TheITGuy

Hi Graham, I think part of the problem is that the Octavia replaced a 2015 Superb estate (and that replaced a 2011 Superb estate) and I was expecting similar build quality and refinement, just in a smaller package. The car had a sunroof which rattled from almost day one, which multiple trips to a dealer to resolve did nothing (other than to get silicon spray over the seats and trim where they have sprayed the stuff through the open sunroof from above). There was a resonance at a specific engine speed which another dealer tried in vain to fix (full marks though for their peristence). I also found the ride a bit crashy, thanks to the torsion beam rear suspension and being one of the early generation of 1.5 TSI petrol engines with a manual gearbox, suffered with the famous kangerooing issue and loss of power delivery. I don't recall any warranty issues with either of the Superbs.

Having owned two Skoda Estelles back in the day, I well remember all the jokes - very embarrassing driving past a senior / upper school in Essex back in the late Eighties just as the kids were leaving the school. I still recall the mass shouting of SKODA!!!! accompanied by finger pointing and laughing. My first job was working for Hewlett Packard, based at one of their offices in Berkshire - I wrote a software database for helping collate data for the field engineers - named Soft Key Operated Data Accessor :-)

I wouldn't necessary agree that all people that buy Audis are wallies - I bought a brand new Octavia in November 2017 and traded it in for a 2016 Audi A4 saloon in 2019. Why? I got fed up with the poor build quality and the distinct impression it had been built down to a price. The Audi cost £16K from an Audi dealer, had done just over 8K miles and has now covered 104K miles and still drives the same as when I bought it. I doubt the Octavia would have been the same.

Hi MarkAL I feel your pain - see my earlier post in this thread! I spent ages adding all the MP3 tags to the audiobook tracks in an attempt to get the damn car to remember where it had last reached, but right up until March (when I traded in the Ateca for a Hyundai Tucson), it would still randomly not recognise the USB stick or start replaying from the start of the same track. I started to stick the edge of a Post-It note to the screen at the point where I had paused a track, so that if it reset, I could rapidly return to the point where I left off. I've never had the problem in the Tucson, nor my other car, a 2016 Audi A4. I hope you get this resolved. Glen

The view from my bedroom window at my parent's house was the Coryton oil refinery - it was quite a shock when some years later I looked out of the same window and realised the oil refinery had gone! it was the view on the horizon for the first 40+ years of my life....

I bought my first DSG car, a Seat Ateca (also with the 1.5 TSI engine) in 2022. Since then it has covered 22K miles, in all road conditions and in most cases the DSG gearbox is brilliant. It makes the car very relaxing to drive in stop/start traffic, sport mode enables a very entertaining drive on twisty country roads and the paddle shifts enable me to override the early changing up nature of the gearbox, especially when accelerating away from a local roundabout up a long hill. The only aspect I need to be aware of is the slight hesitancy when pulling away from rest, such as joining traffic on a roundabout. It's never caused a problem.

Is my thinking correct or flawed? If an EV has an official WLTP range of 300 miles, can we assume in reality an effective range of around 260 miles, especially in cold weather? If that is the case, and the recommendation is that you charge at around 20% remaining but not more that 80% to prolong the battery life, does that mean that the 300 mile range is really only about 60% of 260 miles, i.e. 156 miles? Surely that cannot be right? What am I missing? All comments welcome, especially from those owning EVs! Glen

Only £76? I've just paid £144 to renew Audi Connect for my A4 😁

Hi Wilfred. I have a Seat Ateca with the same infotainment system as your Karoq and I too have been suffering from random selection of tracks when listening, in my case, to MP3 audio book files on USB. I can use the same files in another VAG car (a 2016 Audi A4) and never have an issue but with the Ateca, once it finished the current track, and after returning to the car to continue a journey, it would select track 1 from a different book from the same author or track 1 from a book by a different author. I can't tell you the amount of times it started playing the first track of "Blue Moon" by Lee Child! Most of my audio book MP3 files had been created by using an audio CD to MP3 converter program but that didn't add all the MP3 tag information so I spent much time using a MP3 tagging program to create unique track names, file names, add in the author, the correct title etc. I then used another program to create a playlist file and it is this that I select when listing to a story, rather than navigating to the folder for story and selecting the first track. As a result of doing this it does seem to be behaving better, although earlier this week when listening to an audio book ("The Sentinel" by Lee Child) it then jumped about 15 files (but at least it didn't start playing disk 1 of "Blue Moon" :-)) I did also find the unit struggled with 128 GB USB sticks so I repartitioned them down to 32 GB and that seems to be better. Having said that, one of the USB sticks will start playing then won't play anything when I next use the car, reporting that there are no readable files. I have reformatted the USB stick to no avail so have just ordered 3 more. Best of luck with getting this working - I've been trying now for almost 18 months.... Glen

