FlyingGecko

And you've got some excellent roads in north Devon, around the Barnstaple/Tiverton/Minehead/Combe Martin area to do it. I had a great weekend there with my old motor club some twenty years back.

Nice job Dave. The biggest worry is the airbag connection, it needs a dealer visit to reset if unplugged, I gather. Assuming it doesn't go off in your face. I've got a camera in the rear window as well, fed the cable under the rubber trim at floor level to the same feed.

You quoted me then didn't? I was 100% behind stever750's comment - "The only way to tell that you're at the limit of grip is the sound of screeching tyres, as the balance and steering won't give you any clues. FWIW, I've been thinking about remapping my 245, but frankly can't be bothered, the thrill of just acceleration in a straight line soon wears off, and all you are left with is a paranoia of premature engine failure." I don't claim to be the most experienced driver on Briskoda but have owned or driven cars with over 400 bhp and many years ago motorbikes that could crack 6 seconds 0-60. Just because I draw a pension doesn't mean I'm senile. In a wider context (been there, done that) if the car you have isn't powerful/fast enough then don't waste money on tuning, just get a different car. (Or a more powerful model in the same range.) Fine if all you want to do is see what you can achieve, but in the end unless you're throwing over a ££grand at it then your money's better spent elsewhere. One learns as one grows older that purely for road use and within legal driving parameters then the set-up by manufacturers will invariably be better than whatever the amateur tuner (that's the end user, not the tuning company) thinks they can achieve. It's taken me decades to acknowledge that you don't need to have several hundred bhp, or torques, as Clarkson says, to enjoy driving legally fast on public roads. And here I mean minor A and major B roads not motorways etc. At one time we had a Citroen AX, 1100cc, 60 bhp, and a Peugeot 1.9 309GTi (widely regarded as the best, if not prettiest, of that generation of fast Peugeots) with more than twice the power at a heady 130 bhp. There were many times when I preferred the Citroen to the 309. Both could manage the back roads of north Wales and the likes of the Snake Pass between Glossop and Sheffield at illegal speeds, but when discretion was needed in some of the more challenging stretches then the Citroen was much the better car. The pleasure and skills needed when driving a car at ten tenths were and are far more rewarding and demanding than driving a car at six or seven tenths along the same road. And that holds true today, when the 130 bhp of the 309 is regarded as an average output for a family hatchback. The current comparison still holds true - we have a 75 bhp VW Up, and a 150 BHp Karoq. The Up is usually far more enjoyable over the same roads, for the same reasons. And also when compared to my previous Octavia vRS over the same roads. I agree, a surfeit of BHP comes in handy when joining motorways and some idiot thinks 35 mph is the appropriate speed to join traffic travelling at twice that, but generally for the better than average driver (isn't that all of us?) the ability to use what you've got is more important than what you've actually got. I write as someone who since the millennium had 220 bhp (and more) to use every day but for the past year just 150 bhp, and while it took some months to adjust I really don't feel the need now for the extra power. My enjoyment is seeing what I can do with what I've got. On a slightly separate note, If someone wants to drive at really high speeds then there are plenty of private racetracks for that, many offering "track days". Youtube's full of videos of people wrecking their pride and joy at the Nurburgring. At least there, they're only risking their necks rather than those of innocent road users

This too.

One hundred percent this.

I suggest just dropping to 18", rather than a full two sizes. I's also see what your insurance company thinks, especially about spacers. Wih the wheel/tyre change AND spacers you'd also be introducing a vastly different set of handling characteristics.

On what grounds? Do you have a specific delivery date in the contract?

The manuals dated 7/2019 and 11/2019 don't mention a maximum card capacity, just need to be SD, SDHC, or SDXC. I use a 128 Gb card with no problems and you can get a lot of music on that. I've got around 200 CDs ripped to it and they only use 36 Gb. Even at MP3 quality on my Amundsen unit I can hear things my favourite old school Sennheiser headphones don't reproduce.

It's easier on the Karoq then the Octavia!

I reckoned for the sake of humourous effect more people would get the cassette reference than the 8 track. And I'm old enough to have been at the Isle of Wight festival in 1969 and 1970... fortunately I can remember barely anything about them.

Just looked - I confirm the manual isn't downloadable. More backward progress.

Bring back the cassette player.

Welcome! Second thing first. Not wishing to start a debate about different tyre brands, there's plenty of that eleswhere on here, but I've previously run Michelin Pilots, Premacys, etc on my Saab 9-5, then my Octavia vRS, both 220 bhp cars. All tyres were 225/45 18". Over 18 years prices ranged from £95 to £110. My Karoq came with Bridgestones and they needed replacing last autumn. Michelins would have been around £150 so I stayed with Bridgestones at £96 each all in. But shop around, even these T001 Potenzas can vary enourmously in price.. TBH I prefer these slightly more pliant (and quieter) tyres and with a more prominent sidewall there's far less chance of kerbing the alloys. So yes, the unusual size does have an effect on price when comparing the same tyre across sizes. First things second. There's also a few threads here about getting a spare and all the polystyrene foam padding for the boot. IMHO that's not really necessary. I bought an 18" spacesaver wheel and tyre with scissor jack and decent extending brace from thewheelshop.co.uk in Manchester for £139. They show generic photos but the kit is first class, branded tyres, etc. This is the third one I've had from them. I used other emergency boot items - pump, kneeling mat, couple of chocks, etc - to pad out the wheel well. As with tyres, other suppliers of spare wheels are available - and you'll get plenty of advice on here. Enjoy the new car - it'll be a change from the Golf, it's taken me nearly a year to really like the Karoq after the Saab and then the Octavia. I considered a RaceChip upgrade to around 170 bhp, but the 150 bhp serves the Karoq well. I just need to stand on a box to wash the roof.

