What a brilliant car! It's totally surpassed all expectations.

 

Can't fault it one bit so far.

 

A few quick photos which aren't great as the weather was rubbish.

 

Nice color dstev2000. L&k version right ?

Yep, L&K in Petrol blue with the optional 19" alloys 

Is just the sky reflection or do new Superb has IR resistant front window now?

Heated front screen. Latest ones use a metal layer rather than buried wires. No more starry headlight effects

Edited 1 March, 201610 yr by FelisBengalensis

Looks cracking mate! Sorry I didn't reply to you on my thread earlier, it's my daughter's 1st birthday today so we've been out. The colour looks amazing on the estate, I'm glad we ordered it on our hatch now. How you finding the engine?

Very tasty! If I was buying rather than leasing, I'd have splashed out on some nicer hubs...

Looks cracking mate! Sorry I didn't reply to you on my thread earlier, it's my daughter's 1st birthday today so we've been out. The colour looks amazing on the estate, I'm glad we ordered it on our hatch now. How you finding the engine?

No need to apologise 

 

The pictures can't - and don't - do the colour justice. It's definitely a colour best appreciated in person. 

 

The engine is still very tight (had 4 miles on the clock when I drove away from the dealership) but feels like it has plenty of potential. 

 

Naturally I won't be pushing it for a while yet but the whole car feels bloody amazing. Such a huge step forward from the Mk2. 

 

I'm taking it into London tomorrow so that will be a good test of the car in general. 

 

I've already been out with my laptop to enable traffic sign recognition and just have a mess about with the settings - of which there are many!

Is just the sky reflection or do new Superb has IR resistant front window now?

You wouldn't know it had a heated screen with the new 'wireless' type.

 

The brochure also states it is a heat repelling screen as well. 

Yep, L&K in Petrol blue with the optional 19" alloys 

Damn! I wish I'd gone for the 19s now, looks great.

Something interesting I noticed when sifting through the menus on the Columbus: There's an option to allow the load cover to open automatically with the electric boot I thought that was an option! I checked the tick box to enable it and it worked. Every time the boot opens, the load cover retracts halfway. 

Full retraction is the option.

Full retraction is the option.

Interesting as there are only two little plastic latches stopping it from retracting fully. My Mk2 was the same without the auto release with the tailgate. I actually took out the two half latches as they were just bloody irritating. 

 

Unless the optional one is an electrically retracting cover or something. The brochure doesn't go into any detail about it. 

 

If I remove them i'll have a fully retracting auto load cover. 

What a brilliant car! It's totally surpassed all expectations.

 

Can't fault it one bit so far.

 

A few quick photos which aren't great as the weather was rubbish.

 

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it looks so good I hope you have years of pleasure. Safe motoring in a beautiful machine

Very tidy indeed. 

 

19s really work well on this new S3, glad I went for them too.

Looks really good! Great colour combo

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the positive replies about the colour combo and wheels. That part of the process was the most painstaking of all! 

 

The drive home from the dealership was a blur so I didn't really pay much attention to the car as much as I did today. 

 

I had to visit an ongoing project in West London (Kensington) today which was an ideal test for the car as it was lots of A roads, motorways and heavy traffic. 

 

I'll start with the negatives I have found so far: 

 

:: The seats could be a little more supportive for the taller people out there, I am 6'3" and I find the upper parts of my legs aren't supported too well. Other than that, they are nice and comfortable for longer journeys.

 

:: The steering wheel doesn't move out far enough. This is probably ok if you're below 6 feet tall. Any taller than this and the seat position means you are now a little further away from the wheel than desired. 

 

:: The coast mode on the DSG box can be a pain at times, when you lift off, you tend to rely on engine braking to lose a little speed when catching up with the car in front, especially on motorways and downhill sections of road. When the DSG box disengages in coast mode, you lose the engine braking and find yourself touching the brakes. 

 

:: I won't mention the missing 'headlights on' symbol that's missing from the dash.....

 

Other than this particular annoyance, the coast mode does seem to have a positive effect on fuel consumption. 

 

:: The LED strips on the dash could do with being much brighter during the day. They are more or less invisible in daylight. 

 

:: The KESSY touch sensors on the doors are a little hit and miss. Maybe I just need to work on my technique for caressing car door handles  :p

 

:: I don't like the smaller mirrors so much, the lack of convex tipped lenses makes them even worse. I'll no doubt get used to them though. 

 

:: The amount of noise in the cabin is a little higher than I was expecting. A little too much wind noise around the mirrors and B pillars. The tyres are a little wider than before (235 vs 225) which is never going to help. That aside, I was expecting noise levels to be noticeably better than the previous generation car. 

 

For the moment, that's about it for niggles and gripes. 

 

Now for the positives! 

 

:: The car looks great inside and out, it's been getting lots of looks and stares when sitting in traffic. 

