Rory

They did a pretty reasonable body wash and interior vac. Although, as usual, they only did the upwards facing edges of the wheel spokes which have a nightmare narrow multispoke arrangement. So half a turn of the wheels and they look awful. I normally refuse dealer washes, but it's wife's car and, with living in a semi-rural area, it was looking pretty yucky.

The dealer called at 9AM on Tuesday saying VW had confirmed payment to them. I made a point of telling the service advisor that I'd spoken to VWFS the previous afternoon and they said they'd spoken to her for a second time at 10.30 the previous day and confirmed they would cover the cost. That was an hour before I'd left the dealer so there was absolutely no need to tell me I would have to pay if VW wouldn't. This service advisor has history of always having to have the last word. Funnily enough I haven't had an invition to do a customer saltisfaction survey - but I may well contact the service manager next week (he is on holiday this week) and suggest he might have a staff training issue.

Unbelievably, but somehow unsurprisingly, the same thing happened today. I thought I'd swerved the Approved Used MOT issue by buying All In. Took car for MOT this morning and was asked how I'd be paying. I said it's covered by All in - "nope" said the service receptionist. She could see a service plan, but not that MOTs were included. I showed her the All In email, and even that the separate amount was being taken from the bank to pay for it - it's separate as there's no VAT. She then said she'd reduce the price of the MOT so it'd only cost me £40! I asked if we were being filmed for Candid Camera or something. She started to put pressure on me saying the slot was booked and if I didn't agree I'd miss it!! In the end, as the MOT slot was approached she said she'd do it if I absolutely guaranteed that I'd pay if VWFS didn't pay them. I said OK. On completion of the MOT and a wash, she handed me the paperwork and, keen to have the last word, told me again that she'd be calling me tomorrow if VWFS wouldn't pay.

Just bear in mind that legal responsibility rests with whoever you bought the car off. What's the car's history - how long have you owned it and where has it been serviced? It's tricky really - there's still a school of thought that the diesels should have the cambelt done at 5yrs, interestingly at the time the interval changed a couple of people popped up on the mk2 Tiguan forum saying theirs had gone at just short of 5yrs. It really grated having our Tiguan diesel done a few yrs at 5yrs and just 30K miles - VW Germany was insisting it'd be OK for 210,000kms with no time limit. The SEAT dealer we use for our petrol Ateca was at pains to point out that if the belt wan't changed and it fail then repairs wouldn't be coverd by extended warranty, and SEAT UK confirmed that. I still that's wrong, but never tested it and the warranty has finished now.

Some years ago I sat and waited while 1st service was done on daughter's Golf and the car was in the workshop 20 mins - the inspection was very basic, just lights and beep the horn. They accidently gave me the invoice that should have gone the VWFS and it was £68 inc parts and labour. Normal price at the time was £180. Bearing in mind how long ago it was, those Marshall's prices look like a throwback to past times! I guess if there was no price variation people would say it was a cartel, but the differences are hefty. After being told brake fluid change on our Kamiq would be £80 I wondered what the Audi dealer across the road would charge, so put a random Q2 into the Audi service site - it was £56 at the dealer across the road from Skoda. I tried it again today with a different Q2 and it came up at £110. Tried another Q2 - £69. How odd - it quotes different prices for the same model. Servicing seems a complete rip-off - on SpeakEV the other day someone booked a service online for £150. On taking it in dealer said it be £500 - he pointed out he'd booked online at £150 and without batting an eye they said "OK, fine"!

None of the VW Group cars we've had have ever had "set and forget" rain-sensitve auto-wipers and our Karoq is the same - yet years ago I had a Peugeot 406 and they just worked perfectly and they didn't have adjustable sensitivity.

On some models you can set the wiper operation in the infotianment systems so it's timed intermittant rather than rain sensitve. I've seen the random wiper activation on other Skoda models as being a fault with the wiper stalk.

The dealer I uses gives me a print off of the service history with each service, and that noted the brake fluid change at the second service. I think it's a print of from one of the VW/Skoda systems, it's not a dealer thing. However it doesn't know that the car's first service, at 16mths old, was a longlife one - it just records it as an oil change service so looks like the car was serviced 4 months late. The dealer I bought it off did the first service and they insist it was the longlife one, with pollen filter change.

I suppose you get used to it but I hate that dashboard! Can it be made to look like the old one, with twin dials for rev counter and speedo? When we bought our used SEL in mid 23 it was a pre-facelift one (facelift was Mar 22) so has the twin analogue dials. It's so easy to look at. We ordered a new Karoq at the same time, but when it arrived the dealer told us it had the standard digital display as we hadn't spec'd the upgraded one. The cost to change cars was way higher than the dealer had said so we refused the new one anyway.

