1 hour ago, old newbie2 said:

That just might be an "expensive" colour come trade-in time.....

 

DC

I agree but before you come to trade it in you will be driving it and hopefully enjoying it so you may as well get the one you like! 

 

The Sportline range is missing something in blue methinks, something along the lines of VW Lapiz blue or Audi S/RS Sepang blue would look great with the black trim. 

 

At the moment I keep passing a Sazuka Grey RS6 Avant on the way to work and I LOVE IT! 

Edited 24 March, 20179 yr by penguin17

3 hours ago, Mloc said:

 

https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/FRISIA-IMO-8415809-MMSI-357015000

 

If you are interested in the ship being used

Thanks Mlock, i will track that on my phone now day and night :-D 

Just got an update now, car is in Dublin port already, was on a vessel arriving to Dublin today

 That was quick... i would settle for any updates on mine

On 3/24/2017 at 16:19, lukas883 said:

Just got an update now, car is in Dublin port already, was on a vessel arriving to Dublin today

How long did it take?

 

Who are you buying off out of interest?

3 hours ago, aidangill said:

How long did it take?

 

Who are you buying off out of interest?

Wicklow Sinnott Skoda, ordered 31/01/17 and i will collect the car in Saturday or Monday, so 8 weeks only.

nearly a week in enjoying mine, worked out most of the toys

I made my first proper, full-power pass yesterday. It was breathtaking, not to say nervewracking.

 

I was travelling along the B2089 from John's Cross to Rye. I was following an unloaded artic and he knew the road, staying in his lane, but really moving – never less than the speed limit. So, through the 30 mph villages and 40 mph twists and hills, I followed him to and through Rye. 

 

I figured I would lose him when I turned off to Camber Sands, but NO! We poodled through Camber and passed the caravan sites. Then, along the seafront, the road straightened out for just long enough. I snicked the stick back to Sport and floored it. The lorry kept nominally to his side of the road, but it was quite narrow, with a bit of a drop off on the verge. The Sportline leapt forward, stayed planted, I felt confident and I was past in a blink. Nice. As a biker, I was quite pleased with the passing performance. Never took it out of auto. Snicked it back into D and carried on. The wife was unflustered, too.

 

We were on our way to see Derrick Jarman's cottage garden in Dungeness and have fish'n'chips in the Pilot Inn. Lovely day out. Rush hour back in London was a breeze, too. I do not miss a manual transmission. At all.

 

 

11 hours ago, freelunch said:

I made my first proper, full-power pass yesterday. It was breathtaking, not to say nervewracking.

 

I was travelling along the B2089 from John's Cross to Rye. I was following an unloaded artic and he knew the road, staying in his lane, but really moving – never less than the speed limit. So, through the 30 mph villages and 40 mph twists and hills, I followed him to and through Rye. 

 

I figured I would lose him when I turned off to Camber Sands, but NO! We poodled through Camber and passed the caravan sites. Then, along the seafront, the road straightened out for just long enough. I snicked the stick back to Sport and floored it. The lorry kept nominally to his side of the road, but it was quite narrow, with a bit of a drop off on the verge. The Sportline leapt forward, stayed planted, I felt confident and I was past in a blink. Nice. As a biker, I was quite pleased with the passing performance. Never took it out of auto. Snicked it back into D and carried on. The wife was unflustered, too.

 

We were on our way to see Derrick Jarman's cottage garden in Dungeness and have fish'n'chips in the Pilot Inn. Lovely day out. Rush hour back in London was a breeze, too. I do not miss a manual transmission. At all.

 

 

Looks like Stanley in the Falklands 

Only done around 100 miles since Saturday but sit rep so far:

 

It's fast & pleasantly torquey without being gruff. It's pretty effortless to drive. Handles well for a barge. Different modes do produce very different results when the throttle is pressed. The ACC works as well as the Volvo one did. Xenons are nice & crisp and turn more into corners than my Volvo ones did. The road noise over 60mph is frankly almost unbearable without the radio on and will necessitate some different tyres in the near future. Sound system (not Canton) is pretty lame. SWMBO likes the colour changing lights nonsense. Apple CarPlay is ace for Spotify control. The dogs like the boot because it's huge and has a handy shelf for them to rest their heads against the back window. Boot opening & closing facility on the keyfob is useful. WLAN facility seems pointless as it needs a phone to provide the signal and the phone can just provide the hotspot itself, no? Frameless rear view mirror is cool. Seats are huge & comfy & heating works much quicker than my Volvo. Cruise control stalk is in a stupid place and has caused much misuse of indicators already. Sunglasses holder is very welcome. A/C is fierce at 'LO'. Cup holders are a stupid size that won't hold my insulated mugs (yes, I have been following the thread about it on here) Combination of front and rear sensors going off during parking on our sloped driveway is like a kraftwerk track. 

