Rainmaker

Another VW plus - more toys for the equivalent model. That should really brighten up the cabin. I don't know if you noticed my second post before you replied but I was actually just thinking maybe you'd have saved money overall by going 2.0 TSI 220ps and adding the pano roof as an option. Then I checked the Motability price list for this quarter (i.e. Jan > March) and realised they aren't offering the 220 any more, and even the 1.4 TSI is now almost £3,000 AP. You definitely made the right call there. The Skodas are far too out of their depth at that kind of pricing. They used to be a little bang for buck monster, but these days they're still delivering medium-level cars and starting to ask higher end prices. I don't think that bubble will last but we'll see. VAG bean counter meddling, probably.

Never mind, I stopped being lazy and realised I could look it up for myself (I'm also a Motability customer atm). Both cars available in 1.8 are 180ps and both are DSG. Which spec did you go for? For a similar AP I'll be snagging a nice RWD BMW 3 series Sport tourer with the 2.0T (185hp) engine and the 8 speed ZF box myself, but horses for courses. The Passat should be a lovely drive with a nice balance of power and economy. Enjoy it!

Haha MorrisOx nailed it. Apart from some better cabin fit and finish and perhaps some updated tech it's basically is the same car underneath. You can still play out with us here while driving the undercover Superb if you like. We won't rib you too much... promise. What power/torque is the 1.8 TSI in the VW? Same as the continental Skoda units (that they don't sell here)? Is it manual or DSG? A 1.8 TSI manual would be a nice car indeed - I wish my 2.0 TSI was manual! This will be my last Skoda, but I'll never have a bad word to say about the gen3 TSI engine.

Only if you have auto hold switched on. It's been a couple of years since I got mine - time flies - but off the top of my head, auto hold is disabled from factory meaning the car acts like a conventional torque converter auto. However, if you switch it on every time you start the engine for three (?) consecutive starts the car stores 'on' as the new default setting. Conversely, you can do the same to switch it off permanently (until you decide to go through the whole procedure to re-enable it, anyway).

Hi @klarky That's a very good point mate, I forgot about that little quirk. I'll update the guide later when I get chance, to include that info for future reference. AFAIK there's no way around that particular issue except to include all POIs when you update the cameras (i.e. to re-add the others even though they've not changed, else you lose them).

It wore off after a couple of days so I didn't bother mentioning it to the dealer in the end. Sorry you've not had better luck. It seems 'They all do that, sir' is a typical dealership get-out clause.

Thanks Mike. You only delete/replace the one metainfo2.txt file that is outside of (or 'next to') the folder. You leave the others as they are. I hope you had a great Christmas, enjoy what's left of the festivities. Cheers.

God, no! I was thinking more dipping a cloth in and wiping around while it’s still damp and hot. If it’s the actual buttons that are stiff due to sugar dried inside you’re probably going to end up just waiting for it to wear off through use.

Oh dear. Sugary liquids are the devil to electronics but hopefully the LCD will come back when it dries out thoroughly. Worst case you can always use the sync feature and rely on the left side gauge. What solvent cleaners have you tried? I’d be thinking along the lines of IPA, with a tiny dab of acetone on a cotton bud for stubborn areas (testing an inconspicuous spot first and going easy, as acetone is quite aggressive on plastics). Stupid as it sounds have you tried a mug of boiling water and microfibre cloths?

Not something I’ve ever encountered but I’m glad you managed to follow the guide and get it working ok mate.

A singing flat 6, RWD and manual transmission? That's a small price I'd happily pay. Yeah don't forget Euro emissions levels have dropped year on year too, so they need to be ever lower in the lab. That means engineering lots of different ways to get all the eco gubbins working ASAP, which won't apply to your older cars as the newer regs weren't in place when they were made. Give me an old fashioned NA 6+ cylinder engine any day.

That's a half decent necro, YTT. I agree the averaging seems weird but it's always backed up by the brim to brim calculations in the end. You mentioned cold starts needing to warm the engine, but you forgot the cats. Modern cars will drastically over fuel for quite a long time after a cold start to get the catalytic converters up to operating temperature, at the expense of fuel consumption. That's quite independent of the engine temperature. Don't forget cats only work at a specified temp range, and even then only during a certain rev range (usually about 1,500rpm to 4,000 rpm).

