Countrigo

Here's a bit of fun to try it out. Go out to your Citigo at night with a torch. Switch on the ignition (which should kill the courtesy light), so the drls come on and you are sitting there in darkness looking at the illuminated needles (and sundry warning lights). Switch the torch on and shine it on the panel for a few seconds. Switch the torch off. The instruments will now be fully lit, but this will fade back to just the illuminated needles over the next few seconds as the sensor detects that it is dark again.

The instrument panel lighting does come on with the drls, but there is some sort of sensor that dims it when the ambient light level goes down - e.g. at dusk, or maybe when you go under trees or similar. I think this is to remind you that you haven't actually got your full lights on, only the drls at the front. The instrument needles are still illuminated when this happens, which I think is so you aren't totally left unable to read the panel.

I appreciate the suggestion, but yes, I do have the slider set to fresh air, as the handbook says. As it happens, I saw on the VW up! Forum (I think) that trying it set to recirculate might actually help, but it doesn't. Seeing this thread has inspired me to have another poke about in daylight at the weekend (I haven't been bothering about it recently because it's been milder, but it will soon be a problem again, no doubt). I am wondering if there is a pollen filter or similar which hasn't been fitted correctly. If I find something, I will post on here in case it helps others. Thanks for your help, anyway.

As the colder weather has arrived, I have found my Citigo to be the worst car for condensation that I have ever owned. In the morning, or after work, if the air temperature is under about 5 degrees C, the windscreen is heavily condensated on the inside, and it takes a good three or four minutes with full fan, aircon, full heater, before it clears enough to drive away. I have searched everywhere for wet carpets, etc, in case I have a leak and this is leading to moist air inside the car, but I can't find anything. I always drive with aircon on and then adjust the cabin tempereture with the heater. The fan is nearly always on speed 2 to provide a good throughput of air. Unless someone can suggest something I am missing (gratefully received), I think I must just have a "steamy" car.

I was in touch with the salesman about 1st Nov and I asked him about the bag hook: he was still adamant that there is going to be a recall and that he will automatically be instructed to make contact with all affected customers. No word on exactly when, though.

A lot of people say that they prefer the upward kick in the rear side window of the 3-door up!, which the 3-door Citigo and Mii don't have. My personal point of view on that is that it cuts down the glass area for people in the rear seat: having sat in one, it's a bit like looking out of a porthole. The five-doors (my particular interest) are identical from the side, as far as I know. What decided me away from the up! (apart from distance to dealer) was the all-glass tailgate, but I accept that I'm probably in a minority of one on that, as the general view seems to be that it is really cool.

An update in case it helps others. I ordered the parts by phone on Monday, 1st Oct. "About a week" was quoted as the delivery time, with two of the parts on "back order" and having to come from Germany. They were in at the dealer on Friday, 5th Oct, and I collected them yesterday. The price I paid was also GBP 93.00 inc VAT exactly. I think the bolts / screws may actually have "Triple Square" heads, although Elegance75 used a size 6 Torx bit on his, I believe. I will horrify all the engineers on here by saying that I found a flat 6mm screwdriver adequate for putting them in. I figured that as long as they are "tight enough", they will be fine - it's not as though they are holding the wheels on or anything! I don't seem to have damaged the heads by doing this - they are pretty tough. I am quite crack-handed, and although it only took me a couple of minutes to fit the n/s mounting, the o/s one took ages (possibly because I had to use my left hand and I am right-handed). You can't actually see if the bolt / screw is seated in the threaded hole, and perhaps my not using the correct tool contributed to the difficulty. I think I probably spent an hour in total on the job. So, not exactly "bish, bash, bosh", but not a nightmare either, and it's such a nice facility once it's fitted.

Thanks - much appreciated. I have found out that I am going to the big city a week tomorrow, so I will be trying to order the parts from the VW dealer there in the morning. I seem to recall having trouble ordering parts over the phone in the past (not from this dealer, though). Still, all will be revealed tomorrow, no doubt!!

Fantastic pics, Elegance75, thank you: I really want this now!! Could you please just confirm - does the flexible strip between the top of the black plastic bracket and the wheel arch come as part of the bracket itself? Also, this "adapter thing" of which you speak: is this something like a torx head or similar - i.e. you can't put the screws in with a normal screwdriver?

Very useful to know - thank you.

Very cool explanation that had not occurred to me - thank you.

I agree about the visual side of it - all you get on the PID screen is a representation of what your ears are telling you, and you would be, shall we say, ill-advised to use your eyes for looking at that rather than looking over your shoulder when reversing: it's no more than a bit of fun, really. We also have a Nissan with a reversing camera, and that is quite useful for judging that last inch when you are already in a parking space or garage. It also has guidelines on the screen which show you with remarkable accuracy where the car will go at the current steering wheel angle, so it's worth a glance before you start moving in reverse. I still don't understand why engaging reverse doesn't mute the entertainment sound in all Citigos, though, if it's thought to be a good thing. They all have a reversing light, so there must be a switch in the gearbox, and I thought in these days of CAN bus technology, it would be a simple programming job.

My car has the Convenience Pack fitted, which includes acoustic parking sensors. These are "integrated", so that you are given a graphic display on the PID if it is in place, but you still have the beeping tones if it is not present. In typical VW Group nannying fashion, when you engage reverse gear, the radio or music playback is muted, presumably to help you concentrate on the job: fair enough, I thought - it's an extra safety feature and probably helps with the insurance grouping, etc. Except that recently I was lent a Citigo demonstrator which didn't have reversing sensors fitted. The PID wasn't present (the dealer removed it before lending me the car to avoid any "misunderstandings" on return), but the radio still worked of course, and I noticed that in this car, the sound wasn't muted when engaging reverse. I guess this is saying that if you are so concerned about your reversing skills that you specify parking sensors, then you need all the help you can get, but if you don't believe you need them, then as far as VW/Skoda/SEAT are concerned, you're fine to carry on listening to your favourite sounds as you zoom backwards!!

Yes, I will be ordering these parts from a VW dealer next time I go to the big city. I'm glad we seem to be getting it sorted!

Poster bazves on the VW up! Owners' Forum has been going into this with regard to a Mii that he is buying (they are really friendly to Mii and Citigo folk over there, by the way), and had this to say: "Ok, another update Countrigos' post spurred me to investigate further. So I popped into the local VW garage on the way home from work armed with the part numbers I posted earlier. These looked to support parts quoted from the ETKA diagram, and we double checked them again at the parts department, so I'm confident they are the correct parts. Therefore I've ordered the parts, should be available in a week (which is fine because its 2 or 3 weeks before I expect car). So for the benefit of UK based peeps, heres the details from the invoice (2 mountings required, one for the left one for the right) 1 x 1S0858831F82V - MOUNTING - £7.22 1 x 1S0858832F82V - MOUNTING - £7.22 1 x 1S0858855D1BS - PLATFORM - £59.94 6 x N91026802 - ZYL SCHRAW - £3.12 Prices are ex VAT, so total price for parts including VAT (in the UK at least) comes to £93.00. Based upon the thread I linked, I'm happy that these parts will slot in no problem. I'd be surprised if the Citigo turned out to be any different ." Bazves said it would be OK for me to paste this in over here. If you're still following this thread, malcster, it seems that maybe the soft strip along the top edge of the side mounting bracket comes as part of the bracket itself? You can see it quite clearly in the photos that jonnieb has linked to - thank you for doing that, jonnieb, by the way - this is the same Seat forum that bazves was getting his initial info from. There is a fair bit more about this topic on the VW up! Owners' Forum.