croquemonsieur

Thanks for that link to the X-Climate 2, interesting. Not sure, but it seems to be suggested it's aimed at the American Market (no great effort to make it low rolling resistance) so wonder if it's the same new X Climate we'll get in Europe next year. It wasn't noted, but the curved rather than flat may also be good for ride quality, as well as for wet grip. I'll look forward to reading comparative reviews in due course. Whilst watching the YouTube, there was a link to 5 emerging battery technologies - including the forthcoming Tesla/Panasonic 4680 + solid state electrolyte a few years later. It seems the environmental drawbacks of current EV batteries, will gradually diminish as technology improves, but maybe talk about this sometime, elsewhere on Briskoda.

Ah, sorry for that misinformation. I'm getting a bit out of touch as haven't been buying car mags recently & indeed have suspended my weekly flip through them at our local WH Smiths for now. Reports in mags when the new Golf emerged, did talk quite alot about this feature, amongst other things. I don't suppose Rockinghorse knows if the Golf he's got has this feature. Agree with him that the standard Karoq low speed ride and the way it deals with ridges isn't world beating, even on 17" wheels (with Turanzas), but I've been in worse cars in this regard.

Totally off topic I know, but re Rockinghorse's comment a few messages back, on his borrowed new Golf having a better ride than the Karoq - I believe that all current Golfs have DCC - i.e. adaptive dampers - which seemingly do make a worthwhile difference to ride quality, not that I've tried it. DCC is of course available on some Karoqs now. Also of course, it's easier to get a better handling / ride compromise in a car with lower centre of gravity, but not always evident in the real world - I find my sister in law's last genertion 1.0 Focus (lowly model standard suspension) less comfortable than my much higher up 1.0 Karoq, which actually has slightly lower profile tyres on it's 17" wheels.

As noted several times in other threads, I was disappointed with the modest improvement in ride & noise levels when I changed down to 16" wheels with X-climates on my previous Yeti, but I must admit that the steering response still felt just as good as before with 17" summer Dunlops. So depends what you want, as unlike the X climates, handling with most AW tyres tends to get a bit softer, but that's OK in my book. A friend complained about a worsened ride when he fitted X climates to his BMW mini, but they are XL tyres. Goodyear Gen 3 seem the best all round in that tyre reviews AW review, but Bridgestone offering even better for ride, which does interest me.

I can sympathise, water ingress in a car is no fun, nor in your home for that matter. However following some suggestions here about condensation, I don't find this much of an issue in my Karoq, here in the South East and we had a very wet spell not so long ago, with presumably very high humidity. In fact I'd say it's possibly one of the best car I've owned in this respect. Don't recall it being talked about much here in earlier messages either. I remember reading long ago that Audi cars at one time had a bad reputation for this, but I'm talking about decades past. Oil consumption not been a problem so far on my 1.0, but then it only did 6,000miles before the first service at end of July. I do find the checking level while warm inconvenient & not been done since that service - best do it soon. Must get round to doing that when warm / when cold comparison so as to be able to check when cold.

I don't mind a certain amount of off topic discussion. Here, I found it useful to have the comparison of the e Niro with the Karoq, in with the Karoq section + I think a few general messages about EVs (as long as not too many) are of interest - many of us occasionally think about what sort of car will eventually replace our Karoqs. I don't often want to spend ages searching through all the various other Briskoda sections.

The seats on my friend's BMW Active Tourer fold flatter, but I imagine the seat base is set lower (front is). Peugeot 3008 presumably ditto, but not sat in either. I note that a 1st generation Citroen Picasso taxi we travelled in many years ago was disappointingly low in the rear for what I thought an MPV should be like - felt like a child's seat, as do most conventional saloons / hatchbacks, but maybe that was the idea. I like sitting upright - long legs - what impressed me about another friend's Yeti rear (& front) seats I tried before buying my Yeti, some year's ago.

I wonder if the seat backs then fold down flatter if you manage to remove the base, OR maybe even the seat backs can be removed too.

