Redboy

Lincolnshire is flat unfortunately, round the rural bends in this part of the world, usually B roads, it's often hedgerows, trees, tractors, horses, spiced up with grain and mud to endanger motorcyclists. You can read the road signs, see the church spires and telegraph poles to anticipate the bends, but not see the tractor and trailer pulling out just around the blind part of the corner.

All very interesting for track use. The standard car is good enough for everyday use. Point to point journeys on Britains busy and battered roads now take longer than 30 years ago...if you don't want endorsements on your licence.

Rather than turbos being weak, even if run as standard, do you have still to look after the turbo any more? By that I mean letting it idle after a long run rather than shutting off immediately? I used to religiously let both my standard MkII and especially the stage 1 MkIII idle on the drive. I confess I didn’t do that with my Golf and switch off my 272 without idling, the rationale being that I drive slowly onto the estate and reverse slowly back onto the drive, so I hope temps have dropped a bit.

I don't suffer from a back injury or problems and I find the seats don't cause discomfort. I would hazard a guess that the flat broad seat base and leather causing these problems. My VRS Octavia with leather seats and particularly the Golf GTI with cloth ones, had narrower bases, and their side bolsters supported and hugged me effectively. The Superb L&K even in DCC sport mode, causes me to hold the steering wheel a bit tighter around twisting A or B roads, to prevent lateral movement, as the bolster doesn't hug me. I am 5'10" and 11 stone. Perhaps if I was 18 stone I would might fill the seat and be held by the bolster more firmly. It's a great car particularly regarding much lower road noise levels than my previous cars. However it's definitely more at home on straight roads, capably soaking up Britain's potholes.

Impressed by phitis of he new VRS, having sat in my friends 1.5 SE, I know that it is a real upgrade in interior quality and the estate rear view looks good. £33k seems a lot. Black paint and black badging gives it a nice clean stealth look (before it rains). One thing I don't like is the large gap between the wheel arches and tyres, even with 19 inch wheels. Perhaps the suspension needs to settle, they can't all still have the transit blocks left in them.

The fault may have been the power / control unit on the rear of the headlight, which corrodes/shorts out. This happened to my MkIII for 3-4 weeks on autumnal misty mornings. It usually started off ok but after a mile or so the DRL would fail until the next time I started the car. I booked it in to be repaired but it corrected itself a week before the appointment and was fine until I sold the car. The cost of a replacement unit (probably second hand) was about £100 from memory. I did wonder if it would fail again in prolonged damp conditions.

My friend had a Mk3 FL 1.4 TSI and it didn’t do that. Perhaps it’s just his car. He’s had lots of cars over the years and knows how to drive. Either way it’s too difficult for Skoda to sort it.

Reading the replies, I feel I really lucked in, my 6 month old low mileage 19 reg was massively discounted from its sub 40K new price, with sunroof, digital cockpit, heated steering wheel, rear wiper, spare wheel, as well as the standard extras. If I could find an equivalent newish second-hand dragon green Sportline I would buy it. They do come up for sale rarely but almost always without a heated screen or one of my other must have options and I'm not sure if the Alcantara seats are ventilated, I have got used to having them.

Skoda UK have recently contacted my friend reference the judder at cold and stated they're not interested in this issue unless/until 5% of MkIV 1.5TSI owners report the same issue. When cold and travelling at slow speeds, when he's leaving the housing estate first thing, in his words "on a trailing throttle" it feels like it's stalling then surging. The Kmh-Mph faff continues.

There shouldn’t be an issue it’s been serviced properly. I had a 3 year old ex rep Cortina 2.0 with 75000 miles and it ran brilliantly, probably as it had done lots of motorway miles rather than lots of short journeys or very low mileage stood about for long periods, which doesn’t do cars much good.

Don’t waste your money. Mine was mapped to stage 1 on a 2 year old filter and plugs. Ran fine 290+ Bhp and 480NM. Buy 99 RON and change your oil at sensible intervals.

How can a routine oil change and onboard systems check deselect or affect your lights like this? Do you mean the automatic headlight beam shaping to avoid blinding oncoming traffic? You've obviously checked Vehicle settings/ Lights. Hope it's something stupidly simple, otherwise you end up looking daft... I took my VRS back after an oil service as it hunted on tickover. I was too annoyed to stop and lift the bonnet. If I had, I would have seen that the dealer tech had not pushed the dipstick fully home and it was sucking air into the engine. The morning after the next visit following a cambelt change, both wiper arms retaining nuts had been left finger tight, so the wipers looked normal but remained stationary as the splines, unseen by me , rotated but couldn't grip/move the wiper arms. I took it back to the dealer after I'd checked the fuse, to see why they weren't working and felt a bit silly. Then again you'd hope that it would all be put back together correctly in the first place.

