Skoda John14

Hello, Further to the posts above and before I'd posted my message asking if DAB could be activated on the Amundsen + unit fitted to the SE Plus I'd also sent Skoda UK a message asking the same question. Following my email to Skoda UK I actually received a call from them. The person who called me said that you can't get DAB activated in an SE Plus. However following all of the posts and advice above I'm not inclined to accept this as the definitive answer. The reason that I say this is even though I was called by Skoda UK the person who called me didn't exactly sound very confident about the answer/ information that he was telling me. He started by saying that at present the only Skoda vehicles in the UK with DAB are the Octavia vRS Blackline and the Yeti Urban. Now having looked through Skoda brochures I'd already spotted that these were the only two cars to come with DAB already active as a standard spec from the factory. However my question wasn't which Skoda cars come with DAB as standard from the factory. My question was that given the vRS Blackline is fitted with the Amundsen + and has DAB given that the SE Plus also has the Amundsen + unit I was asking them whether DAB can be activated on the SE Plus model. The thing that undermined my confidence in the person who called me was the fact that he said the reason the vRS Blackline has DAB is because it's fitted with the Amundsen + unit and the reason that the SE Plus doesn't have DAB is because the SE Plus only has the Amundsen unit not the plus version. However this statement is wrong because the SE Plus is fitted with Amundsen +. This is why I think that the people who've posted above have been really useful because I'm hoping that the Amundsen + in the SE Plus model does have the ability to receive DAB with some tweaks and settings activated by somebody with the required skills/knowledge.

Hello, I have recently bought a car from ALS Autos and wanted to share my good experience of this Skoda dealer. This was my first purchase of a Skoda and also the first diesel car that I have bought. To be honest I think that I must have been a bit of a nightmare customer because I did have a lot of questions for them. For me, like most others I’m sure, a car is a huge investment and so I wanted to make sure that I was making the right decision with the car that I was buying. There was certainly a lot of going backwards & forwards as they answered my questions and offered advice. I’d like to thank Stuart, Jonathan, Ian and the whole team at ALS Autos who certainly offered a friendly and professional service. The service does not feel like a distant highly pressured sales environment. They are all friendly and welcoming and were able to take me through everything that I wanted to know about the car and future ownership. The whole team were great but I’d particularly like to thank Jonathan who, unfortunately for him, bore the brunt of my long list of questions but had the patience to answer everything that I wanted to know. Thanks to everyone at ALS Autos!

Thanks to all above for the extra info and for the photo of the back of the unit which is much appreciated. Cheers, John

Hi All, Thanks for all the comments. Welsh_kai_boy : Do you know how I find out which exact model I'd have in the car? Mannyo : Thanks for the map and I appreciate what has been said about coverage and the fact that there are lots of holes in the DAB coverage right now. If the stations that I wanted to listen to were available on both fm and DAB I'd be perfectly happy as I've no problem at all with the fm sound/signal. However stations like 6 Music, Planet Rock, 5 Live Sports Extra are only available on DAB. Unfortunately I'm really addicted to 6 Music on my DAB radio whilst at home and really miss it in the car plus my wife really likes Planet Rock and would like to be able to listen to that in the car if we can figure out a way to get DAB activated on the Amundsen +. Fingers crossed following the post from io1901 the ability to pick up DAB is there it just needs activating somehow.

Hi Slimmy, Thanks for letting me know and now once my 3G finally gives up the ghost and I can afford a newer phone at least I know that I won't lose the functionality of the MDI to the stereo if I use the lightning adapter. Thanks, John

Further to the messages above has anybody heard of a way to activate/ retro-fit DAB on the Amundsen + fitted in the SE Plus? As far as understand from this thread and others the only Amundsen + that comes with integrated DAB is the vRS Blackline. However following the comments from SE Plus owners above is there anyway to get DAB on the Amundsen + in the SE Plus without going down a complete aftermarket solution? I’m wondering if the Amundsen + unit fitted in the SE Plus and the vRS Blackline are the same unit? If so if there a technical fix that somebody can do by hooking the car up to a computer and effectively flicking a switch to activate DAB? Or are the two Amundsen + units fitted to the SE Plus and the vRS Blackline the same in name only with the actual stereo fitted behind the dash being different and with a different aerial? If there was anyway to get DAB on an SE Plus without a huge job I’d definitely be interested just for the ability to get stations that aren’t available on fm such as 5 Live and BBC 6 Music. Thanks in advance for any thoughts & advice. John

Hi sh4rpsh00ter, Thanks for the tips and I'll try to get my hand on an adapter to try it out. At the moment I've actually got an older iPhone 3G so I'm hoping that's going to work straight away with the MDI and the car stereo. However the 3G phone is struggling a bit now and I was worried that if I upgrade the phone to the 5 version it will render the MDI (which seems like a really handy feature) redundant. Your offer of help is much appreciated but I'm in East Anglia. However if I can get to try it out I'll report back for you. Thanks, John

