KevinF

24 hrs later car still at the dealer. Yesterday when I dropped it off at 8.45 as arranged for attention, I invited the service receptionist to make a note of my informed findings about the approximate location of the source of the rattle. They wrote (something) on a post-it note that was then stuck on the service sheet. At 4.40 I spoke to the service manager. Apparently two technicians had been out in the car, one to drive, one to listen. They were investigating the possbility that the rattle emanates from the rear seat assembly. some 30 minutes later he left a voicemail message to the effect that they had *decided* the rattle is something behind the offside rear quarter trim panel... Apparently they plan to remove the trim panel this morning. ! I will share the result in the hope that it helps others here.

Back to rattles from the boot area.... Our MY 2021 Karoq Sportline 1.5 has developed a rattle from the rear with 3k miles on the clock. I thought at first that it might be the boot area cover, but ruled that out by removing it and driving. Rattle.....rattle, rattle.... I then squatted in the back last week while my wife drove and the noise, a light rattle rather than the heavier type of noise I would associate with a loose tailgate, appears to be coming from behind the trim panel over the offside rear quarter. Loose connector on the rear offisde light assembly? I am hoping that our local dealer will be able to identify and resolve today. They have the car until tomorrow if necessary.

At the back of the centre console, facing the rear seats is a 12V socket. The new wheel has a good tactile feel. The palm/finger swell is comfortable and the perforations make string-backed gloves unnecessary. The heated wheel function gets my wife's enthusiastic approval. Overall build quality of the car is good. It feels well put together and the surfaces that one can touch while sitting are in the main fair soft-ish quality. Ours has the seemingly *standard* feature for a Karoq with the powered tailgate; the door doesn't quite sit flush with the side panels at the bottom near the bumper. I am sure this is a matter of adjustment at the first service, or beforehand if it annoys me that much in the meantime. Having moved from a late '17 Octava with the same engine, we know what MPG it should be capable of. What we like is that in the Karoq the engine noise is even more subdued than it was in the Octavia. There is also noticeably less engine vibration intruding into the cabin. In any gear it is creamy smooth.

Photos of steering wheel and USB C ports, memory stick and iPhone lead inserted.

I agree the change from USB A to USB C is a minor pain. I bought a 128 Gig Sandisk USB A/C flashstick and transferred my music files to it, and a short USB A-C cable for the iPhone. There is no removeable torch in the boot (Sportline trim), but there is still a brolly under the front passenger seat. One thing on which both my wife and I are sure is that the MY21 Sportline has a softer spring-rate than the previous MY which we drove for a week and a half prior to the arrival of the new one, yet body roll and overall control on corners feels on a par. It results in a less jiggly ride on the 19" wheels. This, we agree, is a positive. The sound quality of DAB is markedly inferior to that of FM, particularly on BBC R3 where many broadcasts are uncompressed. A similar difference is audible between .MP3 and lossless files such as .WAV. Even the cheap-as-chips standard audio fit on the Karoq is capable of showing up the gulf in quality.

Thanks for your response. I did try yesterday setting FM stations under pre-sets, having selected FM in Advanced Settings, and it was fine until I turned the ignition off. When I re-started the car the FM stations had been replaced by DAB tunings. It seems to be a software glitch that is preventing FM pre-sets to *stick* after a re-start. I am going to try a factory re-set of the Amundsen today and see whether that resolves the issue. If the sound quality of FM was not so much better than DAB I'd just go with the status quo. And yes, there are two USB C ports in the phone/lighter tray. No SD card slots.

We got our MY '21 on Friday, and found the Amundsen infotanement software notably different to the earlier version. In particular, the radio element seems wedded to DAB. I would much rather listen to R3 on FM. We have a strong FM signal from our local transmitter, yet the Amundsen, even with FM selected, insists on tuning to DAB. Is there a Skoda technician here who can point me to a work-around?