I've been battling with this issue with my MIB3 system on my Seat Ateca for the past few months. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and most have been converted from audio CDs to MP3 format using some free converter software. I create a folder on the USB stick for the author, then subfolders for each book by that author and in most cases, there are subfolders for each disk. All my previous vehicles have coped with this layout fine, but not the Ateca. It would come to the end of the current track/chapter then start playing chapter one from a completely different story, sometimes by the same author, sometimes the first story on the USB stick. I conducted various research and concluded that the files were missing the MP3 tag information so I have used the mp3tag software to apply tags to each track to ensure each filename and track name were unique. This didn't solve the issue, so I then ensured that the title, artist and album artist were all correct. This has helped - I then found that one story I was listening to skipped from track 12 to track 22 when it reached the end of track 12 after restarting my journey (the system remembers where I get to when I switch the engine off and will continue where it left off upon restarting the engine but typically jump to a different track when it gets to the end of the current track). At the end of track 22 it jumped to track 32. Further investigation revealed that the story was divided into Disk 1, Disk 2, Disk 3, etc. and track 22 was the first track on disk 2 and track 32 was the first track on disk 3. I therefore moved all tracks into the main folder for the story and used the Oplisker program to create playlists for each story. The USB stick is back in the car and I have just selected the playlist for a Disk Francis story - I'll see what happens over the next couple of days!

Yes, I am based in the UK If it is deemed I have been misleading and inaccurate that certainly wasn't my intention. I wasn't aware of differing methods of delivering TMC live traffic updates, so if my system is different to the one being discussed, my bad.

I have a 2016 Audi A4 with Sat Nav and Audi Connect and TMC was working fine today. It's the first time I've driven the car in a couple of weeks but the live traffic was online throughout my journey today.

As AnnoyingPentium has mentioned, if it doesn't already have an SSD then that would be my first improvement. Budget about £25 for an Amazon cheapie or £30 - £50 for an established brand. I find a SSD can transform the performance of a computer. Also, if the laptop only has 4 GB of memory (RAM) consider adding an extra 4 GB (if the laptop will support 8 GB in total), cost around £30. Glen, aka TheITGuy

If it was me, I would arrange with the dealer to take a 1.0 Karoq on an extended test drive on a variety of roads to see how you get on with it. What sort of annual mileage do you do and how much of this is likely to be motorway runs? Reading various forums it seems many people have been pleasantly surprised with how capable the 1.0 petrol engine is, although I guess if you regularly drive with 3 passengers and a boot full of luggage and travel in hilly areas, you may find it underpowered.

I recently took delivery of a new Seat Ateca Xperience with the 1.5 petrol engine mated to the 7 speed DSG and it is great - no signs of kangarooing (unlike a MK III Octavia I bought in 2017 with the 1.5 petrol engine and manual gearbox). The transmission is smooth and responsive and so far, fuel economy has exceeded my expectations.

Hi Baz9 When you do your test drive, make sure it's with a cold engine as the kangarooing only tended to be present when the engine was cold and could clear within a short space of time. I had a MK III Octavia with this engine and despite a software update the problem remained until I got rid of the car after 15 months of ownership. Glen

I do know what you mean - I can often predict which of a group of cars they will declare the winner before even reading the article. I also was a bit mystified that a Tesla scored 5/5 over all when in every category it never scored more than a 4/5 and in some categories only 3/5.

As I recall, the Tesla was the cheapest of the three, at just over £1000

Whilst perusing an issue of WhatCar today, where a comparison was being made between an Audi Q4 e-tron, a Kia EV6 and a Tesla Model Y, I was struck by how much servicing was estimated to cost over 3 years. The Kia was the most expensive at £1712. Given that there is no oil or air filters, no oil, no spark plugs, I'm struggling to understand why servicing should be so expensive. I accept that there may be new brake pads (although probably not after 3 years / 30,000 miles), pollen filter, maybe brake fluid after 2 years and an inspection of key components, but almost £600 for an annual service? Perhaps those amongst you who already own an electric car can enlighten me 😁 Bemused to say the least! Glen

With my previous Superbs (plus a friend's Touran and another friend's Golf estate), we have all suffered from a metallic rattle coming from the rear of the car. In my case the dealer stripped the door down (to no avail) and refitted it but in the end, I wrapped a little electrical insulation tape round the metal loops on the bodywork that the door latches engage with and instantly, noise was gone. My friends had similar success.

Thanks everyone again for your helpful comments. I'm pleased to hear that shorter drivers are finding non-Sportline seats comfortable as my preference would be an SEL or L&K.

Hi Unclerichy Living in nearby Suffolk I understand what you mean about those Norfolk autobahns (that'll be the A11 and A47 for folks that aren't familiar with the area) So with your non-Sportline seats, do you find that you slide from side to side on the seats (pies not withstanding)? Glen

Previously I've had a MK II Octavia, 2 MKII Superbs and a MK III Octavia and in all of these cars, it wasn't too hard to find a comfortable seating position.

Hi Sasha Grace. that's very encouraging - although I'm somewhat disappointed that your OH has no issues getting comfortable as I was quite liking the extra pies suggestion

Now that sounds like a brilliant solution!