GWoodhouse

Surely it would only be illegal to tow something, not illegal to fit a towbar? Maybe I want a towbar for cosmetic reasons only 😉 In all seriousness, I was reading the website of the company that fitted the towbar to our MkIII. They fit different types of towbar, one is a swan neck that can ONLY be used for bike carriers, or similar.

I've not decided whether to go ahead or not. We had an after market towbar fitted on our MkIII Octavia (no idea whether it was homolagated for towing!) which was great and we used with our excellent 4-bike Witter carrier, but we were using it less and less to be honest. We have a Saris boot mounted carrier and also have the option of roof bars, so need to do some thinking. In addition to the conversations about Skoda SUVs being a popular towing vehicle, and certain Kodiaq models not being able to tow, it's worth bearing in mind that Skoda provide vehicles to British Cycling and are therefore a popular brand amongst the cycling fraternity, who might want to attach bike carriers to their cars (when used as team cars they obviously use the roof bars tbf). The info on the VIN sticker presumably only relates to actual towing (caravan, trailer, etc...), so i can't see that you would fall foul of any warranty or insurance issues by having a towbar fitted, I'm pretty sure we told the insurance company when we had the towbar fitted to the MkIII.

So I assume it is the 2nd value (3590kg) which states the towing weight? And if this says 0kg, like mine, then it doesn't have tow bar prep and, in theory, shouldn't have a tow bar fitted (even if only for fitting a bike carrier?)

Think the mirrors issue is fixed, at least for my key, need to try it with the wife's now. Thanks all for your help, 4 days of ownership and I think I've finally got it setup how I want!

Found it! It's not under Settings (why would it be?!), you have to click on the three dots when viewing the Map and it comes up. Found the answer on a VW forum.

Discovered you can quickly access the screen brightness by swiping down on the homescreen to access shortcuts, this appears to be a separate setting in conflict with setting the brightness via Settings - Screen - Brightness! I've set the mirror positions along with the seat positions using the memory buttons on the seat. I've not assigned users to keys yet, is this done through Personalisation and Skoda Connect? USB-C stick arrived today, music transferred and working well. Still think the SD card in the glovebox is a better solution. Still can't get the satnav into night mode, nothing in the settings.

Huawei P20. Doing a bit of research you need to be running Android v11 for wireless Android Auto, my phone is running v9 so looks like I need a new phone to go with my new car! My son's iPhone 12 worked flawlessly, much better interface too.

Picked up my new (21 plate) Octavia SE L Estate on Monday, changing from a 63 plate MkIII. Apologies in advance but I'm going to post my niggles and questions (so far) here as I've not been able to find an answer elsewhere: Screen brightness (centre display) - drove it in the dark for the first time last night, I have the map on the centre display, it was hellish bright! There doesn't appear to be an auto-dim feature and the only option is to manually turn down the brightness through the menu? I know I can replace the map with something else, e.g. the Radio widget, but that bright orange Radio 2 logo is going to be blinding me instead! Satnav night mode - similar issue, in the MkIII you could change the satnav to night mode so it used a darker palette, not an option? Wing mirrors - I seem to have to readjust them everytime I get in the car. Assume this is something to do with personalisation / memory functions. I've not sorted out Skoda Connect yet, will this help, or is this one of the many software niggles? Android Auto, says I need to connect with a cable (which has just arrived), thought this would be Bluetooth. Not 100% sure I'm going to use it but the consensus seems to be that it's worth using over the built-in functions. Minor niggle, I preferred the SD card in the glove box over the USB stick in the centre console for my music. Other than that it's a lovely car, quiet and comfortable, the ACC seems to work well and will be really useful for me as I do a lot of motorway driving. Loving my sunroof too so not all bad.

Finally bit the bullet! 21 plate SE L First Edition in Black with sunroof (which we only discovered when we went to test drive it!). Only 6000 on the clock. Hardware version H56 and SW version 1896, so hopefully no gremlins. Lovely car, very similar to the MkIII, main difference I noticed was the slightly lighter steering. Got to be honest, I don't feel like I got a great deal but nice to finally have placed an order. Pick it up on Monday.

Thanks, I've read a bit about this and followed the threads. I'm test driving one on Friday so will check the SW version. Thanks

Thanks, so actually some quite good stuff then! Surprised the heated mirrors aren't standard on the SE L

Looking at getting a used MkIV, can anyone tell me what the spec differences are between the SE L and SE L First Edition please?

I've just had this done and my garage was able to use a 'reconditioned' sump and do the whole job for £180. Temp fix as I'm changing it soon ;-) Id already had the plug helicoiled twice before.

At the end of the M69 joining the M1 north my sat nav insists on taking me to the roundabout rather than the dedicated slip road that has helpfully been provided 😕

You can't select Eco mode if you have a trailer attached (or a bike carrier in my case). I didn't know it could do that! If it's normally in Eco it will revert to Normal without telling you and give you an error if you try to select Eco. Makes sense if towing a caravan but was a bit miffed with only a bike carrier on the back and a 200 mile trip to the lakes.

