MrTrilby

Charging occurs when the car wants it to. On older cars the alternator runs continuously and is always charging. Newer cars can effectively switch this off so the alternator doesn’t charge unless needed, reducing the load on the engine. When it does charge, it can do at a much higher rate and present a bigger load on the engine (thus charging the battery faster). So when you brake the alternator can present a bigger load on the engine to help slow you down and also charge the battery. Ideally it will only need to charge when you’re braking if you’re doing stop start driving. On longer journeys it will need to charge whilst driving at steady speed. Modern batteries are also more tolerant - they can cope with the car discharging the battery further (so it can longer with the alternator off), and also cope with being charged at a higher rate (so charge up more quickly when you brake). It all helps.

No problems with our 2.5 year old Kodiaq - left out in all weathers. I’ve not seen any issues reported with the Kodiaq panoramic roof.

You’re mixing up two different things. Yes, modern oils are fantastic at providing effective lubrication from cold. However, when cold they will still absorb exhaust gases that will make them acidic. It’s the reason why with most variable servicing routines the car will reduce the service interval if you do a lot of short journeys. And it’s yet another reason why buying a diesel car to do mostly short journeys is a false economy - you really are better off with the big petrol for that kind of usage - it gets its oil up to temperature much more quickly, at which point moisture it absorbed from the exhaust gas gets boiled off.

You park the csr in the garage, so your car isn’t so affected by outside temperatures. My car lives outside, so on a cold UK morning is the same temperature as the outside temperature. On my 10 mile fast A road commute (16km), the oil temperature, which is the temperature that really matters for engine longevity and better oil life, only just reaches operating temperature by the end of the journey. If you were doing a shorter commute or driving slower roads I suspect the oil would not reach operating temperature.

I’m afraid it is nonsense. I have a 2018 7 seater diesel with a factory fitted towbar. It was the manual gearbox variant that wasnt type approved for towing. Going back to the original question - use the search. I am pretty sure that it was only the original low power variant of the 1.4 petrol that needed the radiator grill changing and additional cooling added for a towbar. The discussion was a while ago though so I might be wrong.

Our Kodiaq is that exact model - bought May 2018 and currently on around 63k miles. It has been faultless and still feels as fresh as the day we bought it. I would be quite happy with an 80k mile 2 year old car because the likelihood is that it has been doing long gentle motorway miles with low wear and tear, rather than living a hard life doing short miles and lots of braking and gear changing. Check the front brake disks for wear to give you an idea - ours are starting to look a bit worn, but it’s still on the original brake pads and disks. Similarly, check the front tyres for wear - at 63k miles our are looking like they might need changing by 70k miles, but they might stretch out to 80k miles, in which case you need to budget for new tyres. Ignore the poster who claimed the 7 seaters have a hard ride with a tow bar - ours is a 7 seater with factory tow bar and it has the best ride of any car I’ve ever owned - partly the reason we bought it.

£29k is a banal repair?

Braking down hills has been a standard feature of modern cruise control for a while - you set it to maintain 50mph and that’s what it will do, using engine braking and the brakes if necessary. ACC is different and nothing to do with hills - it will use the throttle and brakes to adjust speed to keep distance with the car in front of you, up to the speed you’ve set.

If I recall it was only the lowest powered version of the 1.4 petrol Kodiaq that required cooling modifications. Your dealer is the best source of a definitive answer. Alternatively search this forum for when it was first discussed to see which models it actually applies to.

Just to charge your phone a bit faster? And yet a few posts further up you were worrying about the ecological impact of buying just a cable, let alone the impact of an entire new charger.

If it bothers you then Skoda will happily sell you an OEM blade.

I love the pano roof on ours - 2.5 years old and no issues yet. Our SEL has the optional electric drivers seat and manual passenger seat. The electric seat is massively more comfortable with much better lumbar support. I’m not fussed about electric adjust, but if you do a lot of driving, the more comfy seat is something that would matter to me if I bought again.

Toyota use a number of techniques to ensure the ICE engine in their hybrids gets up to temperature rapidly (including use the exhaust the help heat the coolant if I recall).

We have a Thule Velocompact. They are far from cheap but they are excellent. Easy to store. Seconds to fit and remove. Completely secure. Doesn’t damage bikes. Not sure what more you can ask. Ours is 4 years old now, and gets fitted/removed from the car on average twice a week. Still going strong without missing a beat.