Hello All, I'm looking at buying an Octavia Mk II and one of the cars I'm considering has the MDI connection to allow you to connect an iPhone. Because Apple have gone and changed the connection on the iPhone 5 I'm just wondering if anybody who has the MDI in their car has tried to connect an iPhone 5 using the Apple Lightning-to-30-pin-dock connector adapter? http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MD823ZM/A/lightning-to-30-pin-adapter I'm trying to figure out if the connector adapter will allow the iPhone 5 to work with the car stereo via the MDI? Having tried to search for answers to this I've not had much luck so far. However I did find some info on the What HiFi website which says this; "As you may have noticed the Lightning port is purely digital, but the old 30-pin connection in your car or on your speaker dock uses an analogue signal. 'Apple’s Lightning to 30-pin Adapter has its own DAC (Digital-to-Analogue Converter) allowing the iPhone 5's digital signal to be understood by your analogue dock" then it goes on to say: "So it should work with existing docks that take an analogue connection, though it might now scupper docks and other devices that previously took a digital connection and used their own DACs. Video out still won't work and the 'iPod Out' connection, which works with some in-car audio systems to show an in-car iPod display, won't work with the new adapter." http://www.whathifi.com/news/iphone-5-and-ipods-wont-work-with-some-existing-kit-%E2%80%93-even-with-the-adapter I'm not really a technical expert and so I'm left really confused as to whether this is suggesting that an iPhone 5 could connect to the car stereo via an MDI or not? It sounds as if any video won't be displayed but maybe you'll still be able to play music or podcasts? Any advice from anyone who has tried this or has a better understanding of this than me will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any advice! John

@littleade: Ha, ha and good point about Norwich as it's a struggle to find anything with an incline around here. However there is one big hill (relatively speaking for Norfolk) not far from the city centre that I can try the car on. As we like to take holidays Scotland, Yorkshire and the Lake District etc (when the care will be full of camping gear) it's a good tip of yours to pack the car with the weight of people on the test drives to see how the car performs. I'll report back once I've made some progress. Thanks, John

Thanks again for the additional comments from littleade and Italianjob. The 'spanner in the works' is actually a really good idea because I hadn't thought about the savings of the no VAT combined with free servicing plus £500 deposit. Thanks for the idea and I'll have to investigate that if the budget will stretch to it. Looking at the above there's positive comments about both the 1.4 TSI and the 1.6 TDI CR. Therefore I think that with some pluses/minuses for both it's well worth getting test drives for as long as we can to see how we get with the different characteristics of each engine. It's not always easy to tell on test drives when the car is empty how it will perform for your actual intended use. For example we go camping which means packing the car with a lot of heavy gear but we'll test for as long as possible to try and make up our minds. Thanks all! John

Hi All, Thanks to everybody for all of the comments and it's much appreciated because I'm new to Skoda and the VAG group engines so all the advice is greatfully received! Following the tips I'm going to try and get test drives in both to see how they feel. Also whilst I'm trying to think about which one to get would you say I'm mad to be considering a nearly new Mk2 Octavia with the Mk3 due to be launched very soon? The cars that I'm looking at are ex dealer demonstrator cars and I'm a bit worried that if I buy now the cars value will drop like a stone in a few months time once the Mk3 is is available. Whatever car I buy I'm likely to hang onto it for at least three years. However I'm wondering whether I'm better off buying a late pre facelift Mk2 or an early FL Mk2 because they've already lost a bit of their value? That way I might not take quite such a big hit if I'm lucky enough to save my pennies and consider a Mk3 in 3-4 years time. Or should I be holding out and saving for a bit longer waiting to see what the Mk3 will be like? Thanks for all tips advice on the diesel vs petrol question and for any thoughts as to whether I'm crazy to consider buying a nearly new Mk2. John

Hi Briskodian, Thanks for the quick response and the tip to go for the diesel. Also any other tips & opinions will be gratefully received. John

Hi All, I want to purchase my first Skoda and I’ll be really grateful for any advice that people can offer. I’m looking at two almost identical cars but one has the 1.6 TDI CR diesel and the other is the 1.4 TSI petrol. The cars have almost identical mileage, they are almost the same age, they are the same trim level and pretty much the same price. Therefore any advice on which one to go for will be greatly appreciated. Up until now I’ve always had petrol engine cars because up until now our annual mileage has been quite low, say only 5-6k per year. However we have a baby due for imminent arrival and I know that with my wife on maternity leave next year and using the car much more during the week, plus lots of additional visits to friends and family all over the UK I’ve estimated that our annual mileage will jump to around 12,000 – 14,000 per year. Looking at the potential fuel cost of diesel vs petrol over 12-14k miles the diesel looks quite appealing just to add to the fact that the road tax cost is lower. However in addition to some long journeys during the course of a year we’ll also do quite a few shorter journeys and so I wonder if this means that we should think twice about buying a diesel because of potential issues with the DPF and/or anything else? Also I wonder whether we’ll actually see anywhere near the higher mpg potential of the diesel over the petrol when used on the shorter journeys without the chance to get the engine warmed up? Over the course of a normal month I’ve worked out that our regular journeys to visit friends & family will be:- 4 x 51 miles 4 x 16 miles 24 x 7 miles 16 x 12 miles 4 x 9 miles 4 x 24 miles Then they’ll be up to about 20 miles per week or 80 per month of short local journeys which could be something like a 2 mile journey to the shops when there’s a lot of shopping or a trip to the DIY store to pick up a bulky item that I can’t walk home with. Plus over the course of the year they’ll be at least two or three long trips to including visits to friends & family in Scotland, Cornwall & some other stops and these will most likely be 1,000 mile plus round trips. Also having not owned a diesel before do they in general cost any more than petrol cars to maintain and service? Also any other diesel related tips that I should be aware of will be gratefully received. Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer advice! John