AlecM

Great photo!

I have twice had a towbar fitted to a Skoda. I had a Westfalia removable towbar fitted to my Superb estate in 2018 by Professional Retrofits, in Nuneaton. http://poollretrofits.com/ They are VW aftermarket specialists and do all sorts of things to all VW group cars. It was excellent. Cost was about £800, with dedicated electrics. When I bought my (2018) Kodiaq in August last year Professional Retrofits couldn't source the towbars. So I obtained other quotes. I had a detachable Tow-Trust towbar fitted by Mota-bars in Leamington. https://motabars.co.uk/ . Interestingly they are across the road from a Skoda main dealer. This installation also had dedicated electrics. The cost was a pleasing £659 (August 2022). The two towbars each have minor plusses and minuses but are both fine. Integration is excellent, as regards reversing camera, recognition of a trailer etc. But it does not include setting off the alarm if you unplug the 13-pin trailer socket, which would be nice. I can recommend both installers. BTW I'm not in the midlands ... it's a coincidence that both these installers are in the same area! Alec

Great. Thanks CFB. I'll try that. Just off for a trip in the Kodiaq. To Orkney. Leaving in half an hour. Looking forward to seeing just how well the Kodiaq performs on a long journey. Hopefully as well as the Superb which it replaces. Thanks again.

I am enjoying my 2018 Kodiaq. One thing that disappoints though is the interior lighting. 2 issues: Firstly, when I first turn the engine off after dark , I was surprised to find myself sitting in a dark car. I expected the interior lights to come on. I've tried all the switches and menu settings. Should they? Am I missing something? Secondly, the interior lights are the two map reading lights for driver and passenger. They come on when the door is opened. They are efficient, yes. But rather bright, too bright. With the cream leather it creates a rather clinical effect. Certainly not subtle, warm, sophisticated! Previous cars I've owned have had subtle background lighting but brighter map reading lights, switchable manually. BTW I don't have 'ambient lighting'.

That's great. Thanks Kenny. It seems that I wasn't pulling out the red tab enough. I can't check it now as I've just loaded up the boot for tomorrow!

Thanks. But you will see that the illustration in the manual shows a different connector to mine. I have tried what you say, and it doesn't come out *easily*. I don't want to force it. I'd like to hear from someone who has the same connector as mine, and has successfully disengaged it ! Thanks again.

How do you disconnect the electrical connector to the sub-woofer speaker located inside the spare wheel? I've read the instruction manual. The instructions and diagram are unclear. Can someone tell me just what to do please! I'm afraid of using too much force and breaking it. Thanks.

Thanks. Yes I'm aware of the pinch technique, and it's what I've been doing. Still don't like it. I've now made 5 long journeys in the Kodiaq, and my view is unchanged. It was SO much easier to push a button marked NAV or RADIO or MEDIA, and zoom the map in and out with the scroll knob. As for re-engineering the screen: the 'buttons' down the left should be displayed in the margin of the display, and simply changeable for left-or right-hand drive cars: no different glass screen at all. Or better still: the buttons. Rant over! Thanks again for your response. Sorry for the delay in replying - we've been away for a few days.

Update. I have now bought a 2018 Kodiaq Edition. I like it very much. There's much that is better than my Superb (other than, of course, the nature of the car, 4x4 etc!) and a few things that are negative. By far the worst negative, and one that I fear will continue to aggravate me, is the topic of this thread. Am I the only person who thinks that touch screens are distracting ... dangerous even? On my Superb I hardly had to touch the central screen. I might switch between radio, or media, or navigation ... done by the buttons at the side. When navigating, I often wanted to zoom in, to get a closer look at a junction say, then zoom out again to see which town I was near: all done by the lower-right Scrolling knob. If I wanted to end navigation, once I was on the right route home, it was a press of the NAV button (even if I was already viewing the Navigation, and the bottom right button on the menu that appeared was STOP ROUTE. Simple. In contrast, I find I am constantly have to S T R E T C H to reach the MENU button, and navigate the touch screen. When the ignition is off, the screen is covered with finger marks. I don't have Virtual Cockpit. Why can't all this be done with voice commands? ... Show Navigation Map Zoom In Map Zoom Out Stop Route

Thanks! A.

