Graham Butcher

Trouble is though that I have not seen that figure quoted in any brochures, its always CO2,

Just taxed my new car ready for collection later this morning and while taxing it online, I thought I'd do a check for ULEZ compliance and see how it compares to the Nissan hire car I'll be handing back today. As it turns out, it was very interesting, a Nissan Qashqai petrol Hybrid with engine size of 1332cc emits 141gm/km of CO2 and is ULEZ compliant, the Superb diesel 1968cc emits 119gm/km of CO2 and is also compliant. So the diesel powered Superb actually emits less CO2 than a smaller petrol engine which is also a hybrid, so it seems that diesel can actually generate less global warming gases.

The thread and photos can be found here.

Yeah, I was advised to not accept the first offer of a pay-out, so I didn't and they flatly refused to budge or talk about what it would actually cost me to be in a similar position to that I would have been in had the accident not happened, they seemed to think I was being unreasonable, almost as if I had caused the accident and therefore should shoulder some of the cost WTF. When my car was retrieved from the body shop, the driver of the transport truck could not believe that the car was a write-off, it drove OK, and no error messages or warning lights, just body damage. Anyway, the car was taken away again by Copart last Tuesday and with 24 hours it appeared on their web site with sale close date of midday Monday by which time it had reached £1,750 and the reserve had not been met. Then they put a message on site to say that it been sold subject to approval (usually means they are asking the bidder to pay more) and then it was listed as sold, so it potentially sold at £1, 650 loss plus fees. The annoying thing is a fellow member here was looking to buy and repair it for his Son but his application to register with Copart was not processed in time, so he was unable to place a bid. The hire car was an automatic and was supposed to the equivalent sized vehicle to a Superb (really??) for 59 days was probably somewhere around the £100 a day mark so that's a further approx. £5,900 on top of the pay out that has to be factored in and if I really was to push it maybe the cost of the fuel used in my search for a replacement car and my time? I was not really going to accept anything less than another L&K, it was after all what I original chose and for was for a reason, I did not want accept a lower spec car.

After a long battle with the other parties insurance company, it was passed back to my insurance company, who took up the claim on my behalf. The other company only valued my low mileage car which was meticulously maintained with everything by the book and in good condition, at £8,200 after my excess was taken into account. It was impossible to get another L&K with similar miles and condition, same age was coming in at £11.000. My own insurance provider had my car recovered from the body shop and delivered back to me, and they appointed another assessor, who came back with a similar amount. I was however able to talk with the assessor and I had to explain to him the significance of what the L&K meant to the value of the Superb, almost doubling the entry price point to the Superb range. He went away and looked at what comparable cars from dealers were costing, and I also supplied him with 3 Autotrader listings for similar cars with considerable higher mileages. To his credit he came back with a value of £9,700 which I accepted as I had located a MK3 L&K, in the same colour as my old one and very good condition but almost double the miles, but the price reflected the miles at £10,500 and had an FSH and with no problems on MOT histories other than tyres and brake pads nearing their limits. These have all been addressed with 4 top-notch high performance tyres and new pads and discs all round, cam belt and water has just been replaced. The dealer has ordered and replaced N/S rear light (cracked lense) and a N/S headlight had only half the LED DRL working, these took a time to arrive from the factory. The insurance policy still had 3 months to run and to be honest, the premium has increased, but only marginally for the remaining 3 months, despite the car being 3 years newer but less powerful engine (150 HP as opposed to 170), so I'm pretty happy at this stage which I'm told is because insurance has generally gone up anyway. Have to see what the renewal quote for next year is going to be. During the entire process I have covered almost 2,000 miles looking at other Superbs trying to find one that ticked all the boxes and I have come across some real dogs and also a dealer from hell, but that's another tale.

Quick, question, I'm picking up my new (to me) Mk3 L&K on Thursday and I want to pop my dash cam in it before the long drive home with it. On my old car it was wired directly into the fuse box so was only powered when the ignition was switched on, however I don't want to waste time doing that again and running the wire through the A pillar and across the head liner before driving home, so will be plugging in the power socket. Is the power socket then powered down when the ignition is switched off or not? On the load car I currently have (Nissan Qashqai) it is. I won't have the time to wire it in permanently until sometime over the weekend, so will I need to remember to unplug it or not until then?

