Penpusher

I had a TV tuner on my mk II that I often used when SWMBO went shopping. It'd run for a while with the engine turned off, them it'd warn you that the battery needed charging, so I'd start the engine for a few minutes and turn the engine off again and continue to watch it either until SWMBO returned or the warning reappeared. It's over 7 years since I had this car, so I can't remember how much time the TV would run for before the battery was depleted.

I had a 2016 2.0 TDi 190 L&K until just over a week ago, when I changed it for a 2023 2.0 TSi 190 L&K. I've covered between 6 and 8 thousand miles each year since I retired at the end of 2017 (lockdown excepted). I've been very happy with both of the cars, but switched to petrol due to my annual mileage and also because a lot of my mileage is in the summer driving to Lithuania every year to visit SWMBO's family and friends, so winter time mileage can be quite low and the car doesn't get a chance to warm up properly. I like the L&K trim and I use just about all of the extras that trim gives me, so I'm happy to pay extra for it. I know it's not to everyone's taste, but it depends what you want from the car and it's a personal choice. It's early days yet to say much about fuel consumption for the petrol engine, but last week I went from Brecon to Hereford and, due to traffic, I was following others most of the way at 45-50 mph and it was showing just over 50 mpg when I arrived, which seems pretty good.

When I bought my first mk III in June 2017 when it was 8 months old, I agreed on the price of the car with a rescue wheel and a jack included, though it also came with a compressor and bottle of tyre seal as well because the spare wheel wasn't included when it was new. My 2023 mk III that I bought last week fortunately me with a rescue wheel and a jack as the option was ticked when it was new, though of course I don't have a compressor and bottle of tyre seal this time. I wouldn't be without a spare as I don't want to be stranded in the back of beyond or when abroad with a damaged tyre that can't be sealed, though luckily I've not needed either tyre (yet!).

I collected my "new" Škoda Superb L&K 2.0 TSi 190 on Monday this week, which is a 73 plate registered in September 2023. I'd originally planned to buy a new mk IV, but circumstances have changed and we're currently selling our house and with little movement in the housing market at the moment, I can see us getting a bit less than we wanted for it if we want a sale to enable us to move on. This car was a big saving on a new one, so the money saved will help with the move. Our previous Superb was 8 years old and it was diesel. I'm 73 and retired some years ago, so we don't cover as many miles as we used to, especially in the winter, so I wanted to change to a petrol. Also, living in Brecon, we're a long way from a Škoda agent or a Škoda specialist if anything goes wrong, so hopefully a newer car will just need regular servicing for the next few years. The old car was brilliant and never let us down, taking us to 13 European countries over the years, including an annual trip (lockdown excepted) to Lithuania to visit SWMBO's family and friends. The new L&K has a number of standard features over the last one that are welcome, but it also has several optional extras including wireless charging, area view, travel assist and park assist, a spare wheel and jack and a rear wash/wipe. I've just about found my way around everything apart from connecting to My Škoda app, which I've tried several times without success. I'll just have to keep trying! The only bit that was not very nice was the road fund licence of £600, compared to £35 for the old car! Anyway, here are some photos after I drove for the first 500 yards from the garage with SWMBO managing to get into one). Yesterday, I went to Hereford in the wet with many farmers on the road in and out of their fields with their tractors, so it's already dirty.

I was in Hereford in January this year when it was very wet for a hospital appointment. Going there from Brecon was OK with a little water on the road, but going home it was much worse. I got as far as Willersley on the A438, but the water beyond there was too deep and some people were pushing a car out of the water that stopped in the middle, so I turned round and went home via Abergavenny. Even a Volvo XC90 I was following gave up and turned round at the same point. Unfortunately, I had to drive back through the water I'd already been through as in these photos courtesy of SWMBO.

