iwb100

Random email out of the blue from Skoda saying your car is still in production but might take a bit longer than we initially thought. Sorry for the delays yadda yadda… Anyone else ever get this? Is it just a standard thing or does it mean my June build date has gone?

An unconfirmed order means it’s not been accepted by the factory/Skoda? Most people get a letter within a week or ordering telling them their order is confirmed. Id definitely say something serious is up there and I’d be pushing them to tell you what. Unless they just mean there is no confirmed build date. But I’d be checking which that means.

My understanding is that the credit checks for car finance are fairly soft and whilst they may slightly reduce your credit score they don’t involve the full affordability checking as per a mortgage where obviously applying for three at the same time would not be allowed. So I suspect it doesn’t make much difference. Car finance is low risk for a lender since should you not be able to pay then they reclaim the asset.

Do Kia and Hyundai offer personal lease via their dealers?

Vanarama quote 14-21 day delivery for the Tucson which I think is the lowest delivery time they ever indicate these days. Zen auto suggest 4-6 weeks. On these lease comparison sites they mark which are factory orders whereas if they put a time on it it means they have stock either to hand or on the way. You can tell these exist as they don’t let you change anything on the cars.

The equivalent cars are the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe. Which I assume are the ones on order unless he’s settled for the class below. As an aside there are some Hyundai Tucson’s available in stock on lease companies. £260 ish a month plus around £1500 deposit. Ready in a few weeks. So if going the class down from kodiaq you can get a car pretty quickly if not fussy. Both zen auto and vanarama advertising these.

Aren’t Sorentos built in Korea?

MIB2 won’t display apple carplay song information on the TFT display. I know this as that’s what I have in my Karoq with the Columbus system.

The factory discount is achieved through never building the bloody things, meaning they never cost you a penny…😉

From the side it looks a bit Range Rover. Looks good but not till 2024. Interesting to see what the interior is like as they are offering it as a plug in hybrid and potentially a seven seater, tonight unconfirmed, so they need to keep costs down somewhere….

I meant inside. I’m not keen on the outside look either but I guess that’s pretty subjective. I think the kodiaq is a looker to be honest. I prefer the outside of it to the Q7. It looks smarter and more SUV like. The Q7 just looks like a pumped up Q5 whereas the Kodiaq looks like it was designed properly and I guess it was.

I’ve been in most 7 seat SUVs either in a show room or test drive. If you are saying the VAG ones are no good then the only equivalently priced and sized one is the 5008. Which I do think is nice. Very nice. But I’m not a huge fan of the dashboard. I know some are. But I think now it looks more dated than the more minimalist VAG ones. But that’s personal choice. It definitely isn’t as comfortable in my view. I just found it, like most French cars ever so slightly less comfortable to drive. But the 5008 platform is older than the VAG cars… Everything else is either smaller, or just more expensive. It’s why the Kodiaq remains in all the top lists in this category. It and the Tarraco are easily the best value cars for what you get in the large family car segment. Quality and spec is very very hard to beat unless you compromise on size or go up in budget. Mid size SUV though I’d buy the Sportage without a doubt as that is absolutely lovely. And everyone else is buying them for that reason. However VW are making the jump more to full EVs and mainly skipping hybrids so I think that they are going to be using the older platforms a little longer than others. Whether that’s the right plan who knows, but we need more EV options to drive down the prices.

Can you wireless charge and use wireless CarPlay at the same time or does that melt your phone?

Thanks. Yeah it was the song info and arrows I’ve seen in other cars working. Never seen full integration into a digital dash of the maps. I might use the Skoda maps for long journeys. But for more short stuff I use apple maps on CarPlay just because it’s much better traffic information and avoidance. If I can have song info and directions I will be happy enough.

I’m wondering what you can display in the VC from apple CarPlay with the Columbus system in the facelift kodiaq? In my Karoq with just the rubbish tft screen it will only display the fact apple CarPlay is active. But I’ve seen in other cars some people can get navigation information in their digital driver displays from CarPlay or android auto. They can also get song information to display. Or at least claim to. Does anyone have the new kodiaq with VC and also tried CarPlay to see what the digital display will show, if anything?

The thing is it’s a lease. The same is happening across loads of manufacturers. I know someone who had leased his Mercedes’ estate and he’s been told that other than special in stock lease deals that factory ordering through a lease company will be a wait of years. Similarly a friend looking for a lease on a bmw was told clearly that due to production issues lease cars are going to take far longer than buying it. Of course he put it down to a sales trick but it appears to be the same over. Lease companies usually get a bunch of excess stock and then excess build slots to fulfil specific orders. Right now there are hardly any cars with excess stock and hardly any or no excess build slots. So the whole normal model has collapsed. I get it’s not fair but this is happening across the industry it seems. Those who lease through work have been told there is only a very limited selection and only to pick cars that are available, unlike normal. It’s not something that’s going to be fixed soon I’m afraid. So I’d say lease deals that were amazing and over a year old…it’s probably time to move on because the likelihood is there is no deal anymore.

