YTT

Thanks for the responses. I think you're referring the original satnav system, which I had in my previous 2017 Superb. Unfortunately, they have fitted an 'improved' satnav in my 2022 Superb and, predictably, it's worse than the old one in every respect that I've tried. It's very similar to the one I had in a Cupra Formentor, which was also rubbish (although it did have an external zoom control). So unfortunately your suggestions don't work. HOWEVER, after much messing, I've discovered that I can do it by very positively putting my finger and thumb on the screen and pinching / opening them, whilst ensuring they stay in solid contact with the screen. Sounds straightforward, but if not executed very deliberately, you can inadvertently shift the map and throw off its alignment, which was the issue I had.

I wish! Mine is the Columbus and has no knob. I had a 2017 Superb in the past and I'm pretty sure I didn't have the problem in that car.

As far as I'm aware, the only way I can zoom the satnav map in and out is by using finger gestures. However, when I do this it invariably moves the map, displacing the car from the centre. Once displaced, the map stops scrolling as you drive and after a bit the car disappears off the screen. I can either keep dragging the map to pull it back into view, or touch the centering button on the right of the screen, which pulls the car back to the centre of the screen. However, in doing so it changes the zoom level away from what I want. How do I zoom in and out without all this happening?

I recall a (non-Skoda) dealer telling me some years back that the oil put in there by the manufacturer is 'special', in that it's designed to allow a little bit of wear to bed the engine in. Hence, changing it too early isn't a good idea. How true that is I do not know. What I do know is that when I've done it myself over the years, I always took the opportunity to rip the old oil filter apart and their was always a fair few metal bits in there, which aren't there on subsequent changes. On my last Superb I had the dealer do it at about 2k miles. I'm thinking maybe the suggestion of 5k miles is a good compromise. In terms of oil and coolant checks, I do them regularly but don't particularly note the levels, just that they are within spec.

I've always been in the habit of doing the first oil change on any vehicle after about 2000 miles, regardless of what the manual says. Then continue with normal service intervals. My reasoning has always been along the lines of removing running-in particles, manufacturing leftovers etc. I'm just approaching that mileage on my new L&K 280 and wondering what the group thinks about doing an early oil change on modern cars?

As Fencer said, it's the principle. I've never even used them, but if the hole is there, I'll fill it.....! I get riled by the fact that dealers bang on about their 100+ point pre-delivery check, their great quality, how the customer is so important. Then miss something simple and take forever to correct it. At the handover, I had the usual 'rate our service' type questionnaire thrust at me, which I was encouraged to complete promptly. I never do, I wait because sure as eggs is eggs there'll be post sale issues and I know that once the money has left my bank the service levels will plummet.

Interestingly, I also have a Seat Leon (read Golf!), which is a great little car. My missus has a Land Rover Discovery, 66k miles, just broke it's crank. £10k repair. Common problem. Never, ever buy a Disco. See https://www.thepetitionsite.com/en-gb/535/903/886/land-rover-sdv6-amp-tdv6-crank-failure/

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like it's just the one umbrella, then. I'll buy a second one, but not for the £25+ everyone seems to want. I'll check the dimensions and buy something similar that will fit, for a tenner!

Quick question. Just taken delivery of my new 72-plate 280 L&K and it's missing umbrellas in both driver and passenger doors. When I bought my last one in 2017, it had 'brollys in both doors. I contacted the dealer and was advised that they should come with one umbrella only and that they'd send one to me (hasn't arrived yet). Anyone know if this is correct? I sold my 67-plate 280 L&K last year, after 4 years of thoroughly enjoyable motoring, for no other reason than I fancied a change, maybe to an SUV type thang. I subsequently bought + sold a Mercedes E450, Infiniti QX30, Jaguar E-Pace, Cupra Formentor and Mercedes GLC43. I also test drove some new cars - Volvo XC40, Volvo XC60, Range Rover Evoque, Audi Q3, Audi Q5, Mercedes GLC250 and VW Tiguan. I think that's all of them, may have missed one or two. I did try and get a drive in a Kodiaq VRS, but gave up after utter disinterest by Skoda dealers. I'd previously tried + rejected saloons from Merc / Audi / BMW etc. After all of that and incurring huge buying + selling losses, I returned to the fold with my new 280 L&K a month or so ago. Climbing back in and driving away from the dealership was sheer bliss. I've greatly compressed this summary, which doesn't convey the pain suffered. Thinking there might be something better out there was an expensive mistake.

You'd think! It made a real difference to my Superb. So much so, that the missus wasn't so keen when she drove it. She said it made the car go like my old TTRS! I hadn't mounted it with the adjustment dial in an easy-to-get-at place, so I took it all out, intending to re-mount where she could 'turn it down' when she drove. I just never got round to refitting it.

I've just put my Racechip XLR throttle tuner up for sale in the classifieds @ £75, if anyone's interested!

