Avocet

Yes, that came from VW UK. In my "day job" we do quite a bit of work with them, so the guy there, very kindly sent me that printout when we first got the car. I thought I'd just ask online before I bother him again though!

Hi All, 2017 diesel Edition 4x4 7 seat. Despite having had the car for nearly a year, I was cleaning it out yesterday and noticed to my horror that it has NEITHER a puncture repair kit, nor a space-saver! Basically, from a puncture point of view, I'm a sitting duck. It has nothing whatsoever. First of all, am I right in thinking it ought to have one or the other? Secondly, looking at the PR codes for my car, I see that it is (was!) supposed to have "1G8 - Breakdown Kit" (see attached). Would anyone be able to tell me what that actually comprises, please? (I literally have nothing - not even a jack or wheelbrace). Thanks!

Yeah, I was staggered at how heavy it is. And of course, an interesting question about "need"! Youngest Avocetlet is a keen cyclist and she needs to be able to take him and his bike to cycling each week. Mrs. A is very small and can't really put a bike rack on, so it would need to be inside the car. An Octavia estate would be fine for that. However, we do live in rural Cumbria and having more driven wheels is a definite plus. But the REAL reason, is rather sadder. This replaces an old T30 Nissan X-Trail. A couple of years ago, she was hit, hard, by a couple of lads in a SEAT Leon. It was an offset-frontal with a very narrow overlap. Sadly, her left leg never fully recovered and it ended her career. She's only in her mid 50s. For that reason, she needed an auto. Ultimately, there was no way I could persuade her to go for an Octavia! She's a really nervous driver now and desperately needs the reassurance of having a decent amount of metal around her! It's not ideal, to be honest, and she's never used the Row 3 seats, but in this part of the world, you don't get much choice in second hand cars and this one came up and ticked the boxes. It's certainly a nice drive, but you're always conscious of how heavy it is. On the plus side, her X-Trail was a Euro 4 diesel and averaged about 33 to the gallon, with corresponding CO2 emissions. Despite its extra weight, the Kodiaq is so far averaging 41 to the gallon (or 44 according to its trip computer!) and is a Euro 6d. I have to say, that's pretty darned impressive!

We asked our dealer last October when we bought the car. I'm afraid you'll be looking at over £1k.

I work in the car industry. I know "calibration engineers" (the guys whose job it is to optimise the engine mapping to get the best possible fuel consumption and CO2 figures out of them), who would sell their own mothers for a (genuine) 2% improvement! When you see the £ millions big manufacturers spend on this, you really have to wonder about some of the claims for these tuning boxes and remaps! Yes, you can get them a bit better by breaking the law and at the expense of increased emissions, but the gains are really marginal. When one of these remap or tuning box companies posts up an independent report from an emissions lab, where the car is tested to the same requirements as it had to meet when it was type approved, I'll buy one.

1.6 ton and the rest! Mrs Avocet's 150bhp diesel 7 seat 4x4 weighs 1861kg with a full tank of fuel and 75kg in the driving seat!

Yes, that's pretty poor! However, it's a separate issue to homologation.

D'oh! Quite right, apologies! That's what you get for posting at stupid o'clock in the morning! Oh well, if it's of any interest to anyway more generally, the CoC for the car will give the definitive answer as to whether it can tow or not.

I wonder if I might pick everyone's brains on DSG-equipped vehicles, please? I was out in my wife's "bear" today (which is the 150 bhp diesel with a DSG box). In town, the stop-start cut in several times. If anything, the Kodiaq stop-start seems far more willing to cut-in than it was on several VW Sharans I'd previously had, but they were all manuals. That got me thinking... ...is it GOOD for the DSG gearbox? Is it better for the gearbox and clutches, when you stop (say at traffic lights) to: (a) leave it in gear and just let the stop-start to do its thing; (b) put it into neutral; (c) disable the stop-start and leave it in gear whilst idling? I'm not concerned with the starter motor or ring gear, or anything like that, this just relates to what's best for the DSG system.

If it helps anyone, I can give a definitive answer on this - at least for our car, which is a 2017 "Edition" 4WD 7 seat DSG with 150 bhp diesel. They ARE homologated for towing! Attached is a scan of the EU "Certificate of Conformity" for our car. Every type approved car will have one. They are unique to the vehicle, and bear the VIN of the vehicle they relate to. (I've blanked mine out on the copy below). They contain a summary of the main data held by the type approval authorities. It's the single most important document you can have for any EU-approved car. The manufacturer is obliged to deliver one, original, paper CoC to the first owner of the car, free of charge. He can, however, make a "reasonable charge" for a duplicate if the original is lost. You can see this one is a duplicate. On side 2, you can see various technical data for the vehicle. You can see that it has 2 driven axles (so it's a 4x4), it's the 150 bhp engine (the 110 figure on the CoC is in kilowatts) and it's a 7 seater. What you can't see, is that it's an automatic (although that will be concealed in the "variant" and "Version" codes on Side 1, if anyone can get a break-down of those). However, as you can clearly see, it IS homologated for towing - up to 2 tonnes with brakes and up to 750kg without brakes. Anything else anyone tells you to the contrary, is "bull"! (As an aside, I believe it's the 150 bhp diesel 4x4 DSG 5 seat version that can't tow)! No idea why that is, but we specifically bought the 7 seater, not because we needed 7 seats, but because we wanted to tow. If any of you wants the definitive answer for your car, check the CoC. .

I have such tyres on my old dog of a Freelander 1and as you say, they're OK on pure driven snow, where they can get a grip. However, they're useless on hard-packed stuff. Yes of course there are plenty of cars "moving about" on tyres other than Winter tyres, but they would "move about" better on Winter tyres! If I was going to keep it, I'd get Winter tyres, just because however good it is, I know it can be better. As it is, a 20 year old Freelander isn't worth the cost of a set of Winter tyres!

My daughter lives in the Scottish Highlands. She drives a very ordinary 1300 cc Mazda 2 on Winter tyres and has no trouble unless the snow is so deep that the runs out of ground clearance. She has passed several 4x4s on "Summer" tyres, that had got themselves stuck. One area where I find there is a lot of confusion, is that some people thin tyres with a "mud & snow" tread pattern are "Winter" tyres. This is not the case. The "Winter" designation is largely down to rubber compound. A tyre isn't a "Winter" tyre unless it has the three-peaked mountain with a snowflake symbol moulded into the sidewall. In some Northern EU countries, you can be fined if stopped between October and March with tyres that don't bear these markings. They really do make one hell of a difference.

Hi All, I'm new on here. We've recently bought a 2017 Kodiaq (7 seater 150 bhp diesel 4x4 DSG). Due to lockdown, we haven't used it much, but I did have to undertake a reasonably long trip for a hospital appointment recently, and was disappointed with the "Rest" heater function. I've had other VAG cars with the same engine and the Rest feature and it has worked brilliantly, keeping the cabin warm for up to half an hour. On this one, when I pressed the button, the light illuminates and the heater fan runs, but what comes out of the vents is only lukewarm and even then, only for a few minutes. I think the system works by having an electric water pump to circulate water from the engine around the heater matrix. It's as if there's no hot water getting to the matrix. Has anyone else had this problem? I've checked all the fuses that I think it could be and they're all fine. The car is covered under some sort of extended warranty from the dealer, but I'd be curious to know what the fault might be.