 

:: The build quality is excellent, no squeaks or rattles thus far (early days!) and very little sign of penny pinching on interior plastics. Everything appears to be very well screwed together.

 

:: The DSG box is excellent. I am particularly surprised at how good it is in the traffic. It creeps like a traditional slush box automatic and isn't jerky or clumsy when pulling away. 

 

:: The Columbus unit is excellent all round in terms of visuals, responsiveness and usability. I haven't used it for navigation yet. 

 

:: The Canton sound system is first class. After a little tweaking of the settings it's a very good sounding system overall and is very underrated. I am surprised at the comments from people not being able to tell it from the stock setup. It has the ability to really shake the car when it's cranked up thanks to that sub in the boot which delivers a generous quantity of solid, tight bass. It's well worth the money as an upgrade IMO. 

 

:: The fuel consumption is better than expected at this stage. The car has only done around 200 miles. My reasonably gentle 120 mile journey in and out of London averaged an indicated 48.2mpg overall. That's not bad. 

 

:: The ACC is very useful if it's used properly. In Eco mode, I set it to the 'full Audi' distance so a huge gap doesn't open up between me and the car in front if they decide to speed up. 

Yes, it's slow to react in Eco mode but being that little bit closer makes it less of an issue along with prompt use of indicators when catching up with a slower vehicle up ahead. The ACC's traffic assist mode is pretty good as well. It scares the crap out of you the first few times and I can't help covering the brake pedal when it starts to bring the car to a halt!

 

:: The DCC system is good IMO. Nice and comfortable on the motorway in Comfort mode. Sport mode isn't far off the firm ride of my previous Superb on its Bilstein B6/Eibach combination, although the Mk3 does seem to be a little fidgety over certain surfaces. There is most definitely a noticeable difference in the ride across the different DCC settings.

 

:: The ventilated seats are worth having if your budget can stretch to it. I had them on for a while today before feeling too cold. That'll no doubt feel really nice on hot days. You can have ventilation and seat heating on at the same time which is nice on cold mornings. 

 

:: The traffic sign recognition works perfectly now it has been enabled (my thanks to the fine contributors of that particular thread!)

 

There are still plenty of things to mess about with on the car, and I'll do an update once i've racked up a decent amount of miles. I haven't put my data SIM in yet, or fitted the LED lamps I previously ordered. 

 

Overall, I am very very pleased with the car and it has surpassed my expectations in almost every way. Yes, there are a few disappointments but nowhere near enough to sour the overall experience. 

 

Is the car worth the money? I would say yes it is. 

 

Is the car good value for money? Yes it is, but perhaps not quite as much as previous generations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

:: The coast mode on the DSG box can be a pain at times, when you lift off, you tend to rely on engine braking to lose a little speed when catching up with the car in front, especially on motorways and downhill sections of road. When the DSG box disengages in coast mode, you lose the engine braking and find yourself touching the brakes. 

 

I really like the coast mode in ECO and having engine braking with it is easy.

 

If the last thing you did before taking your feet off the pedals was accelerate the car will coast and you will roll along until you lose momentum. If the last pedal you touched was the brake the engine stays connected and you have engine braking. So on a long gentle downhill where you may end up going too fast a quick touch on the brake pedal and release keeps the engine engaged and you have engine braking all the way down.

Excellent review Dstev2000. Welcome to the S3 club  I've had mine just under four weeks now and I still get a buzz from driving it. My only gripe is the slight body roll which I didn't have in my S2 Combi. Otherwise, totally excellent.

Excellent review Dstev2000. Welcome to the S3 club  I've had mine just under four weeks now and I still get a buzz from driving it. My only gripe is the slight body roll which I didn't have in my S2 Combi. Otherwise, totally excellent.

Thank you 

 

Another update.........

 

I did another drive into London today, left home at 5am which gave me a chance to test the smart light assist. Firstly, I was in ECO mode and the system doesn't appear to work fully in that mode, weirdly.

 

Once I stuck the car into Normal mode, the system sprang to life. I have to say, it's pretty impressive. I was following a car on the twisty section of the A24 between Horsham and Dorking and it did a pretty good job of keeping the vehicle out of the main beam.

 

Ok, it could do with being a little bit quicker responding to the sudden appearance of oncoming traffic but considering what it has to do, it's very clever and I like the feature very much. 

 

With regards to excessive wind noise, whilst sitting in traffic this morning I was just looking around the interior and I noticed the rubber seal between the glass and the door frame on the driver's side wasn't fitted correctly, or had been disturbed at some point. Once I opened the window and reseated the rubber seal, most of the wind noise I was experiencing had disappeared! 

 

Another gripe I've discovered is the windscreen washers - they are rubbish compared to the Mk2 Superb. Instead of a nice fine spray over the whole screen, it's sort of three weak jets of water from each nozzle. Not sure if that's normal or whether I've got iffy washers. Comments please? Am I right in saying this is a known issue? Particularly the driver's side? 

