SurreyJohn

Appears that new orders might not arrive until Feb-April 2024, so likely to be many paying balloon payment, or being without a car https://www.marnet-mobility.de/aktuelle-lieferzeiten.html

According to German website that has estimated times of all group cars https://www.marnet-mobility.de/aktuelle-lieferzeiten.html Kodiaq has jumped to 11 months wait (+ extra 1-2 months for some options), allowing 1 month for delivery and PDI suggests new orders now ready Feb 2024 - April 2024

This is the German website that has estimated dates for every VW group model. https://www.marnet-mobility.de/aktuelle-lieferzeiten.html Skoda Octavia, the iV models have been removed, unclear when outstanding orders will eventually get made, but dates had similar to Enyaq (so now 2024) Octavia seems to be one of most delayed models Voraussichtlich ab Marz 2024 translates as probably from March 2024

Had a roomster for 8 years, but sold it about 9 months ago as no longer need 2 cars. Was a great car, we had a 2012 1.2tsi 105 petrol DSG. Ability to slide and fold rear seats and even take them all out (can even leave middle one out, and move others inwards), very flexible. Older ones specs were 1, 2, 3, but later basic, SE and scout. The SE had glass roof, scout bigger wheels and plastic look rugged parts. The engines varied over the years, plenty of power from 105, but some were lower power and might struggle when loaded. Faults were DSG dual clutch unit at 2 years (fixed under warranty), blower fan resistor went after 6 years (cheap to replace) then about 8 years had tailgate wiring loom problem. the wiring looms often give problems near hinges in doors too, with wires fraying. Only really troublesome part. Car helped us move home and was great, miss it occasionally but not easy to justify keeping it when only used rarely after we both retired and hardly ever needed to drive to different places at same time.

PCH has advantages and disadvantages, yes you can regularly have a new car, but not everyone wants to be paying £4000, £5000, £6000, £7000 per year to rent a car (or can afford that much). For some people, it is nice to have finished financing, having bought it outright, then you can have have couple of years off paying for car whilst buy something else (new furniture, bathroom refit or whatever), before considering another car. Of course might incur £1000 in the year for parts that are due replacement and service, but that is still lot less than £6000 per year which @BoxerBoy suggested (described as £500 per month). Actually @BoxerBoy is partly correct when saying think of it over 6 or 7 years. What you should do is add up all the estimated costs for next say 7 years and decide which is best. For the Op @New11 who likes current car vary the calculation to what you would spend if keeping it another 5 or 6 years vs changing it and incurring 5 or 6 years new PCH or PCP costs. What worries me is that by only thinking of it monthly, (or in 2 or 3 year timeframes), means might not have realised you have committed to spent £50,000+ over 7 years. Which is a lot for a car unless you are not short of money.

The service plans are now a waste of money, just seen a 2 year one for used car, and it doesn't cover things that apparently need one change every 2 years like brake fluid. Most of it seems to be inspection of things you ought to be doing yourself like checking oil level or tyre depth. So if it doesn't cover the scheduled service items, what is point of it, apart from money grabbing

Skoda could make you wait until it has cleared newer more expensive orders, and has spare factory capacity, which might not be anytime in next 24 months. Alternatively might just build any remaining orders when they want to close production of the model, so can retool factory for next model, but that brings the risk that get a model about to be superseded. Sadly I think those with regularly slipping forward build dates are in a keep at back of queue scenario.

