aerofurb

Weekly wash today, summer Supernovas fitted (winters on Vegas) and suspension given a quick spruce up whilst I was there....

I feel your pain - mine was an ex-demo, too and had a few minor issues (I bought sight unseen due to lockdown internet shopping...) but the supplying dealer went above and beyond to sort them out, so more than happy. I'm sure a dealer should be able to source a boot light for you, can't be that expensive.

Today was a car fettling day (wash, summer wheels fit etc) and I took the boot floor panel up completely, which gives an idea of the various cubby holes/storage places under the boot floor. I'd forgotten there was more space at the front of the boot area. The area at the back is about 20cm deep.

Interesting re the one odd tyre. The standard tyres are 235/40 R19, so not that fat and the lowish profile shouldn’t be a cause of excessive road noise. Low profile tyres may make the ride harder but on mine, the ride is great, even in Sport mode. I just looked at mine and the winters are Kumho not Nankang (corrected my previous post). They have tractor tread and provide a bit of a whine that you can here in EV mode at 30 mph with the radio off. Personally, I don’t like the idea of mismatched tyres on the same axle.

Yup. Old school, so I like spare wheels. It’s a standard space saver Superb steel spare. Jack etc sits under the boot floor by the charging cables. I have plenty of boot space (even with it being an iV) so the spare sitting in there isn’t a problem. Peace of mind wins the day for me!

I’ve had my Sportline Plus for 12 months and 10k miles. Standard 19” wheels - summer and winter tyres. Previously, I had a Citigo for the short work commute and a Yeti 4x4 TDI for the longer journeys. The iV is quieter than both on both short and long journeys. In EV mode, I reckon the iV is fantastic in all aspects, including road noise. It is dependent on the road surface. Tomorrow, I’ll be putting the Pirelli summer tyres back on which are noticeably quieter than the Kumho winters (but I didn’t buy the winters for noise reasons!). I can only hear the winters at 30 mph without the radio on. Normally, I run in EV mode at 40 mph and below whenever possible. Silent bliss. In the cruise 50 mph and above, there is a bit of wind noise, probably from the door mirrors. There is no engine noise at 50 mph and above - you never hear the engine kick in (or out) when it’s doing its coasting mode. The only way you know it’s being a good hybrid is if you look at the tacho needle and see if the ICE is running or not. I did have to do a week of 30 mph commute without plugging in and I found the ICE a bit noisy but that may be because I’m normally used to it being in EV modes at those speeds and in that environment. With the music on, you don’t hear the car at all. Not sure about the audio book listening as I don’t do them but they must be quiet book if you can’t hear them….!

Not that I'm about to start doing in-depth maintenance on my Superb iV but I do like workshop manuals. I know you can download sections at a time from erWin but, call me old fashioned, I like to have the whole manual - in fact I prefer paper manuals but they are rarely an option these days (never bonded with microfiche...). Anyway, having downloaded a Yeti workshop manual from 'easymanuals' ( easymanuals.co.uk - download your workshop service repair manual ) previously, I emailed them to ask if the Superb III manual they listed included the iV. Within hours I had a response to say it didn't but they could get hold of it for me from Skoda (it's the official Skoda workshop manual). Four days later, they emailed to say it was all done and available from their website: Skoda Superb III Hybrid PHEV PDF Workshop Manual 2019-2022 - easymanuals.co.uk I went for the direct download option (£14.99) which seems a reasonable price to me. It's an interactive pdf so various links within the manual take you to the right page. Hopefully, I might be able to suss how the thing works, now! 😉 (Just reporting as a happy customer of easymanuals - no other connection with them)

Good question. I had a look tonight - I'd forgotten that there was that squarish spare hole there. Perhaps a wheel chock? Answers on a postcard....

No worries - the car is just outside the kitchen door and undercover so I didn't have to travel far! Enjoy the shopping and shout if you need any more info. It was a year ago I got bored during lockdown and started online shopping for my iV. No regrets whatsoever!

Not that I know of. The fuel tank is under the boot floor with the EV battery under the back seat. At the aft end of the boot there’s a reasonable storage area under the floor - see my picture in the thread I linked above. This is big enough for the two charging cables and I have a jack, tools etc there. On the forward right hand side under the floor, there’s another area for the standard tool kit etc. Then on the right hand side wall behind the wheel arch, there’s another storage area. The left hand side houses the 12V battery.

Pleasure to help - I know exactly how difficult it can be to suss stuff out without physically seeing things. So, these pictures were with a crate (L47xW35xH24 cm) in the boot that hopefully gives an idea of the boot shape down the back end and what you can get in. You can see the parcel shelf and tailgate trim panel. Also, this was done with the 1cm thick liner in place. The boot depth (height?!) does taper a bit but I'm amazed how big a box will go in without any crunching noises (powered tailgate). (Pictures taken from inside with the back seat folded - I decided not to climb in the boot for the interior shots...).