 

I got caught in some really bad traffic on the Embankment this morning, the DSG is a godsend and I wish I'd had it years ago. Sitting in traffic watching the BBC breakfast news on the telly is quite relaxing in an otherwise stressful environment. 

 

I'm fine tuning the seating position as the miles tick away. I do this with all of my cars and eventually find that perfect seating position, I'm nearly there! 

 

I also find the DSG paddles are exactly where I used to rest my fingers over the steering wheel when cruising on the motorway. Can't do that any more. There's an irony there somewhere......

 

The 360º detection is very handy in traffic. I was able to monitor an ******* bus driver as he crept closer and closer towards the side of my car until the horn told him that was close enough 

 

I've had a play with the Apple Car Play system, not impressed with it in it's current guise. Hopefully it will improve over time. for now I'll stick with the Columbus' maps and the normal A2DP bluetooth for music. The Canton is continuing to impress. No distortion at higher volumes is a sign of a well designed audio system. Well done Skoda/Canton 

 

The Philips LED rear indicator bulbs were fitted earlier on today, they give a more premium look to the car when in use. No errors either. I'll fit the front fog LEDs at some point. I'm definitely upgrading the Xenon lamps to something like my previous Xenarc CBIs. Or maybe some Nightbreakers.

 

I also installed the SIM card today. Very easy to set up and I now have a permanent wifi hotspot via 3G/4G in the car. When the kids jump in the car complete with iPads, they can see the car's SSID and connect straight away without harassing me or SWMBO to stoke up our wifi hotspots on our iPhones. 

 

I don't think you can create a wifi hotspot on the Columbus via an iPhone as it doesn't support rSAP, only HFP. Feel free to shoot me down if I am wrong! 

 

The car gets a better signal than my phone anyway, even when it's in the 'phonebox'. You get 2 lots of signal info on the Columbus screen for the data connection as well as any phones connected via Bluetooth. It also shows when data is Tx/Rx in real time, too. 

 

I'm starting to get used to the coasting mode in Eco. Thanks for the tips on that one. 

 

My overall MPG was 43.1 today. That's still respectable considering the awful traffic I encountered today. 

 

Overall, the car is bloody fantastic. 

Edited 3 March, 201610 yr by dstev2000

 

Another gripe I've discovered is the windscreen washers - they are rubbish compared to the Mk2 Superb. Instead of a nice fine spray over the whole screen, it's sort of three weak jets of water from each nozzle. Not sure if that's normal or whether I've got iffy washers. Comments please? Am I right in saying this is a known issue? Particularly the driver's side? 

 

 

Nope. They're crap. Mine are the same - 3 jets. Not too bad when travelling at speed as the wind forces the jets into a type of spray, but when stationary they are rubbish.

 

Much preferred the spray on the S2.

Nope. They're crap. Mine are the same - 3 jets. Not too bad when travelling at speed as the wind forces the jets into a type of spray, but when stationary they are rubbish.

 

Much preferred the spray on the S2.

Why on earth would they go from the excellent fan washers on the Mk2, to something from the 1980s? That's just madness! 

 I'm definitely upgrading the Xenon lamps to something like my previous Xenarc CBIs. Or maybe some Nightbreakers.

 

OK please enlighten me 

 

Do they have a blue tint as their name suggests? 

I have never contemplated upgrading the xenon’s before

OK please enlighten me 

 

Do they have a blue tint as their name suggests? 

I have never contemplated upgrading the xenon’s before

The standard ones are a bit brown in colour compared to my CBIs which ran at about 5500K or thereabouts. 

 

The Xenarc Nightbreaker Unlimited lamps are supposed to provide more light than a boggo OEM lamp which, lets face it, are built down to a price. 

 

The Xenarc Cool Blue Intense aren't excessively blue. The lamps that run at 7000-8000K or above are a total waste of time.

The CBIs are good at picking out road markings at night. I've noticed this after going back to the OEM spec bulbs.

 

Also, they don't achieve the colour by tinting the glass or anything like that. They alter the chemistry of the metal salts inside the arc chamber so the light output is maintained. 

 

I haven't made a decision yet, It's either CBI or Nightbreaker Unlimited.  :think:

Edited 3 March, 201610 yr by dstev2000

Thanks, 

 

I detest blue (or even a hint of blue) bulbs with a passion so that leaves just the Nightbreakers (for me), this is some claim though:

 

 

XENARC NIGHT BREAKER UNLIMITED

 

Product benefits 

• Up to 70 % more light (compared to standard xenon lamps)
• Up to 20 m longer beam (compared to standard xenon lamps)

Areas of application 

• Headlight

Product features 

• Color temperature: up to 4,350 K

Safety advice
XENARC lamp change is recommended to be carried out by a professional.

Legal advice
ECE approval