SteveTheElder

Solar diverter for hot water can be very beneficial - but it all depends on individual circumstances. Our solar array was installed when batteries were prohibitively expensive so we had a diverter installed (Solar iBoost). Most years we have able to turn off the gas off in early May and back on in late October; with only two or three times when we need to manually switch on the immersion for half an hour. Our ancient gas space and water heating have what appear to me as very large flames on both of the pilot lights which at current prices I have calculated to cost us about £200/yr on their own! So, the solar diverter gives us zero gas consumption for almost 6 months of the year and near free heating of the water. Those benefits of the solar diverter are very welcome indeed, the downside is that it now makes the ROI of a battery less inviting because we already have a significant saving. Having said that, when we change the heating system (this year) and potentially swapping Mrs Steve's CitiGo for a small EV, installing a battery may well become a more attractive proposition (unless we use the EV as the battery to power the house during peak times). Oh for the simplicity of my childhood days with a coal fire and Baxi boiler 😉

Hmmm... Not sure how I would do my 1500 - 3000 mile road trips without using a public charger; I have at least two of these a year plus elderly parents living 400 miles away. "Never need to use a public charger..." is just not true. I would need to give very serious consideration before switching to an EV for financial and practical reasons. BIK is not relevant when retired so it would be all my own money. EVs are horses for courses though. Swapping SWMBO's CitiGo for a relatively small EV does make a lot of sense and may well happen if the right deal pops up at a suitable time. I am preparing a spreadsheet to estimate the capital cost outlays, running cost savings, depreciation, which will influence timing of any change. Other factors are domestic heating update/upgrade and mains battery storage for our 10yo solar panels. Could end up spending lots of £££££ and not recovering the investment.

A fairly predictable response to my email of yesterday.... "As the first troubleshooting step, please perform the following steps in your vehicle's Infotainment system: – press and hold the “Power” button in the bottom left corner of your Infotainment system; – wait until the screen goes dark and release the button. Afterwards, please verify if the software update notification keeps appearing. If the issue persists, please include the following information for our investigation: – a photo of the Settings > System Information page in the Infotainment system, to display your current software version; – a photo of the Settings > System Information > All updates page in the Infotainment system, to show any pending updates. This information will help us analyze this situation with our technical team. We apologize for the confusing issue and will do our best to resolve it." A modicum of encouragement in that they're mentioning "... analyse the situation..." At least they did apologize 😜

My 70-plate estate is a couple of hundred miles short of 70,000; 65k of which in the last 4 years. Mechanically never missed a beat; on today’s 200 mile journey from Bicester to N Wales, pretty much all motorway and dual carriageways at legal limits, it returned 60.8 mpg (2 up and a full boot). Its on variable service interval, with Long Life oil, which in practice has been about 19k intervals, all done at main dealer.

@Thomas_Toget the I read that chart is that your 2021 Octavia comes on the row “MOD3 UNECE“ - which shows your car will be fine post ‘2G,3G sunset’.

Care Connect subscription is needed for things like Honk & Flash, remote lock/unlock (if your car supports that), notifications about alarm triggers, etc. Infotainment Online includes goodies such as map updates, traffic updates, and a bunch of other stuff - which may or may not be useful 😂 Take a look at this Škoda page and enter your VIN - should give you what features are available for your specific car should you decide to pay the subscription. Availability list"...do others use it?..." Yes and no! Having been on this forum about 4 years opinion is very much divided as to the value of one or other, or both the subscriptions. I do subscribe to both, perhaps more interesting than useful though; and I have to admit, it is NOT essential. I am one of the [seemingly few] who uses the built in SatNav feature so the online updates are beneficial - others swear by Apple Maps, Google Maps, Waze etc. eschewing the built in system. Each to their own. This page gives a marketing view of the Connect Services - https://www.skoda.co.uk/owners/skoda-connect If you have a spare bit of cash it may be worth signing up for a year and seeing how much value you get from it. Periodically it is discounted by about 1/3rd so keep an eye on that too.

Unlikely; Škoda have told me the SIM system in my 2020 build car is 4G. Be interesting to hear what they come up with.