Premier Hazard, surely?

Gyeon Bathe+ always gets well received and lays down basic protection to boot. You could show him how to use something like WetCoat spray before he rinses if he has a jet wash?

Personally I wouldn’t have my motors anywhere near a hand wash or auto wash. A decent ceramic coat wouldn’t be a bad idea. You could then just use the garage jet wash (hot shampoo then rinse) when it looks mangy, and occasionally pay a few quid for a maintenance wash at whichever decent local detailer did your ceramic coating. That’d be my solution anyway.

Not an accusation you could level at Reg, tbf. As well as teaching and examining for the UK police and RoSPA, he also does a lot of driving and teaching in mother Russia. Suffice to say he knows a thing or two about properly cold weather driving.

I’ve used the temperate water trick on Skoda every year since 2010 (including our worst winter since forever) and never had an issue. It rolls off and dries fully once you’re moving unless you use a bucket full and let it stand. Isopropyl alcohol in water 2:1 works well too.

That was handy. A retired police advanced driving instructor and examiner I know has just uploaded a UK winter weather driving video, as part of his YouTube advanced driving series. Some of you may like to check it out: Link.

No snow mode? Just put it in S, am I right? In all seriousness just drive as normal but with a light right foot. If you really can’t get moving then disable TC or put it into sport (single press or long press respectively). Just make sure to enable it again as soon as you’re underway! My mk2 1.9 handled one of our worst winters in decades with aplomb on standard tyres. I only got stuck once, ironically six feet from my driveway after a 200 mile run through deep snow. A kindly neighbour pushed me back to the drive and it was fine thereafter. I’ve just paid for Michelin CrossClimate + for our mk3 as it has more power and less weight.

Just paid for four of the CC+ to be fitted this coming Wednesday. For my Superb (235/45/18Y) it was over £750 at the cheapest place. That does include balancing, wheel alignment and insurance for non-repairable punctures though (which precludes the need to pay for a spare as I have full RAC cover). Still we're buried under snow and hail atm, with a bad winter predicted, and I do like to press on. What price your kids' safety etc etc?

I confess my ignorance here, but isn't the beam pattern/scatter (and to a degree, intensity) of xenons dictated by the shutter in the headlight rather than the bulb per se? I always find the Superb beams plenty bright, but the distribution/scatter leaves a lot to be desired at times, especially on unlit country roads. I only have standard (non-adaptive) xeons which may be a factor. Main beam helps, but obviously not when there's one travelling towards...

Good point mate. I just saw the quote of Casati's post referencing the 300 miles and replied from there. OP, what actually is your mileage and how are you testing fuel economy/consumption?

As above, all engines are slightly different (and driving conditions/drivers are wildly different), but a new engine isn't any guide to fuel consumption. You're barely half way through your first tank of fuel at 300 miles! My petrol (2.0 TSI 220) struggled to get over 26mpg for the first 1000 miles or so, but now does mid to late 30s pootling about and mid 40s on a run. A diesel will take much longer to run in (and likely won't be fully loosened up for a few tens of thousands of miles!). I wouldn't worry just yet... Edited to add: BTW the DSG is rather fuel efficient. My petrol is a DSG and gets diesel like economy if driven sensibly (which doesn't happen so often haha). The 2.0 diesel DSG courtesy car we had before the Superb arrived did a fortnight's driving or so for us and got very good MPG under all circumstances. Look at your driving style, driving conditions and - most importantly - let the engine run in and get a dozen tanks of fuel worth of brim-to-brim consumption figures before you start to look at economy.

Manually locking or unlocking the doors shouldn't affect the auto-lock function. I do it all the time. Without stating the obvious (?) did you try unticking the option, going back to the home screen and then going back into the menus and ticking the option again? A sort of 'turn it off and on again' to hopefully jog the car's memory. All modern cars suffer bugs and gremlins, it's the nature of the (overly technological) beast. If that doesn't fix it I'd mention it to the dealer.

Glad you got it sorted Jim. Could be a flaky SD card or hidden files (system volume information etc, if Windows) causing some issues perhaps. I do this every week for UK and EU cams and never have any issues these days, so probably just a mis-step or Gremlins as I said over PM. Either way you're up and away now so enjoy the peace of mind. Cheers.