Following recommendation by others on this group, my intelligent charger is the CTEK MXS 5.0, meaning it can charge at 5amps. There is a cheaper 3.8amp model called the Stop/start. The battery in the Karoq as in most cars with stop/start isn't any old lead acid one, but has to be able to withstand many more charge/discharge cycles and so mostly a more robust EFB type, but it doesn't make any difference to the setting on this charger. However should the car be fitted or ever be refitted with an even more up market (i.e. super robust) AGM type, then there is a special setting on the charger for this. I think I bought my CTEK from Amazon - there was a confusing range of CTEK chargers there last spring, but I believe many of these were older models, now out of production. The cigarette Lighter Adaptor is sold separately, as presumably you can't use this socket on all cars - I believe Fords for instance, but not sure on those cars. I park my car on the public road, so also bought a rubber double-ramp-profile cable protector, to prevent passers by tripping on the cable laid across the footpath. This was thoroughly tested some months ago by one youngster on a tricycle, who kept bumping his bike over the protector for more than 5mins. It's worth reading the following earlier threads below and maybe be just check with a dealer or Skoda directly that the cigarette lighter socket is always on, in the version of the Karoq, you're interested in. I should note that if alternatively thinking of connecting the charger direct to the battery terminals, this can cause damage to some of the electronics. +ve terminal maybe OK, but the -ve lead must be fixed to a special tab on the bulkhead. https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/479718-karoq-190tsi-4x4-sportline/ https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/480256-battery-issue/ https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/479354-karoq-vs-lockdown/

As the Karoq is so much cheaper, you could maybe go someway to make up the difference,by replacing the wheels with smaller ones, preferably 16" + carefully selecting tyres that are reviewed well for ride & road noise. In the UK, All Weather tyres are generally better than summer ones in this regard and Goodyear & Bridgestone are good examples, but don't know if AW tyres, designed to perform better in snow, are sold where you are. I'd also now try to get the car with adjustable dampers - the Kodiaq with this feature was given top marks for its ride in the UK 'Which' consumer magazine.

Sanqhar, as noted in earlier threads, my motorway trips on the M4 aren't at a constant 70mph (but do occasionally speed up a bit to get past a slower batch of traffic) and typically getting 45mpg actual until I hit a long stretch from before Reading up to the M25 that's limited to 50mph often fairly close behind another vehicle, so further reducing air resistance and when the indicated journey mpg gradually improves. Then 50minutes worth on the busy M25 oftenat 65mph, without too much slowing - the mpg seems to at least maintain that improved mpg figure, again lots of traffic reducing air resistance. My 53mpg figure was a best case in warm weather, it's usually 50mpg. I got that same 50mpg figure on a 30mile trip coming home from the M-in-L yesterday on ordinary roads, mixed traffic. However, I do usually try to drive in a reasonably economical manner, but keeping up with traffic + both those journeys above avoid hills in the early stages when the engine is cold. Starting cold from home, I have to go up some steepish hills and it takes a while for the journey mpg to get to a reasonable figure, as well as maybe incurring extra engine wear due to the cold oil. Extrapolating Shy's wheels size example, I wonder if I change down from 17" wheels to 16" I can also expect 10% mpg improvement - maybe not. Thanks for the Terraclean mention, I'll look into that.

The socket is permanently live on my Karoq so trickle charging a C-TEK charger via the cigar lighter socket works. My recollection in previous threads, is that it was more or less decided that trickle charging through the socket didn't actually do any damage. I did this for a while during the 1st lockdown - bought the special C-TEK adaptor. Battery is fine so far but the car is only 15months old. My model of the C-TEK charger has a sulphation repair mode, but whether that would fully rectify a seriously damaged battery, I don't know. I think the charger when connecting up, somehow lets you know if there is sulphation damage.

That seems very reasonable, presumably involving taking the head off, I thought it would cost a lot more. So, it isn't really an issue in the grand scheme of things. It might even be worth doing well before mileage reaches 80,000, when there's not too much sooty build-up. I can't see a DSG overhaul being anywhere near that cheap though. Being a NO-Autohoder, I've now started putting the car in neutral if waiting at traffic lights to hopefully reduce gearbox wear whilst idling. I was once told about a decoking technique that involved no dismantling -- put car in the middle of a field & with engine runnining put some Redex into the air intake and watch clouds of black smoke emerge form the exhaust - might clog up modern emissions facilities in the exhaust though.

From what was said in a thread a while ago, you might have to factor in a decoke at 80,000miles due to the direct injection engine. Don't know how much a de-coke costs, but I've been thinking, assuming I do 10,000miles p.a. (only 6,000 in year 1 though) maybe keeping my 1.0 SE tech for 7 years, what with the DSG wear issues and the complexity & questionable long term reliability of modern car tech electronics. As I get older I worry more about being stranded by a broken down car. I also admit to being irrestably drawn to taking on board ever more tech features like 360degree cameras, self parking, lane keeping, blind spot monitoring etc. etc. - maybe they'll all be working that much better by then. I don't think I'll be able to beat that 46mpg overall, best long distance motorway trip yet has been a freak 53mpg actual a few months ago and that time I unwittingly left the gear lever in Sport mode for 40--50miles on the M4.

