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As a follow-up to my moans on this subject, I took the car for it's annual MOT test today. I asked the (ex-VW) mechanic doing the test to pay particular attention to the headlight aim and to adjust it if necessary. The car passed OK and the examiner told me that the lights were EXACTLY spot-on to where they should be. In fact, as he put it, "they couldn't be better aimed than they are". So....it seems that I need to get my eyes tested, then!

Awesam - that's a very generous offer and I might take you up on it, if it's not too much trouble. However, a gent on the other headlight thread has described the distance his lights throw and that gives me a figure to test mine against. I'll have a go at that and see if my (suitably clean) lights measure up before troubling you. The main times I've noticed the rubbish lights is while I've been a couple of hundred miles away from home so the lens were probably quite dirty from the trip. I will definitely make sure they are sparkling before I try the distance test mentioned above. Thanks to all posters for their useful contributions,

I had the same experience taking a BMW 320d to St. Tropez area a few years ago. Around here the best I got on a long trip was about 53mpg on the French run it was just over 60. My theory is that the much smoother French roads give less rolling resistance than our rougher stone-rich asphalt in UK. It was confirmed by the much quieter ride on the dreaded run-flats than we get at home. It must take some energy to turn fuel into road noise, hence the better MPG.

So, today I took the car to a local VW/Audi independent for diagnosis....and they could find nothing wrong with it! There are no error codes and they took it to an MOT tester who confirmed that the lights were correctly aligned. What they did point out was that the headlight glass was dirty, and by cleaning the outside, the headlights "sprung to life". I know the HID lights need to be clean (hence the built-in washers jets), but I really can't see that being the sole cause. To be fair they didn't charge me for their work, but I'm no further forward. Looks like it will have to be the country road and Allan key solution for me.

Hate to reply to my own post.....but I'm going to. 😃 The plot thickens - despite JR RS's advice, I took the front wheels off and had a proper look around. My car simply DOES NOT HAVE the front level sensors , as pictured so well by JR RS. The only one I have is the rear left side one. Is it a petrol v diesel thing, or a European market v Australian difference? Only Skoda knows! It's starting to look like I have to shell out for the dealer to diagnose and correct these damned lights! (but I'll wait to hear how Bimboveloce gets on with his first)

Thank you, JR RS, I didn't know where to look for the front one so I assumed it was a wheel-off job. I'll have another crawl around underneath, when it stops raining! I was parked in the dark at a hotel yesterday and made a point of trying this out. I switched on and waited for the warning lights to go out...and.waited...and waited.... My headlights did not run the startup routine until AFTER engine start. I checked this on a couple of occasions and the lights don't dance until the engine is running! Still too bloody low to drive over 30mph, so the investigation continues.

Now this is interesting = and I will certainly try this technique, although my lights appear to complete their startup sequence at the moment but still end up being too low for comfort. The other thing I read elsewhere was about the level sensors (front and rear) that feed the headlight controller info on the car's loading. I found the rear sensor, and it doesn't seem to be damaged or broken, so I have lubricated the joints to see if that helps. I haven't been out in the dark yet to test. Without taking the wheel off, I couldn't see one on the front suspension, but I will have a crack at that when I have time in a few days. On the subject of software updates, my car had an annual service just a few weeks ago, but there was no mention of software changes being done, and the problem remains the same. Many thanks to all who have offered suggestions.

I don't have an answer for you, but I have noticed the same problem recently with my HID lights. When I first got the car 2.5 years ago I thought the lights were terrific, but lately I would struggle to break 40mph on a country road because the throw of the dipped beams is so short. The main beams seems fine and the lights do their start-up dance so I, too, would be grateful for some advice as to what might be causing this.

My guess, and it is only a guess, is that starting in D2 spreads the wear on the clutches to save the D1 clutch always being used to start from stationary. If the car always started in D1 then that clutch would take all the "slippage" to get the car rolling and the second clutch would only be used for selecting the 2nd, 4th and 6th gears with very minimal wear. This would mean the D1 clutch wearing out long before the D2 one. Most of the time, my car will start in D1 if the car senses it is on a hill. If the road is flat or downhill it will almost always start in D2.

Since no one else has answered, here is my experience - I have had the same sort of fault, although the problem was the driver's door would not LOCK from the key, although the other 3 would. The other symptom was that the automatic locking at 10 mph did not work. It tried and failed each time i went from a standstill. I have no real idea why, but the problem went away when I gave the car battery an overnight charge. An ex-mechanic friend suggested there may be some corrosion in the lock switch connectors in the door which offers additional electrical resistance and means the a low battery doesn't have the oomph to overcome it. It's happened twice in 2 years of ownership.

Quite early on in my ownership of this 2016 Combi one of the plastic plates (drivers side), which takes the wear and tear of the seat belt sliding over the back rest of the rear seat, came off. It seems to clip into two holes in the metal below the foam padding under the leather and does not appear to be broken - there are no rough edges showing. I have tried many ways to get it to stay in place without success - squeezing into the metal holes - just pops off again, glueing with hot glue gun - lasts a couple of weeks, sticking with double sided tape - same result as hot glue. I hate it when passengers tell me that a piece has fallen off the car, so I would really like to fix it once and for all. Any of you experienced Superb owners had this problem and found how it is supposed to be attached? (I don't want to pull the other one off to see how it is meant to go, in case I end up with two that I can't fix!)

My car was second hand, so I don't know whether my kit was original with the car or aftermarket, but the spare wheel has a circular polystyrene insert that contains the jack, wheel brace, the tweezers for taking off the plastic wheel nut covers, a screwdriver and (from memory) a towing eye. It fits snugly into the wheel well and has a nylon strap to tie it down to the wheel Maybe you could find that piece on Ebay, or the whole kit, or maybe get one from a scrap yard out of a crashed car.

