Apologies in advance for what may be considered by some to be daft questions but I’ve searched both this forum and the wider web for answers without much luck. I’ve even resorted to consulting the manual (although only briefly as I found it quite often confusing).

 

I have a dsg petrol Octy 3 vrs estate, an ex-demonstrator which I bought in November last year from my local Skoda dealer.

 

Questions:

1. My vehicle doesn’t seem to have a sound generator or, if it does, it doesn’t seem to be generating anything audible to my ears even with every driving setting I can find set to “Sport”. I think I read somewhere on here that the demonstrator vehicles weren’t equipped with sound generators and I’m curious to know why. Personally, I find the idea of having a car fitted with a “sound generator” more than a tad embarrassing and would be glad to find out that my vehicle is not fitted with one. Although if I find out that one is fitted but is broken I shall be annoyed! So, I’d be very grateful if anyone could shed any light on this.

 

2. I can’t turn my rotary main light switch anticlockwise (or clockwise the long way round…) to either the front fog light or rear fog light positions marked by their respective symbols at 10 o’clockish on the bezel. However, I can turn the fog lights on by pulling the light switch out either one or two detent positions and after doing this I get corresponding illuminated warning symbols appearing in the main dash display. So why are these symbols also on the bezel? They don’t appear to do anything and anyway I can’t seem to select them…

 

Also, my side light symbol on the main light rotary switch bezel glows bright green seemingly anytime I have the switch set to “Auto”, even when the main headlamps are on. When the headlamps are on I’d expect the headlamp symbol on the bezel to illuminate also/instead but alas it doesn’t. In a nutshell, I’d like to be able to see at a glance what lighting configuration the Auto system has selected for me so that I can override it if I wish. But my experience so far is that if I set the switch to auto then I don’t know from my instruments what the system’s selected; not good. I have to resort to actually looking out of the windscreen to find out! Obvious at night but not so apparent during the day.

I’ve got a nagging feeling that I’m overlooking something blindingly (sorry) obvious here but there we go; I’m genuinely stumped by this at the moment. Btw the car has the self-levelling xenon headlamps fitted but doesn’t, afaik, have the optional “headlight assist” (or similar sounding term) kit fitted.

 

3. The rear seat base cushion in my vrs doesn’t seem to be secured very well. I can get hold of the base at its front edge and just pull it upwards quite a few inches. A couple of little u shaped bent pieces of wire locate the base in the horizontal plane but there’s nothing to secure it vertically. Not a problem when someone’s sitting on it of course but it’s easy to get the thing permanently slightly out of position. I wonder if there’s some other locating/securing device that either I’m not engaging or which is defective in my vrs?

Any help with the above issues would be greatly appreciated.

 

I think it’s a testament to the car that the above are the only niggles I can find in over 1000 miles/3 months of ownership. It’s a fabulous car in my opinion and I find myself almost always actually looking forward to driving it. I haven’t had that feeling since my motorcycling days! Bravo Skoda!

Edited 23 February, 201412 yr by Howardd

For the lights...

 

You pull one notch to turn the front fogs on and then pull again to turn on front and rear. The symbols are there to signify this - you should not be able to turn the knob to point at the symbol with the arrow - only to Off-Auto-Side-Dipped. So what you explained is normal functionality.

On some cars with the same setup there is an arrow with 2 lines underneath it to make it a little more obvious, but either way - now you know

 

For the indication on if the lights are on...

If the dash is backlit, the light are on, if not, only the DRLs are. The dipped symbol oddly doesn't light up, I agree it would be nice as an indicator of if the dipped lights are on. Its the same on VW/Audi etc as well.

You should have the option in the settings to set the lights to early-medium-late. If you set to early then the dipped lights are on all the time other than a bright sunny day, all it takes is an overcast day for it to decide it's dark enough for the dipped lights. If you set to late the lights come on about when I expect to be doing it manually, so just as dusk starts to arrive, or on a dark miserable day. If you are worried about being seen, set it to medium or early - personally I have it late as I like the DRLs on as long as possible as they look cool (and actually this means from the front at least you can be seen easily anyway). I've NEVER felt the need to override the setting, so my advice is not to worry about it.