 

Things I already miss:

Ventilated seats (hottest weekend of the year!)

Notification LED on the keyfob that the car is locked (will be getting alarm blips enabled shortly)

A quiet drive over 60mph.

Buttons - Touchscreen means taking your eyes off the road to operate which is a step backwards imo.

HUD.

 

However. It's fair to say I'm pretty pleased with it overall so far. Got a 300 mile trip on Wednesday so will get an idea of the nuances of the long drive then.

Enjoying mine immensely and I've come from an Audi A7 which had loads of toys.  In 2013 I had around a £25k budget to play with and was toying with a new Superb mkII, 2.0 TDI L&K 4x4.  However as part of the same dealer group, a 3yr old A7 came up with low miles on it and an immense number of toys; Adaptive cruise, camera night-vision, top tech packs, extra leather, beautiful 20" rims and so on.  I owned it for 3 yrs before it had to go - but more of that some other time.

 

I test drove a 280 L&K hatch, metallic black with cream leather and immediately felt it was very "me."  I'd been used to the lazy delivery of big 3.0 6-cyl diesels but having being stung with a variety of busted EGR valves and various DPF silliness, I wanted a petrol again.  When I drove the 280 I was surprised at just how light it felt for such a big car.  I mean the A7 felt LARGE (and had similar amounts of leg room in the back) but LARGE and HEAVY.  Plenty of understeer and those 20's with sports suspension made the ride really crashy.

 

The 280 I drove had DCC and I enjoyed fiddling with the various settings, but I agree with what some have said on here; Comfort (or whatever it was called) felt a little too soft and somewhere between Sport and Normal felt about right for me.  Wanting simplicity, I decided I wouldn't bother with DCC.

 

The pace though!  The 280 is a surprising thing.  Anyway I'm waffling more about the 280 engine than the Sportline I eventually chose - and that's the topic of this thread, right...  The dealer had a 280 Sportline Estate in Corrida Red on the showroom floor.  Pics and options fitted described here.

 

I didn't actually test drive the Sportline before buying it. I figured the suspension would be the main difference; a little lower than standard and perhaps a little stiffer as a result.  The 280 L&K I drove was on 19's so I figured road noise and ride quality would be roughly similar and the differences probably minor.

 

For me, the ride and suspension is just about perfect.  It's stiff enough to throw the car around a little, but not so hard that every last lump and bump is felt. On the 19" Vega's there's the odd bit of crashiness when the road gets really poor, but nothing like as bad as the 20's on the A7.  On reasonable quality roads it's a lovely ride, smooth and quiet enough for me, even on the 19's.

 

Now it's still a big car and a big family car at that.  It's obviously not designed to be a track-day weapon so any notion of chucking it into a corner really fast and hoping it'll stick just won't work.  But that said, it's surprising just how fast you can throw it round a roundabout and you can really feel the difference that XDS diff makes.  I can't actually feel it braking an inside wheel, but you know it must be doing it because the way it just pulls round corners belies physics sometimes.  As Scotty said; "You cannae change the laws of physics, Captain!" and understeer will eventually arrive, but only if you're taking real liberties with it at speeds and attitude you probably shouldn't have on the Queen's highway anyway...

 

I love the tinted windows, on a bright day you really can't see into the boot - which is great to hide the dashcam I've just fitted.

 

I love the seats.  In 2010 I slipped a disc and had several months of physio.  The A7 caused me all sorts of issues; as I later found out the A6 and A7 have massively offset pedals.  All sorts of twisty back-pain issues from that car.  The high backed alcantara bucket seats are lovely to sit in, great with heated seats and the pedals are just perfectly positioned, directly in front of me for a change!  I do miss having an adjustable headrest (which the L&K and others obviously have) and would have liked the Sportline seat headrests to be a little further forward.  But I've found a good driving position and it's only a minor complaint.