Totally agree, I follow this channel on YT and if anyone follows this channel they will know how the source their parts/panels, many come from breakers yard, ebay etc as well some are sourced from the dealers. (533) WE BOUGHT A CRASH DAMAGED SALVAGE 2021 MERCEDES A220 - YouTube

I think that a lot of the problem can be summarised as:- 1. There are to many various companies involved in the claims / repair dep't, each and everyone is looking to make a handsome profit., there is the accident handling companies who handle the claims procedures and the issuing of hired replacement vehicles and the appointing of a firm of automobile assessors to assess the damage. 2. The appointed assessors do not now go and stand in front of the vehicle, instead they look at photos of the damage and the repairers quote and then use a computerised programme to estimate what parts are required at full cost regardless of the fact that the damaged part will more then likely have dents pulled/tapped out and then get a thin skim of filler, but will still allow for new panels, and painting, knowing full well they are seldom going to be ordered or fitted. Even the repairer will be looking to make a handsome profit, and some will even be looking to fit second-hand parts whenever possible. I don't think this whole business model is morally corrupt and yet, I was told by the the third parties insurance when their driver wrote my car off, that I, the innocent party had a legal and moral duty to assist in keeping the overall costs as low as possible. They offered my a final settlement figure of £8,200 for my car and thought that I could find a another car of the same type and condition that mine was for that value, WTF, they were being listed for around the £11,000 mark.

Mine has been increased, even though I have a smaller engine than on my old Superb, or I will have when I collect it on Thursday, some 4.5 weeks after I first put a deposit on it, held up waiting for a replacement headlight from the factory.

What's the problem with cream leather then? I like it, it makes the interior feel even bigger, more airy and inviting I think, black is just so drab and uninviting. Only issue the way I see is that it does need cleaning more often then black. In the summer, it also helps to keep the heat build up down if parked in the sun, whereas black just soaks up the heat. My last Superb was also cream interior with cream leather.

Thing is, it being sold by a Skoda, just a car dealer who understands Skoda, and it isn't a premium price, but a fair price.

Isn't that going to appear as nit-picking, expecting a 2nd hand car to as good as new? It is functioning OK as far as I can recall.

Wow, that really makes a big difference, I had the same issues with mine and was planning on doing something similar, that was pre accident of course. Did you do all the pillars? You mentioned doing the C pillar, which I always thought was the back door one, the one you show is, unless I'm mistaken, the B pillar.👍

Just noticed, looking at photos of my new car (hopeful of collecting it next Thursday) and I noticed that the left control knob of the ventilation seems to missing the chrome ring, although I never noticed this when viewing the car or when test-driving it, so the problem may have already been addressed. How difficult is this to fix? Can the knob be replaced on its own, or is it that the entire control or the panel has to be replaced? I'm reluctant to flag this up to the dealer if it is something that I can do easily enough myself, as they have already brought several new parts, for the car that they noticed themselves while preparing the car for collection, i.e., new headlight unit, headlight washer cover plate, new rear light assembly to name a few bits they detected during their preparation process, so it might be that this has already been picked up and rectified?

Great, some photos would be nice so we can see the results.

Update on the car, it is being collected today by Copart UK Ltd and will no doubt be appearing in one of their online actions before long and with any luck, the buyer who was going to buy it from me might be able to obtain it for less than the salvage value placed on it by the insurance company, (he is a fellow member here), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you. I'd like it to go to someone with the skills to repair and then enjoy it, as the car has been a good one for me and has been in my possession from day 1. Seeing as I paid extra for the full sized spare wheel and jack etc, (I hate the aerosol tyre repair kits), I have removed that in the hope that it will fit the Mk3 B8 when I get it (soon, I hope, it is supposed to be just waiting for a full valet before handing it over), does anyone actually know if the wheels are interchangeable between MK2 and MK3 models? I have also now swapped the battery over for another as the battery I replaced in Nov last year for a nice new £200 AGM start/stop one, and I think that the one on the MK3 is the original still. Lastly, as a memento of the car, I kept the umbrella as it had never been used and still has the Škoda tag attached, I doubt that it will be any use with the MK3 as they have IIRC square handles to fit into the storage space in the front doors. All the full service history etc, including tyre receipts and their guarantees, have been popped into the glovebox along with the full owner's manual etc.

Well surprise, no such email has been received today, so I'm still no further ahead and the buyer that I had lined to take the old car away to rebuild it, now has said wishes to buy it because they have also revalued my old car at approx 2.5 times the previous valuation, so thank you 😠 to the driver who started this entire chain of events of in the first place by his silly U turn.

Can't control the amps, it is a 4amp charger and the only thing that can control the amps is the BEMF of the battery itself which as the voltage rises, reduces the current down to 1.1amps, a little more than a trickle charge, but I think the battery hold up for the purposes of getting the car loaded onto the transporter OK as it held 12.5V overnight without being on charge, so although it did prove unreliable in normal service, it should be OK for what I need. I'll only fit the battery on the day that are going to collect the car so the ECU's don't drain it too much.

Yep, if you look long enough you can always find differing information on the internet, the information I saw came from a battery manufacturer, but either way, I'm fine with the standard battery charger as the car does not stand around long enough to drain the battery, it is in use almost daily, so it receives regular top-ups. If it was not being used for extended periods of time then it would benefit from a battery maintainer or slow trickle charger which will charge a few milliamps just to keep it topped up and feed the onboard ECU's.

