Rory

Did the letter say "Withdraw", and, if I may, how much was the interest charge? One of the VW Group salesmen told me the reason they're not bothered is people often say they're going to pay it off but then don't. So it's a numbers game - as long as not too many people start doing it.

I should have put a tonque-in-cheek smiley. However it's a long standing family dealer we've known for a while and I don't think they'd outright lie (but I recognise they couldn't be 100% sure of Skoda's plans and even then things change) but, as you describe, what constitutes "another" Karoq? We had a late mk1 Tiguan and there was a big difference to the Mk2 in 2016. The mk3 in late 23/24 is quite different again. So Karoq is certainly due a next version but it doesn't look like there's going to be a significant change.

The dealer we use, in trying to get us take one of the discounted stock models at the end of last quarter, was adamant that there won't be another Karoq. Didn't seem a lot of point in changing ours, especially as that means crystalising the horrible depreciation it's suffered. I can't say I've been thrilled with the car, but wife thinks it's absolutely the perfect size for her.

Had a couple of plans with EMAC over the years and they've worked fine. Had to cancel one on our Ateca as we took it to cover the cars 4th and 5th years as the car had a 5yr warranty so couldn't use All In. Then I found out by chance that the SEAT dealer hadn't applied the warranty - they knew, hadn't told us, and kept the money. So they cancelled the EMAC plan, got the payments refund and put the car onto All In. As for dealer servicing prices - it drives me nuts. The Skoda dealer we use has mental prices on their website but the service manager has wibbled about how it's out of his control - even though it's one-off family owned dealership and the prices are set by dealers (they're all slightly different). Wasn't an issue on our Karoq as bought it Approved Used so after the two included services it was old enough to go onto All In. Daughter's Kamiq was bought new, had two services and even though I've specifically asked I haven't been offered any way of mitigating the upcoming 3rd service - even though I know the dealer uses EMAC. On wife's previous Tiguan the dealer (probably the best dealer I've dealt with) put the car on All In (the car had to have a dealer check for All In back then) on the 6th birthday, 1st Sept. but somehow managed to do the service and MOT at the day before under the plan. I asked the Skoda dealer if the same was possible at 3yrs and they said no. It's not that many years ago that a VW dealer accidentally gave me the invoice they send to VWFS for the car's first oil service - it was £68 inc parts, labour and VAT. I waited while it was done and the car was in the workshop 20 mins. Servicing at full retail prices is astonishingly profitable.

Don't know if you realised, or it's a typo, but the first part of the VW p/n is different, not just the end? One is 04 and the other 05. Also the first NGK p/n is just IKER (there's no L in it) IKER7A8EGS (94224) Looks like the first one is used in 1.0 and 1.4, and the second in 1.0 and 1.5 so, on the basis the 1.4 is older and the 1.5 newer I presume they must have redesigned the cylinder head at some point on the 1.0.

This is a fairly common issue on VW Group cars. Usually the fix is changing the wiper switch, but I've seen several posts where people say cleaning the screen where the sensor is stops it, even though they were adamant the wiper stalk was was not in the auto position. I suppose it costs nothing to try that.

Mine is the same as the one in the first post - I don't believe there's any option to select another view.

Actually so did ours (almost), although we didn't crystalise that loss. When we got the Karoq leadtime on new orders was 9mths. The dealer ordered one in our name but didn't take a deposit. They said (verbal) we could change for £6K. The bottom then promptly fell out of the market and the new one arrived 4 months later. The dealer called and said they couldn't do the deal as ours had lost £12K. 😒 I supposed if you want to spin it positively, the car has only lost £2K since then (2.5yrs)! It what comes of buying a car in a bit of a panic. It was that experience which put me into "nope" mode when the salesman grabbed us. Another thing I'm not sure about - is there going to a new Karoq? Salesman said it's done now, there won't be a new one. But the internet suggests there is another one coming, although the info is all a bit vague.

I don't believe it's fitted to Karoq. Google suggests it's on Octavia (which surprised me) and Enyaq.

Our dealer grabbed me the other day when taking our (wife's really) Karoq for service. In round numbers he was offering SEL for £30K and Sportline for £32K. I knew ours had dropped a lot in value - we bought it at 18mths old at the height of the Covid shortages, but for it to lose £14K in 3yrs is just horrible. As the car only does a few K miles per year I could lease one for less but wife doesn't fancy doing that. To my mind changing from one SEL to another doesn't give us anything, Sportline was nice, but I dread living with 19" diamond cut wheels. Sales guy said they'll be fine with DCC - but that just seems OTT on a Karoq. I'm nervous of the sunroof too - love them, but VW Group roofs have a habit of leaking or rattling, or both. Snag is my wife has got the idea of having a new car into her head and I've no idea what else we could look at - Karoq is such a perfect size, she won't even consider Tiguan as "too big".

I don't think they're fitted on the current model? When we looked at Sportline a couple of years ago, we were shown the dealer "Brand Manager's" car - he'd taken the covers off as he hated them so much!

Interesting - I noticed I could see more of the number plate on ours a while ago but thought i was going mad, then recently the number place became even more obvious to the extent that I assumed it must have warped. But it hasn't, so no idea what's going on. Could be connected to selecting reverse too early. The car does sometimes say the camera isn't available - that can happen at both start and end of journeys. There's no alternate view option on our car.

If you time it right, you can run the All In package until the car reaches its 8th birthday - I don't think you can argue against the package, especially if it's bought in one of the 20% periods, although it is creeping up in price and it's annoying that dealers lean on you to have other stuff done. Karoq is the perfect size for us - I preferred our late mk1 diesel 4Motion DSG Tiguan. Karoq feels "cheap" in comparison, but my wife thought the newer ones were too big.

Replying to my own post above - not a good start, no sign of the salesman when I went in. They wanted me to hang around as he'd be in soon, but then they said he'd been delayed so I left. Saw him when collecting the car - appt had been booked by someone else but not put his diary. Nothing changes with this dealer's admin! Anyway, he said Skoda are chucking money at non-EVs that can be registered this month (so by the end of the quarter). Around £6500 off an SEL, making it about £30K, £6800 off a Sportline, making it £32K. Valued ours at £16K. So a lot of money to change to basically the same thing.

Do you think that it's the tailgate itself that is vibrating and causing the booming? Our Karoq doesn't do it, but we also have a 1.0 manual Ateca and that booms painfully on rough surfaces at low speed - so I assumed it was the tyres.