WilyWonka

surely this 38mph thing is nonsense. If what is important is the exhaust temperature, all you need to do is to get the engine's RPMs up, even if it's parked on your driveway. or am I missing something?

Careful in France. I've heard those rear racks aren't legal there, and I've seen the plod stopping drivers with them on the back of their cars! Can't tell you if they were stopped because of the racks, but did see more than one

I bought a used one of those, and used it twice before I was convinced that roof rack was the way to go. It's now in the shed gathering dust, although I plan to give it to a friend in need this summer. As others have said, bikes should go either IN the car (which I do if possible on long journeys to save fuel), on the roof or on a towbar mounted carrier. BTW, I hear the rear racks are forbidden in France, in case you ever plan to go to the continent. I've certainly seen the French coppers stopping drivers with rear racks to give them a nasty on the spot fine

If I understand it correctly, PD technology is not very suited to using DPF. On CR engines, the ECU has more control on the diesel injection, and is able to inject fuel in multiple stages during the combustion. This allows it to inject some fuel at the end of the combustion to raise the temperature and aid the DPF. The PD doesn't have this ability. I believe this is one of the reasons VAG is moving away from PD engines towards CR (I'm sure there's others too), as DPF will be a legal requirement soon (if not already so) I'm sure someone else will have better knowledge of this can can provide more details. To the OP, if you go diesel and plan short journeys, make sure to avoid the PD engine with DPF

Well spotted. Prices are up slightly though (I have a copy of the old brochure). Scout 1.8 TSI was listed at £19,765 OTR, now at £20,165 Scout 2.0 TDI was listed at £21,585 OTR, now at £21,700 vRS hatchbacks seem to have gone up by £300, vRS estates by £400

Good find! they even have air suspension systems :o may be overkill but still Will have to fire them an email and see what they think about raising a scout. Cheers

I haven't. However I'm not one to throw the car around too much anyway, otherwise I would be looking at a VRS

Has anyone considered and/or tried raising the Scout to get a bit more than its 180mm of ground clearance? I look at the Volvo XC70 with its 210mm of clearance, and think, yeah, I'd like some of that. Then I look at the price for what is essentially a blinged up Ford (actually, it's now Chinese...) and think, yikes!!

True, but I was originally comparing the Columbus to the Bolero. Most of the things you mention are already done by the Bolero. It doesn't have an HD, but can't you attach one via MDI? I wouldn't want it anyway, much rather attach my iPod so I only have to sync my music/podcasts to one device. DVD player, I personally cannot think of a situation where I would want a DVD player (or a TV for that matter) on the dashboard. Now, screens on the head rests so that children at the back could watch DVDs would be a different proposition, but on the dash? The SatNav is really the only valuable thing (for me anyway) that a Columbus adds over the Bolero, but I feel that a TomTom would do just as good a job in that area, if not better (I'll admit to never having seen/used Columbus in the flesh though). So my original point was that £1600 seems ludicrous for the functionality it offers over and above what you already get with the Bolero, not to mention that it is a potential thief magnet. And its true, all car manufacturers are guilty of this ludicrous pricing for integrated satnav HUs, but some more so than others. IIRC, Hyunday charges about £800 for their integrated SatNav. Skoda's is twice as much! but again, I have no idea of the individual merits of the Columbus vs what Hyundai offers. Columbus is probably much better. But £800 is still too much IMHO Thanks all for your responses, you have confirmed what I suspected, that Columbus really doesn't add that much over Bolero other than SatNav, and that when I buy my Scout, I will most definately stick to the Bolero Cheers

just googled for that, it's now called the Pogo Alert. Clever little device, but I'm happy with the camera warnings in my TomTom already, so don't feel the need to add another gadget on top of the dash £550 for Columbus, given that you'd be able to resell the Bolero for, lets say, £150, makes the upgrade £400. Now that seems like a far more reasonable price. Still not cheap, but something I'd be willing to consider if Skoda were to offer the Columbus upgrade for £400. But like you said, £1600? not on my life Specially given I've read over here that thieves seem to have a liking for those Columbus units anyway :thumbdown:

But isn't the Bolero just as good looking, matches the trim just as well, and with the exception of SatNav, just as feature rich? or isn't it? genuine question, I'd like to know Cheers

No complaints here. As far as navigation goes, it's been brilliant so far. I only use it for navigation (including TMC traffic), speed camera database and to warn me if I'm inadvertenly over the speed limit. I don't use any of the other stuff. The music player is rubbish, I don't use the FM transmitter, or the paring with my mobile for net access. Don't need any of those gimmicks :p. While looking through the Octavia brochure, I was just a bit shocked that all you really get for £1600 is an integrated SatNav unit. May be down to the individual, but I much rather spend £250 on a good TomTom unit, and pocket the rest (or get leather upholstery :p). So was trying to check if I was actually missing something, and Columbus offered some extra bits that could justify the price

I've got to ask. What does the Columbus unit add over and above what you get with the Bolero? You get SatNav, and may potentially a rear view camera (do you?), but what else? I'm trying to understand what it does for it to be a near £1600 upgrade on an Octavia Scout. I imagine my current TomTom will do a much better job at being a satnav than the Columbus unit: it has full postcode database, easy to update, speed camera database, knows speed limits on roads, has traffic updates via TMC receiver, and should I want to, I can pair it with my movile and have access to TomTom live services (at a cost of course) What am I missing? are people really willing to spend £1600 just to have an integrated unit with no dangling wires?

Indeed, although I cannot get the Yeti. I don't like its looks too much, but I can live with it. The wife used her veto card though, no Yeti allowed. Also, you can almost fit an entire Yeti in the boot of an Octavia Scout :rofl: We are the outdoorsy types, and need all the room for our kit: camping gear, bikes, dog, kiteboarding stuff, European trips with luggage and snowboards/bikes/camping... Honestly, the only reason we aren't looking at a van is because we wouldn't have 4x4, and the wife used her other veto card on that one. The alternative at the moment is a Hyundai Santa Fe, which has a humongous boot. But there's no brihyundai.net

I also have a Ford Focus with that 1.6 diesel engine. Worst diesel engine I've ever had. Completely gutless until you hit 1800rpm, and needs working quite hard. It's reasonably good on the motorway, although when we put our bikes on the roof I can definately feel the drop in performance. On a much bigger car like that, and many more occupants and luggage (we are just 2 + big dog), you'll be dissapointed with the engine