The catalogue in that link is dated December 2019, but the prices download does have the MY22 spec. Interesting trim level hierarchy, rather more complicated that in the UK. And they look rather more expensive comparing roughly similar levels of kit.

On a wider note, news online overnight says Skoda will be launching a smaller electric SUV. While manufacturers are recouping capital investment costs and awaiting economies of scale, the options generally (outside the likes of the Mini, Fiat 500, Honda, etc) are large, very highly specced and expensive (often very expensive), with either low range and average performance or bigger range and greater performance. I'd be looking for something Karoq/Kamiq/Scala sized (not necessarily a Skoda!) with acceptable performance but long range, around 350 miles plus (like my 1.5 petrol Karoq) - so smaller motors with bigger capacity batteries. I think there also needs to be much greater and faster investment in public charging points. The figures bandied about don't make true comaprisons. "XX" charging points against "YY" petrol stations, yet each petrol station will have up to a dozen pumps and you're in and out in a few minutes. Whereas there could be three or four charging points (ignoring the likes of Tesla in motorway service areas) requiring any number of pre-registered payment apps and assuming there's one available and working you've got maybe a 40 minute wait. Most of my driving is in a 30 mile radius, but regularly do cross country journeys of upwards of 270 miles. I don't want to spend the best part of an hour with a £4 coffee while the car recharges during the trip - a fifteen minute toilet break/leg stretch does me fine - nor worrying if I'll be able to find a public charging point in some of the more rural and remote parts of the country. These issues will be addressed and I applaud those who've got the financial ability to facilitate the electrification process, but currently for most drivers the switch is too expensive and/or inconvenient. I'd stress that I agree that fossil fuels have to cease being the default option for powering personal motorised transport - but while the rush to electrification has to be a good thing, those whose option for cheap and convenient personal transport is only a second hand motor costing a couple of thousand pounds are in great danger of being further disadvantaged. Finally, personally I think not enough is discussed on the up-front and end-of life costs of electric vehicles, in terms of mining of rare earths, heavy metals, recyclability, and waste disposal. These are all a big factor affecting the full cost of electric vehicles yet many are ignored or lost among the razamatazz. There must be greater awareness of the overall cost of personal transport - whether fossil fuelled or electricty powered.

Sorry, English humour referencing German word structure. (But in my defence, I'm pro-Europe, voted against Brexit, and can hold a reasonable conversation in French.)

Ah, that makes things a bit clearer! I stand corrected. You need fingers like a chimpanzee to get access to the captive bolt in the Octavia, it's hidden under the trim several inches from the edge and you have to work by feel. Just looking at my Karoq the Torx bolt is accessible from the outer surface of the trim, the only tricky bit would be getting the handle in the right position for the bolt through the trim. To answer your second question in the first post, I'd expect that to be replaced under warranty. It might be an easy fix but what would the retail cost be?

If you've got "leather" seats (option on vRS) then parts of the seat panels are fake and part real. There was a thread a couple of years back describing which where which. I used Autoglym's leather cream on the lot with no adverse effects. Mercedes got into trouble a few years back by not stating their "Artico leather" was artificial. Skoda get round it by stating in their bumf that there is artificial leather in parts of the trim.

Well, that's easy for you to say...

For the same reason rain and snow doesn't. The airflow isn't forceful enough to counteract the momentum. And if you want a fuller explanation you have to do a Master's degree in physics.

Calm down, calm down,... Looking at the photo posted at the start of the thread, the rubber handle (actually a reinforced composite material) seems intact - correct me if I'm wrong. So it's the bolt that attaches the handle to a captive nut and bracket under the hatch trim that's come loose, and rather than any manufacturing process failure it's an assembly process issue? You can just see the hole for the bolt in the right-angled bit ath the top. Just throwing this in, because I had cause to remove the hatch trim and rubber handle on my previous Octavia and know what comprises the hatch/handle/trim relationship. The Karoq is quite similar. And for what it's worth, it's the devil's own work to re-attach, even with the correct bolt - which I suspect has fallen somewhere into the deepest recesses of Goldtw74's internal hatch panel.

Not in my case. My two Octavias were embarrassing even with a very light touch.

Height is largely irrelevant. Weight over the driven wheels is quite relevant. My two Mk 3 Octavias - first a 63 plate 1.4 petrol DSG with 140 bhp, then a petrol vRS DSG with 220 bhp, were both very easy to spin the front wheels on take off. However my Saab 9-5 petrol auto 2.3t with 220 bhp hardly ever did it. Largely because of the weight over the front wheels. My current 1.5 petrol DSG Karoq with 150 bhp doesn't spin the wheels as much as the two Octavias did.

I forgot to mention a barometer for those who need to check the weather outside the car without looking through a window, an inclinometer (for those who need to look at a dial to check if the car is falling on its side) and how about a decelerometer for those who need to know the G-force experienced when they crashed into something because they were too busy looking at all the gauges? Saabs had a panel light switch that at night turned all dash lights off except the speedometer, and even that had the higher speed markings blacked out. Driving at night was so much easier and safer with barely any internal lighting or reflections. The ABS tyre pressure system is fine. if you really need to know what your tyre pressures are then stop, wait for the tyres to go cold, then use a decent pressure gauge.

While they're at it, lets bring back the guages for oil pressure , oil temperature, coolant temperature, voltmeters... and maybe an altimeter for good measure. One can never have too much information to take in.