GainfulShrimp

Thanks for the nudge/tip. I had given up after it failed several times after I first installed the app... (I can't remember the exact error, but the summary was "computer says no".) But I retried it again just now and it instantly recognised my VIN, gave me the correct manufacturing and first reg dates and offered to download the manual and quick tips for me. Oh, and it offered to send me a push notification if Skoda ever recall the car. Now it's worked, I can also see service history ('Digital Service Plan') - good stuff!

I couldn't get the manuals bit of the app to work at all (on my iPhone 6+ with iOS 10). The latest version gets lots of terrible reviews for crashing a lot on iOS 10, so hopefully they're working on it...

I made sure I saved a transcript of the pre-sales online chat I had with Direct Line recently - where they promised there would be no extra charges for fitting winter wheels and tyres - so that I can show it to them if/when they try to charge me anything for fitting my winter steelies. Insurance companies are, in general, scumbags. They will use any and every excuse to charge their customers extra fees. I've ordered these rather fetching generic aftermarket wheel trims for my 16" steel wheels, from fleabay (they come complete with Skoda logo stickers for the middle haha): http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/16-Skoda-Fabia-Roomster-Octavia-etc-Wheel-Trims-Covers-Hub-Caps-Quantity-4/252421845133 Anyway, I'm sure you won't be disappointed with Goodyear Ultragrip 9, they're excellent!

Ta muchly. I was looking for a used car and wanted to sort something quickly, as my outgoing car was at that "shall I change it now or run it into the ground?" stage. It was due an MOT very soon - this week, in fact - and required four new tyres I think, on top of whatever else the MOT might discover needing fixing... My instinct was to go for another SEAT, but they seem to have slashed the included toys for every trim level, to the extent that even climate control is only standard for the FR or Cupra Leons. I view climate control as a basic human right for those who do quite a bit of driving, so I started looking at Skoda Octavias. I soon realised that an L&K Octavia would fit the bill perfectly in terms of bells and whistles, but I couldn't quite stretch to the price (all the ones I could find were a good few £k more than I paid). Also, you can't get L&K with the 1.6 and I'm all about the mpg. And if I found some L&K 2.0 TDIs within budget, I knew I'd be tempted to go for a DSG one (I loved the DSG in my old Leon FR until it started malfunctioning), which would have further hurt economy a bit. Both L&K and vRS trims are higher insurance and tax bands than the Greenline, as well. So although my heart said "diesel DSG", my head said "Greenline manual". When I found a Greenline with a shedload of options included, I knew I had to go for it as it seems top specs on tree-hugging eco models are very rare, in my experience... Sorry for the long winded answer, but I spent quite a while debating with myself on this one while I was hunting for suitable cars!

I picked up my Octavia Estate (SE Business Greenline III with loads of options) last Thursday. Summary: I'm loving it so far. The general quality feels in the next league to my outgoing SEAT Leon mk2 and I'm enjoying the smoother ride and amazing economy. I'm still exploring the zillion different screens on the Columbus system, but I'm really impressed with the Columbus/Canton combination - sounds better than any of my previous cars have (I'm no audiophile though). The Park Assist is fun, too. It got me into a parallel space that I don't think I would have attempted myself - really clever. The MaxiDOT tells me I'm doing late-60s mpg average for most journeys. I made 74.1mpg average on my commute last Friday morning, although only got 69mpg today - most likely the colder weather explains the difference, although I know it can take a while for the computer to sort itself out for new-ish cars. I spent a couple of hours applying Gtechniq G1 to all the exterior glass yesterday. I've used it on my last couple of cars and really like it. I've signed up to Fuelly, so will get an accurate idea of real mpg (to put in my signature) from my next fill-up onwards. Oh, and I've ordered some Osram H8 bulbs which claim to be both a bit whiter than standard and brighter, while still being road legal. I don't like the yellowish look of the cornering fogs in combination with the bi-xenons... we'll see if I can fit them without taking the skin off my hands when they arrive.

Yup, there's a balance. If you floor it completely, you'll also use more fuel. There's an optimum rate of acceleration that you need to find by practice. Such is a the fun of hypermiling.

My Columbus updated 100% from a fast-ish USB3 flash device (Sandisk Ultra Fit 64GB) in about 40 minutes... so perhaps the USB port is quicker than the SD card method (even with a class 10 card)? I was slightly disappointed to find a petrol station station POI marked next to my house after updating the maps. That petrol station was demolished at least a couple of years before we moved in - and that was 10 years ago!

Thanks so much Kevin93! I'd been scratching my chin over that BlobNotFound error for some time... These maps are pretty big though eh? Chrome is saying it'll take over an hour to download (23.9GB apparently!).

Ta for all the suggestions. I found some 20 x 30 tie handle freezer bags cheap in Asda, so I'm going to try those. These look like some good options too, but I don't think there's a Lakeland near me and I didn't fancy paying postage: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/1010/100-Freezeasy-Food-Freezer-Bags---Gusseted-(20-x-30cm)-Size-4 http://www.lakeland.co.uk/1086/Size-4-Freezeasy-Bags-20-x-30-cm- All a bit academic at the moment as I won't be getting the bin until at least tomorrow, or the car until Thursday haha.

Thanks. We've got some of those in the drawer already, so worth a try.

I've ordered a waste bin online, as I have a bad habit of collecting pay and display tickets and fuel receipts in the door pocket anyway. Does anyone know where to buy bags of the right size please? Apparently I need 20x30cm bags, but I couldn't find any on Amazon in that size...