I own a petrol MkIII Octavia and have previously owned a Diesel Ibiza and a petrol MkIV and diesel MkVI Golf. So I don't have a direct comparison but have a fair amount of VAG experience (just need and Audi for the full set!). My experience (for what it's worth), the Seats are more problematic than Skodas or VW. The Ibiza was good value, in that it was cheap to buy and (VERY) economical but it was in the garage more than was ideal, couple of EGR / DPF issues (you could say this was a diesel issue not a Seat issue) and some electrical faults. I've also been looking at a Leon to replace the Octavia and the main differences I see are a slightly sportier exterior, specifically a nicer choice of alloys (what are those monstrosities on the MkIV Octavia SE ) but a slightly cheaper feeling interior. The Leon will be about a grand cheaper for a 12-18 month old model. The Octavia has been the best of the bunch, followed by the MkIV Golf, the MkVI Golf was lovely but hideously expensive to buy, Ibiza last. HTH

Any pressurised containers in the car? I had a tube of bike puncture sealant in the pocket on the back of the front seats that exploded in hot weather, true story.

Took it to the garage today, would you believe that 500 yards from the garage there seemed to be a bit of clutch slip, a bit of a burning smell and then... it was absolutely fine (or as fine as a car with 108k on the clock can be). Sheepishly let a mechanic have a drive and he said it did feel like the flywheel was on it's way out and they quoted £875 all in for the flywheel and clutch kit. Not sure what to do now. As I've been saying for about the last 2 years 'I'll probably change it soon' Yep, this is what it's doing.

Any ideas folks? Doing a bit of reading around could this be engine mounts, contamination from the recent oil leak? Obviously waiting for the garage to open on Monday morning, bit nervous about driving it down there if it's a DMF problem, I don't want to make things any worse as the car is now not worth much anyway.

20 miles from home yesterday after two weeks of touring the country, pulled in to the queue for the M6 toll and when I went to pull away LOTS of juddering from the clutch 😞 Symptoms: Uneven bite point (this had been happening for a number of months tbh but I put it down to my imagination / ignored it. Lots of judder that is uneven, worse in lower gears but is happening through all the gears to a certain degree Rattling noise with clutch fully disengaged, worse at lower revs, i.e. 1200 to 1500 rpm Vibration through clutch pedal near the 'top' of the clutch travel when in neutral It had a new sump a few weeks ago as the plug had corroded, probably not relevant. 1.4 TSi manual, 108k miles. What's the prognosis? Thanks

Yesterday while sat at the lights (in gear, clutch depressed, naughty), the engine had a little 'flutter', bit of wobble on the revs and a bit of engine noise, we'd just set off so the engine was cold. This afternoon we've just come back from a drive (to the local dealer to look at mark IVs ironically) and when I locked the car there was a whirring / grinding noise which upon closer inspection is coming from the fuel filler flap, and it is doing it whenever I lock the car. Finally, as I had the flap open I decided to open the filler cap (no idea why) and there was a release of gas from the fuel tank. The car has never done any of these three things in the past as far as I know. What is going on? Mrs W wondered if someone has tried to siphon fuel off, but I'm on 425 miles for this tank of fuel so if they have they've not taken very much. Could the low fuel level also be something to do with it (currently showing range of 25 miles). All very odd. Thanks

Vehicle manufacturers need to focus less on turning their cars into giant iPhones with wheels and focus more on making them drive properly. Seems to be a bit of a theme.

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm aware that faults get a disproportionate amount of attention on the internet and there will be thousands of owners out there who haven't had a single issue. As someone who thinks any type of AI on a car is BS (not a luddite, I've worked in IT for 25 years and know what computers are good at, and what they're bad at) the reported ACC faults do concern me the most. To be honest, the biggest turn off for me is that the infotainment system is entirely touchscreen. Touchscreen for the air-con that I tend to fiddle with a lot, just no! Even in my mark III I've taken to using the small knob (tee hee!) on the dash rather than the touchscreen for a lot of things. I am thoroughly confused tbf! Octavia is still a good value proposition but I'm also looking at 3 series or A4 for a few grand more.

That is, quite frankly, crap. For a diagnostic check on a 1 year old car from a main dealer, I'd be expecting a free coffee and a profuse apology for the inconvenience, not a £90 charge. Absolutely stealing a living. Is this common for dealers across brands? My local indy charges, but not that much, and mainly because they must get a procession of crap cars to plug in that they've otherwise not made any money from.

Sounds a bit of a nightmare having done some reading around, the adaptive cruise control that doesn't know what country it's in sounds like fun! Is the head unit variant a hardware component, i.e. B, C, D are later versions, and can't be upgraded? Software versions are just that but certain head units can only have certain software versions? The car I'm looking at is a 21 plate so might be a slightly later build. Might just take my time and try to get a later version. Shame really as there's not much else that takes my fancy, maybe an A4, I don't think they use the same head unit as VW, Seat Skoda?