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looking at buying an Elegance or L&K. Just a few questions


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My husband and I are definitely going to be buying a Superb over the coming weeks, basically as soon as we find one with the right spec.

We are looking for a 2013-2014 facelift model, low mileage, with leather seats, and parking assist (because I struggle with parking), and so either an L&K or an elegance with the optional extra parking assist. Ideally we'd like an L&K but it might be a little out of budget. We can spend up to £14k but would muc prefer to spend a grand or more less. We'd like an estate but we're not too picky about that.

 

I've noticed that some Superbs are listed on adverts and in spec lists on sites like Parkers, as Elegance models with L&K luxury pack and others are listed as pure L&K models. Is there a difference?

 

Our biggest concern at the moment is the emissions "fix" we've read about. What we don't want is to buy a car which has had it really, as my husband says it may cause issues and there is no real benefit to having it from our point of view. Say we buy a car from a Skoda dealer, will they have applied it (maybe after our test drive) for instance without giving us the option? Or a private seller might be selling the car because they've had the fix and it's jeopardized the car's performance or economy? Wondering what your thoughts are on this potential problem...

 

Thanks in advance

Charlotte

 

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49 minutes ago, snowathlete said:

Elegance models with L&K luxury pack and others are listed as pure L&K models. Is there a difference?

 

Skoda Ireland told me that when the factory builds an L&K, the build an Elegance spec and add an "L&K luxury pack" to the build. You have simply seen different ways of describing the same thing.

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I wouldn't get too hung up on an L&K v Elegance if the Elegance has most of the additional spec you want.  I'd prefer an Elegance with low mileage, well looked after etc compared to an L&K in average condition.  Good luck with your search.

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Thanks everyone. I'll check out that Fb group and ask the question. If you're right and it can be identified with a sticker then that's helpful.

 

I agree that the more important thing is mileage and condition. Ideally the right car will come up not too far away from us!

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I have an elegance estate and L&K saloon.

If you want the seats flat for carting stuff about, you need the estate, the saloon seats dont fold flat.

The comfort of the L&K seats are far superior to the elegance imho

Both my cars came without spare wheel - so sticker won't appear on spare

It could be very hard to find a pre-fix version. Certainly skoda wont have one for you.

My estate is a 1.6, saloon 2.0 - the 1.5 does everything, but the 2.0 is much smoother and hardly uses any extra fuel - both very good on fuel.

Cost - I got my L&K saloon for the book price of an elegance - the sellers didn't know what they had - look out for that

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18 minutes ago, S00perb said:

I have an elegance estate and L&K saloon.

If you want the seats flat for carting stuff about, you need the estate, the saloon seats dont fold flat.

The comfort of the L&K seats are far superior to the elegance imho

Both my cars came without spare wheel - so sticker won't appear on spare

It could be very hard to find a pre-fix version. Certainly skoda wont have one for you.

My estate is a 1.6, saloon 2.0 - the 1.5 does everything, but the 2.0 is much smoother and hardly uses any extra fuel - both very good on fuel.

Cost - I got my L&K saloon for the book price of an elegance - the sellers didn't know what they had - look out for that

 

 

Thanks for all that, very helpful. We test drove a Bussiness spec one I think with full leather and that was good, but  I have to say I much preferred the L&K, it felt more comfortable to me when we sat in it.

I guess we don't mind a "fixed" one so long as it still performs and is economical. One of the reasons we are changing cars is because our Hyundai Santa Fe struggled to achieve 20mpg! Assuming the Superb has a fuel computer that can be reset, perhaps we can do that before we start a test drive to get an indication of what it's doing, that would put minds at rest I think.

 

Forgot to say we are looking for an auto as I only have an auto licence.

 

Regarding the book price, how do we know what I should be paying? Our ideal spec would be an L&K, 4x4, estate, auto but I'm not entirely sure what we should be paying for that. 

Edited by snowathlete
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No idea how ecconomical an auto would be but I would struggle to get under 55mpg on both mine.

The fix wouldn;t have been my first choice, my estate won't be getting it, but the saloon had it before I got it. When the exhause gets jammed I will have the fix undone and a MPG/power upgrade done

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The Superb is a rare car, the L&K makes it rarer, the estate rarer still. Add 4x4 and the only thing you can do to make a good one harder to find is by adding a petrol engine.

 

You will likely need to cast your net further afield to find the perfect car.

 

It will also be very difficult to find a car that you know for sure has or hasn't had the emissions fix. You will be better buying from a franchised Skoda main dealer, which whilst guaranteeing it'll have had the fix done will at least provide you with a decent warranty should you not be happy by the way the car drives. Unfortunately poor driving dynamics and potentially reduced fuel economy are the relatively obvious negative effects. It's the unidentifiable engine longevity / durability that for me is the biggest unknown.