The thing is though you have a theoretical car on order that you’ve waited for over a year and odds are you will wait another year for. It might never arrive. If I was you, I’d forget the fact you got an amazing deal, because an amazing deal on a car that is never coming or comes two years later isn’t much of an amazing deal. I’d go elsewhere or find something else. Or stick with what I had. Because the deal is not a deal without a car. You don’t seem particularly fussed on a Kodiaq either. There is no way I’d wait over a year, still have no build date and not cancel and so something else. And I am genuinely excited for a Kodiaq, but still in your shoes I’d be walking immediately.

I think you will find issues potentially with most mainstream manufacturer dealer networks nowadays. It’s just how it can be. Doesn’t matter if it’s Skoda, Mercedes or Dacia…they are all prone to sometimes offering poor service or fault issues. They are so hit and miss. And of course their staff change over time so a dealer can be great, their service dept management change and suddenly it goes down hill and visa versa. I spent a lot of time looking at cars to replace my karoq and ended up going for the Kodiaq just because of the space and the fact it was very nice for the price. Feels like a very solid, not quite luxury but not too far off car. For under £40K. The Volvo for me would be the dream. An XC60 or 90 but they are just expensive. And are the benefits of them over a Kodiaq enough for me to justify the price? Not for me. They might be for you though. I think Volvos are about the best you can but personally without being stupid money or wanting a sporty thing. The problem I had is that there isn’t much significantly better in the large family suv segment that isn’t significantly more. If I went for a 5 seater I probably would have gone for the Kia Sportage like every other person in the U.K. seems to be as that’s a lovely car and comfortable and very modern inside. The Sorento though is a bit ugly. And expensive. The Santa Fe similar. The Tiguan Allspace feels like a kodiaq but to get stuff like electric seats is hella expensive. So why bother? And the Taracco is just a slightly less plush kodiaq with a greater emphasis on tech, like most seat cars are the youth tech ones, Skoda the good value slightly plusher ones and VW are…I don’t even know….the overpriced not quite as nice inside as the Skoda ones….

Meteor grey is such a cool colour. I sort of wish I had gone with that instead of black but on screen it looks a bit odd. Looks so much better in person but only saw my first kodiaq in meteor grey a few weeks after ordering.

On the subject of car quality I was sat in an Audi A4 the other day. Sure it was a 2018 car I think but the quality of the interior was not great compared to my 2019 Karoq. In fact it was quite striking. Hard scratchy plastics. Uncomfortable seats. Tiny infotainment screen. I mean it definitely didn’t feel plush or whatever. I’m sure there are loads of very plush Audis but that one was nowhere near the ‘luxury’ of my Karoq interior.

Right now on vanarama you can lease the Discovery Sport for £360 a month with a £3248 deposit. For 48 months. The cheapest SE Kodiaq is £364 a month with a slightly higher deposit and has to be taken for 60 months to get said deal. Both deals 6K miles. Whilst you may have hit an incredible deal at the time for the Kodiaq that’s unusual. The Land Rover Discovery sport is same ball park price as shown here….it’s not more expensive and I’m fairly sure that right now the price is high. If you genuinely think the LR is significantly better then it’s cheaper than the Sportline at list price.

On lease? How many miles?

Why didn’t you buy a Land Rover discovery sport then? They start at £33K. So similar price to the Kodiaq. I don’t get why, if you think they are so much better you didn’t get one.

If you want a premium badge at a relatively low cost and don’t care how ridiculous it looks from the back or that it will be less reliable than Boris Johnson’s statements… I think plenty who have a few kids and want a badge car to drive them to school and back would get it. It’s not terrible value…until you see the repair bills.

The only area I consider the Kodiaq behind comparable class rivals is hybrid tech. All VW group cars seem way behind on hybrid options for some reason. Everything else it’s consistently rated as one of the most refined and comfortable vehicles in the class. Still today by motoring publications it’s only really beaten consistently by the XC90, Q7 and Land Rover Discovery Sport. Those are all premium brand cars and I mean if you ever want to know quality sit inside an XC90. You literally won’t want to leave. It’s absolutely stunning and the best car I’ve ever been inside of. Doesn’t compare to any non Audi VW group product at all. But it’s double the price or more. You have the newer versions of the Santa Fe and Sorento that add in some slightly newer tech but they are both designed for the US market mainly so to my eyes are a bit ugly (unlike the Sportage and Tucson which are great). But the Kodiaq is in my view the best 7 seat SUV available for under 40K or thereabouts. And the best kitted out one and best looking one. That’s subjective, some prefer the Taracco, but not to my eyes. Allspace is nice but I think will end up over 40K with options to match the sportline.