I remember driving in London in the 1960s and 1970s where everybody drove on sidelights only and if you had dipped headlights on, they'd flash at you. Lighting up times were probably more appropriate in the past when cars had dynamos and many had 6 volt electrics and they only switched on anything electrical when absolutely necessary. On Radio 2's weekday afternoon programme when it was presented by Steve Wright, he often mentioned lighting up times. I think he mentioned it out of interest as one of his factoids to compare the times between north and south and, to a lesser degree, east and west. I've had my DRL's coded to come on front and rear, especially as we drive abroad every year in countries that require you to have lights on 24/7. I've also set the dipped headlights to come on if I use my wipers and I've also set the sensitivity level to the highest.

I often get over 50 mpg and sometimes over 60 mpg up to a maximum of about 65 mpg. I usually get 60 mpg passing through the Netherlands, where it's flat and the speed limit is 100 kph. Earlier this year returning from Lithuania, I managed to go from Poland to Dunkirk with one tankful, which is about 700 miles with the back seats folded down and the car very full. For the whole trip, it returned 55.3 mpg.

Do you have a photo of your Beagle in there please? We had a Beagle from 1959 to 1969 that my parents bought from Pipewell Hunt Kennels in Northamptonshire. I remember very well going to select the puppy they wanted, but it wasn't easy with so many excited little dogs all running around us. He travelled all over the UK and Ireland with us, including the Fishguard-Rosslare ferry before it was roll on-roll off. We had conventional saloons back then, so he sat on the back seat with my sister and I or in the front passenger footwell with my mother, all of us unrestrained of course, which seems very unsafe now.

This sometimes happens on my 2016 Superb when I'm loading or unloading and when my size 10 feet go too far under the car and the keys are in my pocket. If I want to avoid this happening, I put the keys down far enough away from the car so that my feet won't activate the virtually pedal. I know some have deactivated the beep, but I wouldn't want to be without it as I want to get out of the way if the boot lid starts coming down when I'm reaching inside. On a couple of occasions, I've been standing near the rear of the car when the cat has walked underneath and she's activated the virtual pedal!

Here's a link to online manuals:- https://manual.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com/Models

I update the maps every 6 months when a new version is released and I too lost traffic info a while back. The updates haven't affected the traffic info system as I was in Germany earlier this year and it was working fine over there. It even comes up in English!

We went to Slovenia and Croatia 2 years ago and enjoyed it very much. We went through Austria over the Alps and came back through Italy, France and Monaco, where it was very hot at 35ºC. We were in Lithuania in May and June this year and it was hot there too when it went up to 30ºC. We covered 3,427 miles or 5,516 km, so a trip to Norway from the UK wouldn't be so far. SWMBO has friends in Flensburg, Germany who she wants to visit, so maybe I can twist her arm to combine a trip to see them and then on to Norway.

That was a fantastic trip and it's one that I'd love to do, but SWMBO isn't interested as she likes to go somewhere warm and with plenty of shops! I've been to most European countries, but Norway's one I haven't visited yet.

There's this sign at the end of the adjoining road. https://maps.app.goo.gl/iwLvqVMSWesWwpnM8 If you spin round through 180º there's a ticket machine on the corner. It's not clear what area is covered by the charge and I thought I was out of the area. To make it clear, they need more signage. Yellow lines wouldn't work unless they repaired the surface as they wouldn't last 5 minutes on a loose and potholed surface.

Not today, but we've been away with the Superb for 22 nights on a road trip to Lithuania. We went out on the Stena ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland, then went east past Hanover, Berlin, Poznan, Warsaw, Bialystok, Kaunas and finally to Klaipėda for 11 nights, where we rented an apartment. We went on to the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, for 3 nights and returned past Alytus, Bialystok, Warsaw, Dresden, Cologne and spent the last night in Calais before taking the ferry to Dover. The car didn't miss a beat and it all went very smoothly. The only additional expense was a parking fine in Klaipėda received when we were visiting father-in-law and the car was parked here. https://maps.app.goo.gl/noCLZsM84cPucmkJA I noticed parking ticket machines in another road, but I didn't see any signs that you need to buy a ticket if you park here. SWMBO's brother lives nearby and has parked there many times and he's never had a ticket and he didn't know you needed to pay. The ticket was a flimsy printed paper that would have been washed away if it hadn't been dry as the weather was hot with a few very heavy thunderstorms. I showed the ticket to my brother-in-law and he paid it for me. I probably would have got away with not paying it, being in a UK registered car, but the ticket was only €1.50, so it was hardly worth taking the risk. It's strange that it was so little as I should have paid €1.50 for a ticket, so there doesn't seem much point in buying one if you stand a chance of not getting caught! The record of our road trip. We're taking a break at the motorway services at Kaunas in Lithuania. The car had to endure some rough roads on our trip. We are leaving Lithuania and entering Poland, where the Polish road ahead is excellent but the Lithuanian road is a rough surface where they're carrying out improvements.

