Skodbuster

I wonder if those lower sited headlamps are going to be a bit better in fog with the driver not looking down the beam so much.

Just had this problem with a brand new 2020 Kamiq. I had left it not in park but when I selected park the car refused to recognise this and it took multiple selection of drive and park and 6 minutes driving before it cleared. The wing mirrors would not deploy even under motion and the car would not lock. Seems like a software bug to me not re-reading the Park selection switch.

Lane assist is a nightmare as said by others as crossing a narrow bridge I had to hold it off strongly as it desperately wanted to drive into the parapet and over the edge. Luckily with cruise control it can be switched off. Part of a pre-drive cockpit check is to switch off the bureaucrats safety measures not trusting humans at all apart from an implicit trust in the computer code they have written. Massive bug in the Auto as I have read elsewhere if you switch off not in park it will not recognise when put in park again. I went through cycles of switching off, going to drive and park and the mirrors would not deploy as I had folded them or the car not lock and the error message repeating I was heading to the workshop as the error message said. After driving for 6 minutes with no wing mirrors and stopping at traffic lights and running to Park and back to drive the mirrors deployed and it was back to normal. It makes you feel for those pilots in the 737 Max who could not stop and there was no time for the bug to sort out amd wondering which virtual button to press. The Karoq just needed putting in to Park and was OK. It looks like the Kamiq does not immediately recognise Park reselection and just times out the error after a few minutes when the dumb computer realises you have driven off and it is all rather academic. Brilliant car apart from that and handling is much tighter and with less SUV lumbering around corners than the Karoq. The view out through the windscreen is panoramic also with a very low bonnet. The higher power 1 litre pulls well also and much nicer to drive than the 1.5 Karoq as pressing the accelerator too hard from start in the auto resulted in alarming anti-wheelspin banging and juddering.

I had a DSG that when in the surprisingly hilly Isle of Wight on a very hot summer the box started to squeal on take off. It sounded very like a clutch release bearing problem to me common in the old days from resting a foot on the clutch. Back in flat Essex it went away. A mechanic actually showed me a bearing and it looked like a sintered metal pre-oiled device and I wonder if it ran a bit dry for a time.

I have just ordered a Kamiq and this lane assist is something that needs looking at. I have a Karoq at the moment and always switch Eco start off as if you hold on a junction on the foot brake in the DSG and want to quickly get away the engine starting and the clutch engaging together really feel like they are going to smash the transmission and/or starter. With the manual it was never a problem. If I hold at traffic lights with the parking brake on which you are supposed to do in case a collision jumps your foot off the brake the engine keeps running! My worst experience with these safety systems was in a Fabia i think when a big plastic rubbish bag blew in front of the car and the brakes came on hard as though it had grounded on a lump of concrete and came within inches of the car behind needing scraping off the back. I actually looked underneath until I realised what had happened. To the dumb machine not hitting a plastic bag was the lesser of 2 evils as opposed to a rear end collision. Roll on self drive cars I think not. I will probably switch these Euro committee designed safety systems off in a pre-startup cockpit check list as with an aircraft to ensure a safe takeoff. It appears I may need my wife as co-pilot to change heating fan settings etc. on the move in the menus with buttons disappearing left right and centre.