IanJD

Your nit-picking missed that I didn't specify *when* this is true, one example is in the case of snow when a skilled driver with ABS turned off will stop quicker. You're also wrong about maximum braking being with wheels locked (as somebody else pointed out), braking distance is minimised with a given amount of slip between wheels and road. But you're correct that ABS will stop more quickly and with the car more under control for almost all drivers under almost all circumstances, especially when compined with brake assist which applies the brakes more heavily to make up for the fact that even in an emergency many drivers don't brake hard enough.

Same principle as "ABS can't always brake as fast as an experienced driver using cadence braking" -- which is true, but such drivers are outnumbered 100:1 by less skilled and experienced drivers for whom ABS is literally a life-saver. As a self-identified fantastic driver you'd like to purchase a vehicle without such intrusive add-ons which interfere with your enjoyment of the vehicle. But manufacturers won't make a vehicle ("R" for Risky?) just for a tiny minority of superb drivers like you, they insist on adding on all these pesky safety features to save the lives of the majority of idiots, and they don't want it to be possible to turn these features off because if they do more people/idiots will turn them off and die as a result -- and they're fitted as standard not made optional (at extra cost) because penny-pinching idiots won't order them. If safety features can be turned off temporarily for exceptional cases (like ABS) they're turned back on automatically the next time the car is started. These are the general principles of how car safety is improved. So the obvious consequence is that some idiots will die so you can not be irritated by what you see as superfluous safety features. Is that your position?

With any add-ons like ACC or driver alert there are always some negative points for some people, but if the result is overwhelmingly positive for most people fitting them is easy to justify. Yes some people may get a bit irritated by the driver alert system, on the other hand systems like this have been shown to reduce crashes and save lives by alerting sleepy/tired drivers. The whole point of safety-focused add-ons is that statistically they aim to reduce accident/death rates, which is precisely why fitting them is encouraged by safety ratings. If you're irritated and demand that Skoda delete the driver alert and they did and somebody was killed as a result, would you want to be the one to go and tell their family? Yes I know that it's well-nigh impossible to show correlation between a feature like this and a particular accident, but the effect overall is exactly the same if fewer people get killed overall, we just can't say exactly which ones were killed (or saved) by it -- the effect is there, even if it's much smaller than (say) seat belts or airbags.

The biggest reason for Prius popularity nowadays is as a taxi/Uber/Lyft, especially in the USA, and the main reason for this is (apart from the good fuel economy) that they're extremely reliable and almost indestructible over high mileages, partly due to not having a clutch/gearbox and partly due to being a Toyota 😉

All "mild hybrids" (with small batteries) have 2 basic purposes; the first is to help the manufacturers meet their official all-model C02 targets, and the second (in the UK) is company cars where the user gets a huge BiK benefit -- at least, for the time being. Both are basically emissions/tax fiddles rather than genuinely reducing emissions, few people see anything like the fuel consumption claimed, and if they're plug-ins many people don't even plug them in after the first flush of enthusiasm. And the manufacturing costs (and attendant CO2 burden) are hideous because you have to make and pay for both the IC engine/gearbox and the electric motor/battery/controller. I used to have a Mercedes E300 (non-plug-in) diesel hybrid, fuel consumption was more than 20mpg worse than the official figure -- yes I know most cars don't reach this either, but hybrids are well-known for having an even bigger gap between theory and reality. And before you asked why -- it was a company car and the BiK benefit was huge, but I didn't get it expecting any massive saving in fuel costs and I wasn't disappointed... If you're serious about C02 emissions and saving the planet (and charging it works for you) go electric or don't have a car. If it's a company car with big BiK savings (which might disappear...) you could go for a hybrid, but don't pretend it's for emissions reasons, for most people that's greenwashing. And anyone with any pretence to caring about emissions shouldn't be driving a big heavy SUV, even if it's a hybrid... I'm sure there are some people who'll say "I've got a PHEV and I charge it religiously and hardly use any petrol" -- well good for you, but you're in the minority of PHEV owners, a large number of who *never* plug them in.

When I added all the options I wanted, both Sportline and Sportline Plus ended up considerably more expensive than the L&K -- unsurpringly, all manufacturers have rip-off prices for options. I'd be surprised if this has changed recently... (of course this may not be true if you don't want some of the more expensive options -- but if you spec up to the same level it's definitely true) Also bear in mind that options have a low or negligible residual value when you sell the car, S/H pricing is pretty much based on the standard model spec -- it's why with a leased car the entire cost of optional extras is added onto the lease cost.

It's not there on my MY2020 L&K...

Has anyone else with the new HID SLA on the facelift model noticed that the main beams seem to be a little bit high compared to dip beams, so there's a horizontal slightly darker line in the beam pattern where they meet up? They are very good at illuminating trees and roadside, but I can't help thinking they'd do an even better job of lighting up the road in the far distance if aimed a bit lower. Or is this likely to be an adjustment thing that can be fixed by a dealer (or me)?

