SinglePointSafety

I've found this an interesting topic. My previous car was a Golf Alltrack 190 DSG 4x4 diesel, so have made the transition to a larger, slightly heavier, petrol car with the Kodiaq. Had also heard some scare stories about the 2.0 TSi slurping petrol. I've now driven > 2000 miles in the new car, and done a sufficient number of journeys identical to the Golf's, such that I can offer an accurate comparison of both real-world performance and fuel economy. First thing to say is that I've been hugely pleased with the Kodiaq's fuel economy. On the sort of journey such that the Golf achieved ~60 mpg, the Kodiaq figure is ~47 (yes, that's 47, not a typo). If the Golf had to undertake the sort of journeys that gave ~50 mpg, the Kodiaq figure is ~40 (fortunately it's rare that I have to drive in stop-start urban crawl). Performance isn't hugely important to me, but I've been impressed by how much low-down shove the TSi is giving me, and I honestly don't feel that the car's real-world driveability suffers at all compared to the diesel, such are the advances in technology for petrol-powered vehicles. The only retrograde step is that the 6-speed wet clutch DSG box in the Golf was pretty much as seamless at low speed as a torque converter auto, but the 7-speeder in the Kodiaq is a bit jerky off the mark when the engine's cold. But that could probably be solved with a software upgrade.

Thanks wokwon, I had a 'live chat' with Skoda UK but it was worse than useless: the SUK person said 'I'm not technically-minded' (which is really, really useful for that job eh?) and when the Q on fuse positions made its way to the techies, I got a stock answer which is 'we don't support/recommend anything other than the standard current flow' (their words more or less), so my next stop will be a local auto-electrician, or independent Skoda specialist. I suspect that you are indeed correct and that changing fuse position won't work because of the lack of terminal 15 pins below fuse 40.

Interesting regarding the 12V sockets - found this video which implies that, in theory, all I'd need to do is move fuze 40 to its lower position, and then it would be ignition-only for the 12V sockets. Anyone tried this? Haven't yet looked at my Kodiaq's fuze panel, heard some stories that the manual isn't always correct regarding which fuze does what. Do you need VCDS to clear an error code or something afterwards?

Thanks wokwon - I will research this 'piggy-back' fuze, it sounds like exactly the solution I need. The 'master technician' at the dealership told me point blank it could not be done

That is indeed interesting - thanks Chin, I'm often puzzled about the philosophical differences between cars that all come from the same lineage ie VA Group. For example, in my previous Golf (and all my various cars before it) the 12V sockets were only live with ignition, but my Kodiaq is live all the time (and I so wish I could change it easily). Beats me why the Q7 and Scala revert to LA on, but not the Kodiaq. Why, FFS? I can see arguments both ways, but, please, make your mind up and be consistent.

Not sure about the Scala, but the Kodiaq LA doesn't care how hard you grip the wheel, because it detects 'driver input' ie the small, automatic steering corrections that you would make. I've kind of got used to the foibles of LA and have learned to let the car do the steering, hands lightly on the wheel, with the occasional steering input to stop the warning chime occurring if it thinks I'm not paying attention. Occasionally though I get caught out and the chime sounds, "wake up you dozy ba****d and give me some attention please". Um, where have I heard that before? Let me think.... I've found LA to be helpful by giving you a not-so-subtle reminder to indicate when changing lanes eg on a motorway, because if you don't indicate, you can feel it pushing you back into your lane. Not a problem for me since I've always used my indicators appropriately in such circumstances, but clearly, many drivers (looking at you, yes, you, in that Audi or BMW) appear to have had their indicators disabled. Again, don't know about the Scala, but my Kodiaq remembers the LA setting ie on or off. When I collected the car, it had been previously set to 'on' so my first experience of LA was, er, involuntary. Thus if you switch yours off, it should remain so.

Olderman1, I can confirm my MY20 Columbus unit does exactly what you describe, in case that helps

If DaveMiller's summary is indeed correct, this sounds very similar to the experience of a colleague, who bought a used Superb, fitted his own towbar (Skoda branded) but the local dealer point-blank refused to do the coding, citing "regulations, didn't install it ourselves, can't check it, health & safety, will void warranty etc etc" (he didn't buy the car from them). He went to a friendly, helpful auto electrician, job done, paperwork supplied to say exactly what work had been carried out, useful if/when he sells the car or needs to make a warranty claim. Incidentally, he got the same auto electrician to hard-wire his front and rear dashcams, and I can see it was a very tidy job.....