From what I've read, SmartGate requires extra hardware that talks directly to the canbus ECU (I think it's fitted under the seat, but could be making it up).

It'll be fun, but the toll booths can be interesting if you don't have a front passenger to help deal with money etc - Dodgy's tip about the toll tag is a good one - I didn't think of that when we did it and had a couple of awkward moments. Also, make sure you either have proper winter tyres or at least snow socks (or chains, if you dare using them with your alloys - but chains are a right faff!). When it's snowing, the gendarmerie have been known to block drivers from attempting the drive up into the mountains if they haven't got the right tyres or suitable snowsocks etc. I'm a massive convert to using winter tyres in this country too; they don't just help when it's snowy... If taking the péage autoroutes (toll motorways), which I'd recommend, make sure you keep your average speed under the (pretty generous) limit. Speed cameras on motorways in France are pretty rare, but if you reach a toll booth and your average speed since the last booth is much over the limit, you're likely to get an automatic fine (if you suspect you might have been flooring it too much - often tempting when the motorways are a higher quality than ours and tend to be less busy - just stop at a services for a break to bring your average speed down).

I use low rolling resistance tyres in summer - I've used Michelin Energy Saver, Goodyear Efficient Grip and Michelin Energy Saver+. The latter are my favourite. None of them are great in standing water, but the Goodyears were worrying when they eventually let go - it was all or nothing - I find the ES+ to be more progressive, not that I push them much anyway. The ES+ tyres seem to last for ages too. I haven't logged how long though unfortunately. In winter, Goodyear Ultragrip 9 are the best I've tried and lasted much longer than the Michelin Alpin PA3, which were my first winter tyres. The Ultragrip 9s are amazing on cold (<7degC), wet, slimy mornings - typical weather for early mornings during winter in this country, in other words. They're great in snow too, but the last few years haven't given me much opportunity to play in the snow. I plan to use my existing winter steelies (currently in the garage) for the Octavia, as it shares wheel/tyre dimensions with my current Leon: a nice bonus...

Petrols are much more thirsty. And much more fun too imho. I had a mk2 Leon FR TFSI 2.0 DSG before my current treehugger 1.6 diesel version, and it was fantastic fun, but at the time I did >30k miles per year and really struggled to keep the FR fuelled. Driving carefully, I could get about 30mpg. Any heavy traffic on my route combined with a couple of spirited uses of S mode on the DSG for overtaking and country lane rollercoaster roads etc, would see it drop to mid-to-high 20s. I read up about hypermiling (perhaps I should get out more) and tried to use all the techniques for a bit: driving with load (i.e. constant engine load, variable speed), avoiding cruise control (which does the opposite and keeps speed constant by varying load excessively), very careful and smooth use of accelerator, accelerating at just the right pace (too slow and too fast both cost more fuel), I even used to hang behind lorries on long straights... and I could manage 41mpg over the tankful if I was lucky. It just wasn't worth it; I couldn't enjoy the car if I drove it in a manner that I could *almost* afford to fuel it. So I switched to a much slower diesel version. My insurance costs dropped through the floor and I could suddenly afford to run a car again. (The free tax disc was a nice cherry on top, but a drop in the ocean compared to fuel and insurance savings tbh.) It was a hard decision, as I bloody loved my FR when I used it properly, but couldn't keep up with its thirst for super-unleaded (the TFSI I had never really liked standard petrol, which hurt the wallet even worse!)... Nowadays, the James May side of me loves to try to get >60mpg average over a tankful, and I regularly achieve that with my Ecomotive - I use the Road Trip app on my phone to work out real mpg from odometer readings and fuel receipts, so I know the trip computer isn't bull****ting me. I got 63.5mpg average over a tankful recently. I still do a lot of miles - a mix of country B roads, dual carriageway and a small amount of urban. Moral of the story - if you've got a lovely car with a powerful petrol engine, have fun and enjoy it ffs! If you're doing too many miles to justify the subsequent fuel bills, face up to it and get an oil-burning version of the same. And if you get obsessed with mpg like I did (oddly fun in itself after a while, I'm almost ashamed to admit), you probably should just accept it and enjoy the cheaper insurance, tax and fuel bills. I can't wait to see what long term mpg I can squeeze out of my Greenline III Estate, when I get it (and once it's run in etc). Sad but true!

From what I can tell, it's a special feature to allow your kids to use your phone's entire month's 4G data allowance in one long car journey's worth of YouTube nonsense-watching.

Thanks Superb170 (sorry for calling you Freedom - I'm still getting used to the forum styling lol). I was really chuffed to find it, as I've hardly seen any Greenline IIIs with bi-xenons, let alone all the other goodies. It was apparently an ex-Skoda UK management car, so I can imagine they don't pay quite as much for options as normal customers, and thus ticked every box they could see!

I like the idea of the double sided fold-out boot mat, which when folded looks like a two-section textile boot mat, but then can be reversed and folded out to cover one or both of the (folded down) rear seats, and even provides a bit of protection for the loading sill etc. Trouble is, several sites claim that the part number I've found - 5E9061210A - is for vehicles with a variable boot floor. I won't have that in my car and not sure I want it, from some of the posts I've read about it sagging when loaded etc... For the Superb III, there are two part numbers for the fold-out boot mat - one for variable boot floors and one for cars without it. Does anyone know if there's a version for the Octavia III that suits cars without VBFs please?