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One more benefit of the OEM version is that you don't get a ridiculously distorted fisheye image like you do on the plug and play. But it is a lot more fiddly to set up, so I went plug & play. That said, some might consider the super wide-angle view a feature, not a bug. I can live with it, but I think I'd prefer the OEM view, if I had a plug and play choice.

I guess, I honestly thought they were standard equipment. I'm pretty chuffed, but I really wanted that heated windscreen.

I have heated seats on my 2019 SE L, so I assumed heated seats were standard on the Octy3 FL SE L spec. (They were not identified as an optional extra when I bought the car used.) But it seems they were not standard. I don't have heated washer jets or a heated windscreen, so there's no winter pack. So was there a special "freebie" of heated seats, or did some lunatic specify heated seats without buying the full winter pack? (Okay, lunatic is a bit harsh. The winter pack is a fair bit more expensive, but I would have liked a heated windscreen.)

Are heated front seats not standard on the 2017 SE L?

Note that engine oils have a limited life, regardless of use. https://knowhow.napaonline.com/understanding-your-oil-life-percentage-for-proper-maintenance/

For what it's worth, I think that's a good call, given the missing service history.

You get dynamic guide lines on the plug and play one.

Have you made a decision on the car yet, Andy?

Maybe an agreed certification mark such as the British Kitemark or German TUV product certification? https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/kitemark/ https://www.tuv.com/world/en/product-certification.html But of course, that will add to the product cost...

I understand the urge to ban the use of unsafe third-party parts, but if they can be shown to meet or exceed OEM specs, then banning them seems anticompetitive.

That's something I did not know, thanks! I may have to give the Esso Supreme+ a try. It'll certainly be a step up from the bargain basement Sainsbury's 97 E5 that I "treat" my car to in favour of the Sainsbury's 95 E10 stuff.

Why are you talking about delusions in a thread about air-con? If you have Climatronic, you can leave it on "Auto" and the air-con comes on and off on it's own, automatically. If you have a manual system, you have to turn it on for it to work. Where's the delusion?

I did mine recently and I kind of wish I'd gone for the all singing and dancing fancy one, but I wasn't sure of the part number of the fancy Bosch one.

As you have a TDI, this thread may be relevant to you. The gist is that sometimes casting sand/sludge/debris can block the heater matrix, it's not always due to a silica bag failure. I've linked to start at the appropriate post. As for replacing OEM with alternative bits, I'd get some expert advice on that, but my gut instinct is to reject the idea, as it introduces another unknown variable into the problem. But that's just my opinion.

Are you using the DC socket in the camera in car, or the powered mount? I'm just wondering if the powered mount disables the in-camera mini-usb socket, and you're connecting to the camera socket in-car. https://cdn.nextbase.co.uk/manuals/4CBDFDCF-50D6-4A8A-B351-ADA03B4B4B0A/NBDVR212 - Instruction Manual (English R6).pdf

As far as I know, Skoda say the air conditioning should be serviced every two years from new. The service consists of draining the system, vaccum-testing it to check for leaks, then refilling the system. Using the air conditioning regularly is well worth doing to keep it working efficiently. With manual air con, I'd use it every time you start the engine for 5-10 minutes while the car warms up. (I leave my air con on auto all the time, but this is a thread about manual air con.)

If the car runs okay, and you like it, then haggle heavily on the price based on you having to get north of £500 of the missing work done. But follow your gut feeling on the car. If you're uhming and ahing, best to walk away. There are lots of good examples about. No need to take a bet on a poorly serviced car. EDIT: Also don't despair if you can't find a good example of what you want right away. This is just anecdotal based on my experience, but I swear the type of car you're looking for are like buses: You look around for ages and then three turn up at once.

Glad you found it useful. What mismatched tyres tells me (rightly or wrongly), is that whoever changed the tyres either didn't know what they were doing, or didn't much care and just bunged on what seemed most suitable at the time. I'm a bit OCD with tyres, so mismatched tyres bothers me. (At least match the tyres on an axle.) Judging by the tyres, I get an idea of how fussy the previous owner was about other aspects of car maintenance. If they'll put random tyres on without matching them, then I assume that they're not particularly fussy about doing things "properly" on their car. Service intervals, etc. Such people are the sort of people who ignore service intervals, dashboard warning lights, and odd noises, so long as they can still get from A to B. But it's hard to know for sure what the previous owner did, and what the garage selling the car has done to get it ready for sale as cheaply as possible.

As it's got at least 3 different brands of tyre on it, a set of matching new tyres could be viewed as an opportunity, not a problem. The car looks nice, the engine is a great variant, and if you contact Skoda, you should be able to get the service history on it. Check that what needs to have been done at the various mileages has been done, and if it drives okay, you should be good to go. The attached service menu should give you an indication of what should have been done, and also what you have to look forward to needing to have done. The £449 cam-belt & £60 brake fluid changes should have been done at 50k miles, so those are good checks to make, likewise the £139 air-con service at 60k miles. If these haven't been done, get haggling on the price. You can change the pollen filter yourself for £10-£15, but if you don't fancy doing that, it would have been nice to have had that £35 bill taken care of for you. (No biggie if it's not been done, though.) Good luck!

Going to tag @weyland here, as this point wasn't mentioned in his original fitting thread, and I think it's an important note for people who run their cables via the "up and over" route. No criticism of Weyland here, it's only just occurred to me that this is a potential safety issue. (Photo stolen from Weyland's original post.) Note the side airbags explosively emerge from the top, where we've run our cables, so BE SURE THE CABLE DOES NOT OBSTRUCT THE AIRBAGS. EDIT: Just checked mine and, yep, like a chimp, I'd run the wire front of the airbag directly where it would be trying to explosively expand into the car to protect the passengers. Wire now-re-routed safely out of the way of the side airbags. Note, the side airbags are quite large, and extend down the A-pillar behind the rigid plastic, though they are pulled out from behind it as they expand.

Hello! Glad you took the plunge. I lurked for a while before joining, too.

I'm happy if the mods want to move this thread somewhere more appropriate/useful.

I did look at that, but it's specifically for Skoda dealers. I haven't seen any entries for independents. Hence the new thread. If you have spotted any in there, give me a shout.

Do you have keyless entry on your car, @HandyAntman?

Good find! The sooner water leaks are sorted, the better. My Mondeo leaked a little in heavy rain, and in winter, I used to find loads of condensation inside. Though it shifted with the heated windscreen, it wasn't particularly nice. So I used these to solve the problem, and just got into the habit of using them. https://www.amazon.co.uk/ANSIO-Interior-Dehumidifier-Condensation-Dehumidifiers/dp/B01C6V5IVG The 5-pack has gone up in price from about £5 to nearly £8 now, so I bought a 10-pack last time I bought some. These have all sorts of uses. When my kid dropped his phone in some water, I switched it off, bunged it in a ziplock bag with one of these, and a couple of days later gave it back to him. But mostly I just leave on in the boot, and one in the passenger compartment of my car, especially now I'm not using it much as I'm working from home. Edit: I've just changed the one in my boot (old one on left,), and as you can see, the white crystals have all gone, and there's a load of water now in the bottom of the container, so they do draw a fair bit of water out of the air over time.