Jock

I've been using DM Keith since before they were DM Keith (previously Royce Roberts) in Hull. I've had two Yetis and now an Octavia Scout. I've had experience of various main dealers (not just Skoda) in the past and I have to give this particular branch top marks. On several occasions they have gone above and beyond what I'd expect from the average dealer as far as any work required - especially on the matter of the silicate in the cooling system, where they took it upon themselves to reduce the costs to myself. I can't vouch for any of the other branches of DM Keith, but certainly the Hull branch gets top marks from me!

I use an app called iSyncer on my iMac to keep my SD cards up-to-date (http://iSyncer.de) and I have an AppleScript to manage album art. What I usually do is after importing an album into iTunes, I run the script to make sure the artwork is square (200x200, 300x300, 400x400, it doesn't seem to matter all that much, I even have some 500x500 artwork), then I use iSyncer to export to the card - I find that the only album artwork I have a problem with are the compilations (usually I've made up myself) from different albums and forgotten to run the script, so perhaps there's something in your last statement that rings true.

There is some sort of hibernation mode, but as to when it kicks in, to be honest I've not tried to figure it out yet. As for album art, it seems to have to be square - i.e. for example 400 x 400. Stray too far from these parameters and it just displays the default icon - well, that's what I've found so far anyway.

For many years, I've changed (usually around end of October) from summer to winter tyres and then back again in March. The winter tyres really do make a difference, even in the mild Yorkshire climate, on ice. This year, I've replaced summer tyres with All Seasons, my reasoning being we see so little snow here that it's really not worth swapping tyres (especially at my age - I usually ache for about a week afterwards!) I've fitted Lassa (Turkish Bridgestone) to my Octavia Scout - it'll be interesting to see what they're like on mild off-road conditions as well as in the ice - not done a great mileage so far, but they seem to be quite sure-footed so far.

Normally, I'd fit my winter tyres about now, but as I was needing to replace my Continentals, so I decided to fit Lassa All Season (Turkish Bridgestone, I believe) tyres after some recommendations from friends. Just fitted fronts for the moment as the rears still have about 6mm of tread left. It'll be interesting to see how the Lassas work out - knowing my luck, this will be the first winter for years we actually get heavy snow!

Part of the £1957 includes a new header tank - I'm sure @oldgroaner has had a word in the earholes of ŠKODA UK regarding this, I have also whinged, but via the dealer.

I don't want to be a harbinger of doom, but I suspect it's a wee bit too late for that. You might want to have a look at this thread: https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/468317-skoda-octavia-low-coolant-warning-and-large-repair-bill/

Sadly this is a known problem. I was originally quoted around the same price when mine burst. With a lot of whinging I managed to get the dealer to drop the price to less than £1K, but even at that, it was a bit much, considering the car had only been serviced at the dealers all its life. I'd go back to the dealer and see if you can work some sort of deal with them - you want at least 50% off the bill.

Good luck! Push the warranty for all it's worth!

The car went in for a scheduled service and one of the comments was "contaminated coolant". I'd mentioned the driver's side heater was inefficient and the windscreen seemed to take a lot longer to delist on the drivers side. I'd had some issues with coolant during the winter and had had to top up with water only at a motorway service station, but with hindsight, I think all that was part of the problem. They were going to charge me a lot more, but as the car has been regularly serviced at that particular dealer and it's not the first car I bought from them I did manage to get a significant reduction in what was a very significant price! To cut a long story short, the dealer noticed the problem after I reported the symptoms.

As someone who noted the same symptoms as the OP and finally had to have the heater matrix replaced due to the silicon filter in the header tank having split, prepare yourself for a rather expensive repair bill. As has been outlined in previous threads and as far as I understand it, there is a bag in the header tank on some models (don't ask me which - it seems to be random!) containing silicon crystals. This bag splits and the crystals get into the cooling system, then seem to congregate in the heater matrix resulting in that getting blocked - drivers side (in the UK) windscreen starts to steam up and doesn't blow as hot as the passengers side. You can't leave it like that as sooner or later you'll get a blockage in the cooling system and that means engine problems. It cost me around £800 to have the engine flushed and the heater matrix replaced.

Recently, my Scout went in for a service. One of the notes I had for the dealer was stop/start wasn't working as well as I thought it ought to. They found two dead cells in the battery so replaced it. Afterwards, I noticed that from around two to three DPF regens per week, it's now down to one a fortnight. (I cover around 500 miles a week.) Logically I can think of no reason for this - perhaps it was the service, but it does seem to be a bit of a coincidence that, since the battery has been changed, regens have become significantly less.

I have a BlackVue DR650GW-2 - nice, discrete, easy to self install and does the trick. It does seem to be quite fussy about what micro SD card you use in it though. I've had it for about 5 years now.

