Having just returned from a couple of trips to France I thought I would post a few random things I have learnt about the Karoq (note, mine is a 2.0 l diesel DSG Edition).

 

• Most of the selectable items below are accessed through 'Menu-Vehicle-Settings'. After you have made a change, DO NOT use the back arrow (top RH corner) as this does not save the change. Start from Menu again.
• Road sign recognition and  speed limits. Temporary speed limit signs were readily picked up by the camera and displayed on the dash/Columbus. Normal speed limits are displayed, including the reduced limit during rain. This seems to be linked into the wiper rain sensors so it prioritises the lower speed limit on the dash when the wipers are active.
• Travel Mode. This adjusts the headlights for driving on the right (note - may be model dependent, I have LED headlights). To clarify, 'Right Hand Traffic' means driving on the right (it confused me at first, I wondered if it meant oncoming traffic was to my right). When selected there is a dashboard warning every time you start the engine. It appeared to work well, nobody flashed me.
• I found it extremely useful to have 'Speed' as the central display on the dash, and in 'Units' this can be changed to kph. Could save you some on the spot fines!
• When on a ferry, turn off the tilt sensor by setting 'Interior Monitoring' to off. NOTE this must be the last thing you do before leaving the car. Next time the car is unlocked it reverts back to 'on'.
• Again, on a ferry - if you approach a steep ramp, up or down, the front Park Pilot sensors can be activated and the car might apply the brakes. As soon as mine activated, I turned them off.
• When driving through torrential rain (and it was really bad), I had a warning that the ACC was inactive as the radar was obscured. It cleared when the rain eased. I wasn't using ACC at the time.
• Google Earth as a map. As a guide, over 1200 miles with variable zoom on the map and all new roads (although the return trip covered about 300 miles of the outward one), I used just under 500 MB of data.
• Fuel prices. If you have a diesel, lucky you - supermarket prices are roughly the same as ours. If you have a petrol engine expect to pay about £1.40 a litre (€1,55). The days of cheap fuel in France are long gone. Motorway prices, like here, are significantly higher.

 

Finally don't forget France has an 80 kph (50 mph) speed limit on all single carriageway roads now unless otherwise posted - since 1st July. I am not sure if this is 70 kph in the wet but I suspect it is. Seems very slow but fuel consumption is excellent. The current Columbus map data does not show the new limits, hopefully the next update will.

 

Happy holidays

 

John

Excellent post. When planning a trip to France, order the environment sticker well in advance, or you may not drive into some cities. The price is only a few Euro, and it is easy to order on their website, but receiving the stickers takes a couple of weeks.

Nice post. I have just driven my Karoq through 6 countries in one day including France. The current speed is always my choice for the small screen, far easier than looking at the dials. Prob my favourite feature, although the ACC was great on the motorway.

 

My pick for Nav would be Waze though, not Google Earth. Worked like a charm for me and I knew what was coming up ahead thanks to other users along with cameras, police, speed limits etc.

27 minutes ago, Agerbundsen said:

Excellent post. When planning a trip to France, order the environment sticker well in advance, or you may not drive into some cities. The price is only a few Euro, and it is easy to order on their website, but receiving the stickers takes a couple of weeks.

 

Yes - I forgot to mention that. It is called a Crit Air, available for just over €4. I understand it is compulsory in a few cities at the moment, Paris, Lyon and Toulouse come to mind. The hardest bit about getting one is that you have to send copies of the first 2 pages of your V5, and there is a maximum file size that difficult to comply with. You can send 2 files so scan to a .jpeg format and you can get under the limit. I would estimate less than 25% of French cars have them at the moment.

14 minutes ago, ethereum said:

Nice post. I have just driven my Karoq through 6 countries in one day including France. The current speed is always my choice for the small screen, far easier than looking at the dials. Prob my favourite feature, although the ACC was great on the motorway.

 

My pick for Nav would be Waze though, not Google Earth. Worked like a charm for me and I knew what was coming up ahead thanks to other users along with cameras, police, speed limits etc.

 

I only use Google Earth for the map display, otherwise it is the standard Columbus system. I noted the file size as it was mentioned in a thread some while back, and some posters were saying a 1.5GB monthly data limit would be nothing like adequate.