In football parlance silver1011: "The boy done good". One of the best replies I've seen to a question, and to what was indeed a post that wasn't quite as clear as it might be.

Linni, that's interesting and does indeed sound like what my colleague said: so you get two independent nav systems working at the same time - would be interesting to see if their chosen routes coincide..... Are you saying that the above will work on the Skoda infotainment systems as well as Seat? Shame that we can't have Waze or Google Navigation on both screens - that would be brilliant (and the CR-V was all the more impressive because the Head-Up Display on EX trim also included the cut-down navigation prompts from either built-in nav (Garmin) or Android Auto/Google Nav)

Colleague has a 2019 SEAT with VC, and all that he can do is to have Waze functioning on the main screen and the built-in nav map displaying on VC, but not Waze on VC. He reckons this does not happen spontaneously - he has to do some weird stuff in Android Auto (like stop/re-start or something) to achieve this. He can't get this to work at all with Google Navigation - just the usual blank bit of the screen where the map would be in VC. As I said in a previous post, this is not a limitation of Android Auto or Google navigation, it's a limitation of the infotainment system (because it kind of works on a current-model Honda CR-V, not known for cutting-edge infotainment)

The air vent covers I purchased would block < 20% of the airflow, judging by the thickness of the mesh. They fitted by just being 'pushed gently on' (according to the instructions) but the reality was a real PITA and a lot of cuss-words, because they were a tight fit. Good news I suppose is that they might not fall off..... Agree with jasoncmiles about the Skoda rubber mats - seem to be good quality, don't smell when new and/or hot (unlike the 3rd-party mats in my previous car - phew!) and a reasonable price.

Yes, those 'apparently unfinished' vent opening are normal, and reading on this (IIRC) forum a dire warning about the extreme difficulty of extracting a pebble which had made its way down the vent - and caused a lot of rattling - I decided to put some vent covers over them. Obtained the vent covers via a well-known internet retailer....

Has anyone worked out the logic of when the USB port (in the UK, we are 'blessed' with just one USB port) powers up? The manual clearly implies that it powers up with ignition only. But I've connected a Qi phone holder, experimenting to see if the USB port will supply sufficient voltage and current to charge my phone whilst using a navigation app. Said Qi charger has a green light ('power on') which turns blue ('charging phone'). Weirdly, the USB port seemed to spring into life when I opened the driver's door, ignition still off. Then, at the end of my journey, ignition off, USB port stayed on for at least a minute, but eventually has gone off (and I hope it remains that way - I'm paranoid so will keep checking). As an aside, pre-lockdown, I contacted Skoda via live chat to ask about the output of the USB port - they're normally limited to 0.5 A if it's a data port, can be > 2 A for a charge-only, then next day received a phone call when I was told that the port can actually deliver in excess of 2 A dependent on what the item being charged will take. And based on a 5-mile journey this morning, yes, my phone (Pixel 3XL running TomTom GO nav app) did indeed appear to not only maintain but increased the charge level. Will try a longer journey when it's permitted, but obviously limited data so far. BTW, Skoda live chat folk are obviously working from home and as such don't have access to any technical data, according to someone I chatted with yesterday on a different topic. Was advised to e-mail my query, but not to expect a rapid reply.

Expecting to collect my new Kodiaq very soon, and it will have Lane Keep Assist (LKA) or whatever description Skoda uses for the tech that keeps the car within the lane markings. Will be my first experience of this tech. When we were researching/visiting dealers/test-driving, our shortlist converged on the Kodiaq, Volvo XC40 and Honda CR-V, plus 1 or 2 others. The XC40 and CR-V both have a simple on-off button on the steering wheel for LKA. Looking at my downloaded Kodiaq manual (I've seen better instructions) it almost looks like you turn LKA on via the Infotainment menu, it stays on 'forever', and thus self-activates when certain conditions are met (speed, lane markings sufficiently clear etc). And there doesn't seem to be a rapid, intuitive method for toggling LKA on/off. Is that correct, or am I missing something? Even the YouTube vids aren't very informative, they show LKA in action, but don't give much of a clue regarding easy turning on/off. if it helps, the car will have Virtual Cockpit and the Columbus infotainment system Thanks in advance for any hints and tips....