That should be: I was delighted when I discovered that the KNOB on the right

I presently drive a Superb SEL. I was delighted when I discovered that the know on the right below the satnav screen controls the zoom level. So much easier than having to 'pinch' the screen - and much safer too. I'm looking at changing to a Kodiaq (probably Edition spec), and have looked at 2018 - 2019 cars. I am disappointed to find that Kodiaqs of this age don't have those knobs: it's all touch screen. BUT I see that on later models, up to current models, the knobs are back! My question is: without these knobs (left hand one is for volume, right is multi-purpose), is there any other way to zoom in/out the map? Maybe some other control, or maybe a voice command? Or are you forced to pinch on the touchscreen? Thanks.

Thanks RickTT. I'll just show them a video. Alec

I'm having exactly the same issue on my 66 plate SEL. And intermittent - which is frustrating! I'll take a video of it not working, and reference this forum thread, for when it is looked at under warranty in a couple of weeks time. Have others encountered this fault / had the knurl wheel replaced?

What a wonderful contribution to this debate! Thank you so much Paul. I think you may well have identified the cause of my problem that morning. It's more likely than ever that this will turn out to be "one of those things". I am heartened that it seems there's nothing wrong with the car. On that day I thought it was the car, evidenced by it not revving beyond 2,500 rpm in neutral. I thought the car had gone into 'limp mode'. My wife bought a Seat Leon (= VW Golf) of a similar age and it developed a fault that put the car into limp mode. Turned out to be some sensor or other which was replaced simply, under warranty. I thought my car had developed the same fault. Now I'm happier, and looking forward to doing some caravan towing - more than a 5 mile round trip - in the spring and summer and beyond. BTW I have been caravanning only about 5-6 years, and have come to the conclusion that the engineering of caravans is nowhere near the standard of that of cars. Things keep breaking. Even German companies ( especially Alko) produce products that are imperfectly designed. Maybe English caravans are better, but I doubt it. Alec

These are good suggestions, thank you SurreyJohn. The circumstances are this: the caravan was taken out of storage one day, taken to my home and given an annual service on my drive the next. I moved the caravan from one place on the drive to another using the motor mover. I put the caravan handbrake on. For two days I couldn't put it back into storage unfortunately, and it snowed. When I could return it I cleared the drive of snow, hooked up the car, took off the caravan handbrake, disengaged the motor mover, and then tried to pull the caravan up the drive - uphill - and encountered the problem. Caravan brakes are tricky. They are applied when the car brakes and the caravan moves towards the car. So pulling away uphill does the opposite. But the caravan incorporates mechanisms to deactivate the brakes when you are reversing (old fashioned caravans you had to get out and do something before reversing), so there is a mechanism that might just have not worked as it should. I'll ring the caravan servicing guy. Yours is very valid theory. It hasn't happened before, despite manoeuvering this caravan on my drive dozens of times, but before with a Volvo that also has an electric parking brake, but not hill hold control, and not in snowy conditions. Many thanks, Alec

This is an excellent suggestion. I wish I could go out now and try it, but the caravan is in storage and for various reasons won't be coming out until mid March. I will consider this when I get a chance to experiment. I can understand folk who prefer their vintage cars .. at least the driver was in control, not a computer! It's clear I need to get better educated about the car's systems, and how to interact with them. (i.e. not disregard these buttons scattered around the gear lever!). Thanks. Alec

This could well have been the problem. The car wasn't on snow, but there would have been some snow on the wheels. The wheels didn't spin. This remains a mystery. The car now is fine. The combo was fine once it was at the top of the drive. Was it the caravan brakes locked temporarily? Was it traction control stopping the car revving because of some residual snow on the driving wheels? I don't know. I do know that next time I will be more measured and think through the situation better (I was time pressured as had an appointment to keep at the caravan storage, and also I thought the car was faulty 'cos it wouldn't rev beyond 2.500 rpm in neutral). Maybe the thing to do is to turn off traction control and hill hold control before starting such a manoeuvre, and perhaps putting the car into first gear manually too. i.e. try and make it like an old-fashioned car! The phrase "too clever by half" comes to mind. I'm sure my 1970's Renault 16 would have pulled it OK! Thanks for your input. Alec

