Colin170CR

Hi Okami01. If you are only going to cover 10k miles pa it has to be a petrol car over a diesel. A 2.0TSi 190 or even a 1.5TSi 150 should be more than adequate & more suited to the low mileage than a diesel. If you want so save a bit drop down to the new petrol Octavia & go for a higher spec which is only a tad smaller than the Superb. New generation petrol engines are so much better & fuel efficient than previous versions. Diesels do not like regular short journeys. I switched back to petrol (Superb 280 L&K combi) last year after 20+ years of diesel cars for work & commuting. My last diesel was a series II 2010 Superb 170 TDi Elegance DSG combi which I used for an 80 mile daily commute (35k+ miles pa) which regularly returned 60+ mpg or higher. I'm now retired so my annual mileage is way less than 10k pa so diesel was no longer my best option. So I traded the series II Superb in at 160,000 miles for a 2.5 year old 2.0TSi 280 L&K with 25K on the clock for less than half its original list price. The 280 is currently returning around 25 mpg but is only used for local short journeys at present (or not at all at the moment). Plans for any touring holidays have been put on hold for the foreseeable future. Result. Increased fuel consumption but less mileage overall so around a 50% fuel saving from when I was working - even when using 99 Octane Shell V Power fuel. Added to that a big grin every time I flick it into sport mode & exploit the full power & grip of the 4 x 4 system. I feel an engine remap might also be needed but that's another story. I started out driving petrol cars in 1971 (because diesels weren't available then). I then switched to diesels out of necessity for company car tax reasons or privately funded for work mileage use. I now drive a petrol out of personal choice. I also doubt if I will ever make the jump to electric either. Far too expensive, range anxiety & limited re-charge facilities are still issues for me - but mainly the cost. the Superb 280 I have now will probably be my last car.

I believe is stands for Machine Operated Polisher

No deffo previous owner. There are light scratches on the roof where previous owner has dragged something off the roof rack across the roof. Also all down the passenger side of the car & wing mirror housing are slight horizontal marks which look like where he scraped some vegetation on a narrow country lane or similar. These are only visible up close but I do want to get rid of them if possible. I might invest in a MOP or hire a detailer to have a go at the whole car for me which I can then maintain myself. Black paint looks really good when perfect but it's the worst colour for showing every imperfection.

Hi all. This lockdown lark has had me cleaning all sorts of stuff including, for the first time in quite a while, our two cars! Normally they get taken to the local hand wash place where I watch an army of guys attack them with wheel cleaner, suds, rinsed with demin water, leathered off, waxed, wheel shined & vacuumed out & the're done in around 20 mins - excluding queuing time 😉 By contrast my black Superb Combi L&K 280 took me the best part of 4hrs to snow foam, shampoo & then apply Turtle Wax Color (American spelling) Magic Jet Black colour wax treatment. The previous owner has left a few scratches & swirls on the car which I'm attempting to polish out / disguise by elbow grease alone - no MOP available 🥵. Not sure I'm going to be too successful as I'm no detailer. The wife's baby blue Fiat 500 hides dirt much better & took only 30 mins to get looking halfway decent & wax up - it is also about 3 times smaller than the Superb! Unfortunately I didn't take any before / after photos to share. However, by way of association to the "recently cleaned" thread title (well maybe not that recent) here's two pics of my freshly cleaned modified 2ltr Vauxhall OHC Viva GT in circa 1976-7 😭 Bucket & radio are still on the drive at the back of my mum & dad's old house in North London. Stock Monaco Blue paint with black bonnet, Wolfrace wheels, 2 x 45 side draught Webers, stage 3 Blydenstein head, race cam & tubular exhaust manifold, negative camber wishbones, front / rear anti-roll bars, fully flared in & color matched front spoiler, Spax adjustable shocks & yes they are both active straight through Thrush side pipes which made it sound like thunder when on full chat. On a clear night my mates could hear me coming from a mile away! Unfortunately the noise also attracted interest from the local plod on more than one occasion. The 2 x Thrush pipe replaced the 4 x steel tail pipes that came a standard fit on this car back in 1968 when it was first built at Luton. I was planning to lower it & flare the arches but the arrival of company cars put paid to that. Alas VLT 481G has gone to the great scrap yard in the sky after the guy I sold it to blew up the engine, but it still takes me back to when I was a bit of boy racer. Sorry for the grainy picture quality but "David Bailey" wasn't available on the day & my Kodak 126 Instamatic wasn't the last word in photographic technology in the 70's. Ahh the memories. I digress. Back on thread - Now after only 2 days since being washed our two cars are now covered in layer dust courtesy of the road digging which is going on all over the local area as we finally get some fibre cabling laid in for fast internet. The dust it has created is not only all over the cars but the house windows & conservatory roof as well. Frustrating or what! At least the cars will only take a quick wash & leather next time to bring them back up which I will probably have to do again next week. I could get into this detailing scene. My wife already thinks I'm obsessed with the Superb - which I probably am. This is my second Superb Combi & will probably be my last car after I retired last Dec. I'm thinking about a stage 1 remap on the Superb. Once a car nut always a car nut! After cleaning the cars I got carried away & broke out the mains power washer & had a go at the paving slabs & tarmac out the front of the house. The slabs are now fine but the tarmac is showing loads of dirt swirls now it's dried off. It will need another going over to make it look it's best. I can't help thinking I've made a rod for own back here! I am also halfway through digging out 1 ton of soil to lay a new patio & a bunch of other chores that have built up over time. Who said lockdown or retirement was boring😵 Stay safe..

