2slo7

I can't say that I wont buy another diesel engined car, but I wont be sorry to avoid the smelly stuff for a while. We had been running two diesel engines Skodas in our household for the past few years. Wife recently got a new Fabia 1.2 petrol (110ps with 6 speed box, cracking little car) and I'm getting the 220 Tsi. The improvements in petrol engine technology mean there is less reason to buy a diesel unless you do mega mileage, which we dont these days.

I keep a packet of wet wipes in the drivers door pocket for that very reason.

After the usual months of waiting my new Superb Tsi 220 gets delivered next week. Looking forward to getting it and a change from wiping the smelly oily stuff off my hands (I've had a 170 Tdi for the past 3 and a half years). Checked Tesco prices for 99 RON when I was in today, their policy is that 99 RON is pegged at 5p per litre more than their 95 RON price. This makes their 99 RON only 3p per litre more than the Tesco diesel I usually fill up with so not too bad at all considering the extra performance.

Drivers door only to unlock is set up by default as a security measure. The idea is to stop someone jumping into the passenger side when they see the driver unlock the car. I've left this enabled on my wifes Fabia as she sometimes has to work late and feels safer knowing that only the drivers door has been unlocked. An extra press of the remote will open all the doors and unlock the boot if needed.

Since at least back to when I ordered mine late last year (SE L) also applies to the SE. You want Canton on these you pay for KESSY too. Sportline has KESSY as std so Canton can be ordered on its own. L&K has both a s std. S model doesn't list Canton as an option. SE business I don't know about. I cant see that model listed either?

That's the one, brilliant!

These issues remind me of a TV advert VW had running a long time ago for the Golf. The car squeeked so the owner took it in and it turned out to be the passengers earring causing the noise! Fixed with a single drop of oil. Anyone remember that?

Quite alright, good to reminisce. I think so too. It irritates me the way its done but Skoda obviously find it works for them.

That takes me back. I also bought a new XR2, in 1985, from the main Ford dealer in Doncaster. Rosso red with optional pepperpot alloys (it came with horrible plastic trims otherwise). IIRC I paid £5k but I know they did give me top book on a shed of an Austin Metro I p/ex ed. Good little car the mk II XR2. I thrashed mine up and down the A1 for 5 years/ 60k miles and it never missed a beat.

It went on longer than that. I bought my last new personal import Merc in 2001 from Garage Residence in Belgium. Brought up to UK spec and with some sensible options added (before the bundled options game started) and I save almost £5k. It was such a common practice then that they had a UK import specialist who handled everything from the initial enquiry through to the handover.

So the opposite to the way I've looked at it. Skoda UK must know or believe that the majority of customers will take your pov and have structured their options set up accordingly. Fortunately the main expensive option which I wanted (DCC) is a standalone where I didn't have to buy anything else to get it. If I'd been forced to buy a sunroof or some other unrelated option I might have looked elsewhere.

That's true. The new golf coming out has a few interesting colour options. Skoda seems restricted in colour choice by comparison.

Definitely not my first new car, I've lost count . It's true that other manufacturers do it, at least with the likes of BMW there is a financial incentive to buy a pack (last time I looked the combined cost of the options in a pack tended to be more than you'd pay if buying them bundled in the pack). Skoda aren't doing this though, just expecting their customers to stump up full price for stuff they may not want. I don't recall Skoda doing this on my last Superb either (almost 4 years old). I'm sure I was able to buy the 'sound system' as a stand alone option. I expect that as dieselV6 says above, Skoda have looked at what their individual markets want and set up their spec/ options/ prices accordingly.

This has been touched on in other threads but I thought I'd give it a thread to itself to highlight the issue. Before going to the dealer I 'built' my soon to be delivered Superb III a few months back on the configurator. I'm replacing my current Superb II 170tdi Elegance with a new SE L Executive 220ps hatch and wanted a similar spec to what I've got now. I haven't been too impressed with the 'sound system' (as Skoda calls it) in my current car but I have talked to a few people who reckoned the Canton in the new model was way better. £600 looked expensive for the upgrade but anyway I thought I'd go for it. So I put that into the configurator: Oh no, not so fast, you want to order Canton, you'll have to order KESSY as well for another £400. Now bearing in mind I really don't want KESSY and I'm not prepared to pay for it, Skoda have immediately lost £600 from me. Looking through the other options, a tv tuner for the Columbus might have been nice, but no, you can't just order that either, you have to pay an extra £350 for a rear view camera if you want the tv upgrade. No thanks, a rear view camera is another option I don't want and wont pay for. Skoda is now up to £1450 in lost revenue (£600 Canton + £850 tv tuner). Imagine how that would mount up if other customers looking at options thought the same. It didn't stop me ordering the car and I was able to spec the DCC (Dynamic Chassis Control) which I wanted plus a few other bits and pieces. Just a shame Skoda don't let people order what they want rather than trying to force them to pay for options they may not want. As a customer, it doesn't seem a good idea.

Priced itself out of the market for me, not because I wouldn't pay for Canton but because I refuse to pay for Kessy which, for UK cars, you have to order together.