Do you have any evidence for that? The TDI is a more complicated engine, with an EGR valve, glow plugs, a DPF and AdBlue injection.

mine 100% does not slip the clutch and try to pull away with the parking brake engaged. The revs sit at idle and do not rise when I flip the parking brake on during auto-hold.

Why? As you just pointed out, it will happily sit in Drive with the clutch disengaged whilst the brakes are on. Why would you also need to put it in neutral? (other than if stationary for an extended period of time, in which case you’d be putting it into neutral no matter which brake you were relying on).

Am I right in thinking that with lights manually set to “sidelights”, the dashboard lights on the Kodiaq turn off when it gets dark? Which could be a good reason no to use that setting as the already difficult to read speedo markings become invisible. I don’t know what a car with virtual cockpit does.

Brake lights are to show you're slowing down, not that you're stationary No. The bit you’ve quoted from the Highway Code shows that brake lights are also to show that you’re stationary, not just slowing down. It says to take your foot off the foot brake and deactivate brake lights once the following traffic has stopped. That means keeping your brake lights on whilst you are stationary until the traffic behind you has also come to a stop.

There’s a pretty simple solution for drivers who find sitting behind brake lights annoying - don’t pull up right behind them. It’s far safer for all concerned if you leave a gap between you and the car in front: of you get shunted from behind it’s less likely you’ll end up being pushed into the car in front (with associated hassle of insurance claim on you); if the car in front doesn’t pull away for whatever reason, you have space to pull out round them. And the added bonus that you’re not sat right behind brake lights. I don’t spend much time in cities and I’m glad my brake lights are on whilst I’m sat stationary on a fast A or B road waiting to turn right - makes me more visible to people approaching fast from behind, and makes it more obvious that I’m stationary. If people are worried that they might be driving without realising they have a failed bulb rest assured that the automatic bulb warning on the Kodiaq works well - I had a bulb fail on my bike rack recently and the Kodiaq told me straightaway with a very clear dashboard message. Definitely still worth regular manual checks of bulbs, tyre pressures and fluid levels though.

Side lights are also of no use for spotting vehicles during daylight. The vast majority of sidelights are little better than candles, and useful for identifying parked cars or at dusk with streetlights, but little else. Dipped headlights or DRLs are the only lights that are really visible during the daytime. And it’s this level of confusion that makes me thankful that new cars have automatic DRLs that make the front of the car easy to spot no matter what the lighting conditions. I think plenty of drivers don’t realise how hard it is to spot their car approaching under certain lighting conditions: strong backlighting / low sun / glare from a wet road / low contrast grey days. The easier it is to spot a car approaching the less likely it is that you’re going to miss seeing them and pull out of a side road or change lanes into them. A good thing.

Maybe the Superb isn’t so economical on tyres, but my 190 TDI Kodiaq is closing in on 60k miles now, and still has >3mm (just) tread on all 4 tyres. I’m quite pleased with the tyre wear. Much better than my previous much lighter 2WD car.

We have one. MPG depends on the length of the journey, the sort of roads and speed you travel at, the temperature, and how heavy your right foot is. Going with 40mpg and adjusting it up or down a bit depending on your circumstances seems a safe bet. As a rough guide, if you drive motorways at the legal speed limit in summer temperatures, you’ll see high 40s mpg on a decent length journey. In winter and on shorter motorway speed trips, low 40s are more realistic. A short stop start journey around town will see low 30s. An open A road run can see 50mpg in ideal conditions if you really baby it and drive below the legal speed limit; or mid 20s if you pretend you’re a racing car driver rather than the driver of a 4wd bus.

The same engine is used in their vans. I’m sure there will plenty of reconditioned engines sitting around should you need one.

Maybe manual gearbox cars are different but the stop start on my car has never operated just by taking my foot off the throttle. It only happens under braking: either once I’ve come to a complete stop or sometimes if I’m braking gently and almost at a complete stop. If I just lift off the accelerator, my car will just crawl along at idle like a traditional auto. The Kodiaq uses the forwards radar to help work out when to restart the engine, which is clever but sometimes a little too eager. Particularly if you’re in a queue behind the kind of driver that feels the need to move forward an inch at a time rather than wait for the traffic to move properly.