Thanks for all the comments. After much contemplation I did try & order a couple of things from Superskoda. However, I had some issues at the checkout so bailed out & went elsewhere. I don't have or use Paypal & they don't seem to take any other form of credit or debit cards & I'm deffo not going to do a bank transfer to a foreign country account! It's a pity because they do have some stuff you can't find elsewhere. I have e-mailed them about alternative payment methods but for now they have lost me as a customer.

Thanks Bap33 & NJRJ. The wife's rubber marigolds & bit of brute force & ignorance got the job done. It was still bit of a faff with only one fully functioning hand though. New Phillips LED amber rear indicators (pricy) & reversing lights now fitted. I'm now looking at perhaps LED's for the front fogs / turning lamps - not worried about the lack of performance in fog as we don't get much if it. The whiter light is more useful at night for cornering. I'm also looking for replacement LED bulbs for the tailgate (combi) to avoid the high cost of the Superskoda items - which I was going to buy but I had trouble with their non-secure website at check out. They also do not seem to take Visa cards so I bailed out.

Hi all. I have been looking at buying some parts from Superskoda. However, I've just noticed my browser is saying that the Superskoda website is not secure which is a bit worrying. They also don't seem to take debit of credit cards. Only Paypal (which I do not do) or direct bank transfer. Has anyone had any payment issues with Superskoda? Thanks in advance.

Thanks. I'm doing exactly the same. Bulbs arrive tomorrow so I will resume my efforts then.

I sympathise with your frustration. Sometimes the big corporate organisations can be very insensitive & not being able to deal with anyone face to face to at your local dealer does not help in this situation. Dealers & Skoda HQ are also probably struggling with less staff than normal so cannot respond as well as could do normally. I live quite near Skoda / Audi / VW / SEAT HQ offices in Milton Keynes & I understand they have laid off /furloughed quite a few staff. That said, you would think that they should still have some sort of plan B in operation. What if you were / are a key worker & need the car for daily commuting? We are in uncertain times & most (not all) garages are closed - for the general public. My wife had her car booked into an independent just before lockdown for an MOT. The garage called & cancelled the appointment & the MOT has now run out albeit the renewal has been extended until Oct this year by government. I'm no sure if I would walk away from buying another Skoda because of this experience. To be fair most Skoda dealers get better customer reviews than other makes so swapping to another make of car won't necessarily prevent similar experiences happening in the future. Ultimately it's your choice. My car is booked into my local VAG specialist independent on the 1st of June which is when they return to work for an investigation once over. Until then I'm using it only when I have to. Fi

Thanks BAP33. I do hope you had that photo on file & did not go out & mock it up especially for me. Your right, there is no place to get a good grip to pull on it. Not helped by the fact that I have a badly sprained right thumb at the moment so I can't really get any grip on anything with my right hand. I may even have to fashion some sort of tourniquet around the screw brackets to help me pull on it evenly & harder with my left hand. Fingers crossed!🤞

Hi All. Can't belive I need to ask this but I have trawled the interweb, this thread & the site as a whole for videos or explanations but cannot find any additional info about how to remove the rear light cluster from a a 2016 Combi -for replacement bulbs. I've done everything shown in the handbook but my rear light clusters simply do not want to come out after removal of screws etc. Book says that after removing torx screws the tail lamp unit should simply pull out to the rear. Not happening for me. I don't want to force them to much for risk of breaking something or damaging paint by jemmying in the wrong place. No doubt many members who have upgraded their rear lights have done this so any tips / advice on how to pry out the tail lamp assembly would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance....