There's around 6000 new Skodas in UK stock, 875 of them are Karoqs. Had similar from Honda and Hyundai in the last few days - Hyundai particularly pushy. Don't know if this means they're all struggling, or they're just reacting to each other. Did buy the Honda at an event, but it was pure chance - didn't know it was on. Was a bit embarrasing, showroom was deserted. Got an OK deal, but nothing stunning.

When you say "Skoda" do you mean Skoda themselves, or a dealership? We had the update on our 22 Karoq, but also our 2018 Ateca (which, of course, is the same car) done at its last service in Sept 25. So I'd be surprised if your car doesn't need it.

Don't know on the sensitivity - ours is oversensitive, too keen to go into continuous mode. On the rear wiper, been discussed before and seems it may need to be coded out. I'd agree with the advice to change the rear wiper to Bosch - don't notice ours working.

Hmmm....I'm quite sensitive to this as I had a Merc which always started in 2nd, then would shift to 1st with an un-Mercedes like thunk if you were "brisk" with it. Our Karoq always shifts to 1st as it stops. It'll stay in second if you keep moving at all, but once stopped it always goes to 1st.

Is it a facelift one? Odd they would be different. Ours is on Michelin Primacy 18" tyres. Drives fine with them at 2.1bar

Can't be bothered to go outside now, but Googling for "Karoq tyre pressure label" shows one with 2.1bar and another with 2.5bar for 18" wheels. Yet they're both 2.4 for 19" wheels.

It's 2.1 bar on ours - I converted it to psi. April 22 car, just before the facelift. I don't know if that's unusual for Karoq, but don't know why it would be? I thought it was too low and put 2.5bar (36psi) in and the car became a right handful out of junctions - we have to turn out of our village onto a fast A road and you sometimes just have to go for a gap. It did the same with super unleaded fuel too. Grip will always be worse in cold weather too.

Ours (really wife's car, and she doesn't use it much) does it sometimes. It's a bit weird as if you try and provoke it with different types of starts it doesn't do it. Then don't think about it, and it'll judder. It seems not to do it with the gearbox in Sport mode, but I just don't drive it enough to pin it down. I'm not 100% convinced it isn't the tyres. It's very easy to provoke front wheel spin - I've found they're sensitive to pressure - should be 31psi, put 36 in them and they go mad.

The earlier kessy fob that use CR2025 take more current when being operated than a CR2025 is specified for. I've found Energiser batteries always worked, whereas it was random with other brands, even Duracell.

I'm not doing brim to brim - well I do, but it varies with type of use, and it's hard to replicate as you're not supposed to literally fill to the brim - I'm cumulative totalling the amount of fuel bought and the mileage. I've been doing that on the Karoq for 10K miles, so it's pretty constant now.

Hmmm...Googling suggests fuel injected quantity is accurate to "a few % in lab conditions". So it's going to be worse in practise. Forecourt fuel pumps are accurate to 0.5% - they're checked regularly due to excise duty on fuel. I've done cumulative MPG over 10K miles so that negates any brim to brim errors. The only unknown error the odometer, but that will apply to the car's own calculation too.

I spreadsheet the MPG in our Karoq and since we got the car it's done just under 10K miles and its cumulative average MPG is 38. The cluster display in the car says 42.

I don't understand why it's not in the service plans - unless, in VW Group's eyes, it doesn't really need doing. Especially now they've moved to 2yr intervals, and new car, approved used, and All In service plans all run for 2yr periods where dealers will insist on fixed interval servicing, there's absolutely no reason why a brake fluid change couldn't be incorporated. We had a Mitsubishi and the 2yr service includes it, and it's also included with our Hyundai. Same with a Merc I had on a service plan.

Hmm - we had a 2016 Tiguan and that was 3yrs. The dealer forgot to mention it, and thought the Haldex was 4 yrs, when it had been 3yr for some time. So they did both FOC. Here's a generic 2021 Skoda service price list from elsewhere in the forum showing first BF change at 3yrs, then 5, 7yrs etc.

Thanks - I get the same price as you did. I tried an older model and that gets the higher price. I wondered if it recognises the request as implausible on a 25 model?

Well that's weird - here's what I get from Mitchell's (via the Skoda website): What car are you using to check (model and age)? I'm using our 22 Karoq. They also quoted £80 on the phone for our Kamiq.