boxer

had a 9-5 2.3 t estate. Great car, would buy another if they made them! Still got a '97 900 convertible (special edition Monte Carlo).

So completely different to the Superb II? On that you press the brake hard and the auto-stop cuts in. Letting a bit of pressure off the brake pedal starts the engine.

And a right stupid setup that is. I live in France, and had no idea that this was now in force. First I saw was a sign that I had no chance to read (got the details days later), never mind for anyone who is not a native English speaker/reader. Plus I was going on holiday. So even if I wanted to pay I couldn't get an internet connection for a few days. So they can chase me for it. So far (weeks later) no contact. And as far as I'm concerned, I drove over an open road with no visible warnings and really no alternative once on the M25, so "un-solicited goods" or un reasonable payment terms etc.

Actually the breathalysers are no longer a legal requirement in France, even of the signs in the ports tell you they are. Or at least they are supposed to be carried, but the law enforcing the regulation has never been passed and is suspended indefinitely. BUT don't wear headphones or Bluetooth earpieces etc. All such devices are banned while driving since 1st July. Built in hands-free is OK. And in theory playing music too loud (so you can't here what is going on around you) is also illegal. But how this is defined is beyond understanding, and deaf people can still drive.

Have you checked to see if it's covered in your insurance? Round here damage caused by Beech Martens (the "marde" as mentioned in Too Talls's link) is very common and is specifically mentioned in the insurance cover. You can also buy sprays that leave a smell to convince the marten that it's on a bigger creature's territory, but I doubt there is such a thing for rats. Design flaw? Not sure that making things rodent proof is possible at any price. And the martens are in no way aware of the status of the car they are eating ! However they can be very discerning in other ways; they hit my old V8 Range Rover a couple of times, and always ONLY the no. 8 HT lead which is of course the longest. They were expensive (but below the insurance excess) high performance leads that only came in full sets, so I had to buy all of them every time.

I used to have a 3.6, but it was a company car and I changed jobs. Just a few weeks into a new 170 Elegance, Business version (in Switzerland this just means virtually every optional extra on the list). Couldn't get a 3.6 in the Basel area (that is new and from a local dealer). Anyway, it has DAB and I get a lot of stations in Switzerland. http://www.worlddab.org/country-information/switzerland This is a year or so out of date, but quit a few stations. I tend to not use DAB as I actually live in France, and DAB there is only really in the bigger cities. Note in CH they want to phase out FM from 2020, but I can imagine that will slip... I can't imagine trying to use mobile data to stream. Even 2g voice can drop out every few meteres!

Evel Knievel doesn't drive a Skoda I didn't mean they literally pull the ramp backwards, just once there is a quarter of the weight of a car on them, they don't slide away.

regarding ramps. Look carefully when you buy. The at least first few 'cross bars' should be vertical, or close to it, so that the tyres bite onto them and pull the ramp back. Stops them sliding away. On mine all the bars on the sloped part are angled upwards.

Please go read the Wiki page I linked to a few posts ago, it might help you grasp an idea of how GPS works. Different manufactures can implement the GPS standard in different ways, and therefore achieve slightly different goals (e.g. great performance or low cost). For a GPS receiver to get a position it must pick up a signal from several satellites and each has an identity. It must then have some information about each satellite. If this information is already in the device (such as from a previous connection) it can begin to give a position immediately. If it has to get all the current GPS information from new, this can take 12.5 minutes for a good signal. All units can communicate with several satellites at once, some more than others. So that is why there is often a great deal of variance in time to get a position. Note that "acquired" means identified and usable. My TomTom normally picks up in less than a minute, but if I dig it out of a drawer after a week, stuff it in a suitcase and arrive in a UK airport, I can have my hire car on the way down the wrong motorway before it wakes up a shouts at me. "GOOD SIGNAL" has absolutely no relationship to where you are in a coordinate sense. Middle of the Sahara, Alaska or Hyde Park, all the same. BUT GPS signals are very weak and work best with unobstructed "line of sight", so in fact the arctic tundra or Sahara are probably better than Hyde Park. Middle of the Atlantic is very good, but while the name "Columbus" may suggest otherwise, this is not a good place for even a Skoda Agreed high levels of radio noise can reduce GPS signal availability, but assuming he is outdoors with some view of the sky, Suprc will get a recognised signal within a short while. But the fact it is new car seems to me to rule out water ingress and corrosion, plus the lack of any start-up message/logo suggests a dead unit, or not installed correctly.

Sorry Superbia but you are way off the mark. Satphones use a completely different satellite system to GPS. Plus a completely different technology approach. They really have nothing to do with each other. Plus some use satphone systems geo-stationary satellites, which do have weaker coverage towards the poles. It is true that GPS can have dead spots, but caused locally by physical barriers e.g. buildings, trees, mountains etc. So if Suprc is in a garage at the bottom of a steep sided, heavily forested valley, then no signal... But from ANYWHERE in the world, at any time, an unobstructed receiver (note ONLY the satellite transmits, not like a phone) can see 9 satellites. Only 4 are needed for a fix.

Veering off-topic a bit, but satellite GPS does not work like that. The availability of satellites has no dependence on being anywhere in particular, and not related to population density. Except that well away from buildings and interfering radio waves, you might get a better signal in the middle of nowhere! Found this in case it helps. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System take a look at the animation just a bit less that half way down. (but note now there are 32 satellites in operation)

GPS satellites orbit at 20,000km (16,000 miles). They orbit in groups aligned at angles to each other so that the whole world is covered (hence 'global'). Exception is that there are land-based transmitters, but I am not sure if the Columbus uses these (know as DGPS, D for differential, refers to how they are used). But you do need to be outside, you won't pick up in a garage! If you turn off a GPS and don't move it, turning on within a few days, then it will pick up satellites faster than if you move it while off, or if you leave it for a few weeks. Depending on the GPS hardware, the potential locations of satellites and the required data are "cached" and the system can locate itself faster. Moving or long downtime means the system starts from scratch. TomTom has a "faststart" that you can load/update from an internet connection; this gives the unit a large list of satellites, locations, any orbit changes etc. But needs still regular updates to work. In this case it sounds like the Nav system is not activated or broken. If it's a new car, then back to the Dealer!

Never got mine working consistently, but when it does it is rather effective. OK, not cool inside but doesn't burn the back of your throat when you breath. Also it tends to let the Aircon work a bit faster once you restart as all the ducts etc. are at air temp not oven temp! However it looks OK on my car, but then its black. As the panel is black, it may look odd on a white car...

Mostly country lane driving, with some town. I get 10L/100 (28.5mpg). Sometimes I can get 9 (31mpg), if I am very gentle. On a long run where the limits are 110KM/h, I can get 8.6 (nearly 33mpg). However if I get onto unlimited autobahn stretches, maybe not as good as this Above based on fill to fill, not display. There is a lot of variation; into work is "downhill" i.e. drop of 300m in 30KM (but with ups and downs). Indicated (out by 5% to 10%) varies from 8.5 into work, 10.2 on the return.

OK, anyone know a good translation of the above technical-speak into swiss-german?