Daytona900

It wouldn't surprise me if the Stovax Stockton is "basically the same stove" as the Dovre 250 as I seem to remember that Stovax are the UK importer for Dovre stoves... but I don't know for sure if the Stovax is one "badge engineered" Dovre stoves. I had a Stovax on my shortlist 6 years ago but I eventually ended up with a DRU as I got a good deal on a shop display model. (I used this guy's website when I was researching stoves 6 years ago. He seems to talk a lot of common sense. https://www.stovefitterswarehouse.co.uk/pages/stove-fitters-manual) Cheers, Graham

I'd recommend Dovre 250 if your money will stretch that far. (Or the equivalent 5kW woodburner made by any of Dovre's sister companies, they're just "badge engineered" Dovre 250's.) I've had two and they are excellent. Word of advice from my heating engineer (which I ignored), if you are going to use of any make of stove properly and not just use it once or twice at Christmas then stick with the plain black, DON'T go for any of the fancy enamel colours. The shiny enamel is not as robust as the plain black finish. "Clever Trevor" my heating Engineer reckons that this is true for all makes of stoves. I ignored this advice and got a nice "teapot brown" enamel stove for the living room... after 5 years the enamel around the door opening is starting to go pitted. I never had that problem with my previous plain black Dovre 250. "Clever Trevor" likes to remind me of this every time he comes to do any work for me... Regarding the size you need, bricks are cheaper than stoves so you could close the opening down a bit rather than buying a physically bigger stove. I've had Dovre, Stovax and Esse. They've all been good and I can bore for Britain on this subject! I've gone for the full monty in the dining room, Esse Bakeheart, it's got a cooking top, small oven and it's connected to my twin coil hot water tank so it makes a contribution to my hot water plus there's a "heat leak" radiator on the landing which warms upstairs as well. My wife thinks I'm bonkers but when the zombies attack I can still have a hot bath and a hot meal! ;-) Cheers, Graham

I would say that I've partially become used to this "feature" but I still find myself knocking the lever over to the left and stirring the gearbox myself... Cheers, Graham

Hello everyone, I'd like to publicly give Rustynuts my thanks for his help this morning. He invited me to visit him (and Bailey the dog) so he could check out my Columbus unit and advise me on the best route to upgrade the firmware. So after a visit to his "shed of wonders" and with the minimum amount of pain I am now at Software Version 5238. Thanks a lot Rusty. Cheers, Graham

Thanks Shaunieboy, That's useful to know. I'm going to give it a few weeks to see if it improves by "learning" my driving style as MarkyG82 suggested. If it doesn't improve I think a trip to Stokesley is in order... Cheers, Graham

Hello Jeeves, I'm with you 100% about having four matched tyres. However at the moment I have three different brands of tyres! I'll end up with four identical tyres eventually but my intermediate position of "all season tyres" for the front and replace the rears with matching tyres at a later date is much better than my current situation. I know it's not ideal but at least I'll have matched tyres on each axle. Cheers, Graham

I'll definitely be taking you up on your offer. I don't know if I'm okay to send PMs as I'm still a newbie... I'll give it a go now and see if we can come up with any possible dates and times etc. Cheers, Graham

I know it's a totally different application but my wife's 2006 MX5 is running on Vredestein Sportrac3's and they seem pretty good. She gives them a good test every now and then! I'm still erring towards the BF Goodrich option to give me a "partial match" to the tyres on the back axle. I must admit I hadn't thought about whether the tyres are asymmetrical or directional... Cheers, Graham

Thanks Marky, now that you've mentioned I've got a niggly thought that I've actually read something about that in the manual... I'll hang on and see how it goes, probably one of two ways... the gearbox will "adapt" to my driving style or I'll just get used to when the gearbox changes gear! Meanwhile I'll skim read the manual again. Cheers, Graham

