SinglePointSafety

As stated above, this whole issue has, unfortunately, been discussed many times. Fundamentally, the brochure has the legalese weasel words which effectively say 'don't believe the brochure/price list/configurator, check with the dealer as to what the car's spec will be'. Whenever I've ordered a car, I email the dealer, using polite language, saying that I expect them to tell me, based on the brochure/price list/configurator, what the actual spec of the car is, and - importantly - what changes have occurred between ordering the car and its build (given that the time between order and build can be many months). Your contract is with the dealer, not Skoda UK, so you're ordering a product with an agreed specification at an agreed price, and if the spec changes, you are entitled to exercise various options, within reason, to ensure you are not financially disadvantaged. A change to the alloy wheel design wouldn't be a valid reason for rejection, but removal of a significant item eg heated steering wheel, certainly would, if it couldn't be retro-fitted. I have never, ever, ever, heard of a dealer who pro-actively tells a purchaser of changes in the car's spec during the order-build interval. Such good customer service would be totally unacceptable. The guilty staff would be publicly executed as a warning to others for such outrageous behaviour totally at odds with the culture of car purchase and ownership in the UK.

Root, totally agree - as the YouTube vids demonstrate oh so well, in snow, a 2WD car with winter or all-season tyres is far, far better than 4WD on summer tyres.

Michelin CC+ do not 'break the laws of physics' and nor are they hype - there are many, many YouTube vids and other tests which show that they function nearly as well as a dedicated set of winter tyres in the snow. Do the research and reach your own conclusions taking into account your driving situation, regarding the choice of all-season tyres eg Michelin v Continental v Goodyear etc. I have personal experience of Michelin CC+ tyres and have been extremely happy with them, even used them in snow a few times and they had all the grip that was needed. They also give a much quieter ride and reduce the amount of road vibration entering the cabin, so big bonus all round. Realistically, in most parts of the UK, the limiting factor in your ability to get around in snow will be the roads blocked by other vehicles, especially the RWD 'ultimate driving machines' with their super-low-profile summer tyres = zero grip in snow.

I now run my Kodiaq on 17-inch wheels with 65-profile Michelin CC+ tyres, with the pressure adjusted as jasoncmiles suggests - get really good, quiet ride (minimal road noise) and protection from the local cave-like potholes which would destroy any of those fancy 20-inch or 21-inch rubber-band tyres and wheels, within a few months. But even with the original 19-inch 50-profile tyres, the ride could never be described as over-firm, for both small-bump and larger-travel imperfections.

And a lot of the time, it's just me in the car, bike rack + one (fairly light) MTB, so ride would be even better with a full load. Don't know if Skoda have changed the suspension settings during production.

My MY20 Edition 2.0 TSi is 7-seat with a factory-fitted retractable towbar. No-one could in any way describe the ride as 'harsh' (and yes, I have been a passenger in the back on a few occasions)

I have an Edition 2.0 TSi and IMHO the engine is one of the standout features, being quiet and smooth, lots of low-down shove and thus the car feels effortless to drive. Previous car was Golf Alltrack (4WD) Estate auto diesel and I was expecting a significant reduction in mpg going to the Skoda, but I've been very, very pleasantly surprised, since in mpg terms (and I'm able to compare identical journeys) the Skoda is achieving better than 75% of the Golf's mpg. Of course, the standard warning is that the type of journey and how you drive determines mpg, so my results of this fuel consumption comparison may not apply to you. But so far, I've been unexpectedly impressed by this aspect of the car.

And, by the way, don't be tempted to ask Skoda any Qs regarding fuses etc. When I tried this, they made it clear that they would not help me (even if they could) because I asked them a 'technical Q' and should instead ask my dealer. Who had already said "we don't know, you'd need to contact Skoda UK and ask them". Which is why this forum is so useful: I'm regularly impressed by the level of tech knowledge forum members have.