@New11 be careful, this may only be true short term. It is often plugged by salesman. However new PCPs are currently at high interest rates, and if inflation falls in few months could be paying well over inflation in 2 years time. If you are going to keep the car another few years, then rolling it with another PCP will just put you in same dilemma at end of that one. It is very easy to get on a merry-go-round with PCP extensions that you cannot afford to get out of (except by having no car). Work backwards, how many years will you keep car, (eg another 5, or perhaps to 10th birthday etc). Feel free to take out a bank loan (and use a comparison site for rates), but don't make the repayment period longer than your minimum keep car to date (you don't want to be still paying the loan when sold the car). Because the loan and car are not formally linked it would be easy to sell the car and forget to pay off any outstanding loan balance. For obvious reasons also a bad idea to consolidate a loan into extra mortgage (you might then be still making repayments in 15-25 years time, however long your mortgage has to go). Without knowing your financial circumstances, assume cheapest loan will be your bank or another lender. You might be able to take out a balance transfer onto a new credit card for about 3% for part of the amount (but make sure it is paid off before special period expires, otherwise likely to be paying 30+%). You really don't want to be paying anything with high interest. Use the internet and multiple financial comparisons sites, might not be a bank, and the interest rate will depend on circumstances. Sometimes rate is lower for bigger amounts over £5000 or £7000. Generally if there are rate tiers (lower interest for bigger amounts) then will be less interest to borrow the £7000 than just under a threshold eg £6900 at a higher rate. There are loans being advertised under 5% (but there are qualifying requirements) There is a chance interest rates will fall, they have already started to ease, so might be better waiting until nearer when balloon payment is due (but of course no one has a crystal ball so can't predict what rate you might get in a few months), there is a risk rate will go higher

The Cupar V1 kerb weight is 1811kg, but page 28 of the brochure also shows a gross (loaded) weight of 2270kg. I think you should be using this, not kerb weight. https://www.cupraofficial.co.uk/content/dam/countries/gb/cupra-website/download-documents/2022/v2_cars_models_cupra_born-pricelist-K11-12-2022.pdf If there was perfect weight distribution would be 2270/4 = 568kg, but I would assume at least 10% extra for cornering forces and uneven weight split, so get a figure of about 625kg. So your wheel at 630kg sounds right Never looked at that brochure before, but see you can have all-season tyres on 19 inch rims for £150. Lot more sensible than Skoda that often doesn't have them available on middle size rim.

Rounding pads thickness to nearest 10% suggests it was more a cursory glance than an actual measurement. Therefore should be able to double the mileage before pads are worn out, however probably best to get them checked again 15k miles to cover change of driving style or inaccurate measuring.

Here is the Skoda wheel catalogue. For Karoq, there are 19 inch (3 types), 6 each of 18 inch and 17 inch and 3 of 16 inch https://www.skoda.co.uk/_doc/639a0118-4da5-446b-a786-86e1f789b57b Even the 16 inch with 6J are ET43, and the 7J & 8J both ET45, which rather suggests that 7.5J (being between them) on ET45 should be ok The recommended tyre sizes are different for 4x4 models to 2 wheel drive, 215/55 R17 (668mm diameter) and 225/40 R19 (663mm) are within 5mm (under 1%) diameter difference 215/55 R17 (668mm) and 235/40 R19 (671mm) are within 3mm (under 0.5%) diameter diff The 17 inch 4x4 uses 225/55 R17 (678mm diameter) Bear in mind new vs a worn tyre tread depth could be 5mm (or 10mm diameter) and tyres are all similar size overall diameter. The diameter will vary by about 1.7% depending on tread depth anyway.

Very common this time of year, roads are often wet. Will rust much faster when splashed by damp from a salted road, as the salt water is lot more corrosive than pure rainwater. There is not much you can do to change it apart from move to a hot dry country. If a dealer tries the high percentage worn trick, ask for the millimetre readings. I once had a dealer say my brake pads were 75% worn (never used them since), another dealer following year said pads just over half worn, so pads apparently grew back about 20% in a year.

It's not just the Fabia, most VW group cars do it (possibly all of them), fuel gauge doesn't really go down for about 60 miles from full, and is poor near the bottom. When low if you go up or down a hill fuel will tilt in tank. Putting in tiny amounts (2.5-3 litres) might not even register that fuel level has been refilled when you restart it. The digital read out is only an estimate based on recent driving style and is to nearest 5 miles anyway. I have refilled after city driving and get some open road and range has climbed 120 miles. If it ever happens again and you are expected to add fuel you use for few miles in a courtesy car, just use the rule of thumb. About litre for every 7 miles.