But it's only available in Trumpland. Probably not for you anyway, way up North, as Tyre Reviews, though very impressed in most aspects including comfort and noise, said it wasn't as good as the X-Climate in compacted snow and ice and that latter tyre maybe doesn't anyway do as well in this respect as the competition. Interesting though and I wonder if the new Michelin Soft Touch Velvet Sidewall technology will appear in the new version of the X-Climate due next year. I'll be reading the 'Tyre Reviews' 2021 AW review before I change my car to AW tyres. Seeing your photos E-Root of Scottish Roads in other threads, reminds me we haven't been North of the border for maybe 25 years and we must go back again sometime, after the Pandemic. I've climbed Ben Nevis 3 times so don't want to do that again, but have really fond recollections of a trip to the Whisky area - we stayed in Stirling and Brora and as part of this did the drive right round the top coast including John O'Groats naturally. At Ullapool, people on the dock, including us, were being thrown fish from a Fishing Boat in port. Also a memorable drive back South via Balmoral. It's actually easier for us SE types to go over to France & I reckon we didn't do any more miles on a trip down to Core D'Azur some years ago.

I'll look forward to reviews of that and even a test drive next year, as there's a dealer not far away. I think I'm correct in saying that the auto versions only recently changed from belt style gearboxes to DSGs, so that new box won't be in production long. 'Which' marked the current Quashquai down for reliability, noting the batteries are a big problem - maybe they were Mols - but that hasn't stop the car selling well. The magazine recently looked at the 4wd 'conventional' plug-in hybrid version of the Peugeot 3008 and liked it - refined, comfortable and fast, though a good bit of the boot volume that's in ICE models, is then taken up by the batteries. It's available in combined ouputs of 225 or 300hp - the world's gone mad - 115hp is fast enough for me - expect some comeback from that. Whatever might be saved in particulate pollution from the engine could be counteracted by ditto coming from the tyres, as it screams away from the traffic lights. The battery only range of 35 miles didn't impress me and the car doesn't seem particularly economical on long runs (but it is mechanical 4WD). However on shorter distances it challenges diesels, which is to be expected. As it's somewhat heavier than the standard model, the handing & ultimate road holding is bit more ponderous, but the ride is better and 'grip' and braking very good.

In addition to going for smaller wheels deeper tyres to improve ride, recent reviews of All-Weather Tyres indicate that they nearly all ride better and are quieter than summer tyres. Winter tyres are probably better still in these respects. It's also a pity that adaptable anti-roll bars have not yet started to appear in cars in the Karoq price range. I've read and do believe that anti-roll bars reduce roll but compromise the ride, as a wheel on one side of the car can't then move independantly of it's partner on the other side. Say when one wheel only hits a hollow, it must pull down the wheel on the other side too. Also the bar tends to act as an undamped spring, when twisted, leading to some extra bounce. If I were buying a Karoq now, I'd definitely go for one with DCC and if I couldn't get it with 17" wheels, I'd immediately fit a set of 16" wheels with AW Tyres and store or sell the original wheels / tyres. However I'm fairly pleased with the ride and noise levels of my 1+ year old 1.0 SE tech Karoq on 17" wheels with Bridgestone Turanza tyres, evern though those tyres do draw quite a bit of criticism in this forum. I did test Karoqs with 18" & 19" wheels last year, but the ride and noise didn't suit me, but it's possible that the tyres had been at overly high 'showroom' pressures. At least my current wheels & tyres will do for now, but when they wear out, I'll probably change to 16" wheels with All Weather tyres. See these 2 items from the Tyres section for more discussion on all weather tyres and links to recent reviews. All round good ones that I'm interested in, as they do well in reviews for ride and noise, seem to be the new Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen3 and the Bridgestone Weather Control. The Goodyear has better snow performance, but the Bridgestone even better ride, but may wear more quickly. If you want an AW tyre that feels more like a summer tyre, the Michelin Cross Climate is the one to go for. I changed to these on 16" wheels on my Yeti, but was a bit disappointed with ride & noise, even if there was some improvement over the old Dunlop summers - a friend actually found the ride worsened on his BMW Mini when he tried them on 17" wheels. However, note that quite a few people here do like these tyres, even though I wouldn't now consider them.

