avi4tor

In the bad old days I would agree with you, but in those days I did everything including the minor services. With modern cars you can go between major services without lifting the bonnet. There are sensors everywhere to tell you if anything needs attention and a visual check of the tyres will soon highlight a problem there.

After 18 months of driving and about 7,000 miles I got a low pressure warning (car was 6 months old with 40 miles on it when I bought it). When I checked, all of the tyres were at 2.0 bar and the fuel filler cap suggested 2.5 bar. 2.5 bar seemed high, but I have no idea what the pressures were when I bought the car, and therefore what pressure drop is required to trigger the low pressure warning. I topped the tyres up and will now see how long it takes before I get the next low pressure warning.

I use Brodit (vehicle specific) and Proclip (device specific) pairings to avoid that issue - though I did have to remove and ditch the dashboard cup holder from my Forester before I discovered them.

I have never bought into the Skoda navigation technology. I have always used a Garmin nuvi with a Traffic receiver. It's annoying that the Traffic no longer works, so now I use both the Garmin and an Apple device for routing. The Apple device provides verbal guides via bluetooth through the car sound system and uses traffic info to reroute as necessary. The Garmin provides visual guides and mounts on the dash. OK, they may conflict on route choices, but as the Apple has traffic info I let that take precedence and the Garmin plays catch-up when necessary. Eventually the Garmin will stop getting uptodate maps (it is 20th century technology), then I will get an Apple device that is small enough to mount on the dash.

When I fill mine up to the brim I can do 600 miles before needing to pull into another refuel point. And I won't need to replace the batteries after a couple of years, with all the CO2 that that will incur.

Today I was using my tablet for navigation (no, I don't have the Skoda navigation package) and tried connecting the tablet to the infotainment system via Bluetooth. It worked reasonably well, in so far as the audio came through the car speakers and the media / radio was muted when the navigation tablet wanted to say something. But is there a way to get the tablet display also piped through to the infotainment system? When I first connected the Bluetooth the tablet suggested downloading an app - I could not do that as I only allow the app store to use wifi, not the 4G. I didn't note which app was suggested, and now I've looked they all seem to just access the driving data which I am not interested in.

It could be that it's doing it automatically. I know my FreeSat set-top box does so, so the technology and necessary thought processes of the engineers is all in place for it to happen.

I also have a mk IV ex-demo (40 miles and 6 months old). Unlike my mk II (Elegance), there appears to be very little information on what models they do and what I might have. However as my mk II was playing up it didn't really bother me - this one was on the forecourt and available immediately. The only way I can tell what it is to check what DVLA think it is.

That is what my Mk II used to do (for that it was every 5 windscreen washes). Apart from the waste of washer fluid (it really pumped a huge amount through) it didn't bother me.

I'm sure your wife will love to hear your explanation of why she has to live with a broken neck because you opted to let the car decide when to apply the brakes, and you got shafted up the rear when the car braked for no reason.

My car has the camera and I have a piece of sticky back plastic covering it - it saves me having to switch of lane assist every time I start the car.

The water-pump to block seal also went on my mk2. I asked the dealer (Fred Rees, Haverfordwest) to look at it when it went in for a service. When I picked the car up they said "yes, you've got a coolant leak", "so is it fixed?", "Oh no, we didn't bother to find out where the leak was". In other words, they wanted more money out of me to a) determine where the fault was and b) fix it. In the end I took it to local garage - less hassle and they fixed it in no time.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305688981655

With rear wheel drive you are using the lower gearing of the reverse gear to help. With front wheel drive you are putting the weight on the driving wheels.

Agreed, and going backwards up a slope when you have front wheel drive can also help.

I bought a set of keys for a Renault from one of these mobile guys. The keys drink batteries and I have to replace them every few months. It may pay to stick with the dealer provided keys.

I use it regularly whenever I leave the dog in the car with the windows open an inch. Sometimes it is already disabled, sometimes I have to disable it. I have yet to work out the logic. I'm sure it disables the internal ultrasonic movement detectors, but I'm not sure what else it affects.

With my mk2 it was also necessary to wind all the windows all the way down and then all the way up before the single-shot mode would work.

If you know the car is going to be standing for a while, then chock the wheels, put it in gear and release the handbrake. Unless of course the modern software engineer has programmed the car to always apply the handbrake when the ignition is off.

Can you get the rails retro-fitted? I didn't know they did the estate without rails.

I used to spend a lot of time on a gliding airfield. To position the aircraft on the ground we towed the gliders behind the cars at walking pace (very difficult, with some cars you had to either slip the clutch in first or dab the brake) and we never bothered to put the seat belts on at that time. We just clipped the buckles in first and then sat on top of the belts. I did consider knocking up a piece of metal the size of the tang with three inches of webbing attached which could be just plugged in instead of the belt, but never got around to it.

I used my for about a month after getting the car then lost interest in it. The one time that it tried to tell me that the car was still unlocked it was actually lying to me. It is of no use to me and I obviously didn't renew it. Mine didn't have the sat nav features, I use my Garmin nuvi (with lifetime updates) for that (or the ipad).

I bought my 1.8 mkII with 4,000 miles on it. It need an oil top up before the next service. I now have a 1.5 mkIV, and am anticipating having to top that as well. The only annoying thing is my supply of 5/30 oil technically is the wrong grade as the 1.5 requires 0/20. However I suspect that the odd 0.5 litre of 5/30 added to a sump of 0/20 between services will not be noticed.

In my experience the dealers are creating work for themselves. Get a second opinion from an alternative garage (preferably one that does MOT testing so they know what is acceptable). My dealer wanted to a) replace the aircon pump (too noisy) - aircon specialist said 'rubbish' and just ensured the freon mix had the correct amount of oil it b) replace the covers over the top of the rear shock absorbers - I ignored them and no other garage afterwards suggested it was a problem. Your dealer is just trying to keep his workshop full.

The petrol version always judders from cold on low revs (my has done it from new). You just get used to giving it a few more revs. Once you gone 50 yards it stops doing it. From my research it's a known problem amongst users which Skoda doesn't acknowledge.