Graham Butcher

Err, I don't think that is the reason, so far I have had Superbs for the last 19 years, that equates to 4 brand-new ones as company cars, the last of which I purchased when I retired. Now the point is that each one of those came with darkened back windows as standard, now I have never been a cabbie and neither did specify tinted windows at the ordering stages, so I'm, lead to believe that the tinting must therefore be a standard feature? Now this one could be my 5th Superb if things all work out OK, and as such I have done a car vertical check on I'm pleased to say that the report has come with nothing but green ticks for everything so it should be a good car and the report clearly states that it has never been as a taxi, or any form of public transport, nor a police car or any other emergency vehicle, so I don't see why the chrome trim is black in these areas. I think you may be right in that it could be a wrap, certainly that's what I'm hoping for anyway. I asked in case it was an option with the MK III that you could possibly order it new with that trim level, seeing as my experience is limited to MK 1, Mk 2 and the Mk2 facelifted models. I'm keeping fingers crossed on being able to have it as all chrome trim anyway.

That is what I thought, both rear doors are the same and the front doors upper trim is also black when its meant to be chrome, although its listed for sale, there is no mention of it being in an accident at all? Surely this must affect its resale value? What about the wheel trims, they look like fan blades, ie., twisted to my mind, so that the N/S ones are streamlined and the O/S would have the affect of slicing through the air when the car is rolling forwards and the opposite way round when reversing?

Is this door trim correct? Seen this MK III with what I think is odd exterior trim on the window/door, chrome on the window bottom of the front doors, black on the upper portions of the front doors and all black on the rear doors. Its something I never really took much notice off before, but now its caught my imagination since I have actively looking for a new car.

Has anyone here got a Mk 3 Superb 2.0l TDI SE L Executive trim level car and can tell me what it comes with kit wise, such as lane assist etc, at all please?

I got another estimate to repair it which was £7,600 with labour included. Stupid money when you stop and think that although they quote for new panels, the chances of them actually using new ones is very unlikely. I've seen how many of these body shops work before, they will firstly try to panel beat the dents out and then apply a very thin layer of filler to fill in any low spots. I watch lots of salvage YT channels where they do just that. Sometimes they buy sections of a wrecked car from a breakers' yard, remove the panel or cut off part of a panel that they need and weld it in. The finished job is pure perfection, and nobody would ever be able to tell the difference. The one, where my car currently sits awaiting its final decision, has extremely plush offices, so that's always a good indication of the amount of money they are making from insurance claims. It is a rip-off really and that just makes the premiums so high and that is how the world is going these days, gone are the days when companies were content with enough profit to cover their overheads and a small profit for themselves.

Do all superbs have the extra wiring looms installed to all the TV tuner from and L&K to be fitted in an elegance for example?

Does anyone know the cost of a cambelt change on a mk III 110kw diesel please? I seem to recall the cost on a mk II 125kw diesel being in the £400 area, but I have no idea if this carries over to the newer models or what?

Thanks for these links, the first two, I have discounted them on the grounds of being the older model, pre face lift, and they will also the older, less efficient engines and also not as green. The last one, I did go see and while it was certainly in reasonable condition, I also discounted it on the grounds it was a manual and I have rather large feet and if I put my left foot on the foot rest on a decent journey and then go to operate the clutch, I find that my foot gets caught under the clutch pedal and I have to force it past the pedal before I can depress the clutch. I consider that a bad situation and decided that it could possibly lead to an accident, therefore require a DSG. I tried out a new MKIII superb manual and the same issue, and during a test drive I was acutely aware of it and decided that a new MKIII superb was no better in that regard. Looking around a bit more it will be a miracle if I find a L&K with a DSG, in reasonable condition and at a sensible price that is not a preface lift model, So now I'm pretty much resigned to go for non L&K, DSG MKIII model as that get me a younger car and with the adblue it means that it will be exempt from the ULEZ charge. This incidently is the reason why the owner is selling the last of the links above, his daily journey takes him from Romford out onto the M25 and will cost £s a week extra to get to work. So yes, I'll miss the extra toys the L&K has, but many of them were used by others, not me, the main one I used as a driver was the cooled seat function, so not a real hardship, just wack the aircon down a notch or two.

Yeah, I have been down that avenue before, trouble is that I'm a large bloke, and tall, as are my 3 sons. I struggle to fit in most cars these days as although cars are bigger externally, that does not transfer to the interior, I expect the increased girth is more because of the need to accommodate protection beams etc. I have a sized 14 foot and extra wide so my feet also don't like manual cars as the pedal areas are extremely tight in space for my feet.

I find myself looking for a new car following a no fault of mine car accident. The only cars I can so far find anywhere what I can afford from the write-off payment, even with another £4k from my savings chucked in, are all in what I call high mileage examples, 100,000 plus, sometimes upto 170,000miles and very few are even L&K's, most are SE's, Greenlines or Elegances, so it looks unlikely that I'm going to get another L&K, thanks to the other drivers action. What are your views on these cars, are they OK to buy, they are certainly are expensive.