Interesting, looks like vans are ahead in the hybrid scene. I note that black cab / van is backed by Volvo - I did read a couple of years ago that they (Volvo) were experimenting with this more logical form of hybrid and with electric motors directly at the wheels - they were claiming impressive fuel economy. If there isn't enough Lithium to go round, at present at least, maybe Hybrids can share it out amongst more vehicles and achieve worthwhile carbon emission reductions. I note that the Covid pandemic that hit oil prices hard has meant he big companies have significantly reduced exploration and when things get back to normal, there could well be a shortage of oil for a while and petrol/diesel prices will increase when demand overtakes supply. This will no doubt accelerate moves to Electric / Hybrid cars. However, I did read in Autocar a few years ago that Skoda had looked into the whole sustainable car use issue and concluded that powering by natural gas was the best way forward, but they seem to have forgotten that for now. Maybe legislation + general industrial & public perceptions have discouraged Skoda from promoting this. Natural Gas conversions have been around in a small way for ages as a way of avoiding fuel tax, but a small point - do car ferries allow such vehicle to be carried with that explosive gas abord - ditto hydrogen.

The simplicity of electric cars is very appealing, reduction of city air pollution, none of that DSG complexity, differentials & transmission generally not needed, stop / start, engine management etc. redundant, so much less servicing. BUT...... My thoughts on electric cars as they are at the moment, negatives and pluses. ### It seems an electric car uses 50% more energy in the making, at the moment anyway. Surprised me. ### That extra energy is nullified in 2 years if charging electricity is from renewable resources. If not, there's no overall energy advantage over the lifetime of the car. ### Lithium extraction is not an environmentally friendly process, mainly affecting some South American countries. ### Battery cars remove much (but not all) vehicle air pollution from cities where most people live and work, but transfer the problem to areas where Lithium is extracted and made into batteries. ### In modern efficient cars, 50% of particulate pollution comes from brakes and tyres (some nasty plastic micro stuff in latter). Regenerative braking can save on conventional braking emissions, but tyre wear - what can be done about that - maybe only gentle acceleration, cornering and braking can reduce this - not a popular concept amongst car enthusiasts. ### Easier to do 4 wheel drive in electric cars and to adjust the power to each wheel better as befits the situation. I recall reading many years ago that Audi reckoned 4wd saved a bit of friction loss at the wheels as well as all the other handling / traction advantages, but of course more than counteracted by losses if done mechanically. ### We are only extracting a fraction of the amount of Lithium that will be needed, if Lithium battery cars become widespread, where will it come from? ### But there maybe enough Lithium in Cornwall for all of Britain's needs. ### Also there's lots of Lithium dissolved in the sea (ditto uranium and other valuable materials) - extraction may possibly just become viable via a potentially sustainable.way of using sea water to irrigate desert areas, without putting salt backinto the sea. ### No-one seems to be trying to recycle Lithium at the moment. ### Life time, energy density and cost of making Lithium batteries improves steadily over time. Is the Tesla million mile battery imminent? ### Solar collecting surfaces on car roofs & bonnets might extend range maybe up to 50miles or ultimately up to 100 miles if they can approach that magic 50% efficiency, currently maybe 20%. Will have to keep them clean. ### Electric cars can be very efficient in use cycle, up to 80% maybe. Hydrogen efficiency at the moment in cars is around 25%. Petrol diesel cars we know are inefficient throughout the cycle and there's that pollution. ### How much do cars contribute to global warming & other environmental problems - keeping buildings warm & agriculture, particualarly meat eating, seem to be the biggest CO2 contributors. No doubt technological developments will alter and hopefully continue to improve the picture and maybe alternatives to Lithium will eventually emerge. But, being for or against isn't a straightforward stance, as for many things. However, it's superficially strange that current hybrid cars keep all that complex transmission. Why not just use the engine purely to help power the electric motor(s) and charge the battery. We know petrol engines can be made more efficient if operating in restricted rev range & limited to operating at maximum power. The only such - sort of - example I'm aware of is the original BMW electric car with the range extender engine, but I understand that's not done anymore. Likely, the reason is the inherent & ineviatable inertia of investment in traditional manufacting techniques.

Actually E-root, this 2019 Autobild review of summer tyres (seems to be performance car orientated), might just illustrate your point. The Bridgestone Turanza T005 (these aren't the earlier Turanzas as on my 2019 Karoq) had the lowest rolling resistance and was rather poor in the dry, but mixed in the wet. It was also the noisiest tyre, yet surprisingly ride comfort was pretty good. I think this has been described as an ECO tyre & maybe shows that concentration on any one performance aspect, doesn't lead to a balanced overall product. The Michelin Pilot Sport was the winner and good at most things with a particularly good ride for a performance tyre, but actually not that good for rolling resistance.

The following review did include both the new Goodyear 4 Seasons Gen 3 & the Pirelli Cinturato All Season SF tyres. https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2020-Auto-Bild-All-Season-Tyre-Test.htm They concluded both were similar for noise levels, but as I've noted elsewhere, their assessments here are probably of limited value, as they were only measured outside the car, not inside, whereas they were done inside in the TyreReviews comparison.