Humm. Interesting. My current fully comp premium is £299 with Quote Me Happy, My NCD is forever (20yrs+), no convictions & a clean licence. I'm 63 & retired now so I'm not even commuting to a place of work any more. The car is on the drive every night, dash cam fitted & I certainly do not drive like I did in my youth in a car that shouted "please nick me"!! (but that's another story). Just as matter of interest who did your stage 1 & 2 re-maps Shy? I'm perhaps looking at REVO stg 1 because of their rep & because there is a VAG specialist who can do them near to where I live & who I will probably get to do servicing now my 280 is out of warranty. It's booked in for the 1st June for investigation of a fuel leak smell (see other thread on this) so I will enquire about the re-map when I drop it off. I know there are probably loads of threads on here arguing the pros & cons of re-maps vs Boxes & which suppliers are best so any thoughts or links to threads would be appreciated.

IMO without any trick front differential 4 x 4 is deffo needed when power is over 220bhp via front wheels. My previous S2 Superb 170 TDi Elegance would regularly spin the front wheels when joining a roundabout smartly from stopped. So much torque from even a stock engine - albeit a diesel. Damp weather just made it even worse. This was the reason when it came time to change the car & I no longer needed diesel economy I went for a used 280 Combi with DSG & 4 x 4 as standard. As hard as try I cannot make the wheels spin & it is so much more reassuring to drive in the dry or wet. The only drawback currently is I'm only getting an indicated 25mpg. I do use the sport mode quite a bit & all mileage now is local start stop traffic or none at all of late! I am currently debating whether to go stage 1 map which should add around 80hp. My only worry is what that will do to my insurance premium. What price for a bit of fun eh?

2 weeks & the battery could go flat!!! So what happens if its sat in an airport carpark while your away on a 2 week holiday? Humm. All those background electrics draining the juice. I had similar problem on my previous Superb Elegance 2ltr 190 diesel. At 4.5 years old the battery wouldn't hold a charge when left standing for more than 2 days. I guess it's part of the chance you take when buying used cars & why most companies change their cars at around 3 years old or even less. After years of driving company cars & racking up starship mileage I now buy my own cars at around 2-3 years old & keep them for at least 5 years. Current car is 3.5 years old & now I have retired my mileage is minimal so my current car will be around for quite a while. No I didn't have to disconnect the battery. My charger can stay connected even when starting the car - when set to the fast charge & start setting. Handy bit of kit. Stay safe.....

Snap. I went to do a click / collect shop at Tesco the other day & the battery was a dead as a dodo. I wondered why the keyless entry didn't work when I tried to open the door. I think the culprit was the dash cam. It should go to sleep when the car is stationary & only come back to life if it senses movement. Looking at the cam recordings it seems the constant coming & going of our cats & other wild life during the night set off the driveway security light which brings on the dash cam. A boost with my 180 amp fast charger got it going within 5 mins. I have now unplugged the dash cam while I'm not using it. If it happens again with the dash cam off then it may need a new battery. The short local drives are probably not helping either. Stay safe all...... 🍺

THanks for the info JitsGorilla. I'll do battle with the dealer after lockdown. Other than this the car is great. I used to have diesels (Audi A6 1.9TDi, Superb II Elegance 170) but knowing I was going to retire I wanted to switch back to petrol since I no longer needed to worry about the fuel consumption for the reduced annual mileage - which is pretty much zero at the moment. I bought the 280 2nd hand with 25k on the clock about this time last year. The warranty ran out Dec 2019 which is a bit of a pain but the car is great. Ultimate sleeper imo. Thanks for the info.

I think I may have this problem as well on my 66 reg L&K 280 Estate. There is a fairly strong smell of petrol outside at the back of the car every so often which is most noticeable on warmer days. As yet I've not spotted any fuel on the ground or coming back out the filler cap. The other issue I seem to have is the time it takes to fill the tank with fuel, which is forever! However, this may be down to the petrol pump more than the car. The average indicated fuel consumption has dropped from 36mpg on my pre-retirement 80mile / day motorway commute to around 25mpg now for local trips. This is to be expected but this may also be masking any loss of fuel which will also add to the drop in MPG. I think I'll wait until the end of lockdown & get it booked in to skoda for a look. Meantime I'll see if I can keep an eye out for any signs of leaks & take some pics / video. If anyone has any advice on what else I can check myself please let me know.

Just thought I'd close off this post with the the rather expensive conclusion. I finally bit the bullet & took the car into a local independent for a diagnostic inspection (£22.50+VAT) which revealed no specific issues just a generic fault code in the ECU - no warning lights on the dash. So, further investigation time / labour was needed (£90+VAT) to find the fault - Steering wheel off etc. Following this investigative work the L/H steering wheel control module (master) was thought to be the culprit (£178.61) so it was ordered. Returned two days later to have that fitted while I waited (£30+vat). All fixed & working well for a total cost of £385.33 incl VAT -- Ouch!! Now I can book it in for an MOT as horn is now working again. Lets hope it sails through with no more issues as my wallet can't take any more hits for a while.