Mine is currently asking me to ‘Update now’ for the fourth time 🙄 The infotainment system also on v.1941. My plan is to ignore it…

Seems it has changed then, when I go my car back in 2021 I could create an account in the car. Many updates since then! Anyway, pleased to hear you have it working now. Other than car data being visible in the App and using that app to check lock status etc, the biggest benefit that I can see is that with an account your settings are saved to your account. So, when you get your wife's account set up (yes, she needs a Skoda ID account too) and personalises the car, each user has their customised settings. Also, each key can be associated with a different user so when unlocking the car it has the appropriate settings. Those settings will include things like favourites and shortcuts set up in the Infotainment system (e.g. radio stations and, I think, temperature; if you have electrically adjustable seats then they can be associated with the key and user too). I've not tried this yet, but I believe that as the settings are sync'd back to the Škoda servers, should you get a second Škoda, or loan or hire car and login, then any compatible settings will be sync'd to that car too.

Thanks for your comments on fuel economy. There are so many variables but I did notice an improvement when I switched from Continental to the Goodyear. Most of my mileage is long trips, often a high proportion of steady speed on dual carriageways and motorways.

I have not yet tried a set of all season tyres but last time round did consider Cross Climate 3s - so it's good to read all the positive comments here. The last few times I have gone for Goodyear Efficient Grip Performance which I have found quiet, comfortable, and economical, and not (yet) found them lacking in grip. It's the increasingly unpredictable weather that gets me thinking about C/C3s. One question - any thoughts on the impact they have on fuel economy?

You could try creating the new account in the car, then log in to it via the app.

On the steering wheel are several buttons and a silver scroll ‘wheel’ on each spoke. The left one of these is the volume; scroll it to increase/decrease the volume or click it to mute. Also, under the infotainment screen is a touch sensitive bar, it is also a volume control.

It does sound like the auto wipe has been affected by the windscreen replacement. The rear wipe can be turned off in the settings. However turning that off also disables the rear wipe when selecting reverse gear 🙄 It would be worth checking all the wiper settings too. This for the rear wiper…

AIUI, SmartLink is a generic link which both CarPlay and AndroidAuto can detect before establishing a connection via their own protocols. @Tonyduncan - are you using CarPlay or AndroidAuto? If so, it should reconnect and not give that alert. If you don’t, then you could turn it off (somewhere in the menus that I can’t recall at the moment)

That’s not something I experienced with mine, had most other s/ware issues but not that one. It does sound familiar though, folk back in 2021 posting on this forum about it I’m sure. IIRC it was a dealer installed update &/or the comms/SOS module that fixed it.

That's good to hear! OTA is now a 'thing' and the preferred means of updates. However, early build cars don't have the capability my Sept 2020 registered car being one of them. A clue would be to look in the app if you can - mine supports the 'Honk & Flash' function but NOT the Lock/Unlock nor in the mapping/routing tab the capability to 'Send to Car'.

Yes, it should be listed in the Digital Certificate and/or the car details in the app

Sounds like the dealer doesn’t give a wotsit, whereas they ought to be on the ball and have it properly sorted before collection. Yes, it is perfectly reasonable to expect matching tyres. They should fix the tracking and pull to one side. An approved used Škoda should have all software updates installed (it’s in the advertising blurb). From your description, the wipers would be an MOT fail so I reckon should have been replaced. D’you feel like ‘naming and shaming’ the dealer on this forum? There’s a section for dealer reviews too.

Yep, s/ware updates fixed the issues in early cars. My 2020 build car is absolutely fine now.

I’m using the Bosch AU26U (650mm) and AU19U (475mm). At the time of purchase the online selection tool came up with a shorter blade for the offside which didn’t sweep as high up the screen - a problem for me as I am tall and sit high in the car.

By comparison yes; and that 25k miles was in about 18 months.

Another vote for Bosch AeroTwin. Been using them for on several cars; they last well. Lastest set been on for about 25k miles and still going strong.

Had a similar issue with the passenger seat heater turning off & back on at random intervals; driver seat was fine. Dealership replaced the passenger seat heater micro-switch under warranty.

I’ve never experienced this in my 2020 Octy 4. Is it the same tracks that suffer the effect? If so, compared to the tracks that play OK, are they from a different source (eg. Downloaded or ripped from a CD); or are they different bit rates? Another thought, could it be the USB drive which the car is struggling to read whereas the PC can cope? Maybe try a different stick.