Graham Butcher

What business do you know that will actively decline to take work on if it means that they don't have to recruit extra staff to do it. This was not the case pre Covid at all. Even driving tests are taking longer get one because of it.

That is a typo, it should read "lane", helps to keep the car in between the white lines.

It means the owner had a personlised number plate fitted and later on when they purchased another new car, transfered that plate to the new and the old car transferred back to its original number plate. It happens a lot, my neighbours do that all the time. I'm not that vain and can happy live with what ever plate the car has.

Exactly, it is a snapshot in time, when mine was due in april I it booked with 4 weeks grace incase anything needed to be done. After trying about 8 or 9 centres, the earliest I could get it done was days before it expired. Covid cost us all dearly and I think MOT is is looking at making inspection at 2 yearly intervals to catch up. Even emergency repairs here are taking up to 3 to 4 weeks before they can even look at them. 😳

Yeah TBH if it was a Skoda dealer selling the car then I'd expect them to do that but it's just a medium sized family run general car sales place. This was not the first one I'd had a look at, but this spec of car is rare, most are 7 seater, which is not what i need. If a dealer just hands you the keys says take it for a test, on your own, then they are confident about their car. The others have all hovered over me like hawks. That rings bells in my head when you know they are there all the time, what are they trying to hide from you?

All of that paper trail comes with the car and I have already had a look through it and it is pretty comprehensive and all is approved dealers. All of the errors and omissions can be equally applied to paperwork trails as well, in short the only real way to be 100% certain about anything is to carry out all the work for yourself and even then, if your are not a fully trained mechanic or expert then you can be just as royally screwed. Sometimes you have to place your trust in the hands of others.

Relax, the car is fine. Kodiaqs have variable servicing and becomes due when the service due message appears on the screen and it is also covered by the Skoda warranty as long as the car has had the services done by approved dealers and within the conditions required, which it has been. The MOT is fine, I have all the history and there was only 1 advisory, a small stone chip in the windscreen and is well out of the drivers line of vision and can be repaired by a small injection of resin I'm sure. I'm perfectly happy with the car only having 8 months MOT, most garages only guarantee that their cars come with at least 6 months, so its comfortably with that range, and my current car only has 10 months left with zero advisories. If I ask them to MOT it for me, they could in turn ask me to reciprocate and getting an MOT done round these parts requires a long waiting list as the test centres are still complaining about the back log of Covid. As I aim to collect the car this week on my way back from RIAT at RAF Fairford, which would make that impossible.

Update time on the new Kodiaq, my local servicing depot have kindly emailed the digital service history for the car and the last service was carried out at 80,000 miles, details below. They have also confirmed that the cambelt is due to be replaced at 130,000 miles, so still has 35,000 miles left to go, so deposit has been paid and hopefully I will be collecting the car later in the week. "Good morning, The latest timing belt recommendation for that specific engine is every 130,000 miles - I can't see any records of it having been replaced as of yet. I've also attached all the digital service records records to this email for you. Kind Regards, Kasey Nagle Service & Parts Advisor Prestons Garages Ltd, 2-4 Lordship Road, Writtle, CM1 3EH 01245 420262"

Thanks, I downloaded all of these and it basically says the same as the info that @Ootohere linked to earlier, 210,000km or 130,000 miles. So that means that I don't have to panic just yet, but factor it in the overall scheme within about 15 to 20,000 miles from now.

I'll wait and see if there are any online records and what is the recommendation of the local official repair agents about going forwards. I might just have to bite the bullet and go ahead with the replacement for my own peace of mind.

🤣🤣What is with the alternator then, wizard of Oz?🤣🤣🤣

That all seemed to a bit of a faff, there are better ways of spending time.

This post and one other that stated that there was a time limit of 15 years, seems to have left this thread largely unanswered with no definitive solution confirmed as to when when a cambelt of a TDI Kodiaq should be routinely replaced along with the water pump. Does anyone have documented evidence from Skoda/VW that either confirms the alleged 1st July 2023 claim of 140,000 miles? I'm about to finalise a deal on a 6 year old car with 95,000 miles on it and I currently cannot confirm the cambelt status, so naturally I'm concerned.