 

ACC is convenient, especially on their motorways, but I am certain fuel economy is worse than when controlling things yourself (particularly on long uphill gradients).

Edited 17 July, 20187 yr by JohnD5314

A point of warning. It is illegal to have speed camera location recognition or warnings when driving in France. On some apps and portable satnavs you have to disable these. You may find them recorded as POI [points of interest].

Some newer portable units automatically disable this facility when in France. I'm not sure about built in units, but i would assume they must also do so.

 

Colin

Great post.

 

Crit Air certificate is under 5 euros delivered to the UK. Not transferable, for obvious reasons. Buy direct, not from one of the "helpful" third party sites. 

 

https://www.certificat-air.gouv.fr/en/ 

Edited 17 July, 20187 yr by Michael G

Great tips John, isn't it clever it adjusts the speed limit when it rains.  

 

Does anyone know the rules on spare bulbs? If the car has LEDs

1 hour ago, womanofkent said:

Great tips John, isn't it clever it adjusts the speed limit when it rains.  

 

Does anyone know the rules on spare bulbs? If the car has LEDs

This should give you all you need to know about driving in France (from www.theaa.com).

 

Looks like a spare bulb set is recommended. Also worth mentioning that although the breathalyser is compulsory (available from Halfords), there is no penalty for not carrying one. Don't you just love the French!!

 

france-monaco.pdf

You only need to have bulbs available if one has failed. So - if you've any standard (NON-LED) bulbs, carry spares, just in case. 

 

For LEDs there's nothing you can do, short of carrying a full set of light fittings! 

In the DK "Style" version, which is the only version offered in Denmark, there are only LED bulbs - so no need or indeed possibility of carrying any spares.

On 18/07/2018 at 15:54, LBFS said:

You only need to have bulbs available if one has failed. So - if you've any standard (NON-LED) bulbs, carry spares, just in case. 

 

For LEDs there's nothing you can do, short of carrying a full set of light fittings! 

 

That brings me to a question, what happens if one of the LED front lights fail? Is it a whole unit job? 

6 hours ago, MarcusKaroq said:

 

That brings me to a question, what happens if one of the LED front lights fail? Is it a whole unit job? 

I think that might be the case... 

The speed limit of 90 kph drops to 80 if there is no central reservation. So dual carriageways as well could be 80kph.

i was over there for the first two weeks of July and very few signs had been changed.

The French have new speed cameras the size of a shoe box that they hang from bridges as well as other radar traps, police check points and average speed areas especially through villages. We tried to keep to the speed limits but there are so many more change of speed limits than the U.K. that’s it’s not easy to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road and be cognisant of the latest speed limit. Also there’s no sign to tell you the speed limit as you enter villages, just a yellow diamond with a line through it.

We ended up using Waze (not sure of the legality though) just to make the sure. 

32 minutes ago, TeeDeeEye said:

The speed limit of 90 kph drops to 80 if there is no central reservation. So dual carriageways as well could be 80kph.

i was over there for the first two weeks of July and very few signs had been changed.

The French have new speed cameras the size of a shoe box that they hang from bridges as well as other radar traps, police check points and average speed areas especially through villages. We tried to keep to the speed limits but there are so many more change of speed limits than the U.K. that’s it’s not easy to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road and be cognisant of the latest speed limit. Also there’s no sign to tell you the speed limit as you enter villages, just a yellow diamond with a line through it.

We ended up using Waze (not sure of the legality though) just to make the sure. 

 

The speed limit in a town (50 kph) comes into effect as soon as you pass the sign with the town name on it -- there is not necessarily as specific speed limit sign. The speed limit returns to the national limit (usually, now, 80 kph) when you leave the town, i.e. when you pass the town name sign with a diagonal line through it. Sometimes you will see a speed limit sign with 'Rappel' under it - this is a reminder (literally it means recall).