 

The black plastic "Carbon" trim is a bit cheap looking in my opinion, but frankly for all the other good points about the car I couldn't really care less.  I'd be nitpicking.

 

Probably a 280 comment more than a Sportline comment, but the car feels a little Jekyll and Hyde.  In "Normal" mode, the throttle response is obviously tuned for relaxing progressive driving.  Push it - some go, push it some more - a little more go.  Push it a little more - seems like not much else is happening... then... wham, 1 or 2 gears are dropped and you rocket off down the road.  Again, it's probably just me being used to sitting in big torquey diesels using lower gears, riding the torque, and the box not changing down as much.  I still kinda like it though.  It gives the car some character - not unlike an old Audi Quattro with masses of turbo lag - nothing, nothing and then wham!  Pop it in Sport though and it's far more responsive and quicker to respond.   I know throttle response discussions have probably been done to death, but a RaceChip?  Hmmm.  Maybe later this year...

 

I like the black and red look, but I probably wouldn't have chosen it if I'd specced myself.  It was there, in the dealership and felt right so I bought it, but I probably would've gone white and black, or completely banjo for that Dragon Green colour.  That said, the red is a striking colour - almost a little orangey in some lighting and it looks great when clean.

 

I haven't tried the launch control yet.  I'm still in the honeymoon period with only a couple of thousand miles on the clock.  Interested to see what it feels like though!

 

Economy wise, I've done a variety of driving from pootling around town on short trips all week (19mpg - 25mpg) to 300 mile round trips for work (up to 38mpg).  For the most part I'm in the low 30's though; 32 to 33mpg in mixed driving.

 

LED interior lighting is cool.  But as the outside's red, I've left it red inside.  With the rest of the dashboard illumination turned down low on a night-drive, it's the easiest on the eyes.  It'd be a cool feature (if admittedly very gimmicky) if the interior lighting could be set for red in Sport mode, green in eco mode and blue in normal driving.  OK, I'll stop being such a tart now...

 

On the other features/options:

• Front heated seats - definitely.  Perhaps more of a necessity if you've got leather (feels colder than Alcantara in winter) but a must for me and my back.  I'd spec front and back in future.
• Standard speakers - fine for me.
• Android Auto - great for it's ability to read out messages and allow you to reply verbally.
• Wifi charging box thingy - my wife and I have Samsung phones with Qi charging - so this is a very handy feature.
• Flappy paddles - used them a few times, but not fussed so far.  Probably great for a critically timed overtake with minimal room, but I find pulling back on DSG into Sport leaves it with plenty of shove, rendering the paddles practically useless.  If they're options in future, I wouldn't bother.
• Kessy - great, very convenient so far.
• Auto hill hold control - I actually had this on the A7 and never used it until the last few weeks of ownership.  What I was missing!  Pull up to a junction, keep the brake pedal pressed and the green parking-brake light comes on.  Take foot off gas, car sits still.  Put foot on gas, car drives away.  No need to mess about with the electronic parking brake manually; real stop and go easy driving.  I wouldn't be without this again.
• Adaptive Cruise - love it.  Again, had it on the A7 and anyone I show it to who's never used it, wants it on their car. I've driven from North Hampshire all the way to the western end of the M4 before without touching the brake-pedal.  Again, wouldn't be without it in future.

I've had more comments about the Superb than I had about the A7.  Yes, the A7 was a beautiful car in many ways, but there's something of a buzz about Skoda and the Superb at the moment.  A kind of swelling admiration from people; a realisation that there must be something in this reinvention of Skoda in recent years and it's not just the motoring press who are fawning all over them. I've had the usual p1ss-takes from a few short-sighted colleagues ("Have you pre-booked the break-down truck..." etc) but I just smile.  Just as many other friends and colleagues give it due respect. It's like when the first Subaru Impreza's came out and when BMW launched their ubiquitous 330d - people who drove them knew they were supremely capable cars.  They were in-the-know.  I feel like I'm there again

Edited 11 April, 20179 yr by RoyF280