Good news. So what you're saying is that, somebody did their job correctly.

Bought my car in Feb this year and purchased a service plan in the showroom. Booked its 1st service on 14 September before realising a day or two later that it wasn't required until December. Out of interest as I hadn't received any paperwork for the service plan, I asked the servicing dealership to check. Rather surprised to find out that no plan was activate on Skoda systems. Contacted the original supplying dealer and after many phone calls and long emails, I had confirmation in today's post that the plan is finally active. Good job as it's being serviced in early December. Therefore if you buy a plan ensure you receive confirmation by post (yes even in this paperless age). Secondly never underestimate how easy it is to make a simple task seem extremely complicated. This took the combined efforts of multiple Skoda and VWFS staff, who to their credit, lwaysreplied politely to my increasingly insistent queries, 7 weeks to untangle. Top tip send your complaints to email address ' [email protected] ' and it will get resolved.

I went through this recently with my Golf, purchase at 6 months old. I was pleasantly surprised when I came to service it to find it had a plan attached. Contact VWFS and supply them with evidence of ownership and the plan is then transferred into your name.

All you have to do now is hold on to your licence!

I wouldn't get too hung up on the mystical properties of a VAQ diff. My 245 PP Golf GTI DSG quite happily spun its front wheels uselessly at the lights on fairly dry tarmac. Now if only they did an Octavia petrol 4x4 VRS... that's another thread

I am guessing that " The Dent Man" is a PDR outfit vice the " Spray Men" ...

As you said 'only '344 BHP with lower boost, the torque is key and as you say, maybe a bit less strain on the engine. I previously went for Shark stage 1 on my last VRS with a slightly lower quoted Bhp figure than Revo. Creamy smooth and great torque throughout made it very enjoyable and ut was certainly quick enough.. A local ex-Skoda franchise garage tech , who sees lots of VAG-engined cars said it was one of the best he'd driven. So maybe less is more vice pub bragging rights. All my TSI cars have been run on Momentum 99 as the garage is less than 2 miles. I only noticed a slight change in tickover briefly when having to fill with 95 Ron once

There are lots of threads on this. Pre facelift MkII up to 2009 had common issues with ABS module, Air con compressors, wheel hub corrosion of ABS sensors. They use a bit of oil. Mine used about a litre every 2-3K miles and every winter for 6 years mayo cream, caused by condensation formed due to shortish journeys, appeared in the oil filler cap. Dealers/handbook stated cambelt change and every 4 years. The 2009 Facelift models had a slightly different dash and fascia and a TSI engine which has had a lot of problems reported of cam chain tensioner failure, leading to slipped timing and subsequent expensive rebuilds. There is a link on this site on this subject. I would hope that any car you see/test will have these faults repaired by now. If no receipts particularly for cam chain tensioner I would walk away unless a possible tensioner replacement bill of approx £500+ was factored into the price. Ensure the dash has no traction control or ABS lights showing and insist on running the air con to feel the change in temperature and listen for the air con compressor sounding noisy/rough. Rear tyres can sawtooth thus noisy like a wheel bearing worn out. Sounds bad but in reality they are solid and enjoyable with smooth engines able to take stage1 mapping and economy if 35-40+ on motorways. I hope you get a good one.

There will always be problems with most cars. Hopefully you’ll find a good one at the right price. The site has some knowledgable members, just post any questions in the Superb forum.

Best all-round car I have had. L&K 272 Hatch. Smooth and relatively economical, same mpg as my 245 Golf GTI bigger quicker and loaded.

A stage 1 mapped 245 2.0 TSI will make 480Nm and theoretically out -accelerate the hybrid.

It is true. Buy a Golf GTI if you want point to point on challenging roads... the roads around here are challenging enough with mud, potholes and tractors. DCC tightens it up a fair bit around bends. It's a big floaty car, despite 19's and slightly lowered suspension, you've got your work cut out without DCC. Having owned all 3 types I reckon my 272 in sport mode with DCC and DSG would struggle to stick with my old Golf or mapped Octavia point to point. Of all 3 the manual Octavia was the most fun.