Okay - so having been in possession of my L&K Estate for about a month, I tried to load the car with diving kit for the first time - the only reason why I would want a car that large!  Could drop the rear seat backs easily enough but have been struggling to find a way to raise the rear seat bases.

 

I quick call with the dealer suggests that it is not possible to lift the seat bases therefore I appear to have a less than perfect payload for large quantities of heavy kit.

 

Any ideas as to why this is the case?  I have seen plenty of photos of estates with seat bases up and backs down!  The only thing that I can think of is that it is somehow related to the heated rear seats but would welcome a more considered opinion!  Not a major pain in the butt as the payload is so large but still every so slightly annoying!

 

Cheers,

 

Matt

Only the seat backs fold in mine.  Nothing in the manual about lifting the seat bases at all.  You sure the S3 has that facility?

Assumed that would be the case and this thread seems to imply that this is the case! 

Cheers,

 

Matt

It would indeed.  Certainly not on my 2015 build anyway...... puzzled 

Reading that topic I think you will find that photo is of a Mk2 estate.

 

4 minutes ago, peter3197 said:

Reading that topic I think you will find that photo is of a Mk2 estate.

 

Ah ha!  That explains a lot.  What confuses me is that it was posted in the SIII forum.  Still, what do I know?  I've only got 1,080 miles on the clock so far and am still learning about the car!

 

Cheers,

 

Matt

The seat bases are fixed in all models....  its these little savings which make the car cheaper than the rest.,...

Before ordering a car I always spend some time in a dealer checking it will do what I expect it to do,  some don't like you pairing your phone to see what the stereo will do but there is always the blacklist of dealers I don't go back to.

 

It is surprising (but probably shouldn't be) how many things about the car salesmen don't know. 

 

9 hours ago, RickTT said:

The seat bases are fixed in all models....  its these little savings which make the car cheaper than the rest.,...

Fair point!

It's the only estate car I've ever had which doesn't have a flat load area. Crazy!

My 2007 Octavia did have this feature so the backs fold slightly flatter.

It is well documented and mentioned in video reviews that the floor is not flat.

Do you have the variable floor, this i believe gives a flat floor but obviously you loose a little bit of space.

3 hours ago, daveo138 said:

It's the only estate car I've ever had which doesn't have a flat load area. Crazy!

 

I had just taken it for granted that you would be able to flatten out the payload.

 

3 hours ago, vfrvrs said:

My 2007 Octavia did have this feature so the backs fold slightly flatter.

It is well documented and mentioned in video reviews that the floor is not flat.

Do you have the variable floor, this i believe gives a flat floor but obviously you loose a little bit of space.

 

No unfortunately I didn't chose that option :(

 

It's not a big deal, just slightly surprising.  At least the minor loss of space isn't an issue with a payload that big!