I emailed Škoda customer services earlier this week to enquire if my vRS (built this week) would have the Amudsen or Amundsen+ head unit and whether it would be possible to add DAB. I was called back and spoke to the legendary John who tells me that the new Amudsen unit is the only model in the range the has DAB built in. Result.

I know that the government is asking car manufacturers to make sure that their cars support DAB before the analogue switch off in 2015 but was surprised to hear about Škoda adopting DAB so quickly and not charging for it.

I admit I am still a bit sceptical but I should be able to confirm this within the next few weeks when my car arrives.

My new Superb SE Plus has got the new Amundsen+ in it, no built in DAB though. Or is there an Amundsen ++ due out?

The DAB applies to the rest of europe only, since they use a much more modern system. Our system dating back to the 1980s is not compatible with this, so unless Skoda develop something for the UK market only then we are still out of luck.

You can do a youtube search and see the DAB+ functionality of the amundsen in action.

With VW and SEAT now offering DAB on their respective versions of the unit I was hoping it may be an option from Škoda as well. The Leon Copa SE has it as standard. Presumably the DAB+ chipset the VAG group use is backwardly compatible with the older DAB standard.

I may wait to see what the new Zenec models are like in and replace the Amundsen with one of them.