The start-stop system takes many parameters into account when deciding where to operate or not. As discussed above, one of the main ones is the battery state of charge and the demand for electricity to run lights, wipers, seat/steering wheel heating, heater fans, etc. Another big one is the aircon/heating and engine temperature. If there is a big difference between the ambient temperature and the temperature asked for by the aircon/heat dials, the car will inhibit the start-stop if it needs the engine running to heat/cool the cabin. I believe there is also an anti-fog censor which will keep the aircon running to provide dry air to the cabin to avoid a misted windscreen. Any of these can temporarily prevent the start-stop operating, especially if the car is trying to satisfy combinations of these sorts of demands simultaneously. I guess the message is - turn off all of these things and see if start-stop comes back before worrying about it.

Your car, your choice, of course. I just think it would frustrate the hell out of me to have a quick car and not be able to use it most of the time. In the 280 you already have the quickest Superb, so adding power in such a restricted location just struck me as slightly odd. I guess you'll enjoy your blasts across the continent as and when you can. As to the Lambos & such - poseurs, I guess. (and do these cars even fit along the many 15mph Green Lanes? )

Just curious - I note you are from Jersey and I wondered where you plan to make use of all the extra oomph, given that the top speed limit on the island is 40MPH. (and that is about a 1 mile stretch along the dual carriageway in St. Helier, from memory)

I had some of those symptoms, but on the driver's door. 10 mph auto lock tried and failed to lock after every move off. Door wouldn't lock or unlock with the interior or the remote button - I had to use the manual key. It was after a period of very little use of the car during lockdown and I "cured" it by charging the battery. Haven't had the problem for over 6 months now. I could see no reason why that would work, but a friend (former mechanic now TV engineer) offered the suggestion that, although connections into the door may not be broken, there could be some corrosion within connectors that increases their resistance and requires a better state of charge/higher voltage to "shove" the signal through. Seemed to make some sense to this unqualified amateur.

Last year some time I got a quote for a service from the VW Indy in Duntocher for a service. Can't remember the extent of the service, but the price was around £210. I checked with Henry's North and the price was around £220 so I just stuck with them. Burnside Motors, next door to the VW guy in Duntocher, where I've been getting MOTs for 35 years told me at last MOT in December that they are VAG specialists now too, although I haven't used them for service work. Edit to add - if you do find a good indy in the NW Glasgow area, I would be really glad if you would post the details here.

My good lady wife did exactly the same thing today, whilst 3-point turning. The damage looks very much the same, being confined to the flat top surface. I have a stick-on transparent, plastic film, scratch protector in that area and the damage is underneath that. I think I will follow J.R's wise advice above and put a plastic or stainless steel protector plate over the damage and forget about it. Now...how to get the cost of the part out of her?

The chap lives in the Orcadian archipelago - not many motorways on them there islands! The nearest one, from memory, is the M90 at Perth - a mere 265 miles, and a ferry crossing, away.....

I noticed mine (exactly the same model, but 2016 vintage) doing this recently. It hasn't had any service or other work done in the last 4 months, so nothing has been altered recently. I am doing only really short journeys these days and the car has done some DPF regenerations in bits and pieces over the last week or so. Since the regen has completed it seems to have settled back to normal tickover behaviour, so I guess that's what's causing yours to run fast. During that period my fuel consumption also dropped from 45-50 to 35 MPG at last fill up! Roll on spring & end of lockdown.

Got a new rear tyre today to replace one bought in August which had two nails in it. Only got 2400 miles out of the "old" one - dammit!

It's the Dominic Cummings eyesight test area.......?

I have not done an oil change myself, but the main dealer charged me for 4.5 litres of oil during the annual service last week which included a filter change. What does the level show if you check it using the the dipstick?

For me the only change I'd like is a torque convertor instead of the electro-mechanical DSG clutches. I can make a smooth take off with the DSG setup, but it requires thought. If it is a quick re-start (say I've missed the amber light and have to move off pronto on green) then it's always a jerk as the drive engages. I also find it tricky to reverse parallel park and straighten up without jerky forward and back moves. I know that is to do with the auto-brake system being on, but it's difficult to remember that is the cause while parking, and switch it off. A torque converter is completely smooth in all the above scenarios and just gives a better driving experience. I also felt less guilt sitting at lights with the car in drive than I do with the DSG. Despite what others have posted on here previously, I just can't shake the notion that the DSG clutch is "dragging" whist stopped in drive and will suffer premature wear as a result.

Today I got a Hunter 4-wheel alignment done on the Combi. The reason I decided to fork out £140 was that the front offside tyre had a bald strip all the way round the inside shoulder. It wasn't all the way down to the canvas, but pretty alarming once I noticed it. There was no indication when driving the car that anything was amiss in the alignment and it ran straight and true. However, the front toe-in was found to be way out of range and there was a problem with the rear camber. It was a pricey job, but £140 is the cost of just one decent 18" tyre so probably justified. It was most likely wishful thinking, or the placebo effect, but on the 5-6 mile drive home the car did seem to run freer. For the past 2 months I've been running in Eco mode but haven't seen any improvement in fuel economy over normal mode. The best I've done in 18 months of ownership is 48mpg over a full tank, but I keep reading here of people with the same 150hp diesel getting 60 on a good day. After the fix the car did seem to roll further when the drive disengaged on the overrun, so I'm hoping that economy might improve. Logically it should if the excess tyre scrubbing which must have sapped a little engine power, has been removed. Here's hoping.