Teir, that's interesting and useful info. I just want to install an ignition-only socket to power a phone charger to use my satnav app, so it only needs < 10 A. The dashcam (supplied by me) was hard-wired by the dealer (hence no possibility of voiding the warranty) and I'm pretty sure they used the supplied Nextbase piggy-back fuse, so it's likely that any spare ignition-only fuse positions are still vacant

Thanks Teir, I kind of suspected that would be the situation, which tells us something interesting about how 'individual' each car really is, down to option- and market-dependent fusebox wiring

Thanks Arkaig, much appreciated, the file tells me the fuse rating - which is very useful - but not the information I need ie is the fuse position actually 'live' if the option isn't fitted? (because not wiring the fuse location might save Skoda, ooh, I dunno, a few pennies.....)

As an aside, does anyone know if fuse position 46 (230V socket, which was not an option for UK cars) is actually 'live' and if so, what the fuse rating would be? Similarly Q for fuse 51 (heated rear seats) - if the option was not selected, is the fuse position live? Thinking about having an ignition-only 12V socket installed, so intrigued by the discussion above, and the very useful photos of the actual fuse box Thanks

Billywizzo, first thing to say is that I'm sure all of us on the forum totally sympathise with your plight - and it's not a good time of year, nor a good 'pandemic' period, to have to start the search all over again for another car. Best of luck in whatever you decide to do next. Others on this forum will no doubt add their views, but if looking for another car, you could always try and source a nearly-new Kodiaq. If you need the 7 seats, your options for an alternative vehicle will be limited, as I'm sure you know, for the £££ you might be willing to pay. If you don't need the 7 seats, when we were looking at / test-driving cars 18 months ago, before we decided on the Kodiaq, we also considered a Kia Sportage, Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V (hybrid or plain petrol), Audi Q3, Volvo XC40, Volvo XC60. The Toyota and CR-V in particular were both totally blameless to drive, such that (a rare thing, this) my spouse declared that "if it were not for the other issues, I'd happily have this car, it's soooo easy to, well, just get in and drive it". Hope that helps

Interesting topic - Kodiaq Edition, bought new in March this year (2020, the Plague Year) and so far the VCDS has been fine. Until now. I've had the aforementioned blank screen of doom where the navigation screen should be, and some other weird faults, such as the mpg readout changing itself from 'since refuel' to 'since start' and both the total and trip mileage disappearing, and inability to select some of the options in the different choices for the central display eg for vehicle data. The nav screen reappeared but the other issues still seem to be there, although sometimes the trip mileage reappears (and I'm aware that ACC causes some items to not display). It would be good if the user could re-set VC..... I'm assuming re-setting the Columbus infotainment won't have any effect judging by what others have said.

Look at The Roofbox company https://www.roofbox.co.uk/ for a good selection of bike carriers. One big advantage of Thule is the availability of spares. Plenty of reviews of bike carriers on Youtube, of course.

I have the Skoda rubber mats and they seem to be good quality and, of course, fit perfectly. And, very importantly, they don't smell much, only faintly of, well, rubber, unlike some amazingly-odorous mats I once bought from one of the 'big' car mat companies.

There are plenty of Youtube vids which demonstrate very, very convincingly that in snow and ice, a 2WD car with all-season tyres (or even better, winter tyres) will hugely out-perform a 4WD car with standard summer tyres.

