GroundHog

On the topic of the lack of the virtual cockpit display - I have this on my Passat and although it is very pretty, I wouldn't let it put you off the Kodiaq and tempt you to the Tiguan. The Tiguan hasn't received the best reviews because it is overpriced if you want to get all the latest kit and make it look halfway decent. I sense, assuming Skoda don't become too greedy with their pricing, that the Kodiaq will represent much better value of money, be bigger and more practical and will look a much smarter car. You also won't then have to deal with VW dealers, which can only be a bonus!

No idea about the technical stuff, but the 1.4 has been out for longer than the 1.2 so that might account for the difference in used car prices. I ran a 1.4 for 18months and it was great - plenty of oomph for my needs and really good on fuel consumption (I regularly saw 50mpg on motorway runs). It ran out of puff a bit with a full load onboard, so I would imagine the 1.2 would have similar issues. If you don't do the mileage to justify a diesel, then these low-powered TSI's are a great alternative.

They are marvellous cars. We're on our second - the first was a pre-FL diesel which had plenty of go and still did a decent MPG (~45-50mpg on a run) compared with other cars of a similar age. Our current FL Scout is the 1.8TSI and it is surprisingly nippy for what it is. On a good run we will get around 38-40mpg, which has been even better since fitting EfficientGrip tyres. Sure they're not that pretty (though actually I rather like the utilitarian look of them), and arguably the pre-FL looks better than the FL, but they certainly meet all our needs (two young kids plus dog plus towing a caravan and all the associated junk that goes along with that). Fin69 outlined the majority of the issues, particularly the tyres which are a touch more expensive because they're an odd size, but you can still get them everywhere. We've not had the problem with the coil springs (yet!), but have had the delamination particularly on our second Scout, which also suffers from high oil consumption, especially over the last 10-15k miles.

Thanks guys, I'll look at the OEM one as well, especially as it looks to be cheaper than the Travall one. We don't have the variable boot floor but I assume this doesn't make a difference if we don't have one that relies on feet on the boot floor. Cheers.

Hi all, Looking at getting a dog guard for our 2011 Octavia Scout, and I found this one on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0040Q4VS2/ref=s9_simh_gw_p263_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=S5PFQHJHRR2TDH5C9HRW&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=867551807&pf_rd_i=desktop Just wondering if anyone has any experience with these guards and if they are worth the money? I like the fact that they are design specifically for this model of car, and don't look like they rely on "legs" and "feet" to attach to the boot floor, so shouldn't impact the boot space. If these aren't any good, then do you have any other recommendations? Thanks.

Out of interest are there any recommended places to get wheels refurbed? My wife's Scout's wheels are pretty poor, especially on the front and it does somewhat take away from the rest of the car, and will no doubt impact resell value.

Maybe not from a main dealer, but privately maybe, or if he'd raised a bit more money (as stated in the first post). They don't hold their value very well compared with the diesels, although saying that they are much rarer so I guess that would impact the price.

I know you've made the decision, but to avoid any DPF or cambelt issues you could've plumped for the 1.8TSI Scout. It's cheaper because it's a petrol and so only about 36mpg average, but it goes really well and is lovely to drive. Ideal for someone who only drives 10miles to work and back (my wife runs ours and she just uses it for the school run, etc and then we use it to tow our caravan). Anyway, something to consider for anyone else who reads this thread in the future. We ran a 2.0TDI PD 08 Scout before this one and never had any problems with it, so I'm sure you will be very happy with it.

I had a 2010 1.4TSI and never suffered any problems with the rear tyres getting worn down. I had to replace the front tyres as you would expect, but not the rears and when I sold it at 20k on the clock, the rears still had plenty of life left in them. £6k for that car seems pretty good value for money (depending on the spec of course) as it's a cracking little engine, and plenty big enough for the Octavia.

I've had both the 1.4TSI (in a hatch) and 1.8TSI (in a Scout). The 1.4 was brilliant - so smooth, and a very relaxed drive. Pokey enough that it could overtake when needed, but economical enough to get 50mpg on a good run. The 1.8 is great - really torquey engine (for a petrol) and with the 4WD in the Scout is great fun to drive, but it is thirsty, and tax costs are going up and up (admittedly the 4WD doesn't help this in our case). I would say test drive them both, but if you carry a lot of passengers, or heavy loads then get the 1.8 as that was the one time the 1.4 would struggle. Oh and avoid the FSI engines like the plague - in a 2010 car you will get the tail end of the 1.6's but they are slow and uneconomical, and just don't make any sense compared with the TSI engines.

If it's a Skoda factory fitted towbar then you turn the key, then push the lever away from you about 45 degrees (it takes a bit of effort) and the towbar will then just slide out downwards. To refit do the reverse procedure.

One assumes you also had a slightly more empty fuel tank coming home, as you only filled up before you left Newcastle, so less weight onboard. The wind make a massive difference though. Driving down south the other Friday when it was really stormy and I got 41mpg in my A4. Coming home with no headwind and I was back to my regular 53mpg. Same driving conditions otherwise.