I picked up my 10 plate SII Estate Elegance 170 DSG 2 years ago with 25k on the clock. It's now got 67k miles & it took me nearly a year to find all the features & how to use them. Previous owner of my car had it fully loaded. Heated front screen (really handy in this weather), park assist (never used it yet), electric tailgate (was that an option?), tyre pressure monitoring, heated rear seats (std or option?). Everyone to a man (& woman) has commented on the rear seat legroom. Absolutely enormous & they haven't pinched any space from the boot either which is equally cavernous. Currently averaging 58mpg on my 82 mile daily commute. Previously I had an 03 Audi A6 Estate 1.9tdi manual. Had it for 10years & put 160k miles on it (still have the car - off road in front garden if anyone interested). Good car but my dodgy left knee cap was giving me considerable grief so I had to find a replacement estate car with an auto box. Best choice I've ever made & best car I've ever had also.

The gremlins have returned. I guess it was too good to be true. The steering wheel controls went dead again 2 days ago & have not worked since. Had a poke around inside steering column for any obvious signs of loose connections but could find nothing. Probably need to take it for a diagnostic now as with a u/s horn it will fail the MOT which is due next month. Anyone had any experience with Inde-Tech or VAGtech in Milton Keynes?

Update. Typical. Two days before I took it in for a service all the steering wheel functions returned to life & have stayed operational ever since. I therefore cancelled the £140 diagnostic investigation as part of the service. £140 sounded far too expensive anyway. It's now been over 2 weeks & all is well but I wonder how long this will remain to be the case. Fingers crossed for the future. Other than that the car has been faultless.

Managed to crack an average of 60.9mpg (MFD reading) last night on my 42 mile commute home up the M1. At one point it was reading as high as 64mpg but after driving like a nun for 1.5hrs the last bit of empty dual carriageway before getting home was too too tempting - so I floored it in sport for half a mile to blow any crap out. I have got a photo of the MFD reading but can't seem to attach it as I don't have permissions!!

I drive 40 miles down the M1 (14 to 4) daily with a bit on either end. Most of it is limited to 60, 50, 40 or, like this morning, stationary with engine off for 20mins between 8 & 7. My 170 DSG combi Elegance hits 56-58mpg near the end of each run & is currently averaging 54 mpg overall which includes my local weekend trips (MFD readings which are probably a bit optimistic). However, for an auto luxo barge that ain't bad. I leave it in D most of the time but do override with flappy paddles or use manual shifts by changing up earlier if I can & backing off the throttle on on downward inclines. Most of my journey is fixed to 50 or 60mph by cameras & even if they are turned off I rarely go over 65-70 except for quick blasts up to 80 for overtaking three abreast lorries. I also find the middle lane moves faster & more smoothly than the stop start outside lane which is normally full of BM's, Merc's & Insignia's blasting past at 90 only for me to pass them on the inside 1/2 a mile later. As strange as it may seem my journey home north up the M1 seems to return marginally better overall mpg than south in the mornings. Probably 1-2mpg in it. It has become a bit of a challenge to try & break 60mpg by the end of each daily journey which is proving more difficult in winter with Xenons on all the time both ways, front & rear screen heaters & warm up / defrost time in frosty weather etc. However, it's game more & more of us play each day to while away the time on the commute.

Another update. Everything except audio volume working this morning for 20 miles of commute then the steering wheel illumination started flashing on / off like the the Xmas tree lights I put back in the loft a few weeks ago. Then they went off & stayed off for the remainder of the trip to work & all functionality went with them. Then when coming home all OK again, except for the audio volume wheel, only to die again 10miles from home. Deffo leaning towards a dodgy connection somewhere. I can see where this is going when I take it in for a service trying to simulate the problem which of course won't play ball on the day. Anyone know if this fault would be logged in the ECU / fault memory for recall by the garage?

Thanks Murph. I'll have a look. Latest update. Drove home from work tonight (42 miles) & would you believe it steering wheel illumination back on & everything working all the way home - except for the audio volume control which is still dead. Really frustrating. I'm now leaning towards a dodgy connection somewhere. I'm just about to book it in for a service & don't really want to get stiffed for a diagnostic check if I can avoid it although that might be the only option to get to the bottom of this on-off affair. Any other ideas gratefully received.