Update time, I think I have located a good one, albeit has done 95,000 miles, 1 owner, had a private plate fitted and then removed and reverted to its original plates, but as the service history is now on line only, I have requested the details (above) from my local service Skoda centre. It has all the niceties that I was looking for heated seats in the front at least, leather seats, blind spot monitoring, ACC, Land departure, front and rear parking sensers, electric front seats, full LED matrix headlights with the AFS and and automatic blanking of beam to prevent blinding other drivers etc etc and the real added bonus is that it also has the virtual cockpit and also the almost none existent these days, space saver wheel and jack instead of the aerosol kit you get these days, none of which was mentioned in the advert, so that's pretty good, a bonus and a good price too. Did a car vertical report on the car, no issues highlighted there and suggests that the average price for the car of that age is around £21,000. The only issue I could detect during the test drive was the air con needs recharging or something, which is being addressed and the big issue was could another 1.9m tall person comfortable sit behind me when I have drivers seat back as far as it can go, and that, in the 5 seater version is a resounding success with a couple of inches to spare. Just need to get to the bottom of the cambelt and water pump position now, but at the moment it would seem as if all the stars are all lining up in a row for me 👍

Emailed my local Skoda service centre with the VIN and asked if they could pull up the digital records for me so we can tell if the belt has been done, or inspected etc.

And that in itself just reinforces @Ootohere point about the social divide. Many are unable to even manage to charge one EV let alone 2 or 3 even. That once again, at least to me, just reinforces the point that the national grid is already struggling to meet the power demands for all increased public chargers being installed, especially for all the really high power super quick chargers that claim it is possible to stuff a couple of hundred miles of range into your car in around 10 mins in an attempt to try and rival the speed of which you can add around 400 miles plus to an ICE car in 5 minutes or less. Those really greedy bar stewards attempting to take cheap lecky in bulk to charge their growing collection of EVs, as well as topping up home battery storage systems for days when the sun don't shine much, will end up possibly blowing the supply 80A fuse and then will have to pay for someone to come out and replace their main fuse again in the meantime they may have no power until they can get the main fuse replaced again, at an exorbitant price.

The car does actually have the digi dash as well, thinking seriously about getting it, drives really well.

Knew that Hammond was not going to do the run after the Rimac crash he had, can't say I blame him either.

I was not suggesting that, but some people claim BEVs are less complicated and @lol-lol was saying that hybrids are more complicated, which is true as he said.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that a BEV is less complicated, because it isn't. It simply has less moving parts, but many thousands more parts to make the car actually move and control it. It's just a different type of complication which will manifest itself in the fullness of time.

True, but I did get electric front seats with memory (assuming they are working), heated and folding mirrors, would have liked to have the ambient interior lighting pack that the Superb has and going from the build sheets, it has headlamp washers, washer fluid level, start/stop with regenerative braking, heated front seats, so not too shabby. I like the idea of a digi dash, but sure how reliable they are long term.

It might well do that, as it seems that the Sportage engines are having some serious problems and Kia are trying to cover it up but Geoff buys Cars has found out about and I have done digging on the web sites and it is all true.

I too have DCC on my Superb and I can honestly say that I certainly have not ever noticed that effect with it. I can certainly hear and feel the speed bumps and of course potholes, so maybe mine is not working correctly. It has had 2 new DCC shocks fitted at the front and a new spring. It is a soft ride ride though compared to my an Audi. I'll find out tomorrow how it compares to the Kodiaq. Just done a Car Vertical report on it and it comes with a raft of extras that the garage seems to unaware off, like lane departure, blind spot, footwell lighting, front parking senors, space saver wheel and not a repair kit and also according to the build records, an electric auxiliary heater, and it is a 4x4 but car was ordered debadged and cream leather instead of black as the brochure states.

You can't beat a bit of comfort, there must be a gulf of difference between your mini and your BMW?

Actually found a Kodiaq, petrol SE auto 5 seater today and had a look at it, very basic car, manual seats, etc but it did have heated front seats. However the ease of getting in and out was far better than the Superb, and I could actually sit behind myself without my knees touching the drivers seat, excellent. Not had drive of one as yet, as I really value the input of the family into how they perceive the ride quality etc. Still really would prefer a diesel for the extra torque and one with a few more bells and whistles, so for now I'll have to continue looking around.