Well.... in the review, the tyre with the lowest rolling resistance had the best dry grip and did well in the wet too and the tyres I highlighted also did well on all 3 counts. I doubt any in the reviews were specifically ECO tyres though, just good all-round tyres - have you any in mind that illustrate your point?

The recent review of All-Weather Tyres by TyreReviews, mentioned in a couple of other tyre threads, is worth looking at for noise + all aspects. The 25min Youtube link is good too. Apologies for those who read my recent thread here, as this repeats much noted there. https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2020-Tyre-Reviews-All-Season-Tyre-Test.htm They've 2 noise categories and I was more interested in the 2nd rough road noise chart. My Karoq on 17" Bridgestone Turanza Summers is pretty quiet on smooth tarmac, but some roar and bump thump is noticeable on the rough, but not really horrendous. (The review found that the tyres were typically 9-10dB noisier over rough roads than smooth roads and I assume this is a general truism, whatever the tyre type). It's also noticeable with rough road noise that all A-W tyres, except for the Michelin X-Climate, are quieter than a well regarded quiet summer tyre (Goodyear Efficient Grip) used as a control comparison. Low road noise and ride quality is important to me for general driving pleasure, so I do welcome any reduction in this noise, but not at any great expense of other aspects - so in a year or so, am looking at either the Goodyear G3 or Bridgestone. Both good all-round, with low rolling resistance & good ride, but the Bridgestone was top of the heap on latter. The G3's better in snow, but as I live in SE England not quite so important. Auto-Bild found the Bridgestone wore quickly - a pity, so currently directed towards the G3's. TyreReviews seem to regard this new tyre as quite an achievement. Autobild's noise comparisons are to be taken with a pinch of salt, as only measured outside the car, whereas TyreReviews in this comparison, were taken inside & done with considerable care. Winter tyres also seem to be pretty comfy & quiet, possibly even more so, but I'm not prepared to change tyres twice yearly, nor to rely on summer tyres, as we do get substantial snow occasionally. No Pirelli's were tested.

Actually, I'm unsure if Autobild and Tyrereviews were testing the same tyre, in view of the wildy differing wet handling results. Autobild refers to their testing a Quatrac tyre that had just superceeded the Quatrac 5, whereas Tyrereviews tested a Quatrac Pro. I'm not familiar with the Vredstein Range these days though, but did once fit a set of their summer tyres once to my BMW 523 16+ years ago as they were a good price and recall being quite impressed, including noting the ride was a bit quieter than before. Tyrereviews claim they apply the following weightings in their overall ratings - 30% wet handling, 25% dry ditto, 25% snow ditto, 10% noise and comfort & 10% rolling resistance. In the video, they say the testing was done blind - no, not the driver blind folded, but he never new what tyre he was testing at any one time, as the wheels were covered so the driver couldn' t see the tyres as he entered & exited the car. I acknowledge e-roots preference, but for me, ride & noise are worth more than that 10% weighting, because as well as driving pleasure, I believe amongst other things, this aspect is important for reducing driver fatigue and thus driver error - so, significant for car safety overall.

Yes e-root, difficult to argue with that, but I'll have a go. If 'good handling' is the overiding safety factor - taking that in isolation would guide you towards using a good summer tyre, but then you'd need to change over to winter in late Autumn. Probably wise where you are, but not many would bother in the South East and probably then safer overall to use all-weathers. Anyway a few arguable points :- Looking just at all-weathers, safety depends on the situation. Comparing the Michelin & Goodyear for instance, the Michelin is better in the dry, particularly regarding braking, but the Goodyear generally better in the wet, so which is safer? Difficult to say overall and the Goodyear has the better, quieter ride. Is sporty ultra-sharp handling the only form of good handling? and when I refer to a little softness in the steering, I don't mean going as far as soggy or unsafe handling. I do reckon many of the tyres in the reviews here can be regarded as very safe. When it comes to needing to brake quickly on a bumpy or broken road surface, particularly on a bend, I speculate a more compliant tyre or rubber may keep it in more consistent contact with the road surface and this would equal better braking in this situation or less sliding/bumping sideways, but never seen any tests on this. Certainly the BMW I previously referred to, felt rather alarming on a rippled road section - the steering wheel was almost dancing around in my hands - couldn't believe that they would release a car like that for sale, probably more to do with suspension settings than tyres alone and less sporty versions of this car likely don't suffer. I reckon that a more comfy ride with low road roar and bump thump is less wearing for many, if not all people - certainly me - and so keeps one more alert & content (& so safer?), if doing anything more than short journeys.