Afternoon folks, I’ve had my 3.6 Superb for a few weeks now and it’s plenty quick enough. (Quicker then the 3.2 Q4 Brera that it replaced.) However, now that I’m getting used to the DSG gearbox I’m finding it to be a tad annoying on the odd occasion. In normal drive mode it just wants to work its way up to sixth gear as soon as it can. In sport mode I find it hangs on to 3rd gear for far too long. So has anyone just had their gearbox remapped and left the engine map as standard? Thanks, Graham

Thanks for the offer Rusty, that's just what I need, someone to "hold my hand" through the update process. I'm near Newcastle but I travel to Whitby every six weeks or so. Maybe I can adjust the timing of one of my trips to suit your availability and take the long route via your place. I'm not in any mad hurry. I've got a TomTom Via 135 with lifetime map updates in the glove box just in case! Thanks, Graham

Thanks for that Rusty. As you are one of the Columbus "Gurus" on these forums I'll take your advice and go down the upgrade route. However that raises a couple of further points: Firstly, newer map DVDs, that's a whole topic on it's own. I've been looking around on a well known auction website earlier this afternoon... flippin' heck, buyer beware or what? I thought that since I am on Version 7 I'd buy a genuine second hand Skoda DVD somewhere around Version 11 or 12. Even the ones that claim to be genuine pre-owned, new old stock etc look decidedly dodgy... I'm planning to keep the car for a few years so I may get it serviced at an official Skoda Dealers and pay them to upgrade the maps while they are getting their hands dirty. Depending on how much they want for sticking a DVD in a DVD player of course... Secondly, based on the details shown on my label what version of firmware should I be aiming to reach? Thanks, Graham

Afternoon folks, I’ve been reading up various threads regarding the possible trials and tribulations of updating my Columbus firmware. Considering I’m an Electrical Engineer, computers of all shapes and sizes seem to hate me. So I thought I’d ask here before endeavouring to update my firmware: is it actually worth the effort? I got a genuine Skoda V7 Map DVD with the car and based on what I’ve been told about the two previous owners of my car I don’t think anything firmware or maps wise has ever been updated. That was until I took my Columbus unit out to get some photos of the manufacturer’s labels. Someone has written on the top of my unit in ball point pen, see picture, including the registration number. (Which I’ve carefully hidden with a Halfords Ice Scraper!) So I’m guessing my unit has been removed in the past for some reason… But I’m going to ignore this fact for now. So let’s assume it is still on the original firmware as shown on the label in the other photograph. What additional features, bug fixes and general improvements am I likely to see if I upgrade the firmware? Thanks, Graham

Hello folks, I’ve been lurking around here for the last few weeks, since I got my 3.6 Superb, collecting information from previous posts. My car has normal / summer tyres, a pair of BF Goodrich g-Grips on the back but the front driver side is an Avon ZZ5 while the front passenger side is a Giti Sportactive… Prior to me buying it, the car failed the last mot for damage to the sidewall of the front passenger side tyre. So I’m assuming there was a matching Avon ZZ5 there and it was replaced by the Giti. I prefer to have four matching tyres on my cars but at the very least I like to have a matched pair of tyres on each axle. So the Giti and the Avon are in the “departure lounge”. After reading various posts on Briskoda I’ve decided to go for “All Season” tyres for the front axle. Then when the rears wear out I’ll replace them as well so all four match. (I’ve done the Winter / Summer tyre thing in the past and the tyres that aren’t being used just take up room in my garage that could be filled by another motorbike!) So ignoring any fitting costs and in my order of preference here is my shortlist to be fitted to the front axle before the bad weather arrives: (Prices are from the internet for 225/ 40 R18 92Y Extra Load.) BF Goodrich All Season 2 (£97.80) This gives me a “partial match” to the tyres on the back axle. Michelin Cross Climate+ (£97.00) Continental All Season (£94.69) Goodyear Vector 4 Season (£98.95) Vredestein Quatrac5 (£92.95) Nokian Weatherproof (£97.75) Any opinions or experiences of these tyres would be much appreciated. Cheers, Graham

I was a bit wary about going down the DSG route but so far (5 days!) I'm liking it. A lot.