That's a good thought. Maybe? I have established that the car is definitely NOT in limp mode, now. It could well be some result of what happened in the first 50cm of my pulling away. I'll have to do further experiments, but that can't now be until March as caravan in storage until then. I'll report then. Thanks for your input. Alec

Thanks for all these replies. So we've discovered that the 2500 rpm limit in neutral is normal. So maybe it was the caravan brakes stuck on, for the first metre or so. Caravan brakes do have odd characteristics. I should add that I disengaged the parking brake manually before attempting to pull away - yes, in forward direction. Alec

Hello. This is my first time on this forum. I have recently bought my first VAG group car, after 17 years of driving Volvos (V70 then XC70). I gave up on Volvo as the single highest cost was repairs - more even than depreciation, fuel etc). My car is a Superb estate, 2016 (66) 190 TDI SEL auto. I haven't driven it much in the 2 months I have had it and am still unfamiliar with many of its features (too busy with work to go through the manual unfortunately!). Last week I had a towbar fitted (Westfalia detachable with dedicated electrics, installed by Professional Retrofits at Nuneaton - super). I collected the caravan from storage and took in the 2 miles to my home, for the caravan to be serviced. All fine. After the caravan service I hooked up the caravan and went to tow it off the drive. Our drive has a moderate slope, uphill on exiting, I estimate 6%. The car wouldn't pull the caravan. There wasn't enough power. Every time I tried I found that I couldn't get the revs up much beyond tickover speed, about 1100 rpm. When I put the car into park or neutral I found I could rev the engine, but only up to 2,500 rpm. Is this normal? I phoned the supplying dealer, who had no clue. I then disconnected the caravan electrics, thinking that maybe this was a factor (the car knows there's a trailer attached). It didn't seem to make any difference. Every time I tried to pull the caravan the car would actually start to move backwards, down the hill. Eventually I tried repeatedly, including (I think) getting up the engine speed more before putting the car into drive, and then by flooring the throttle one time the car did just about start pulling away. I got the car + caravan up onto the road. Then it seemed to be OK. I drove the two miles and put the caravan back into storage. When driving I found that I could put the car into manual and select a lower gear and take the revs up to whatever I wanted, e.g. 3,500 rpm. This with caravan in tow and electrics connected. I know what you're thinking: this is a very heavy caravan and a very steep drive. Neither is the case. The caravan is Trigano Silver and weighs about 1,000Kg. The car can pull a caravan of double that weight. My drive is, I calculate, less than 6% slope. These cars are tested and certified to pull heavy caravans up 12% slopes. The caravan handbrake was off. The caravan motor mover was disengaged. The caravan brakes had just been serviced ... although I can't guarantee that they hadn't seized by some misfortune at that moment - things were normal by the time the car was at the top of the drive. The drive was snowy to some extent. Although the drive was clear under where the car was, I had moved the car over a few yards which I had just cleared of snow, so there might have been some snow in the tyres. However, the drive wheels were not slipping. I am completely baffled by this event, and a little concerned. I changed my last car because it broke down twice, and bought a car still under warranty expecting good reliablity. But maybe I have something to learn. Thinking about this incident more, If I were in this position again I would be inclined to: Turn off hill hold control Turn off traction control Put the car into manual gear selection and choose first gear Would that have made any difference? No idea. But my guess is that, when I get the caravan out again in March, that everything will be just fine! I would love to know if the engine speed in neutral is always limited to about 2,500 rpm. This is what caused me to think at the time that the car was in a fault mode. Now I think it may be normal behaviour. Any thoughts gratefully accepted ! Alec Ascot, Berkshire.