Give or take the odd mm, it’s 45 cm. That’s the bottom surface of the parcel shelf (with the parcel shelf cords released from the tailgate) to the boot floor itself. I have the dual surface boot liner which reduces it to about 44 cm. PS I posted some pics of my hatch boot floor in a previous thread that may be useful. Note - mine is a hatch although that topic was about the estate…

My normal way when on a journey (as opposed to my EV-only 4.5 mile commute to work) is to use pure EV mode when in 30/40 mph limits and Sport mode when in 50+ mph limits. Press button for Sport mode, press button again and it’s back to EV mode, although sometimes it needs the EV mode button pressed and then ‘EV only’ selected on the Columbus. Not quite sussed why it doesn’t work every time yet! Then, when at the end of the journey (ie approaching home), I switch to pure EV mode to use up the cheap power. Using Sport mode, I prefer the ride and steering response. Plus you get some volts back in the battery with the ICE running (but pay for it in a bit of extra fuel burn, obviously). Sometimes I’ll up the charging level depending on what types of roads I’ll be on during the journey as it’s so relaxing to drive in traffic (for instance) in EV mode. As for grunt - with the ICE and battery in Sport mode, for a big car, it’s remarkably rapid. My previous motor was a 205 hp mapped TDI Yeti which didn’t hang around but this is quicker. I have noticed the ICE doesn’t switch off (or charge) when it’s cold - more advanced thinking by the design team. The iV PHEV concept works for me with mostly short commutes during the week and a common 105 (twice) journey at weekends. I do think the iV needs more audience participation than an ICE or pure EV car though, to get the best out of it.

From the HM Gov website: ‘Vehicles with a list price of more than £40,000 You have to pay an extra £335 a year if you have a car or motorhome with a ‘list price’ (the published price before any discounts) of more than £40,000. You do not have to pay this if you have a zero emission vehicle. You only have to pay this rate for 5 years (from the second time the vehicle is taxed).’ Although I bought my iV as a 6 mth old ex-demo car at a long way under £40k, I have the joy of the massive ‘road tax’ bill for 5 years, as the list price when it was new was over £40k. No win for PHEVs! That said, the other option for me was an Octavia vRS iV at far below £40k but I was nervous of the reported ‘issues’ with the Octavia Mk IV. Justified it easily by it being only £15/mth more expensive over 7 years - and so far, not regretting it at all! https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables

As has been said by others - a price list is simply that, a list of prices. It is not the maintenance schedule. It is unlikely the cambelt 'failed' all by itself, far more likely that something else was involved - tensioner water pump, contamination. An inspection will soon provide that information. The only place you can find the definitive maintenance schedule is to look at the Skoda workshop manual for that specific model and by year and geographical location. Even with that definitive information, the national importer will often put their own slant on what they think the service intervals should be for specific components. Haldex service requirements is a prime example of this. And then the dealers try it on as well - funnily enough, normally in their favour. I checked the service intervals for both my previous Skodas, a Yeti and Citigo. It turned out that the diesel fuel filter on the Yeti had been replaced 3 times by main dealers in the 90,000 miles I owned it, when the official replacement interval was 56,000 miles. On the Citigo, Marshalls MK tried to convince me that as the car was 4 years old (20,000 miles) the cambelt was due replacement. I pointed out that on the Citigo, the workshop manual called for an inspection at 240,000 km (150,000 miles) and then every 30,000 km (18,750 miles) - no replacement time specified and no calendar based inspection requirement. Even worse, they agreed it was a difficult task to replace the belt as the engine mount passed through the cambelt run and that had to be removed to change the belt. The cambelt cover top half was removeable in 3 minutes to allow the inspection. I've no idea how many poor Citigo owners were fleeced by dealers replacing cambelts against the workshop manual 'requirements'. Suffice to say, when I was looking to trade in the Yeti and Citigo for a Superb iV, I never bothered going to see Marshalls MK....

Mine is switched through the ‘ignition’ so there’s no ability to activate the camera when the car is parked. I did have the additional Blackvue parking monitor box on my Yeti installation but didn’t always use it as I was always concerned it might forget to monitor the battery voltage and flatten it! It’s all down to the perceived risk, I suppose. The Superb lives indoors at home and in a pretty secure car park at work, so not too many worries there. I’m sometimes away for a few days at a time but again normally park in a secure car park. At supermarkets I either park at the far side away from everyone or filch a bit of free charging and those bays are bigger. The Blackvue may not be the cheapest but it works very well.

I have an iV with front and rear Blackvue cameras. I had Blackvue cameras in my Yeti and Citigo and this camera system came out of the Citigo (DR750S-2CH). I don't have the battery/park monitor. Initially, I had a cunning plan to run the rear camera cable through the headlining but decided that wasn't going to be much easier than running low down. In the end, the front and rear camera cables ran down the A-pillar to a piggyback fuse in the main fusebox. Lead to the rear camera then went down the nearside of the car and slipped under the plastic door sill cover all the way back. Then up behind the trim by the rear seat and into the C-pillar cover. Using a long cable-tie as a puller, the cable eventually went through the left wiring 'grommet' up into the tailgate and thence to the camera. The camera is mounted on the right hand side of the high level brake light and works perfectly - and can't be seen in the rear view mirror. I've not had any problems with the cameras working or the cameras causing any issues with the rest of the car.

