Insearchofaskoda

Like everything if you don't know what it is you will likely not miss it. I have a FL230 without VAQ and I can't say I miss the option (I don't know how it feels to have it). That said I'm not wanting to use my car on track days and the limited spirit that can be applied to UK roads in this incarnation is still plenty impressive. Which is another point... don't restrict your search to the 245 this will give you more choice. The difference in BHP is not enough to notice and as someone else has pointed out, can be resolved with a remap if needed. As for the options that folks are pointing out. They are all "must haves".... problem is together they are mostly "unobtainium". You will end up compromising. You will see a high mileage car with all the whistles but it's mileage will scare you to death; you will see a low mileage car at a great price but is won't have any of the "must haves"; the car won't be the right colour, won't have the right wheels, will have everything except for heated seats OR it will be the holy grail but the price tag will put it out of reach. Test drive - find a car you think you will like, make sure it fulfils as many of your criteria as you can live with - even none if the price tag, mileage and service history is right. They are all good to drive. The one thing I personally can't live without...... DSG.

Sorry guys it was not a slight on the 19s as I do agree that they car looks better on them. I'm just of an age where I prefer the compromise the 18s offer from ride, road noise and a cost perspective.

I have the Geminis on mine. You might want to try the Gemini's before you go looking for 19s as frankly whilst I can live with the 18s.... it's not exactly a luxurious ride on them either so I can't imagine how awful it must be to drive about on the 19s. They're also significantly more expensive to replace than the 18s.

Thanks Pierre - Sounds "simple" enough but is there a guide on how to unclip the roof liner? I hate messing with clips if I don't know how... it usually ends with a broken clip and the problem being worse 😞

Yeah I empathise. I regularly ask my Missus if she can hear "that noise" only to find shes put something that rattles into the passenger door stowage area.

Is it the actual roof or your headliner that is creaking? I have the sunroof and it's not the actual roof but the headliner that I find creaks/rubs during the summer. During winter there's usually less noise from it as the parts contract and thus there is less rubbing/creaking. Oh and if anyone has a fix... I'd also be all ears but I don't find it too bothersome to be honest.

I have a FL 2018 Model which is the 230 BHP one (before they release the 245). I don't know of any issues/many with respect to reliability. The weak point on ANY VAG product seems to be waterpumps (I think it has been ever thus for VAG). Have not seen anyone complain about Cam chains on these. On the diesel you need to keep an eye on cam belt's and waterpumps at certain mileages, a quick search will reveal that issue. If I were picking a car to do high mileage in then I think I'd make a different choice to the 2.0 TSI simply on a consumption basis, though to be fair on long runs I happily get between 40 and 45 MPG though I do need a long run to get that. Pootling around I'm lucky to exceed 32mpg on short outings. Folks here will advise you to get a high spec one with heated seats, Alcantara over cloth seats, limited slip front diff (not sure the 230bhp on the FL ever had this) canton sound, DCC etc... you will look long and hard to find such rare beasts amongst what are quite rare cars to begin with. Be prepared to search patiently and also be prepared to travel to find the car you want. My car is fairly basic, does not have the alcantara or LSD or Canton sound or DCC. I bought it based on low milieage and condition ( oh and price) and I can't say I drive anywhere near hard enough to need a limited slip diff and the cloth seats are actually very nice. The sound out of the standard infotainment is acceptable, not poor but not great. It does have a sunroof which I never open but do use as a source of additional light sometimes. I have the DSG which I find excellent, though I'm of an age where using a clutch is just too much effort and if you are that way inclined... it makes for an effortless drive when on long journeys.

Thanks varoom - much appreciated.

Hi, My infotainment hasn't been updated since new and has some interesting intermittent "traits". Could someone help with access to the latest firmware please?

I have cloth - I've seen people being derogatory about the cloth... I don't understand why. I appreciate the Alcantara may be better but I find the cloth seats to be great.

My last two cars before the DSG based VRS petrol were the BMW330e. Did about 20K miles in both. Have only manage about 5K in this one as the pandemic severly curtailed my travel. In the 5k I've had with the DSG (6 speed) on my VRS I'm equally as pleased/happy to use it. If you want manual control of a gearbox... then get a manual. I for one was converted by the BMWs and my motivation was the reduction in company car tax... the pleasant side effect has been the removal of a life long aversion to automatic geared cars... I would never go back to a manual now and I find the DSG equally pleasant to drive as the BMWs.

Mine is a FL and it retains mode... or at least appears to show it has retained mode. If I leave it in eco, when I restart next journey even though it reflects as in eco the coasting mode does not engage unless swap out of eco and back again.

