Hi all,

I am a person who drives in France at least twice a year on relatively long journeys, and I must say that I dislike the fact that Skoda has removed the second dial corresponding to speeds in kilometres per hour, in favour of a single small area in the instrument panel / maxidot trip computer to display the current speed in km/h.

Ideally I would like to be able to see the current vehicle speed in km/h on the main speedometer dial (alongside the mph), and if this is not possible, I would like to ask a specialist garage to do a firmware update on the maxidot trip computer so as to be able to set the vehicle warning speed to a value in km/h while driving in France, and / or in mph when driving in the UK. Although, in the UK it is less important as the speedometer shows the value in mph.

Currently it is only possible to set the warning speed limit in mph, and not in km/h. Well, I have not found a way of setting the speed limit in km/h yet, if someone knows how to do that I would be happy to learn.

The setup customisation options of the maxidot trip computer only allow the changing of the units for the consumption (e.g. mpg or litres/100km etcetera), but nothing about allowing the warning speed to be set in km/h.

Would one of those garages that perform engine tweaks do such modifications?

I have not asked this question to my local Skoda dealer yet, as I am almost certain that they will refuse to do so. I will contact them next weekend to find out.

Why all this fuss? Well because the speed in km/h is located in a point that one needs to concentrate to look at, which is not ideal when driving as it means that full attention cannot made to driving and the surrounding, and one could overlook something important when driving on the continent. Another reason for this has to do with the fact that in France, as of last month, all warning signs in advance of speed radars on express roads are being removed (there will be replacement “informative radar†set in the near future at shorter distances), but it is likely that at some points / currently no speed radar warning signs will be available. This was announced on the French news on 24/05/2011.

If anyone knows of where such tweak could be applied professionally, I would be most grateful if they could let me know.

If you need warning in KMH, change units in settings to metric when on the continent and back when in the UK.

You should seek out a VCDS expert-there are many possibilities some of which are not known to Skoda techies. If you search "Australia" you will see a large maxidot speed display option is achievable by re-coding as an australian model which gives a choice of KPH/MPH.

Done it for you! Try this thread it explains it rather well.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/201776-speedometer/page__p__2392926__hl__australia__fromsearch__1#entry2392926

Funny how people vary, isn't it?

I've just come back from 2 weeks in France and actually found the KPH reading in the centre of the display actually easier to use than the old method of a second set of figures (normally tiny) in the speedo.

I find that I use the kmh as subsitute for not having 30 and 50 mph on the speedo. Just look for 50 and 80 kph.

Andy

I find that I use the kmh as subsitute for not having 30 and 50 mph on the speedo. Just look for 50 and 80 kph.

Andy

I'm the same!

Really can't see the problem with the way it is all laid out.