I picked up my new car on Saturday and here are some first impressions

 

1. The experience at the dealer was first rate. Kevin Fawcett at Lookers in Newcastle made the process as painless as possible and I have no complaints.
2. We went on a 500 mile round trip to pick up the car but we had an enjoyable weekend and it gave me a good chance to try out the new car. The very good discount we got on the new car made travelling that far worthwhile.
3. I traded in my mk II Superb that was actually driving superbly at that point. I hope whoever next owns it enjoys it as much as I did.
4. The mk III L&K is a step up from the mk II and it is a good move.
5. Moving from a 105 Greenline to a 150 is a noticeable difference but the old car was extremely smooth and had the power that I needed. My reason for moving to the 150 was  to get a 4X4 model and to get something slightly higher off the ground than the Greenline.  I found the previous car was a bit too low when filled with passengers and/or music equipment.
6. The most immediately noticable difference inside is the new infotainment option. The new Columbus has an 8 inch screen that is presumably capacitive touch (as per modern phones/tablets) whereas the mk II required a rather too positive action. The media, navigation, and setup options are really comprehensive and a significant upgrade.
7. I just love the adaptive cruise control. It made the journey back more relaxing and I think safer. Fatigue is definitely reduced. I set the distance option to "far" as I was more comfortable maintaining that distance between myself and the car in front.
8. I haven't folded the rear seats down yet and will have to look into some form of protection for when I am carrying musical gear.  There was a good thread on that some time ago and I will have another look.
9. The previous car only had rear sensors and I found them really useful. I like the front sensors and reversing camera of the new car. The park assist seems fun but not sure how useful it will be. I can't see the point of the perpendicular parking option as it is pretty easy and there is no advantage in getting into a small space - you wouldn't be able to open the doors! The parallel parking option sounds more useful but I will have to find somewhere appropriate to practice using it.
10. I can't really get to grips with the lane assist. After 10 seconds of letting it do its thing, it beeps and tells me to take over the steering.
11. The smart lights are potentially good and I look forward to trying them out on the A96 - a road where I find visibility not quite good enough with dipped lights and there always seem to be cars coming the other way.
12. There seem to be Laurin and Klement logos everywhere and I wish there weren't really - seems a bit tacky to me.
13. The audio sounds pretty good. I could probably have done with the space that the subwoofer uses for other things but it does sound good.
14. Next stop for me is winter tyres and a boot protector.

W.R.T. point 10. Lane assist isn't there to steer the car for you but to assist you should you drift slightly. It shouldn't beep at you at all unless you're taking your hands off the wheel.

W.R.T. point 10. Lane assist isn't there to steer the car for you but to assist you should you drift slightly. It shouldn't beep at you at all unless you're taking your hands off the wheel.

Thanks - that sounds about right. I tried letting it control the steering (with my hands on the wheel though). I thought that it might be more active in keeping me in the middle of the lane.

Interesting option but I'm not sure yet about how useful it will be.

It does seem to do some steering but I'm not sure when it decides to stop and when it decides to steer.

Edited 19 December, 20169 yr by bryanc

Thanks - that sounds about right. I tried letting it control the steering (with my hands on the wheel though). I thought that it might be more active in keeping me in the middle of the lane.

Interesting option but I'm not sure yet about how useful it will be.

It does seem to do some steering but I'm not sure when it decides to stop and when it decides to steer.

I've turned it off completely. Gave the steering a very odd feel IMO.

Thanks - that sounds about right. I tried letting it control the steering (with my hands on the wheel though). I thought that it might be more active in keeping me in the middle of the lane.

Interesting option but I'm not sure yet about how useful it will be.

It does seem to do some steering but I'm not sure when it decides to stop and when it decides to steer.

It's not really there to "guide" you and keep you in the centre, it's more a safety warning in case you've lost concentration / dozed off and started veering across a line.

Never rely on it - as if the white lines disappear / are faint / damaged / non-existent / covered in mud it'll stop working without warning (unless you notice the little green light turn orange).

Where it can see lines though, I've tested it in the past by letting it drift (no traffic, and hands just millimetres off the wheel!) and it did keep the car in lane quite well - not in the centre, but "bouncing" back off the lines.

You can see it's the sign of things to come, and I can see autonomous cars working on roads with clear line markings (motorways etc) but how it'll ever work on cruddy rural roads where there's often no left line, the edge of the road blurs into mud, and the centre line might be missing....that'll be a challenge. And what about snow covered roads ??

Thanks - that sounds about right. I tried letting it control the steering (with my hands on the wheel though). I thought that it might be more active in keeping me in the middle of the lane.

Interesting option but I'm not sure yet about how useful it will be.

It does seem to do some steering but I'm not sure when it decides to stop and when it decides to steer.

It will autonomously guide you in the lane should you want it to, albeit only for 10 seconds or so as you mentioned.

There are 2 settings for the lane assist, in normal mode it will simply nudge you back into lane if you start to get close to the white line, but you can also activate "adaptive lane guidance" in the menu, which means it will continuously make small corrections and keep you dead centre in the lane at all times.

It's not really there to "guide" you and keep you in the centre, it's more a safety warning in case you've lost concentration / dozed off and started veering across a line.

Never rely on it - as if the white lines disappear / are faint / damaged / non-existent / covered in mud it'll stop working without warning (unless you notice the little green light turn orange).

Where it can see lines though, I've tested it in the past by letting it drift (no traffic, and hands just millimetres off the wheel!) and it did keep the car in lane quite well - not in the centre, but "bouncing" back off the lines.

You can see it's the sign of things to come, and I can see autonomous cars working on roads with clear line markings (motorways etc) but how it'll ever work on cruddy rural roads where there's often no left line, the edge of the road blurs into mud, and the centre line might be missing....that'll be a challenge. And what about snow covered roads ??

That's exactly what it's there for if you have the right setting selected - see my previous post.

Go into settings, assistance systems, select Lane assist and make sure the "adaptive lane guidance" setting is ticked :thumbup:

bryanc

 

I also bought my car way down south as I am afraid that I don't trust the local dealers and they offered me a better deal.  Like you I live in the NE of Scotland (Elgin) and often use the A96, which in the dark can be a nightmare.  I find my xenon lights an essential and the bendy beams and light assist are magnificent.

 

I have had my car for 2 and a bit months and I am delighted with it and echo many of your first impressions.  Mine is also an L&K and I have the 2.0TSi estate version in petrol blue.  My only "problem" so far is a noisy air conditioning fan, which I will get sorted at the first service.  "Luckily(!)" for me after flying over 7000 hours in noisy military aircraft, my hearing is not great.  But if I leave my hearing aids at home, or turn up the Canton pas de problem!

 

I was going to pm you, but could not find the correct button!

 

Regards

 

Pilkers

Thanks - that sounds about right. I tried letting it control the steering (with my hands on the wheel though). I thought that it might be more active in keeping me in the middle of the lane.

Interesting option but I'm not sure yet about how useful it will be.

It does seem to do some steering but I'm not sure when it decides to stop and when it decides to steer.

That's the most frightening thing I've read in a while. Reminds me of the American RV owner who left the driving seat to make a coffee, because he thought that cruise control drove the RV for him. Possible the technology is moving too fast for some drivers, and some sort of compulsory training is needed for people who buy a newish car