Sorry everyone, I'm unable to provide an update to this thread due to me no longer having this car courtesy of someone who thought they would indicate to turn left and then use that to do effect a "U" turn across my front without checking the road was clear. His insurance company have decided that the cost of repair to my car is not worth it and wrote it off. It is a scam, I would have expected in a case of the fault being 100% the other drivers, that they should be prepared to pay out the amount it would cost to replace like with like in a similar condition and age. Instead, I'm having to either accept a car of much lower spec, age and condition or chuck in a few more grand out of my pocket to get back to where I was a second before the loon pulled in front of me, how is that fair? So far I have been all other the place looking at other superbs, costing even another £4k more with lower specs, even greenline models, and nothing so far has been in the condition of mine, I'm getting so hacked off by this, the consumer is being ripped off by big business once again. I had a look at another LK today, the dealer was looking for £11K for it, claimed it was already prepared for sale, with cuts tyre walls, brakes that were grumbling just rolling (not surface rust as he claimed), and the slightest touch on the pedal and the car stood on its nose almost, steering was like that on a tractor, very heavy, rode like in had solid tyres and it was 100% impossible to open the bonnet and taking a closer look it had been knocked by the badge, large paint chip missing, bare metal and bonnet had been pushed over. Had they done their due diligence and serviced the car, checked the oil levels etc, they would have discovered it. Many of the cars I had earmarked for testing failed the basic car checks, missing history, outstanding finance or had been write-offs and not disclosed, and other have clearly been taxis and airport cars with mileages, double or treble mine, in the 150,000 or more brackets.👎 Does anyone know how I can mark this thread at being solved etc? I keep getting sent emails asking me if the problem with the spiders has been solved and if yes, please do this.Help others by going to the topic and use the 'Mark as Solution’ button on the post with the best answer But I cannot see any such button??

Pete, you're welcome, good service etc should always be highlighted, so you deserved it. As the car, I'm now almost resigned to downgrading to something like the newer model greenlines, fewer toys of course but when you have a completely different car, you may not notice it so much, and you can always console yourself with the knowledge that the tyres, road tax will far less of an expense and there is the potential to get around the 1,000 miles to a tank of fuel and still enjoy the space and ride comfort of a superb. Of course, I'll have to add extra money to the write-off payment, but with the added fuel economy it could be repaid in year or two?

Recently purchased a used VCDS from Breezy_Pete, smooth as silk transaction, thanks Pete, you did me proud, just a shame within a couple of days of finally getting hands on my own VCDS, some clown decides to a do a U turn in front of me and in the process write my car off. ☹️ Now I'm really struggling to find a suitable replacement, which sadly I very much doubt is going to be a L&K. So far all the sensible cars, 2014/2015 have all been high milers, ex taxi's I think or private sellers with dodgy service history/outstanding finance etc when doing a car check.🤨.

My son discovered this company who specialise in these no-fault accident repairs that would have resulted in perfectly good cars being scrapped and can also advise on how to mount an effective challenge on write-off valuations, so I feel a phone call coming on in the morning. https://www.carmagic.co.uk/non-fault-accidents/

Yes. I did think about that, I have a price, but then I have to arrange transportation for the car, its not allowed to be driven on the roads since they declared it a write-off. Then I have no where I can put the car in order to work on it, then I don't have all the required tools etc, and at 74 years old, I don't think I'm upto the job.

That does kind of make sense, but the problem is that being 6ft 4" tall and build like the old brick sh**house, there are not many cars that I can comfortably or safely fit in and add to that, I have a family of similar sized boys, that nobody can sit behind me as I need the seat as far back as it can go 😄. It also, I feel makes it far worse when it can be fixed, its a cat N, cosmetic only and when you combine that with the fact that there was only 16 of those sold in the UK, and still technically 16 left on the road, some have been in accidents and taken off the road for repairs and brought back on the road, it just highlights the importance of keeping such rare cars on the road for as long as the parts are plentiful, which they are, all the parts needed are the same as for almost all Superbs.

Nope, dealers wanted far more than the write-off payment, it was a small garage in Newark on Trent, this was the car, and it looks beautiful in the photos. I'm so annoyed that through no fault of mine, I now have to end up downgrading to not only a lower spec, older car but one with considerably more miles on the clock and totally unknown history. It makes zero sense to me that the innocent party in these events are made to suffer, especially when the parts for a car are still freely available, the damage is cosmetic and it most be extremely greener and kinder to the planet to repair mine then scrap it?

Time is running out before I have hand hire car back.

Non-starter, dealer said a person saw it yesterday and might come today, I told him I was coming today from Essex, he said OK, he would keep the car until I had seen it, got a quarter of the way, he calls to say the other person wants it and he was leaning towards them as they were locals, so we had to turn around and return home.😒

I might be going to look at a new car tomorrow and I have done a car check and everything so far about the car checks out OK. I know the engine number that was fitted at the factory. I would like to check it to make sure that it has not an undisclosed engine swap, so where on the engine can I find the number?

Yeah, I was told today that 7 days after I accept the offer, the hire car has to be returned. I think the offer is pretty reasonable as it seems it is possible to replace the car with something almost identical if I want to travel to Nottingham I can get a black L&K, with black trim instead of plastic wood, standard sunroof instead of a defunct solar sunroof for around the same money as the settlement and the car appears to be in almost pristine condition and is the same year. Or there is the other option of 1.6l TDI green line, a year newer, but manual with lower specs but the same colour at the same price. I'll do a check on the L&K first to see if it has been stolen or involved in an accident etc and take it from there.

Bad news, following my shunt last week when someone decided to suddenly do a U turn right in front of me causing a 19mph impact, no airbags went off and zero injuries, the insurers repair agents have just phoned me to inform me that the insurance company deemed it a total loss last Thursday and the repairers wanted to know when I was going to collect my stuff from the car. The insurance company have yet to contact me about this, seeing as this is my first time in this position, is this normal behaviour, surely I would have expected the insurers to be informing me of this and telling how much they value the car at, how quick will I get the payment and what my options are etc. I really doubt that the car is that badly damaged, it all seems to be panel damage to me. Any thoughts or ideas?

Not if you weren't paying proper attention and was straying unintentionally into another lane and risking an accident. The assist in this case is going to be attempting to return you back into the lane that you're about to leave by accident.

In that case, it certainly seems to be better than that fitted in my hire car, I can't wait till I get my Superb back from the body shop.

Hmm, but that is not going to be much use unless you are actually looking at the dashboard at the time is it?