Aurial

Andrew, Any update on your car? We were the same build week so I like to think our cars were on the same boat.

In fairness, the law does allow for situations like the one you describe, and if this was the case then there really is no reason not to report it still. The driver will be easily able to prove what happened because there will be medical records available to support his claim.

I ordered on 9th March and they have been fitted to my car for free so you will definitely get them.

Garnett, You raise a very good point about capacity. There are around 10,000 fewer police officers since 5 years ago and many forces, including your own Devon and Cornwall, have scaled their traffic policing back radically as a result. If the current government get back in again they have already indicated they want to reduce the numbers by a further ten to twenty thousand. I think if that is the case traffic policing will all but disappear entirely. Regardless of who the next government are though I still think cuts will come.

Bare in mind that the vast majority of CCTV footage in existence is not police generated. It mainly comes from shops, petrol stations or other commercial or business premises, home owners who have fitted their own systems, council CCTV systems on the high streets, buses, trains, hospitals, the list goes on. Even mobile phone footage is perfectly admissible. Most fixed systems now are digital. They record to a hard drive inside the device and can burn off copies of footage as needed. The police can seize the machine if needed, but copies are fine and this won't be any different in the OP's case. All that is required to fulfil the evidential chain is that the footage can be traced back from the courtroom to every place it has been since it was created and who has handled it. The OP will make a statements along the lines of "On day/date/time I was making XYZ journey. When I was at X junction of the M6 XYZ happened. I recorded the incident on my BadgerQuest 200 in-car camera system. The date and time shown on the footage are correct as they are obtained from the GPS system/is fast or slow by X minutes. I made a copy of the footage and handed it to police on day/date. I produce this footage as my exhibit." The officer who receives the footage will make a statement saying that he has received it at day/date from the OP, and at every stage between that point and when/if it reaches a court its location and who handles it will be recorded, thus fulfilling the evidential chain. 1000's of hours per week of police time must be used up for what seems like such a simple task just in case when it gets to court the defence say that the footage was handed to Industrial Light and Magic and the car was added into the footage. If the police can't show that didn't happen then case dismissed.

Nice one. I took the liberty of showing your footage to a mate of mine who's in traffic and he confirmed it would be Dangerous Driving. That's one of the most serious traffic offences so you may be surprised at how seriously they take it. Either way, come back and let us know how you get on. Going off topic a bit, but my girlfriends friend is a cop and has worked on the cordons for the Holborn fire a couple of times lately. She was over at the weekend as they all went out on the pi$$ and I was chatting to her about it. She said that alarms were going off constantly throughout both nights she was there at loads of businesses due to electrical outages caused by the fire. She said if she heard 50 alarms a night it was probably an understatement. She also said that even if they had attended (and she didn't know if they had) all they could do is check the outside of the building for signs of a breakin and there wouldn't have been any anyway so it would have changed nothing. Why aren't the press asking questions of the keyholder as to why they didn't attend? You have to remember two things about the media: 1) They want the information the police have about a story, but the police won't give it to them because it could prejudice a trial. 2) They have to write something about the incident to sell their paper, and the more dramatic it is the better. So they try to pick faults and attribute blame, despite having no knowledge of any facts. Anyway, back on topic.

looking_to_buy, I don't know where you live compared to where this took place, but the force local to the offence location would be responsible for dealing with it. You'll know better than me which force is local to it I'm sure, but if you don't know yourself there are various was to find out online. You could either attend a police station armed with a copy of the footage, contact the force by email or even write to them with a dvd copy of your footage. The traffic division will be responsible for prosecuting him.

Dangerous Driving would be the offence in that his driving fell far below that expected of a reasonable and competent driver and the safety of other road users was put at risk as a result of his actions. You can report it to the police and provide a copy of your footage. Mandatory disqualifications and three to eleven penalty points.

Skoda's do seem to suffer more than most brands with electrical problems. I know that both the police and ambulance services in London have problems with the electrics in their Skoda's. The police have already ditched them as a result.

I ordered my 1.4 Elegance on 9th March. Updates from my dealership don't seem to be a good as some of the ones you guys seem to be getting. I get an email email every couple of weeks. Last update was build week 15 (w/c 6th April) and got another email today saying it's now in transit. Expected handover w/c 11th May.

Although you'll lose the ability to change radio stations via ouija board.

Ask your dealer for an exorcism under warranty.

I'm using S.G. Smith Skoda in Croydon. This will be my first Skoda but it was good on the test drive. I ordered on 9th March and have been told that my build date is week commencing 6th April (week 15). Delivery should be w/c 11th May (week 20). My advice would be to do as many quotes online as possible including the various ones I mentioned above. Then you can go to your local dealer and see if they'll match. It may mean having to leave the dealership with nothing but they may well call you back later to make a deal. Hold out for the best price you can get. Also, I know you mentioned a cash buy, but if you are at all considering the 0% APR deal it's advertised as ending at the end of this month. It may well be extended but something to bare in mind.

I ordered my Elegance on 9th March. When we were building the car on the dealers system both park assist and adaptive cruise control were automatically selected at no cost. I actually wanted to spec the park assist anyway. The dealer wasn't sure why they were coming up free and spoke to a few colleagues in the dealership and they concluded that it must be a bug in their system. He therefore manually added a charge of £590 to my invoice for the park assist. Fast forward about a week and I've now been leafing through the brochure and have money burning a hole in my pocket so I emailed him to ask if ACC could be added to my order. He checked and said that it was already being included on my car for no cost. Then a couple of days ago both options now show free on the Skoda website so I emailed him saying the spec has obviously changed can I have the £590 knocked off my invoice again. He checked and confirmed that both options now come as standard on the Elegance, so far from spending another £400 odd I'm now £590 better off! In terms of brokers the cost is going to depend on whether you are taking finance or paying cash. Many of the brokers have small print that says if you take the finance the price will be higher than what they have quoted you. As I said earlier, you can get about 12-14% for cash and about 8% for finance. Drive the deal and carfile are two good ones but also check carwow to see what dealers will offer you. Your local dealer will often match the best price you get from carwow.

I can confirm for you that Adaptive Cruise Control and Park Assist are now standard options for the Elegance spec which is why they are automatically selected. This update has only happened in the last couple of weeks, and only appeared on the website this week. In terms of discounts, I think if you're paying cash you can look to achieve about a 12-14% discount. If you're taking the 0%apr finance the best you can hope for is about 8%.

My build week is going to be 15 and I am getting both options for zero cost on my car. I ordered on the 9th March and they were showing as zero cost on the dealers system then, although he thought it was an error so manually charged me. All sorted now though.

You may well be right, I couldn't quite remember. It has worked out quite well for me. I ordered my Elegance a couple of weeks ago. While we were building it on the dealers system both Park Assist and ACC showed up as zero-cost options. He said it must be a mistake on their system and added the £590 for Park Assist back on manually (this was the only option I went for). He emailed me last week with an order update and I asked if it was now possible to add the ACC as I'd reconsidered my options. He told me that when he checked it is coming on the car at no cost. Since it's now on the Skoda site I've emailed him back today asking him to take the £590 off my invoice for the Park Assist too.

The Elegance spec has just been updated and now comes with Park Assist and Adaptive Cruise Control as standard. I think the price MAY have come down slightly too.

My Elegance, ordered about a week and a half ago, is build week 15 (w/c 6th April) and expected delivery week 20 (w/c 11th May) That's for an order to the UK.