered space to do a proper job in any weather waiting for decent weather to do that type of work outside is a long time coming. One of our local detailing guys has a industrial unit & charges £200 for an Protection Detail clean + £100 for a 1 year Ceramic coating. Removal of anything other than light swirls is extra & he probably needs to keep the car for a couple of days. Mine's got a few scratches that need looking at separately. There are some mobile detail guys like Chips but I do wonder how effective those tents they put over the car are when the weather is not great. I've been thinking about getting mine done for a while now but somehow other things always seem to take priority!!

Our local "hand" wash has some automated drive through soaping & cleaning thingy & want £25 for a small SUV & £20 for a car (inside & out clean + tyre shine). Too expensive for me & not a proper hand wash IMO.

The price & quality of our local car washes are not great so I don't use them anymore. Instead I bought a DI mains water filter which I attach to my pressure washer & snow foam gun. A quick blast with the snow foam, leave for a few minutes & then rinse with clean water from the pressure washer & leave it to dry naturally. It gets most of the winter grime off. For better results I do need to do a contact wash with mitts & shampoo but during winter this rarely gets done. Seriously thinking about getting some paint correction & ceramic coating done at some point to make cleaning easier.

I was guilty of doing the same on a few occasions. After all the rain acts as a calcium free rinse!! I have mud flaps on mine but while they do make a difference they cannot prevent all the road debris from getting on the car.

New car enthusiasm 👍I've almost given up washing mine now until the spring. Can't drive anywhere without getting it filthy this time of year.

Not quite what you asked but at my last service at the independent VAG specialist I use the Haldex was due for an oil change so I specifically asked whether they will be cleaning the Haldex filter when they changed the oil. They said they always do because they've seen what happens if the filter gets fully clogged up & left for too long. Now, whether they actually did clean the filter is another matter! TBF I've been using the same company for many years with my old Audi A6 TDi, MK2 Superb CR170, my wife's Karoq 4 x 4 for the short time we had it & now my MK3 Superb & they've done a good job with all of them so I have no reason to doubt them.

I've been there & done that! Although the boot did stop when it felt some resistance. I had the car for 2 years before I discovered it had a virtual pedal 🤣

Yes I believe the independent garage did have access to Digital car records. Service books in the cars are rarely stamped theses days.

Oh. I should add that the £504 I paid was at an independent VAG specialist garage not a Skoda main dealer!

You seem to have a "different" Skoda main dealer approach to servicing in Bulgaria i.e. reasonable &, bring your own oil - unheard of here. Something we don't seen to get in the UK. Sounds very reasonable to me. My last Fluid service (including Haldex filter, brake fluid, engine oil & new plugs) was £504.

I just checked, the last service on my wife's EV was actually £130 & included a new rear wiper, body check (required for corrosion guarantee compliance), a pollen filter, update for sat nav (free) & a couple of other small items that I can't remember. Also a complimentary wash & vacuum was included which you generally don't get at independent garages. The £230 service was for my car last year. Basically an oil change & a few other bits. EV servicing is generally cheaper than ICE cars because there are far less consumable items. I'm not sure who would think or suggest EV's don't need servicing. They have a service book with mileage / yearly intervals just like any other car. So far our experience with an EV (apart from a problem with the charging flap that was fixed under warranty) has been pretty good. Perfect as a local runabout 2nd car. However, the key to low EV ownership cost (apart from not buying new) is being able to charge it from home on a low overnight tariff. Without that we would have stuck with the petrol car we had previously.