BigEyeLittleEye

Well after five years of Skoda ownership I am off to pastures new. I had a fantastic Mk3 TDI vRS and I absolutely loved the car, manual box, leather seats, just lovely. I then bit the bullet and went for a Mk4 TDI vRS 4x4 and I had so many problems in the first month that I had to reject the car. I was incredibly disappointed with the car, and I still can’t believe that VAG released the platform and in the three years since have not managed to resolve common issues. Some of the challenges I encountered in my brief ownership include: Complete loss of audio – no phone, music, or sounds at all from the infotainment system. Rear park display camera – PDC failed. Lots, and I mean LOTS of warnings appearing on startup – PDC, Autohold, Start/stop, etc. Parasitic drain on the battery leaving the car unable to start. Adaptive cruise control failed and picked up the vehicles I was passing on the dual carriageway, suddenly braking the vehicle - I was nearly rear-ended by the vehicle behind the first time it happened. SOS system failure. Infotainment restarting during driving. Satnav (inbuilt and android auto) directions disappearing permanently from the head up display. The car came from a main Skoda dealer, that I won’t name and shame, and was two years old, with a one-year Skoda approved package. I’d had the car less than a week when things started to go wrong. It went into the local Skoda dealership (in Scotland, the car came up from England) and had the SOS fixed and all updates applied. It resolved things for a short duration before it all started to go really wrong. Digging into the Erwin history, the car in the first two years before I purchased it had numerous software updates, modules replaced and a new infotainment system fitted – the tech I spoke with could not believe how much work had been done on a car in such a short period of time. There were other issues to do with the condition of the car on delivery that were in conflict with the Skoda Approved Multi-Point Checklist but to be fair to the Sales Manager, he worked professionally to resolve. I have now moved on to a lovely BMW 530d M Sport Touring which is one year older than the Skoda and with 20k more miles and was £2k more expensive. The BMW quality is fantastic, the automatic box is so much better than the Skoda, but I realise that I’m not comparing apples with apples, a £57k (new) car with a £36k (new) car but the BMW just works and I’m not spending all my time waiting for something else to go wrong. I would like to wish everyone on the forum all the best and thank you for all your help over the years (I had a different username for the Mk3 forum). I also want to leave on a positive note, and stress that I absolutely loved my Mk3 TDI vRS and enjoyed many years of fun driving in it 😃

@kreeker- ironically the satnav directions for both AA and the inbuilt infotainment system "magically" disappeared from the head up display on my car two weeks ago, and did not return.

Worked as described, sync not displayed but using the passenger controls the aircon was adjusted in sync, thanks 😀

Thanks @SteveTheElder, I'll try this tomorrow 😀

Is it possible to code the aircon system so that sync is remembered, so when restarting the car it defaults to this setting, rather than having to press the aircon switch and pressing the sync button on the head unit?

@kreekeras far as I know it's the latest AA version, splitscreen option, version at bottom of screenshot below.

It was enabled when I got the car. I use wireless Android Auto, and when AA is selected on the infotainment the directons are automatically shown to the right of the displayed speed on the HUD. The HUD is definitely worth it as an option. I'd previously driven a BMW X3 with it (good) and another hire car that had it (can't recall the manufacturer). The Skoda HUD is very good.

HUD with Android Auto works with no issues on my vRS, sounds like a trip to the dealer is needed to investigate.

I don't recall the OBD eleven dongle to be all that expensive, although I bought mine about five years ago. There was an option to gain free credits, which if I recall was about watching ads from start to finish. I used to play them and read the paper whilst they battered on. I still have over 500 credits. Like @avi4tor post, you tend to use it to tweak a few settings then not much else apart from fault diagnosis. My Mk3 was bulletproof, not much diagnosis required at all, however I'm getting my money's worth on the Mk4 😬

So, those of you on software 1900, has it resolved all issues or are there still glitches?

I agree with @zorglub, it's not worth it. I have the factory fit wireless charger and it isn't powerful enough. I use Google Maps and Android Auto in the car and the drain on battery is more than the charge from the wireless charging pad. I have resorted to a cable. For info, I'm using a Samsung S20+

Good work @Andy585! I was looking on the forum to see how to change Lane Assist with OBD 11 so it would remember the last setting and found the post by @Jorgeminator which may help save others sanity 🤣

I kooked at getting an A6 Avant that was two years old and had a great spec. I then found out I had to £520 annual road tax for the next four years, the list price plus options put it well in excess of £40k (new). The insurance was much higher than my Mk3 vRS. After a week of contemplation it was a no brainer to go for a used Mk4 vRS 😀