I like it, and the fact the towing weight has gone up is a big plus for me, as our current Scout is a bit borderline for towing our caravan. It'll be interesting to see how much this new Scout is, though, as I can't see if being cheap. If Skoda aren't careful they could price it out of the market when you look at some of it's direct rivals.

Also, out of interest can you replace the foglights on a FL Scout with LED's and get the DRL's working? Owned our FL Scout for over 2 years now and used the foglights only about once!

Get a 1.4TSI Octy - better to drive than the 1.6FSI, no worries about DPF, or cambelt (its chain driven). Goes better than the 1.6, is cleaner, better fuel economy (you can run it quite happily on standard unleaded) and will be worth more or just easier when you come to sell it as it's newer technology. The 1.4TSI, I believe, was only available on the FL Octy, so you would probably get some of your spec included. And you can get a 1.4TSI for around £6k, so in the middle of your budget

I do agree, and if I'm honest had the second garage have been closer then I would have given it the business, but it was an hour away, and an hour then back to work, so I that's a fairly large inconvenience for me just to teach the first garage a lesson.

Well it's amazing what a bit of phoning around can do. Called the dealer we bought the car from and they quoted £235, now original garage have dropped their price to £220. That's more like it! Thanks for the tip about the fixed price servicing - that certainly helped my case!

As above - our Skoda is officially owned by my wife and she drives it most of the time as I have a company car, but it was my choice originally for us to have the Scout.

I have just booked our Scout 1.8TSI in for its second variable service, having covered only 28,000 miles, and was quoted with a price of £368! I seem to recall the first service was only about £170 so am I being ripped off and should look elsewhere, or is this reasonable? Thanks.

We had a 2.0PD pre-FL Scout for 3 years and it was brilliant, then replaced that 18 months ago with a FL 1.8TSI which we now use to tow a caravan and it's just as brilliant. Certainly the fuel consumption towing the 'van is pants (21mpg average I would reckon), but otherwise the car is ideal for our needs. We do about 10k miles a year, and only tend to do short journeys so the DPF thing was a concern, although to be fair we never had those problems in the old Scout. No cambelt to worry about either. Our Scout has the xenons and maxidot with a factory fitted towbar and it's great. I was concerned that the 1.8TSI wouldn't be able to carry as much load as the diesel, especially when loaded up, but in the summer we towed the 'van plus the boot was filled to the rafters and still it coped without problems. I can't compare towing with a diesel Scout as we didn't do that, but I can't see that this would be that much better, except perhaps when the conditions get slippery and you have a bit more low down torque. With regards to the torque thing, I think you may be surprised by the petrol. This engine is so relaxing to drive - you can slip it in to 6th going 40mph and it happily pulls from there without any problems. Obviously if you want to yang it then you can do and the engine just loves to be revved! The lovely thing about the petrol is pulling on to roundabouts and out of junctions when you can keep it in first and get out in to traffic quickly. The old PD would run out of puff too quickly and need to be changed up. Personally I would say try them both and see what you think. We got a 2011 1.8 TSI FL Scout for the same money as a 2009 pre-FL diesel would have cost us at the time, so it was a no brainer for us. With the new mk III-based Scout on the horizon you might be able to pick up some better deals on the diesels, so that might make the decision easier?

Factory fitted tow bars tend to come with a single 13 pin socket, but you can get splitters to allow this to work with 2 x 7 pin sockets. The factory fit towbars also enable the towing bit of the stability control system - is this enabled with aftermarket solutions?

Had the 1.4TSI hatch and it was fine for filling up with the buggys, and all the other stuff you have to pack for the kids. Had great fuel economy - got 45-48mpg on normal low distance running, with 50+ possible on longer runs, though not necessarily fully loaded. I would have had the estate out of preference as I do think it looks nicer, but we have a Scout as well and I have to say that it was rare that we would be forced to take the Scout due to needing extra boot space. 1.8TSI engine is a marvel, but it is significantly more thirsty than the 1.4TSI, and if you aren't that fussed about giving it the welly, then it could well be overkill for your needs.

It looks exactly the same as my factory fit removable tow bar, so could well be a Skoda own one. There should be a plastic cover that fits in the hole when the tow bar isn't fitted but its not the end of the world if you haven't got that. As the others have said, if the tow ball isn't in with the spare wheel then you will just need that item (probably available through your Skoda dealer). Easy to fit, though the rust looks a little concerning, so you may want to try to get rid of that/add some WD40 before attempting to fit the towball.

I think this is a really useful feature, and with your eyes on the road its pretty easy to ignore if you don't like it isn't it?

Your dealer is talking rubbish. They just need to DRL's in the fog lamp cluster, assuming you have a bulb in place, and then you can activate and deactivate the DRL's by either using Maxidot, if you have it, or using the indicator stalk method described in the manual.