By the way, just in case anyone is wondering, "Mit silikat" in German basically means "with silicate". If the header tank says "Mit silikat", it means you ought to have the bag in there somewhere.!

What are you replacing the battery with? Although a CR2016 will fit in an emergency, it'll only last a few weeks - if you use a CR2032 they last much longer. If you have two keys, it's also recommended you replace both batteries at the same time.

As far as I know, mine is OK now - the heater seems a little more efficient and they told me they'd replaced the matrix as they couldn't find anything else wrong with the system. The car's done around 65K miles. by the way.

Well, when I initially asked about the problem, they quoted me £1.2K so it was a relief to pay £600! I've been suspicious of the heating since the end of last year because the passengers side of the windscreen used to clear quickly while the drivers side took ages and I don't know if I imagined it, but the humidity sometimes seemed high in the cockpit. The dealer did suggest the intercooler could be the cause, but on e of the first things they did was a pressure test which was OK. I regularly check oil and have never noticed any condensation symptoms to make me think water is getting into the sump. They've given me a two year warranty on the cooling system as well, so I'm a little more relaxed doing motorway journeys again - I was getting nervous on motorway runs for a time. Just noticed where you are @oldgroaner - looks like we may be using the same dealer!

I've just had to have my cooling system flushed, a new header tank and heater matrix on my MY16 Octavia Scout. The car has only done about 65K miles and when I asked the dealer why, they couldn't find a reason. I first noticed the problem a few months ago - on a longish trip (>100 miles) and on motorway running, I'd have to top up the coolant, but on my normal weekly commute (50 miles per day), the level was stable. It wasn't as if I was thrashing the car on the motorway, in fact I usually set cruise control to 70 and just sit there. Credit to my local dealer though, they got 50% off the bill after negotiating with Skoda.

I have, over the years, bought three cars from D.M. Keith (used to be Royce Roberts) in Hull and I have to say I have never had a problem with them and have always been pleased with the deals I've had. I also use them for servicing and they've always been spot on.

I'll second that regarding Falkens - noisy and wear is very poor.

I've used AliExpress for quite a few things - they're OK - no better, no worse than any other site like that. Delivery times are often a bit long though.

I have noticed that, in the Scout with the Amundsen+, the format of album artwork seems to be critical - it can be present on the card, but if it's not square, all you get is the generic SD card icon. I have a Mac and using iTunes, I use a little AppleScript applet to resize all my artwork - usually to 500x500, but it doesn't seem to matter, as long as it's square it seems to work OK. John999boy's program for windows may well be what you're looking for if you use that operation system.

I have a BlackView D650, which I've had for just over three years. When I first bought it, it came with the BlackView 16Gb card. I immediately replaced it with a generic 32Gb card. Within weeks, that started to report errors and finally failed. I bought a 32Gb SanDisk card, but within a few months, that started to fail also - I sent it back to SanDisk under warranty and they replaced it, meanwhile I used the original BlackView 16Gb card - and that's been working flawlessly for over two years now. I reformat it once every two or three months (not weekly as recommended by BlackView), just to keep it tidy.

I had two Yetis before I got the Scout - I loved the Yeti (but sadly, my wife didn't - she complained we couldn't get enough shopping in the back and space was restricted when we took enough luggage for a months trip on a weekend away - who am I to argue!) I didn't have the 170 variant of the Yeti and I only have the 150 psi Scout, so my comparisons aren't exactly what you are looking for, but these are my findings. I'm six feet tall with a poor back (it's not bad, it's just a little stiff at times), so getting in and out the Yeti was much easier than the Octavia - but not that bad. I though the seating position on the Yeti was better, but finally found a comfortable position on the Octy. The Scout handles better than the Yeti - not that I drive it hard these days, but still, the Scout feels more confident. We haven't had a lot of snow where we live and I've always run with winter tyres in the colder weather anyway, but never had any problems with either vehicle. Offroad, I have been very pleasantly surprised with the Scout - not that we do any major offroad stuff these days - mainly forestry tracks and grassy slopes , but the Scout copes with everything I've thrown at it so far - and I haven't bottomed it out yet either (despite having to tow a Land Cruiser out of some ruts where he managed to get all four wheels off the ground to once!), but then I'm aware of the "lower" ground clearance and pick my routes accordingly. I have no complaints, I've grown to like the Octy and it's fit for my purposes ... I'd think it was OK for you, but you have to decide!

Thanks for all the help guys. I have a set of Goodride tyres on steel rims I swap over once the weather gets cooler, so these were specific "summer" boots I was looking for. In the end, I went for Firestone Roadhawks simply because (a) the fitter was convenient, so I didn't have to take time off work to get them fitted and (b) they were in stock. I see there are a number of people who like the Michelins though - I will seriously consider these once the winter wheels get another winter in, as they'll have done me for five winters.