 

The other option is to get access to someone with VCDS, they can enable the rear lights to be on as part of the DRLs - so then there are only 2 modes when the lights are set to Auto;

1. Front DRLs and rear lights on

2. Dipped and rear lights on

This way front and rear you will always be seen.

Edited 23 February, 201412 yr by josedebardi

If you have the lights set to Auto then they're off is the sidelight symbol is off or if the symbol is lit then they're on dipped, Auto lights cannot turn sidelights on.

I bought a diesel VRS DSG estate in November which was also a demonstrator. Mine has the sound generator. It's awesome.

It's dreadful more like. I let people hear it as part if the 'why did they fit this, the most pointless item ever' discussion

Demonstrator I drove did not have sound generator.  IIRC, this was only fitted to cars built AFTER Q2 2013....

 Personally, I find the idea of having a car fitted with a “sound generator” more than a tad embarrassing and would be glad to find out that my vehicle is not fitted with one. Although if I find out that one is fitted but is broken I shall be annoyed!

 

 

Eh?

 

This reminds me of the old joke about 2 old women eating in a restaurant. One says, 'Isn't the food terrible here' and her friend replies 'Yes, and such small portions!'

I bought a diesel VRS DSG estate in November which was also a demonstrator. Mine has the sound generator. It's awesome.

 

 

Demonstrator I drove did not have sound generator.  IIRC, this was only fitted to cars built AFTER Q2 2013....

My petrol vRS was registered in July last year and does not have the sound machine - thank goodness Sounds as if the Q2 break-point is correct then.

Thanks for all the advice & comments folks, special thanks to Jose for some really illuminating info. on the lighting settings. And I'm v pleased too to find out that my vRS probably does not have the sound generator fitted, rather than a defective one fitted...

 

Now, if  a fellow vRS owner would just  be kind enough to report on how (in)secure they find their rear seat base to be I'd be very grateful.

Hi,

I can report the rear seat base of my vRS is on solid.

My rear seat base doesn't budge one bit.

I have seen an early ex-demo diesel vRS without a Sound Generator, but not a petrol one.

I have seen an early ex-demo diesel vRS without a Sound Generator, but not a petrol one.

I test drove a 11 plate vRS petrol estate which didn't have a sound generator.

Thanks for all the advice & comments folks, special thanks to Jose for some really illuminating info. on the lighting settings. And I'm v pleased too to find out that my vRS probably does not have the sound generator fitted, rather than a defective one fitted...

 

Now, if  a fellow vRS owner would just  be kind enough to report on how (in)secure they find their rear seat base to be I'd be very grateful.

Could be like my Superbs seats, they lift at the front & then with some fiddling lift out at the back & fold forwards so the rear seat backs can lye flatter (when released) than they would with the lower seat bases in place.

 

I get my vRS end of next month, but would be curious to know if your seat bases do fold forward against the front seat backs.

Could be like my Superbs seats, they lift at the front & then with some fiddling lift out at the back & fold forwards so the rear seat backs can lye flatter (when released) than they would with the lower seat bases in place.

 

I get my vRS end of next month, but would be curious to know if your seat bases do fold forward against the front seat backs.

 

No the seat base doesn't lift (the mkII did) but the seat back to does lay pretty flat on it anyway.

Thanks again to everyone above for the useful pointers. I took the car in yesterday to the supplying Skoda dealer so that they could inspect the rear seat base. The service manager agreed immediately that there was a problem and despite much pushing and shoving (of the seat base!) couldn't get it to locate properly. So, he's ordering in some new seat attachment parts and has booked the car in for next week to sort it. The dealer's even offered to come out and pick up the car from (& return it to) my house. So far I'm very impressed. Hey, maybe I paid too much for it? (only joking)