I took the easy route, as I only have the ambient lighting set to red and put some rear light lens repair tape over them - and the door handle/pocket lights.

I have to say that I have found the whole 'infotainment' side of ownership somewhat frustrating - from the start trying to get the car to recognise me as the Primary User etc has not been an enjoyable journey.... I'm pretty tech friendly both at home , in cars and in work as am=n aircraft engineer but this thing really confounds me at times. My iV is an ex-demonstrator that first went on the road in early September 2020 although the build date according to the documents was 11 July 2020 - just about the time that it could either be 'one of those' specs or 'one of the other' specs. Even trying to suss out the correct version of the Owner's Manual is dependent on which way you access the information from Skoda. The Owner's Manual linked from MySKODA has an issue date of 16 Sep 2019, but if you go via the Skoda UK Owner's Manual website page and choose a production date of 07/2020, the manual date that you would think is the correct one, is an issue date of 20 Jul 2020 - ie after my car was built. But apparently not! I did purchase the online services (nice little sideline of an earner but I see other manufacturers will be charging subscriptions for even how the car performs in the future...) and assumed, seeing as no instructions appeared saying 'now to do this', that the new features (News, Weather, Traffication and Diary) would appear. When they didn't, I went searching and realised I had to visit the Shop on the Columbus and download/install them. Then this thread pops up and you see others with various 'icons' for Connect, Routes, POIs etc - none of which I could find. Not even using the MySKODA app could I work out how to send routes to the Columbus from the iPhone - or even via the Skoda Connect Portal. I've been using the MySKODA app since I got the car 9 months ago for setting departure time charge rates etc. I have just found this Skoda site which may be of use (perhaps everyone knows it exists already!): Availability List (skoda-auto.com) This confirms my car is in the 'up to 07/2020' production period. Now that shows the complete list of available services: So, if I put my iV's VIN number in, the availability list slims down to this: Therefore, I reckon that I just don't have those route import features available. But I do have Weather and News - so that doesn't work either! Bit of a first world problem but incredibly frustrating searching for the information and coming up with a load of different Skoda website pages, often claiming different things. I bought the car from Caffyn's Skoda in Tunbridge Wells. They're not remotely close to me but had the car for sale during my 'lockdown car shopping' game and they have looked after me very well since. I haven't troubled them over this as I doubt there are may dealers who can really work out what infotainment options a particular car has. Anyway, it passes the time of day and night....

The way I do it (I’m sure others do it another way….!) is via the MySKODA app where you have options to save three charging plans. My standard day to day use is an 80% charge, so Plan 1 is set to 80% and all seven days of the week. If I’m planning going on a longer distance trip (my normal work daily commute is 9 mile) then I go to 90% (my Plan 2) or 100% (my Plan 3). For Plan 2 and 3 I just set the date and time as required. It automatically defaults back to Plan 1 80% after a Plan 2 or 3 charge as I have Plan 1 for every day. I charge via an EO Mini Pro 2 wall charger and via Octopus GO. This goves me cheap rate charging between 0030-0430 hrs which is normally sufficient for a 50% charge at the ‘reduced’ rate. The other way is controlling the charging via the Columbus/infotainment system (I just failed to find that in the Owner’s Manual and had to use the Search Function) but I don't think you can charge to a pre-set limit via this method. I just went out and had a look to check! The Columbus mirrors the plans set via the MySKODA app in time, date and charge rate but not the charge limit. I reckon you need the app to do that. For setting the charging time up via the infotainment system (you've probably sussed this already) in the manual, it’s actually under Driver Information System >>> e-Manager >>> Settings Hope that helps!

Despite being all very clever, the base setting of my Matrix LED headlights was a tad too high for my liking - good for owl watching... One turn of the white knob at the rear of each headlamp unit has lowered them just the right amount (it is marked 'up' and 'down'). With apologies for the grubby state of the light unit.... PS Kumho tyres worked just fine in the snow and ice this morning....

Velvet Red....? Have a couple of pictures of my SportLine Plus iV by Winter on Vega wheels with Kumho winter tyres (today) and Summer (not today) - Supernova and Pirelli.

I dare say I'm not the only one to have done the winter wheel fit this weekend - I normally do it at the end of November and it seems to be good timing given the weather... Kumho tyres this time round from 'Blackcircles' after 'My Tyres' failed to deliver the Nokians I ordered - terrible service a few months ago, citing UK customs issues post-Brexit. I always knew they were Germany-based and haven't had a problem previously but now it appears to be just too difficult. And for the summer wheel cleaning, I modded one of my wheel racks (down to one car, one set of winters) into a wheel cleaning rig. A friend of mine is a professional detailer (VII Car care) and has the proper job. I'm too tight to buy one for using twice a year. Makes life much easier - apart from lifting the wheels up onto the workbench, might have to rig up a hoist next year!

Now sold!

If anyone is thinking of getting a set of winter wheels and tyres for their Citigo, look no further....