We stop 4 times on the journey and out and the same on the way back. We just returned home yesterday and on the return journey stayed in Warsaw, Dresden, Herborn (Germany) and Calais. We live in Brecon, Wales, so we have a distance to travel (including some M25) to get to the ferry in either Harwich or Dover. As mentioned before, we're not spring chickens, SWMBO doesn't drive and we're both retired, so we can take our time on the journey. We like to not have to rush to get up in the morning and arrive in good time to have a walk around the area where we're staying and then enjoy a good meal. We were away for 22 nights, with 14 nights in Lithuania; 11 nights in Klaipėda and 3 nights in Vilnius.

I saw my first Superb mkIV at Ibis Styles Hotel in Warsaw, which belonged to another guest. It was a L&K estate, but I didn't see any other details. I didn't get to speak to him, but it was already looking a bit dirty, so he hadn't just collected it from the showroom.

We go to Lithuania every year to visit SWMBO's family and friends (tonight we're staying in Dresden on our homeward journey after our 2024 visit). I'm 72 and my joints are a bit creaky, but I can get out of the car after a day's driving without any problems. We both find the car to comfortable and we usually have the DCC set to comfort on the motorways and normal for other roads. The car has been reliable on every trip apart from 6 years ago when we found a piece of metal in a back tyre when we were in Klaipėda, Lithuania. A tyre depot repaired it for €20 and the tyre was fine until it was replaced a couple of years later when it was worn. This wasn't a reliability issue with the car though. I will add that I don't rush and usually cruise at about 70 mph, so the car isn't working too hard. Although there are only 2 of us travelling, the car is packed full with the back seats folded down and it's sitting quite low at the back.

My present car (2016 model) has to be manually changed to kph when I leave the UK. Unless the new cars with speed limiters automatically change, will I be able to leave it showing mph when I leave the UK? If so, could I then drive at 50mph in a town where the limit is 50 kph? Of course, I would not want to do that, but could I in theory? I imagine it's unlikely as anyone living in a kph country could change to mph.

I too bought this style of valve caps about 10 years ago and they were also stolen within a week when I was working in Abergavenny. The car was was parked in Fairfield car park for the day and it's not the sort of place where you worry that something might happen to your car.

I use E/Coast mode all the time. It's perhaps because I can remember driving two strokes in the 1960s that had a lockable flywheel to prevent the engine being starved of oil if you lift off and also it was jerky when you took your foot off the loud pedal if you didn't use the coasting option.

I keep hi-vis vests in one where they're easily accessed in case of emergency and a European road atlas in the other in case the sat nav ever goes on strike when we're away when I need it most.

I've cleaned and polished the car inside and out ready for our trip of just over three weeks across Europe to Lithuania. We leave in 11 days time, but as rain is forecast for most days until we leave and I have a hospital appointment next week, I thought I'd better do it while the sun shines. I washed the outside on Thursday and planned to polish it today (Saturday) but I had to wash it again today! On Friday, the wall behind the car was painted and although I parked on the road away from the house, the painters produced a lot of dust cleaning the wall prior to painting it and the car ended up covered in dust. I know it's not as detailed as many on here do it, but at 72 I'm happy with what I've achieved.

I agree. I had mine fixed as per my earlier post above for £96. OK, that was three years ago, but I can't imagine it'd be anywhere near £600 now.

I don't have a rear wiper on my hatchback, but I had a similar problem on a Peugeot 205 about 35 years ago. The wiper shaft where it comes though the hatch had seized after a few years of dirt and water ingress. Cleaning it up and lightly greasing it cleared the problem.