RodDuggan

Renault 4 e tech. Truly wonderful user friendly software, not quite the build quality of Skoda but excellent to drive and a size that suits us.

Well after 14 years of Skoda ownership (Yeti, Karoq), we have jumped maker to Renault. Nothing quite interests us from Skoda at the moment, the Epiq looks promising but not around until 2027. What will we miss from the Karoq? The solid well built quality. The sensible dashboard and instruments layout. Amazing automatic matrix headlights The effortless and quiet motorway cruising. What will we not miss from the Karoq? The annoying screen messages (data management nearly every time we drive off, Android auto which only cancels for a minute, spurious update messages when you're driving saying you can't update whilst driving(!). The duff manual.

Our memory seats work well, it's handy when my wife and I change driving. However we have found quite often that the mirrors sometimes don't update to the new setting and another press of the memory button is needed. Trying a long press when selecting the setting does not help, but a subsequent press when the fault is discovered always works.

Mines been fine for four years so far

When we bought the car, the odd thing was that they started sending email promotions for us to change our Skoda for a new one, only weeks after we took delivery.

Ours said it was for "an update for my vehicle"

I was one of the licky ones to be chosen by Skoda for a "free update for my vehicle" this week. I have a special password, and must book the appointment between February 16th and 22nd. Was this a software update for our Karoq?. Hard to tell amongst the marketing speak so I phoned them for an explanation. It turns out its just a meeting to buy another Skoda! So does this mean if I want a new Skoda outside those dates there will be none available? And why would I need a special password to make an appointment with a sales assistant? If anybody knows what is really behind the marketing email I'd love to know.

Yes I think you're right, and will stop it at the phone end. Just very silly of Skoda to put a "Cancel" button on the infotainment screen that doesn't do anything apart from distract the driver.

Amongst other annoying infotainment screen messages is a recurring Android Auto message (see picture). Whilst it's there, no other modes work (Radio/Nav etc). When "Cancel" is selected it goes away for 10-15 seconds then comes back. In that 10-15 seconds I am allowed access to the Radio etc. which is some relief. This morning it was cancelled about twenty times and just kept reappearing. So tell me why do Skoda put in the "Cancel" box in that screen if it doesn't work?

Used the FDM download manager and it successfully downloaded the whole zip file at the first attempt. The log file shows it suffered many interruptions which would have stopped the download before with Google Chrome but the download manager coped with these and produced the whole file.

Unfortunately this year's update has had to be abandoned. Six or seven attempts at downloading the 29GB zip file from the update portal all failed at between 6 and 10GB. It's a pity successive downloads cannot continue from where the previous one stopped. I may have another attempt when I have nothing else to do but for now life is too short to worry about this.

It all started with a wish to find out if the last service had included an oil change, a simple desire that soon mushroomed into a nightmare. The Skoda Crawley service chap was rather coy and a little abrupt last June when I asked him what had been done at the service. They don't give out checklists so I was told it was a simple task to go into "My Skoda" to see the details. So last week I thought I'd give it a try as the oil was getting very black and smelly. I downloaded the Skoda app. That was my first mistake - it made me enter all sorts of stuff before it would even connect me, including car activation, lots of time spent with both keys and the infotainment system. It all seemed to be overkill just to find out the servicing details. Anyway I ended up making myself the Primary User which made me feel quite important but not for any clear reason. I wanted to add my wife as the other user but it asked for her email and a password to be registered so I gave up as enough time had been spent on this nonsense. What if my wife didn't have an email account? Would she be permanently banished from the world of Skoda like a modern day sort of excommunication? Anyway there were no servicing details in My Skoda apart from "interim/minor service" and the dates, which was very little help at all. Thank you Skoda Crawley. However my disappointment turned to shock when my wife told me the Karoq now reads speed in Kilometres per hour and fuel in Litres. No problem, she went into the settings and altered it back to MpH and UK gallons and all was well. Until I drove the car the next day and it had reverted to Kilometres and Litres again! A quick reset in the menu settings got us back to Miles and Gallons, but after only two minutes of driving a message appeared on the infotainment screen telling me " Your car settings are about to be changed". And they were, back to Kilometres and Litres. Aaaaargh! Oh and another thing - unlocking the car now suddenly left three doors still locked. The technology is taking over! Another session resetting the options in the menu settings and normality was restored. Am I old-fashioned in wanting to get in my car and just drive it rather than spend time cancelling spurious menus and resetting parameters? We've had nearly three years of having to cancel the "Data use" menu every time we drive off, we've set it as it should be according to the sales chap but it's still showing up. Anyway some peace and harmony has now been restored. Delete the Skoda app, delete the primary user, deactivate the Connect facility and we have finally have our car back! Goodbye "MyConnectSkoda"

Try Skoda Crawley, they refused to give me details of my two services. Good workshops usually have a checklist with ticks to show what's been done, which is very helpful for a customer. But not Skoda.

There's a switch on the roof console that doesn't actually switch the lights off but when pressed allows the rear light swiches to work, so it's a two stage operation!

Just thought I'd post the brief summary of details for those who don't know, and those of us who haven't time to download software to analyse the data.