silver1011

I should add it was many years ago and it was a used car garage's third party warranty that came with the sale of the car. Hopefully things have moved on since then, and warranties purchased unconnected from a garage provided policy might be a little more water tight.

I once had cause to claim on an aftermarket warranty. Several years ago on a 2002 E46 BMW 320d SE, suffered the (now well documented) infamous inlet swirl flap ingestion issue, i.e. it lunched the entire engine. Don't panic I thought, that's what warranty is for. Several days and many phone calls later they paid out... ...£48 for the inlet manifold that housed the faulty swirl flap. Leaving me the remaining £7,000 bill for a new engine. Hidden in the T&C's, "consequential damaged not covered". Needless to say I won't be buying an aftermarket warranty again anytime soon.

It's hot @olderman1 but not that hot that you have to completely lose your sense of perspective. You outed ZacDaMan's accidental typo as being "tosh", a complete over reaction and unnecessary. So how about you go back several posts and consider winding your own neck in and minding your own business.

Harsh, or dare I say it brusque

You're paying over £20,000 for a used car. Ask for the upcoming service to be included as part of your pre-purchase negotiation. The cars first brake fluid change is due on its third birthday, this is an extra charge over and above the service. What parts of the service required will depend on it's previous service intervals and history. At a minimum you're looking at oil and an oil filter, at most you can add the pollen filter, air filter and spark plugs. Be sure to ask the dealer what the DSG service interval is, that's always good for a laugh, I don't think a UK Skoda franchised dealer has ever provided the same information twice!

Warranty is an insurance. You pays your money and takes your chance. Personally I'd prefer to put the money into a separate account and have it there if needed to cover a big ticket expense, rather than pay a warranty company and never claim. Or even worse, make a claim and have it rejected due to one of many, many clauses. Too many used car warranties have more holes in them than the Titanic.

The mudflaps won't speed up corrosion, as unlike some other Skoda models they are positioned up against the plastic wheel arch liners and not the metal wings. The front mudflaps offer about three inches of additional protection behind them, the rears even less. At normal road speeds the genuine Skoda mudflaps offer very little if any protection from anything other than larger clumps of mud. The same vortex is created behind the car which pulls the road spray up onto the rear window in equal amounts. The Skoda running boards do help a little more though, their 2-3 inch protrusion does appear to keep off some of the dirt that would ordinarily make it up on the sills and lower doors. Here you can see the complete ineffectiveness of mudflaps on a MkII Skoda Superb. This car was driven long distance on an unmade road and the resulting stone chips essentially sandblasted the paint. The mudflaps appear to have been of no significant benefit... However, I have them fitted to mine, I think they look good...

You don't need a complete ABS pump now, VAG finally released a repair kit. Any VAG specialist worth their salt will know of it. You're talking a few hundred pounds, fitted.

I've not heard of an SE Edition, there's an SE or Edition. Did you mean the SE Drive? Assuming you meant just Edition I'd go with that over the SE. Some nice options on the SE but as nice as the heated seats and windscreen are unless the SE also has the LED headlights then it would have to be the Edition for me.

@Karlgwalsh what ended up being the problem with yours?

I'm not detecting any snobbery? LED headlights are a must for me, so if that meant I had to save up a little longer to afford an SE L then so be it.

If fuel economy is anything more than a mild interest then avoid a 1.5 ton, flat fronted, jacked up 7 seat SUV. Your annual mileage suggests most of your journey's are short and slow. Whichever engine you choose expect or budget for sub 40mpg.

There is no capacity increase on the 1.5 vs. the 1.4. The combustion cycle has changed and with it brought a whole host of issues that Skoda and VAG are still trying to resolve. Most have been fixed with software updates but there is still a large proportion of 1.5 TSI engines out there that aren't right. Personally I'd buy new and hope they've prioritised fixing factory production and avoid used ones, or do as I did and buy a 1.4 TSI, a far better engine. To make a non-SportLine look like a SportLine you'll need new front and rear bumpers (painted), new plastic panels for the lower doors (again painted), black window surrounds (no chrome), black mirror caps, black roof rails, black grill surround and a set of 19" Vega alloy wheels. For 8,000 miles a year I'd avoid diesel, but as you like the torque of a diesel then I'd go for the 150PS and map it. The 190PS is rumoured to not be as smooth. Your £16,000 budget really limits you. I'd be tempted to wait and save enough to get the car you really want.

Nah, the photo plays tricks, the drive is quite steep down, the road is quite steep up, when level it's about perfect.

It depends on your definition of power, my little 1.4 TSI copes with everything our family throws at it...

Everything modern on a modern car is expensive to replace.

A five seater will limit your search, the seven seater was / is more popular.

Technically yes, even without an active Skoda Connect subscription the hidden SIM is active as it is used to aid the emergency services on the vehicles location if the SOS system is triggered. Legally or ethically I'd guess not. In a similar way to Apple and the examples of where they've not granted access to the authorities allowing them to unlock suspects or victims mobile devices I'd say it's easier, safer and less risky for Skoda to simply say no.

The SE is great value, but if you're planning to keep this as long as the Fabia I'd strongly recommend going for an SE L, for the LED headlights alone.

The only definitive way is to scan the car and read the fault codes, the EML is used to signal lots of different faults.

You pays your money and takes your chance. The regular protects down to -8, the 'premium' down to -15. Also as mentioned the 'premium' is specifically formulated for fan jets. There will be plenty of posts following this one from those using supermarket own branded washer fluids who have suffered no adverse effects.

It took Chris Farthing 90 mins from start to finish, but he operates in a Skoda workshop, has access to the Skoda technical workshop guides, unlimited use of the diagnostics machine for the coding and has done a couple per week for several years. I'd regard myself as reasonably competent at DIY, I've serviced previous cars, changed brakes and hardwired a dash cam into the Kodiaq, but the rear camera was hassle I could do without. Anyone who has had to strip out the interior of a car, or has had to live with one where the trim has been removed and replaced by someone who isn't familiar with where the clips are and where to pull and push will know how easy it is to introduce rattles, crimp wires, forget to replace connectors, snap clips, tear trim, trap tools etc. etc. I'm not sure which car, headunit or cheap Chinese camera J.R. is referring to but anyone who thinks it is that simple hasn't fitted or tried coding one without accepting you won't be able to replicate the factory setup and features. Your profile doesn't tell us anything about your location or car so it makes it difficult to help, but even if you're a long way from Leeds the £280 Chris charges, a £40 Travelodge and a day out of your weekend makes having him do it by far the easiest option.

How else do you want to open it? I'm not sure Skoda could make it much easier if they tried, in fact those that wake up in the morning and discover their boot open might argue it is already too easy to open the boot? - Button on the key fob... - Button on the tailgate... - Button on the drivers door... - Virtual pedal.

If your front brake pads are 85% worn after 20,000 miles then either you're really hard on the brakes or there is a fault somewhere.

We've had it lucky at Skoda for several years, there aren't many manufacturers that allow the ability to spec up a car so individually. Even before COVID the complexity this brings any business, let alone one as big as Skoda and as complex as a vehicle makes it surprising it's gone on for so long. Try speccing a SEAT Tarraco up as individually as a Kodiaq, or worse any Mazda model.