When the Skoda dealer finally looked at it, as I understand it they basically reset the system. When it came up again, everything worked fine. No repairs or anything - just a re-boot. Now 'Side Assist' doesn't appear anywhere in the Maxi Dot or vehicle setup menus and the blind spot monitor works again. Go figure. Any they want software controlled driverless cars....! Oh, and I never refitted the Racechip XLR (it's up for sale on this site), so I couldn't say whether it had anything to do with the problem.

I made a few (negative) posts last year about SLA. Now the clocks have changed and I'm driving in the dark a lot more, I thought I'd give it another go. Within the first 5 minutes of SLA high beam I got flashed by 3 oncoming cars. So back to putting it into Eco mode at night, which just dips the beam when an oncoming car is detected.

For sale, my Racechip XLR throttle tuner for 2017 Superb III 280 L&K. Cost £189. Used for 6 months only. With manual. Selling at £115 including UK mainland postage. https://www.racechip.com/throttle-tuning/xlr.html

Superb 280 L&K hatchback, petrol blue, black leather, heated everything, ventilated seats, smart light assist (wish I could turn it off), lane assist, blind spot detection, rear wiper, wireless phone charging, WLAN & internet, travel assist, rear camera, media command, boot backrest release, proper spare wheel. One year down the line and absolutely love it. Adaptive cruise the best feature I've ever had on anything.

That's really interesting and it's what I'm expecting when I change mine. My perception is the noise in the car is almost all tyre noise, depending on the road surface. If I'm on a nice smooth bit of tacmac at 80, it's really quiet, practically no wind noise.

In a nutshell, I find the 280 as good if not better in just about every respect except one, which is cabin noise. I say this with some caution - it's not unduly noisy, but if pushed to say something negative, that would be it. And I'm comparing to top end Mercs - E55AMG, CLS500. Compared to muggle Mercs and Audis (eg C series, A5 etc), it's no worse. A lot of noise seems to come from the tyres. When I change them, I'll be paying a lot of attention to the noise rating of the replacements. That's it. I love the car and would recommend it to anyone.

I pay no attention to anything anybody says or does about cars these days - Euro regs, WLTP, emissions etc. Govt encourage us to do something (buy diesels), then **** all over us. Manufacturers wasting billions meeting one new Euro reg after another, when the money would be better spent developing the inevitable electric technology. All the time the excuse is taken to tax and fine. Just buy what you like, common sense left the building a long time ago. Same with depreciation. You never really know what will happen to the value. I have lost tens of thousands over the years on Jags, Mercs and Audis. I don't think my 280 L&K will be any worse. PS Carwow really worked for me - got a stunning deal last year.

I was reminded today that I made my first post here a year ago, so I thought it appropriate to post an update! I've had the 280 L&K Superb nearly a year now and it has been everything I thought it would be. Absolutely no regrets and I get as excited about driving it today as I did on day one. I am pleased to confirm that as anticipated, when I see an Audi / BMW / Merc now, I smugly think my Suberb is bigger, faster, better equipped and more enjoyable, for a lot less money.

I too considered a Golf R, but didn't need to drive it. Just sitting in it was enough to know that it wasn't a patch on the Superb. I still get alerts off the likes of Autotrader for used Golfs and they're always low equipment spec. You're lucky to get a steering wheel.

Took the opportunity to check out the 4x4 in the heavy snow we had round here in the last few days. Very impressive. Found grip, kept on the straight and narrow. I was the only one who made it in to work on Friday (not sure that's a great advantage).

No, haven't done anything other than fit the Racechip box.

What actually happened woz.... I was driving along a motorway, when I had cause to turn Lane Assist on (to blow my nose - best use for it!). When I pulled up the Maxi Dot assist menu, there were only 3 items in it - Lane Assist, Side Assist and Front Assist, of which Front Assist was selected. So I put Lane Assist on and it worked fine (clear nose!). However, two things struck me. Firstly, I was 'sure' there were more than 3 entries in that menu previously and secondly what the hell was Side Assist? So I clicked it and got the 'Function Unavailable'. At the next opportunity, I had a surf through the vehicle menus, found Side Assist in there etc etc (see first post). Enabling LA and ALG still doesn't get it working. I've had a quick look through the assist systems in the paper manual that came with the car, but I can't see any mention of Side Assist. And what happened to those other Maxi Dot menu items? To compound all this, around the same time I noticed my blind spot monitor wasn't working. It used to. So I rang my local Skoda dealer and they didn't have the faintest clue and suggested I bring it in for them to look at. They didn't know what 'Side Assist' was either. And even more compounding, I fitted a Racechip XLR throttle tuner around Xmas time and I wondered whether this might have something to do with it. I have been trying to find the time to disconnect it and try the blind spot monitor again. As you can imagine, I want to do this before taking it to the Skoda dealer, so I haven't done that yet either. So ahead of getting that done, I thought I'd drop a post here... One final thing occurred to me. I have the Internet connection option, which works well. I wondered if I've been on the receiving end of an 'update'.

See attached pics.