Good Q Marky - you might guess that this was the situation I found myself in. I carefully chose the options so that the list price was about £200 < £40K threshold, price protected. As the months rolled on, I noted the list price increases and did my research, panicked when I realised what the VED rules are and that my car now has a list price > £40K. Phoned dealer, salesperson was adamant that it was the list price at the time of order, and anyway, they supplied the list price to the DVLA/HMRC, implying that there was some, er, scope for slight dishonesty, so not to worry, my car would definitely not attract the higher VED rate (and of course I believed her). When the registration letter arrived, oh yes, of course my car was now in the > £40K VED band. To my credit, I was totally calm when I phoned the dealer and asked WTF? Since I had the VED 'promises' as emails, I simply stated that they had 2 choices: sell me the car at a bigger discount to cover the extra 4 years of higher VED (year one was included in the price) or I simply walk away, no bother to me, still had the old car (not true) and another car in the household (true) and if necessary I would get my deposit back via legal action if they decided they'd keep it (it was only £100 but nonetheless.....). They thought about it for an hour or so and then offered me the higher discount, whilst muttering that they'd lost money on the deal because the discount was already huge, matching the best respectable broker price, blah blah, sob story, have to sell the children into slavery. So that's why your Q is a good one - if I didn't have the incriminating emails, not sure what the legal position would be. Is it up to the buyer to be aware of the rules? - they are pretty clear on the car taxation web site, and everyone knows a car salesperson will p**s in your pockets and tell you it's raining. And if there's a no-deal Brexit, although there will no doubt be price protection on factory orders, the list price is likely to increase substantially because of import tariffs, let alone the regular price increases. You have been warned.....

And be really, really careful. The £40K limit is the list price of the car on the day before its registered, NOT the list price on the day you order it. With long lead times for factory orders, it's quite possible for there to be a few price rises and even if the price you pay on collection is protected, the list price isn't. So you might be exceedingly careful over your options list and feel clever because it's just below £40K list price threshold when you place the order. Yay! Then when you get the notice of registration, several months and a few price rises later, you have a WTF moment because, for sure, the dealer will either have lied to you or just never told you that your car now breaches the higher-rate VED threshold.

Run-flats are generally noisier but it's the less-compliant ride that can be a problem, because the sidewalls are stiffer (which can also transmit more road noise to the interior). And it's really important to note that the tyre's official noise rating is for 'drive-by' noise and this does not necessarily correlate with cabin noise. As an example, on my previous car (Golf Estate) I swapped the Michelin Primacy tyres for Michelin Cross-Climate all-season. Tyres had exactly the same official noise rating but the CCs gave a significantly lower cabin noise level, as well as a more compliant ride.

Yes, as snala says, and if anyone knows how to turn off this 'nag', please let me know - it appears even in the middle of summer if the road is in tree shade, and, really, those LED DRLs are more than bright enough. Also, headlights coming on when other drivers don't expect it can confuse them: colleague got his car bashed last summer because his headlights came on and the other driver thought he was flashing to let him out of a side-road, with predictable consequences.

Actually, I confess to not buying Skoda wheels, which seem to be unjustifiably expensive. My wheels are Borbet 5-spoke, about £90 each inc delivery from tyreleader.

I've 'garaged' my original 19-inch wheels with 50-section tyres, and opted for 17-inch wheels with 65-section tyres, conforms to Skoda's approved list of wheel/tyre combinations and gives much more choice of all-season tyres. Potholes round here destroy low-profile wheels and tyres, bonus is I get a more compliant ride with significantly reduced road noise.

Because that's how most manufacturers (I think) choose to set up brake auto-hold, ie leave the lights illuminated even when foot off brake. I'd guess virtually all drivers never give this a second thought. And with auto boxes, those drivers will simply sit there with foot on brake if the car doesn't have brake auto-hold. Easily fixed - brake lights go off as soon as brake pedal released with auto-hold and/or fit a sensor to switch them off when another vehicle is detected behind the stationary car. The brake lights/auto-hold could surely be a driver choice in the infotainment menu lights setup?

Where I live, a lot of the drivers are comatose and/or distracted by their phones, so the sudden cessation of the glare of the brake lights of the car in front is a signal that, yes, hello, the car in front is about to move, so, duh, it's time to wake up, put the phone down, and prepare for my car to move forward as well. And for these same drivers, when you're the last in the queue, it's an important line of defence to maximise the chance that it actually registers that, oh look, there's a car in front and it's stopped, so, um, yes, better put my brakes on I guess. Or something. I guess what would be ideal would be some sensor in the car that detects a stationary vehicle behind and dims or switches off the brake lights. A rear parking sensor should do the job, no?