What penalty clauses for delays did you sign up to If you made a open order, (it is entirely up to supplier if it takes 10 weeks or 10 months, or even 10 years), then sorry to say it is naive. They know they can just ignore you for few years until you eventually cancel. You might think it hurts their reputation, but whilst they can't build fast enough and have a huge waiting list, they are unlikely to worry. Lets be honest, if they can build a vehicle for someone else who is paying 20% more then there is no incentive to build your car, and is unlikely to be anytime soon.

Most people don't have the equipment to separate the tyres, so sell as complete rim+tyre If you do, could sell the 2 good tyres separately

At the moment in UK the diesel makes no sense. Its official fuel consumption is about 20% better than petrol, but diesel in UK now costs nearly 20% more than petrol. So fuel savings are almost nil, but diesel version costs more. Diesel is also unsuitable for regular short journeys due to complicated emission equipment clogging up if used for local travel. Last months car sales in UK had just 3.1% as diesel. Unless you live in a country with different relative fuel prices, buy the petrol. The tsi petrol engines are brilliant, but work best with DSG gearbox. If you choose manual gearbox and drive in urban areas you will find you need to do lots of frequent manual gear changes to keep engine at its ideal rev range.

Did I read this correctly, problems sourcing one replacement wheel (are they out of stock?) Instead opted to get 4 Octavia alloys, but then needed spacers, different bolts to fit the spacers, and different size tyres to fit the rims. Just intrigued at relative cost of this change.

That’s good What deposit contribution do you get (currently £1000) Just looked through current offers, and the Fabia offer is now restricted to drivers age 25-75, appears to be 18 upwards for Octavia, mystery to me as to why.

Have a look at the copy finance docs you signed There will be a quote valid to date somewhere, obviously if you get the car before that date then it is held at what you were quoted. If the quote expires (lapses) then will need to do a new one, which will presumably be at whatever rate is being charged at the time (currently 7.9%). But of course it your order is conditional on finance, and associated finance has lapsed, then you have a penalty free cancellation option.

Might be worth also looking at the all-in-one You get a major and minor service, 2 MOTs, 2 years breakdown cover and 2 years warranty cover for not much more than cost of the services (so warranty is virtually free) There has been couple of months where there was 20% off, but hasn’t been discounted since last summer. Perhaps the discounted price was too good to be true. Just remembered, the assistance and warranty also covers travel to Europe which might be useful if you go abroad and something fails

Slightly the wrong master plan, should swap the tyres-front back before you get anywhere near wearing out the fronts (it even says about swapping wheels around in the handbook). Then when you come to change tyres can do all 4 and have matching tyres Personally I would suggest switch front-back about 11k - 14k miles if not done more regularly. Both the Bridgestones and Goodyear eagle asymmetric 6 are not all year tyres (they are summer tyres). I use Goodyear Ultragrip (the colder month tyres) and I think they are outstanding so can see why you are considering Goodyear.

A lot of the early mk4 so had software problems, and these are best avoided unless both firmware and software has been upgraded. In some ways they have been made too complicated (and dealers often can’t fix them first time) Your budget will not get a new one (and anyway new offers are now rubbish, 7.9% apr and only £1000 contribution)

Ask your dealer, if the spec is being changed they should be notifying you (they get email updates of model changes), but some sales staff are lazy and once they have your deposit, stop being proactive. I would email your concern, asking them to check and advise, (also ask if there are any other spec changes since your order was placed), then if not got back to you within 2 working days, follow up with a phone call, or if you live close turn up and see them in person.

Ho Ho Ho If you keep keys in your pocket, whilst at home and moving around, then they are not going to go into sleep mode either. But as you have found out, the modern kessy system, creates new problems that are an inconvenience, whilst providing convenience.

Are there any cats or wildlife that might have hidden from the rain by running under the foot sensor.