 

It should be noted that there will also be a fair few cars that have reacted adversely to the emissions fix that will have been disposed of and sold-on by unhappy owners, which could be the cars you end up looking at. Another reason to be patient, don't jump in too soon, instead wait until you find a car you are 100% happy with.

 

With a budget of £14,000 you are looking at a 3 year old / 60,000 mile example, such as this one...

 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201708288744038?radius=1500&advertising-location=at_cars&price-to=14000&model=SUPERB&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=New&sort=price-desc&transmission=Automatic&postcode=ox161we&make=SKODA&page=2

 

Spotting the L&K is easy as they all (facelift) come equipped with the Sirius alloy wheel...

 

Sirius.JPG.1ddfc3cffb9f555ae845b1fee1a30738.JPG

 

Dropping Park Assist and focusing on an Elegance opens up much more choice, so closer, newer and with lower mileage.

 

 

 

 

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7 hours ago, snowathlete said:

 

 

 Assuming the Superb has a fuel computer that can be reset, perhaps we can do that before we start a test drive to get an indication of what it's doing, that would put minds at rest I think.

 

 

As long as you remember that honesty is not a word which VW and their derivatives understand so if the computer indicates 50MPG it probably means 40  60MPG probably means about 50.

My fuel consumption generally works out between low 40s to low 50s (real figure, low 50s to low 60s on the gauge) which I think is more than reasonable for a car of its size, I don't have any problems with that and don't understand why they insist on making the gauge so dishonest.

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10 hours ago, silver1011 said:

It should be noted that there will also be a fair few cars that have reacted adversely to the emissions fix that will have been disposed of and sold-on by unhappy owners, which could be the cars you end up looking at.

Well done Silver, this had occurred to me too and probably many others.

 

Oh and the Sirius alloy wheels are on the pre facelift too :D

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Yeah, there will be a fair few owners wanting to offload their newly developed lemons courtesy of Skoda UK. I shared a lift back to work from the local dealer whilst my car was in, another guy in the minibus was telling me he'd done just that, part exchanged his MkII facelift for a MkIII after the emissions fix "ruined what was previously a very nice to drive car".

 

The only reason I specifically mentioned the facelift on the Sirius alloy was that on the pre-facelift the L&K was also available with the Luxon...

 

Luxon.jpg.ff201b875ce282a93336c029a117133b.jpg

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4 hours ago, silver1011 said:

Yeah, there will be a fair few owners wanting to offload their newly developed lemons courtesy of Skoda UK. I shared a lift back to work from the local dealer whilst my car was in, another guy in the minibus was telling me he'd done just that, part exchanged his MkII facelift for a MkIII after the emissions fix "ruined what was previously a very nice to drive car".

 

The only reason I specifically mentioned the facelift on the Sirius alloy was that on the pre-facelift the L&K was also available with the Luxon...

 

Luxon.jpg.ff201b875ce282a93336c029a117133b.jpg

 

See, this worries us, we don't want to buy a lemon!

How do we avoid it? Is there anything in particular we can do when test driving it to know if it is a wrong-un?

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Very little if you want to buy from an agent. In my opinion you should buy one that has not had the update applied and you have the info of how to see that .( though it just occurs to me that someone could just remove the sticker)

Mine field. feel sorry for you. perhaps not buy a VAG vehicle?

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On 9/11/2017 at 14:07, S00perb said:

No idea how ecconomical an auto would be but I would struggle to get under 55mpg on both mine.

 

 

We have a 2014 2.0 CR170 DSG L&K and it averages about 55mpg on the computer. This probably translates into 50-53 (about 5%) and that's reasonably confirmed by us averaging 600miles per tank of fuel. We've never used the park assist, but do appreciate the front parking sensors that are included. We also like the heated front screen, heated rear seats and LED lighting (I think not on Elegance). We don't like the 18" wheels (less supple ride) and would have probably spec'd 17" if we'd have known.

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4 minutes ago, S00perb said:

How do you know if you have the heated front screen?

 

you can clearly see tiny wires zigzagging down the screen - like the rear, but many more wires and much thinner. I find it a little distracting at night with headlights catching the wires, but the benefit of de-icing outweighs that.

 

Edited by jonathan.tong
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3 minutes ago, jonathan.tong said:

 

you can clearly see tiny wires zigzagging down the screen - like the rear, but many more wires and much thinner. I find it a little distracting at night with headlights catching the wires, but the benefit of de-icing outweighs that.

 

thx - glad I don't have them on my L&K then

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6 minutes ago, jonathan.tong said:

odd - it was a standard part of the L&K package on ours. Thinking about it, ours is the FL model if that makes any difference.

FL?

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Just now, S00perb said:

FL?

FaceLift model. Wikipedia says that it was introduced in mid 2013, so if yours is a 2014 then it should be identical to ours.

The heated screen is controlled by a new button (near the climatronic), vaguely similar to the rear heated window button, but "windscreen shaped").

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