Not on my previous (HID SLA) Superb, and certainly not on my current (LED SLA) one -- the HID one behaved very much like this, the LED one is much more precise about where the dark area is and much faster to bring main beam back up afterwards. Many people (including me) have said that their Superb SLA works well, but you keep telling them they're wrong -- you seem to be falling into the trap of assuming that just because you have had a bad experience with something (and note that I'm not saying *you're* wrong about that) then everybody else must have done the same...

The FL MY2020 LED SLA headlights on the Superb are the same as the matrix LED on the A6 AFAIK. Maybe this explains why they work much better than the older Superb HID ones?

At the weekend I did a long drive at night for the first time in this car, on a mixture of motorways, A roads and B roads. All I can say is that the SLA works extremely well, much more so with the new LED headlights than the HID ones on the previous model. Excellent visibility down the sides of the road whether following another car or with traffic coming the other way, didn't get flashed once in the entire journey -- my wife in the passenger seat said it was fascinating watching the dark zones following approaching cars and then full beam coming back up immediately they passed, or following the car in front even round bends in the road. You absolutely could not do anything similar with manually controlled main beams, the improvement in visibility is huge and immediately obvious.

Welcome to the world of Skoda Superb tyre sizes, all specially chosen to be expensive and have few choices... 😞

Just be aware that some tyre places won't fit tyres which aren't on the manufacturer's approved size list for a car, presumably in case there's an accident and they then get sued (regardless of how unlikely a 10mm wider tyre with a few mm bigger diameter is to cause an accident). I've also heard that insurance companies have used this as an excuse to reduce or refuse payouts because it's "a change from standard equipment on a safety-critical part" and they weren't told about it and didn't approve it. So I'd suggest checking with your insurer first and getting approval in writing (or email), then you can show this to the fitting shop in case they get shirty about it. Or just ignore all this as scaremongering and go ahead, it's your decision 😉 With a leased car you've got zero chance of them agreeing to you fitting non-standard tyres, and if you do it without telling them you'll probably get hammered for replacement costs when you return the car. I'm currently having an argument with VWFS who are trying to charge me £700 on return for replacing a bumper which had a scratch on it because they claim it was cracked, when it was nothing of the sort... 😞

Skoda have done a great job of choosing tyre sizes for the Superb (both 18" and 19") that are both expensive and unavailable in many brand/models... 😞 My last TSI220 L&K (18") had Pirelli P7 fitted at the factory, these were terrible for both noise, grip and life, The Premacy 4 that replaced them were much better from all three points of view. My new TSI272 L&K has Sport Contacts fitted which so far seem similar to the Michelins -- when they wear out I'll probably replace them with CrossClimate+, the summer tyres (P7) were hilariously bad last time we had snow and I suspect we'll be getting more of it...

I assume everyone knows that you can set how quickly SLA dips the lights, there's an item in the menus that sets this? Set it to "early" and they dip quicker.

Nothing to do with college degrees. You said SLA was useless and just for lazy drivers; I was simply pointing out that you can't make a valid comment on it unless you've driven with it. Reading about it on the Internet doesn't count...

In that case you're not qualified to say whether it's a gimmick or not... 😉

I don't see how by manually switching from main beam to dip you can keep the nearside verge lit into the distance or how you can keep good visibility on your side of a dual carriageway without blinding oncoming traffic -- which is what SLA does. Yes some gizmos are just labour-saving, but SLA isn't one of them, it genuinely makes driving at night easier and safer. It's one thing I'd pay extra for if it wasn't standard (which it is on the L&K), and that's speaking as somebody who thought it was a gimmick before I got a car equipped with it. Have you actually driven a car with SLA for any distance at night?

If you want a significant number of extras -- especially expensive ones like LED headlights -- it's often cheaper to buy the next model up if these come as standard, even if this has other stuff that you don't really need. This is exactly the reason I ended up with the L&K for the second time...

Yes I found it in the steering wheel controls eventually. Still can't find it in the main screen options, mine never pops up a menu like that... Still fat harder than it needs to be 😉

Had another go when I filled up this morning, could I find the trip reset option anywhere? No... 😞

Yes it's a pain, the reset button just under the dials was far more convenient. Last time I wanted to reset the trip I couldn't even find the option in the menu structure... It's the modern UI obsession with having everything in on-screen menus; in the BMW I had a few years back it took the same number of actions (four or five?) to change the leaving-the-car headlight timeout (something you maybe do once, or never) as it did to swap a CD in the changer (something you did all the time) -- previous car, press a button on the fascia, job done. Car UI designers often seem incapable of realising that things you do often should be quickly accessible and things you hardly ever do can be buried several layers deep in menus, they're just so obsessed with the idea that you need to be able to change *everything* because that's really cool, but have no idea about prioritisation 😞

No, it was my wife trying to do it when I was away at the weekend. So long as I know they *should* work, I'll give it another go tonight -- thanks 🙂

With my new car I only got one of the KESSY keys with the shiny chrome bit and two plain black ones. It doesn't seem that the black ones are recognised by the car for personalising the setup when you get in -- is this the case? With my previous car I got two chrome keys so the car automatically switched seat/mirror/preferences when me or my wife got in. Only having one is a pain...

My rear discs (2016 TSI220) were replaced at 35000 miles when the car went in for its first MOT in August, they were horribly grooved -- luckily VWFS paid since it was leased with full servicing...