 

The yellow diamond is totally different and nothing whatsoever to do with speed limits. When you have a yellow diamond shown on your road, it means you have priority over anyone trying to join the road - most main roads in France (and other continental countries) will show a yellow diamond, so you have priority. The problem arises when there is a line through the yellow diamond - this means a vehicle on your right has priority over you, so you MUST stop and give way to them. Usually this will be in a town and (I think) is designed to slow traffic through the town. The other place you are likely to see them are on the approach to a roundabout, when, as here, you give way to those on the roundabout.

 

On the topic of speed camera warnings, which as mentioned above, which are illegal in France, TomTom have agreed with the French Government that they can use a 'Zone de Danger' instead. A Zone de Danger will include a speed camera at some point along its length (can be up to a few kilometres). A TomTom will automatically switch to Zone de Danger when it is in France. Also, if you see a sign warning of speed cameras at the roadside, there WILL BE ONE somewhere close. The French do not put up random warning signs without a camera as we do.

The yellow square with black surround is general in Europe, signifying that you are on a major highway, where the general “give way to vehicles on your right” rule does not apply. The give way to vehicles from the right apply everywhere, but is followed in varying degrees from country to country. In Norway and the Netherlands, it is followed literally, but many other places, a judgement is made which is the major road - not often easy to figure out.

 

 

Edited 27 July, 20187 yr by Agerbundsen

This is why in France, I go dead slow, give way to everybody else, and occasionally shout out "attention a la rozzers" and "cedez".

 

Seems to work.

On 17/07/2018 at 13:03, JohnD5314 said:

. To clarify, 'Right Hand Traffic' means driving on the right (it confused me at first, I wondered if it meant oncoming traffic was to my right).

 

Glad I am not the only one confused by the language, just playing with settings last night before a trip to France and it is not clear.

 

Thanks for the pointers I will need to check about braking as not had to disable the auto brake feature yet.

Ok, the French are now contemplating going back to 90 on some 'N' roads, with or without central barriers, confusion still rules here!

On one of the roads into Quimper there is a valley with 3 lane both sides, as in the UK the climbing side has 2 lanes and 1 lane for the descent, no central reservation, but on the 2 lane climbing bits the speed limit rises to 90 kph whilst the descending is 80kph have encountered this situation in other parts of Brittany as well  --  strange country!!

On 27/07/2018 at 20:46, JohnD5314 said:

 

, if you see a sign warning of speed cameras at the roadside, there WILL BE ONE somewhere close. The French do not put up random warning signs without a camera as we do.

 

Wish I had paid more attention to this sentence...

 

Late night nothing on long straight road, speed limit dropped slightly but I kept at higher limit and got flashed. Just back home waiting for the ticket...

 

I just hope it was not digital and has run out of film...

 

 

On ‎17‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 13:03, JohnD5314 said:

 

• When on a ferry, turn off the tilt sensor by setting 'Interior Monitoring' to off. NOTE this must be the last thing you do before leaving the car. Next time the car is unlocked it reverts back to 'on'.

 

You can also turn the interior monitoring off by pressing the key fob lock twice.

^    ^   costs more to chase a fine in the uk than the fine actually realises , a buddy here in finistere, a sergeant in the gendarmerie, told me that some yime ago!!

14 hours ago, don_kiddik said:

 

You can also turn the interior monitoring off by pressing the key fob lock twice.

 

Good tip.

 

I'm off over the channel tomorrow so I'll try that. My Skoda Connect will let me know if the alarm has triggered at all during the voyage.

14 hours ago, Frenchtone said:

^    ^   costs more to chase a fine in the uk than the fine actually realises , a buddy here in finistere, a sergeant in the gendarmerie, told me that some yime ago!!

I think those days might be passed as I have done some reading and apparently lots of cameras been destroyed in the recent protests so they are pursuing everyone to get money in...

 

I await a ticket in the post...

 

First ever speeding fine in my 35+ years of driving, had to break the record some time...

 

Should I let insurance know if I do get a ticket?

oK ACCEPTED, MOST OF THE AUTOROUTE CAMERAS IN fINISTERE SHOW SIGNS OF FIRE OR ARE COVERED WITH BIN LINERS THANKS TO THE ACTIVITIES OF THE RED BONNETS AND THE YELLOW JACKET PROTEST GROUPS

sorry about the caps, keyboard playing up!!