DaveWK

No engine cover, not bothered. There is no boot light. That was removeable and doubled as a useful flashlight too. The four bag hooks in the boot have been reduced to two. No big deal. Good Year tyres, a vast improvement on ride quality from the Continentals. However only 7mms tread which seems a bit stingey. No umbrella storage under passenger seat, but umbrella still supplied. In door pocket. Has iPad/phone holders on rear headrests. Rear picnic trays still featured. Boot floor removeable panel has carpet side and hard rubber side. Rear bumper is now painted finish which will become scratched with loading luggage. Maybe I'll put a protective strip on it. Havn't sorted out the Skoda Connect system and various electronics yet. Some of it too clever by half. eg: dashboard displaying all sorts of 'interesting' info such as '2 cylinder mode'.

2023 1.5tsi, dsg SE-L. New this month. No engine cover.

To see the whole route use the right side control knob to zoom out. You need to specify which type of route you want in settings. Faster will force you onto motorways although it may be a longer distance. Add a waypoint as a stop to force it to calculate a route you favour. My ancient portable Garmin which cost £78 is better than the Amundsen and shows photo images of the carriageway for upcoming lane changes. (Saved my bacon in peak hour bypassing Madrid around the airport). Tap the top of the screen and it lists all the turns and distances to them. The voice commands give faster advance warning too. Amundsen has only three points of interest. There are far better plug in satnavs available, Aldi even does one for £35.

Thanks for that. I just connected the charger to the terminals so I'll undo that and follow your advice. Voltmeter this morning, engine off showed 12.2 volts. Started engine, 14.6 volts. Switched on lights (read that somewhere to get proper reading) and steady at 14.6 volts. DaveK.

So today put my Draper multimeter on the battery terminals. 12.3 volts. Started engine and it went to 12.4 volts. Revved to 1500 rpm and it remained at 12.4. In my experience a 12 volt battery needs 14 volts to charge it. Fully charged should be showing almost 13 volts. I'll connect it to my 'smart' mains charger tomorrow and report back. Hope the clever computer system doesn't see it as an intruder and shut down in protest.

There are battery chargers that do super boost charging but wonder if that's good practice for a car under warranty. Mine was flat after two weeks at Manchester Airport. RAC callout replaced the battery as the original (nine months old) was completely k'nacked. Interestingly the RAC tech had a laptop computer which hooked up to the car and reset all the electronics, which took a while. Another reason why my sixty plus year old electro/mechanical knowledge is past it's sell by. I'm still not sold on all the fancy gadgetry, too clever by half. Wife's 2004 Corsa automatic is still on it's original battery. Coincidentally, the Karoq alarm has been going off today for no apparent reason. If it's not a spider spinning a web I'd guess it's another battery problem.

Maybe this regenerative battery charging is another example of 'too clever by half' technology. I drive for economy and rarely need to brake firmly. Decelerating towards a red light I'm passed by numerous drivers who then have to anchor up as I gently coast to a stop. By the time I get there the lights may have changed so no fuel wasting acceleration from a standing start for me. A long steep hill on my regular route (Kelsall, Cheshire) is a dual carriageway. Off the accelerator and doing about 45mph at the top I'm overtaken by those at 60 to 70. Looking ahead I see their brake lights going on in sequence, one behind each other as they're now frightened and too fast for the descent but I'm now at a safe 60mph without touching the accelerator or need for brakes. The downside maybe is that the battery is not getting a full charge as the computer knows better (like the Boeing 737 Max 8).

My 1.6 SE-L dsg td Karoq was delivered in September 2018. A couple of months later the dash panel screen showed a warning, "Battery voltage low. Take a drive or Recharge". That only occurred the one time. 1st July, Manchester Airport car park after two weeks away - battery completely flat. In the event of such a calamity I had taken the precaution of bringing my battery booster which was secured in the boot. Without battery power the doors and boot won't open. Called the RAC. Whilst waiting (a long time 'cos he went to the wrong car park) I had a look at the manual, which for some pedantic reason I had downloaded to my phone. Discovered that the manual key concealed in the fob can open the driver's door when the plastic cover over the secret keyhole is prised off. Great, I'm in the car but cannot open the bonnet 'cos the passenger door panel covers the release lever; and the other doors and boot are still locked! The manual provides the answer to the locked boot. Drop the rear seats, crawl in to the boot space, unclip a plastic cover near the lock, insert a screwdriver or similar implement and turn. Decided to wait for the RAC. RAC technician arrived and immediately leaned in and popped the bonnet release. "How you do that?" I ask. "Brute Force", he replies. Checks the battery and gives it 'Nil Points'. Connects a booster, not even a click. Adds another-nothing. Connects long leads from his van and adds them. Looks like a hedgehog of connectors. Revs the engine of the van - gets a click and nothing. Agrees the battery is completely not very good. New RAC branded replacement fitted. All is good. I had left a Nextbase dashcam on 'shock' setting to record only if the car received a good smack whilst parked. Will not do that again but I think the car battery was faulty to start with. To avoid the problem in future I'll connect the dashcam to the battery booster, not the 12v car socket. No doubt the dashcam pulls a little current in standby but shouldn't be enough to flatten a good car battery in a couple of weeks.