Thanks for the input, I was asking because I needed to make a quick decision about whether I purchase a new but second-hand battery charger for normal batteries (£15 on Gumtree) still sealed in its box, or to get a second-hand battery. The cheapest price from a scrapyard for a battery was £40, decision made, charger it was then. Checking, like you said on the internet, did eventually reveal that a AGM battery should only be charged to a maximum voltage of 14.4V otherwise there is a real risk of overheating the battery and possibly exploding as a result, unlikely but possible all the same. Normal batteries are charged upto 14.8V, and the chargers designed specifically for AGM type batteries (Start/Stop) are intelligent and cut off the charging once the battery voltage reaches the 14.4V but they are almost double the price of normal chargers. Opening up the charger reveals an adjustment potentiometer in the circuit that I think will allow me to tweak the charger to stop charging once the back EMF reaches 14.4V anyway, so getting myself an intelligent charger on the cheap for future use. The battery is on charge and seems to be responding nicely, rising from 8V upto 13.9V now and the battery is nice and cold so no sign of it getting warm, let alone overheating. I'm keeping an eye on it every 90 minutes so will be able to detect any appreciable temperature rise before damage is done. I'm confident now that I can use this battery to start the car if I leave it on charge until just before Copart come to collect it on their transporter, that it will start the engine, I can always give it boost with jump leads from the saved battery if needed.

Update time, it transpired that the claim was originally being handled by a crash management company who appointed a firm of assessors who valued the car at just £8,500 😒. Anyone know where you could buy a L&K Superb (63 plate) fully loaded with just 79,000 miles and FSH, in good condition for the same kind of money? I couldn't get anything less than £10,500 for the same year, and almost double the miles, and no history, so I rejected the valuation. The management company passed it back to my insurance company to handle, who got their assessors to look at the claim, and they came back with an identical offer, which I again rejected. After a long chat with the assessor on the phone, and providing him with 3 example listings from Autotrader (dealers only) for estate cars, in Elegance trim for around the £10,000 mark, with no history, no cam belt or water pump being done, and the dealers would not even throw that into the deal, and Mk3 L&K, 3 years younger but 137,000 miles, with service history and cam belt, water pump along with DSG service already done by the dealer for £10,500. The assessor kept going away and calling me back asking more questions, it transpired that they were under the impression that my L&K was an entry level model and not a L&K and then claimed that I was looking at models with a higher spec level. Once we got that sorted out, he went away again and done some research and then called me back and admitted that it has been an eye-opener just how good the L&K car was and how they are fairly rare on the used market they are and that are dearer, so after a bit of haggling he offered a better deal of £10,000, which I accepted. All I have to do now is wait for the email and the money to come through. I had already put a deposit on the Mk3, which although was more, my own car was due to have its 2nd cam belt and water pump change in 3 costing around £600+ for that. So I have a 3 year newer, MK3, 150HP,FSH car, less the TV tuner, but plus the tri zone A/C, adaptive cruise control and lane assist with blind spot detection and what I always wanted, dynamic chassis control, which because of its registration date only cost £35 in road tax, saving £145 a year. Now all I have to do is wait for a replacement headlamp to arrive from Škoda and be fitted before I can go and collect the car. So beware you other L&K owners, if you are unfortunate enough to be in an accident, especially if it was not your fault, make it absolutely clear to everyone that your car is a L&K version, top of the range and not a basic model otherwise you stand zero chance of getting another without putting your hand in your pocket to add to the pathetic settlement they offer. It still smarts when I see my old car outside the house, I've had it from new, and I know its complete history, but hey ho, that's life.

I'm inclined to agree with you, if there was the incorrect of gas recharged, then it would have been making those noises from December.

I have an old battery in the garage which is old, and I have a new battery on my banged up car which looks likely to end up going for scrap but has a new battery, only 7 months old, which I'd like to swap out for the older one (if it accepts a charge) so that I can fit the 7-month-old one into my new car when it's ready for collection from the dealer who is currently addressing a few points as agreed before he'll release the car to me. The new car has what appears to be an older battery and damp on the top (might just be water if they jetted the engine bay) which could indicate a battery problem. Chances are that the old car might be taken away before I can collect the car so I need to source a battery charger or a 2nd hand battery before that happens.

Hmm, this is fascinating indeed, the concept of introducing digital speedos in cars was to prevent unscrupulous sellers/dealers removing miles from the car's history? It seems Police forces are openly breaking the law and also turning a blind eye to the now widespread practise of winding the mileage back, especially on emergency vehicles as they don't get MOT'd whole they are in service, that is only a requirement in the civilian world. Does the same practise go in the armed forces I wonder, it needs stamping out and if the presenter of this video is to be believed, and I think he should as he has clear evidence of this, it also shows that the main stream media is also biased. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEryJeBcg-8

Yes, I know that can be done, I follow the Salvage Rebuilds channel and they often have to get a locksmith to come to them and cut and programme keys for some of their vehicles, as can be seen in this video. But I would think that if someone tools up with the required kit, they are not going to be looking at Skoda's, their value is not worth the risk involved, as you said, they are professional and after a far bigger payback. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKGhBERjfi0