DaveFromSydney

My RS Wagon comes with 19 inch wheels with a 225/40R19 93Y spec. Here in Australia there is no wheel option. A regular wagon comes with 18 inch wheels with a 225/45R18 93Y spec. I would not have chosen those wheels myself if given the option. To me they are less attractive, noisier, firmer, probably more susceptible to rim or tyre damage and provide little handling benefit that I am going to notice. Yet today, checking out tyre prices I see that replacements (from Bridgestone) will probably cost $349-$385 vs $276-292 for the 18 inch rims, or $152(F) and $212(R) for my previous car - a Honda S2000 with 16 inch rims. It will definitely pay to have regular wheel alignments and to avoid potholes. What do you other owners think about this issue?

I am glad to hear that your Tiguan is free of problems but I wonder it might be that it is not yet based on the same platform as the Golf 8? It seems that all of the VAG brands based on that platform have similar problems. Perhaps it is still of the previous generation? Can you confirm if it has the same touchscreens and lack of knobs as the Skoda. And, given that the Tiguan is more of an SUV than a sedan or wagon, why did you not go for the Golf or Alltrack wagons? Perhaps, like me, you would have but they are not currently available in your country?

That is correct. It's a heavier car. I only apologized because the preceding sentence seemed a bit clumsy but I could not immediately express myself better. My native language IS English - indeed my father was born in Halifax, Yorks, and I was born in Australia.

I also avoid heavy braking as much as possible. But my VRS Wagon is 1505 kgs so it is going need more stoping power. When I talk about the lightness or heaviness of the brakes I was especially talking about gentle stopping around town. The VW brake pedal is very sensitive. One can call the Skoda heavy, or one could say it is more progressive. I think it is a choice the respective design teams made. Another place I can notice the difference is under adaptive cruise control. If the car needs to brake to a full stop due to the car in front doing the same it brakes later and harder than I would do myself under the same circumstances. It is disconcerting since I can't avoid the feeling that it is not going to stop in time.

Those differences seems much smaller than I would have imagined.

I have felt the same in my 2021 VRS wagon. It has 1100kms. The pedal seems heavy, especially compared with our 2015 VW Golf Alltrack which is a very similar car from VAG. The Golf's brakes bite immediately. I have to ease up the pressure as it comes to a halt to avoid it being jerky - sorry if I haven't expressed that well. However, although the Skoda feels heavy (and it is almost 200kg heavier) it seems the stopping power is there. I have tried a few emergency stops and they work well. I guess it is a decision by Skoda to provide a different feel to their car. And perhaps I will end up preferring the Skoda's brakes to those of the VW.

In that picture the Karoq (on the left) looks to me less bright but I suppose it gives a different impression to the naked eye in bright sunlight.

It turned out that the dealer resumed operation in a Covid-safe manner on Wednesday and was able to send a driver to collect me so I now have my car back as we await the arrival of the replacement infotainment system control unit from Europe. One thing I noticed today is that all of the software updates seem to have fixed one of the quirks of the car that I had thought was an intentional "feature". I had set the fan to maximum while I was driving and, after parking for 30 minutes and leaving it locked, when I restarted the car the fan continued at full speed. The Sync setting, though, did not restore - which is normal for these cars, unfortunately.

Just came back from a drive in bright sunlight and it may be wishful thinking but my wife and I thought we detected a bit of metalic in the paint. I guess it is not as impactful on a white background as on other colours. And it is not the same as the pearlescent white I have seen in other makes which is much more obvious.

I looked in the boot, removing the subwoofer and the spare tyre, but could not find any sticker. I tried all of the other places such as door jambs, under the bonnet etc, but found nothing helpful. According to this site: https://paintref.com/paintref/model/white_Octavia.shtml Candy white should be 9P,LF9E and Moon White should be 2Y,LS9R, but I cannot see codes like this on any of the stickers around the car.

I just included one above - with the red bow. Doesn't it show for you? If it is Candy White that is doubly strange since the brochure lists that as an option for the regular models only - not for the RS.

I would say my car looks more like the one on the left than the one on the right. And I just checked my invoice and it was certainly called Moon White and the premium for the colour was $AUD 700. Here is how it looked the day I picked it up.

This metallic thing has got me beat. Here in Australia the car I got, which I ordered before one in that colour was available to inspect, is a "metallic" Moon White. Now that I have it, and while I quite like the colour, there is nothing noticeably metallic about it. It just looks like any other pure white. No little flakes that reflect light from various angles. Nothing that seems to justify it being an extra $500 or so. These are the set of colours we can get for our RS models: 6 metallic and one plain.

I think we all have this issue. We would prefer it to remember the mode but it does not.

Interesting. I haven't had anyone in the back yet in 900kms but hope to transport my grandchildren in there.

My feeling is that it would be a big risk for you without the support of a Skoda shop. Do people in Singapore often import cars directly? What do they do for support? It probably pays to stick to the big brands that have a large enough local base to support a specialist workshop.

That works - thank you. But the period for me is a lot shorter than one hour. I can edit my post from 9 minutes ago but not the one from 12 minutes ago.

I meant to write "They come with the VRS here". Maybe one day I will have enough points on this site to be allowed to edit my posts?

I have had a VRS Combi/estate/wagon for 1 month, although it has been with the dealer for almost half of the time. In the 900kms I was able to put on it so far I would say the road noise on freeways is a little more noticeable than I would like but acceptable. I found the ride very comfortable. I have tried all of Comfort, Normal and Sport modes and I cannot say that in normal city or freeway driving I found much difference between them in ride quality. I expect the difference to be more pronounced in spirited driving on twisty roads. I did worry about having the 19 inch low-profile tyres. They combine with the VRS here but I would not have chosen them. I would have preferred the 18 inch standard profile for their potentially better ride and lower likelihood of damage. Also I expect that replacement tyres would be somewhat cheaper. My car has been in the dealer for infotainment system faults. My main misgivings about the car concern the infotainment system and the prospect of further software-related issues for the life of the car. If I could get my money back - and I may still try to do that if they cannot fix my faults soon. I would avoid the series 8 products of the VAG, since they all exhibit these kind of faults and have clumsy software-driven UIs, and buy a previous generation (series 7.5) Golf R wagon with around 20000kms for around the same money as this car cost me . The 7.5 series still had real buttons and knobs - like our 2015 Golf Alltrack Wagon with which we are very happy. In fact I could just buy a low mileage Alltrack and save $25000. Which is pity because I really like the Skoda if only it was problem-free.

I have had something similar happen twice so far. Adjusting the volume did not work. Visual feedback indicated that it was playing and that volume was mid-level. Stopping engine and rebooting infotainment cured it for me. Not happy about it but I have more serious faults that must be attended to first before I worry about this intermittent one.

But now there is a Covid-related lockdown in place and picking your car up from the dealer is not an authorized reason to leave home, so the car must remain at the dealer for another 2 weeks. Good thing I have that other car - not that there is anywhere to legally go to.

They just got back to me. Skoda have agreed to replace the (H5?) control unit which basically is responsible for all of the infotainment system. So I get my car back as soon as I can get over there to pick it up. Unfortunately we are looking at a 3-4 week delay while the part is shipped from Europe. Not thrilled about the delay but I suppose this puts any talk of refund or replacement on hold for a month. Luckily the car drives ok and Android Auto will keep me amused in the meanwhile.

This is the situation at the end of the week (my 4th week of ownership). Although they claim to have had multiple interactions with Skoda in Europe during the 5 additional days (8 in total) they have had the car the result is that no faults have been fixed. They offered to return me the car today but since a) I have my wife's car since she is incapacitated at present; b) there is a Covid scare on at present; I told them to keep it over the weekend and to keep working on it next week. I also told them that we are getting close to the point where I may need to invoke Australian consumer law which says that after giving them "a reasonable time" to effect repairs I am entitled to my choice of a refund or (fault-free) replacement. For those that are interested here are the links to the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commissions publications on the subject): https://www.accc.gov.au/update/just-bought-a-new-car https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees/consumer-guarantees https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/1449_ACL Motor vehicle sales and repairs_FA_WEB.pdf I did suggest that they do something heroic by replacing control units as necessary but they are reluctant to go to that extent until Skoda suggest it. There is also the question of whether that would involve taking them from a donor car that is working correctly (if they could find one), or ordering them from Europe with the implied delay of weeks or months.

My car is in its 8th day at the dealers while they attempt - so far unsuccessfully - to fix the three seemingly software-related faults that I first notified them of 2 days after purchase. It is now 27 days old. Here in Australia we have similar laws to yours in the UK. In case anyone in Australia is reading this here are the relevant pages from the government site: https://www.accc.gov.au/update/just-bought-a-new-car https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/consumer-rights-guarantees/consumer-guarantees I note that there does not appear to be any 30 day limit here. The pages only mention that the dealer has "a reasonable time". When I owned a Honda S2000 I several times had to wait 3 weeks for parts to arrive from Japan so I expect the situation of waiting for a software fix from Europe requires the same level of tolerance. But I do not intend to wait for ever.

Is it easy to clean, e.g. if you carried a spray bottle, or a rag? At present I am not sure exactly where to look for both the ACC and the lane assist. I also know I would be seriously annoyed if the front or rear parking sensors failed to prevent me from running into obstacles while parking.