I hope you don't mind me jumping in with a question. So the subject of servicing is always a confusing one for me only because of the strange situation I find myself in... and many others at the moment given how little mileage we may have done. Next year my car is 4 years old, but I've yet to break 20000 miles. Which of the items should I be selecting? So if I look at that schedule do I simply blindly do everything just because it's 4 years old and ignore the fact it's barely at 20K miles? I mean I have a £725 bill coming up and since I bought it used at 16K miles it's had 2 oil services and the brake fluid change....It's costing me almost more in servicing than it is in fuel 🤣

Ha! That will send us all scurrying to check VINs. Mine is a late 2017/2018 230 and that starts TMBB..... I'm just off to check the lights

I fitted rear ones last week ... though had to be in the late evening when it was cooler (was a scorching week), they were simple enough to install and fit well. I didn't bother with the fronts... they look a little more challenging given the need to have to drill a hole and the side "clips" look like they might be interesting to wrestle on.

I also ordered these front and rear as well yesterday (that bloke on ebay is gonna wonder what's going on) I can see developing road rash being a problem without them. Small project for sunday afternoon. Let's hope they are as simple to fit as everyone says. (I don't have the best of luck with DIY projects). @Roaddetective - sorry if off topic but did you get your stage one remap figures with or without the Scopion exhaust?

Don't currently have ACC on mine but I used to have a 2014 Golf 7 GTD some years back which came with Adaptive Cruise Control and I thought it was great (no lane assist - which would have made it awesome) however, even with it set to the shortest permissible gap there was always someone who felt there need be no gap betwixt me and the car in front. This quickly rendered ACC useless on my weekly M6 slog as I'd often have one car after another treating the gap as there personally reserved space. If I didn't intervene I'd almost be going backwards. People behind would get miffed because cruise was no longer in my control.

I'd agree if it was a manual but the DSG holds the gears longer... and a run in sport on the motorway has it constantly dropping from 6th to 5th which make sport no good for anything except chasing the rev counter......so I'd want to know what they were up to.

How do other devices like the Stoplock Pro compare to this?

If I run Sport mode it won't sit in 6th at a cruise... it keeps dropping back to 5th (VRS DSG). This is after manually running through the gears till 6th gear. In fact mine wants to more than red line in each gear so I always change up manually before the red line. I've done this so often I'm no longer sure the car will change gear in sport unless I tell it to. I must be getting old but I can't abide having to take the car to and beyond red line to use Sport... so I very rarely use it now.

I bought my car back in July last year and it had done about 16000 miles give or take. I think the Bridgestones are original that would make sense. They have not worn badly. To have a powerful fwd car wear through a set of front tyres in 17500 miles is not bad. I could have dragged them further as they were not quite at their tread wear markers but I’m doing it’s first MOT this month. I didn’t want to have any reason to fail and have to pay on the spot prices for tyres and I also wanted to move away from the bridgestones.... while they seem okish ... I wanted to get into a set of GYEF1AS5’s to see if they are better in the wet and also to see if there is any road noise reduction. Have not done any miles really since replacing the fronts and swapping them to the back so I expect I won’t really notice any real difference till the bridgestones are all gone. That may be some time in our current situation 😞

Wow it does sound mental

Not significant but enough for their SW to highlight that it was out of tolerance but the thought did cross my mind about competence. Though I can't fault their efficiency and pricing today. Perhaps as you imply they just did not feel confident in doing the alignment.

Hi Folks Apologies if this has been asked an answered... I did a quick search but couldn't find the info I needed. Car is as per title. It's had Bridgestones on it from new and I've just had the front tyres replaced, the rears have plenty of life in them. I switched the rears to the front as I want the Bridgestones gone in place of the Goodyear Eagle AS5s all round eventually. This was done at kwikfit and they did a free alignment check and dutifully advised me that both driver's side wheels are good but the the passenger sides are marginally out. I said "fine, do the alignment" to which the guy said words to the effect that I had lane assist and adaptive cruise so I need to take it to someone who is certified to make adjustments to the car's alignment that does not adversely effect these systems. So question is who other than the Dealers are certified to perform wheel alignments on cars that have lane assist and adaptive cruise?

Perhaps your left hand one could do with a looksee by a dealer. My BMW also gave me a fair bit of bounce back on high beam but so far the VRS has been a little better. The BMW LED tended to just end... with no light overspill which left you feeling like there was nothing beyond what the LEDs illuminated....which I also did not like on low beam. The LEDs on the VRS are very bright but don't seem as, dare I say, focussed as the BMW ones and I don't feel like there is absolutely no illumination beyond the immediate low beam pattern. High beam on both is great. There was a chap I worked with many years ago that specified Xenon headlights on his company car and as an option they were close to £1k which he had to pay in to be able to get. At that stage I thought he was nuts... but given I've now caught up age wise... I can understand why he wanted the option. I'd not be without Xenon's or LEDs these days.