Some of these modern thingummies "learn" your driving technique and sort themselves to suit your style. Maybe drive to make 'progress' as they say. Or switch to standard or sport mode if you're in eco.

I bought the bars from Aldi. A reviewer on their website was not happy with the warning to not exceed 55mph. Lidl have similar bars but no warning. I'll be using them with a roofbox so will do my usual 60mph. To add to security I'll put a luggage strap around the lot. Tight. Another reviewer said they create an annoying whistling noise, cured by wrapping a bungee cord around.

I'd try the usual. Check Bluetooth is showing your phone. Delete it. Reconnect and see if it pairs. If it doesn't, or drops out again it's back to the dealer. Could be your phone though. As it's new I'd check that the satnav is up to date, which should have been updated at the dealer. Put us, and a lot of others in trouble heading for a funeral venue. A new road -opened a year before near Mere Cheshire wasn't on.

Hi again. Been away from the forum for a while. Diesel SE-L, dsg- new in September 2018. Just coming up to 3,500 miles. 80% urban, rest on motorways. Proven 50.7mpg. Brim to brim- as accurate as possible with the automatic stop when filling up. Incidentally no point in carrying a spare can of diesel as the spout won't open the filler flap. VW sell an adapter for a tenner- which is about eight litres worth. Run in Eco mode and with stop/start active. Not a problem in traffic if you anticipate the moving off. Tyre and tarmac-so no danger of rear ending him ahead. Release footbrake and it will gently creep forward as the engine starts. Don't floor it from a standing start, it's not a torque converter auto so heavy acceleration is like a learner bouncing off the clutch pedal. Pro's. High stance, easy access. Automatic gearbox. Economy. Nice colour in metallic grey. Cruise control and speed limiter ok. Brakes powerful and progressive. Cons. Some gadgetry too clever by half. Still havn't got my head round some of it, and some of what's promised is not on this model. Automatic braking with a sudden red runway light on the dashboard was a surprise. Been spoiled by the old Citroen so find it not that comfortable, characterless, a bit like driving a Transit. Navigation system not as good as a Garmin mobile unit. Bluetooth phone works well. Boot smaller than expected. Lumpy ride, though potholed roads don't help. I may lower the tyre pressures a bit. Discovered that the automatic daylight running lights only work on the front so I switch to sidelights all round. Think I'd have to make more rest stops than in the old Citroen on our four hundred miles a day Continental trips. Has been back to dealer once due to rattling tailgate which took longer than it should to fix. Reliability is king in my book so I have to say I like it.

The problem is that the wheel arch is incorporated as part of the rear door panel. Never saw that on any car ever. My dealer sales guy suggested putting on mudflaps. Where? How did that get past the design stage? Coincidentally Skoda Customer service just called in the middle of writing this to enquire about the repair/service of the tallgate lock. I informed her that the lock now works ok, with a hefty slam. Mentioned the rear door road dirt problem, It's a design characteristic. Also, the fact that I waited two and a half hours in a cold showroom whilst they tracked down the rattle to a faulty offside tailgate strut but didn't have the part in stock. I called them weeks later to check what was happening and made an appointment. Fair enough, they collected the car and had it all day. Gas support struts are quite cheap and if one has gone it's likely that the other would follow so I put stickers on them requesting that both be replaced. Car was returned with worksheet stating that after strip down of tailgate trim and the rattle still being present- which they previously did on 21st December, they had taken struts from a donor car and determined that the nearside strut was faulty so they replaced just that one. Car works ok. They have uprated the software on the satnav (that caught us out on the new road to Mere near Knutsford). Access is easy, automatic gearbox works fine. Brakes quite sharp and reassuring. Fuel consumption was 50mpg. Since the latest fill up it's dropped to 45mpg. Probably caused by anti waxing agents in winter diesel which causes drop in economy.

Dealer told me oil change at two years or 20,000 miles, (over 30,000 Kms). Seems incredible to me. I do it at 5,000 miles but this is a lease car so their problem.