2 minutes ago, Kental said:

Having come from a Niro PHEV (not recommending it as an answer to the thread!!!), I am very disappointed with the government's current stance on PHEVs. Stating as one reason for the removal of the plug in grant was that many company cars were returned with their cables still sealed in the bags (perhaps like us the said users had a tethered charger), but still allow the extremely preferable BIK rates is a shot in the foot for the private user who generally would plug the car in and use it as intended.

Unfortunately your right, as a company car driver my biggest I interest Is the tax reductions, imagine this. You can have a diesel Octavia VRS and pay close to 300 quid a month OR have a BMW 530e m-sport for close to 100 quid a month. It's a no brainer. But im a bit of a nerd so I am interested in the electric side of it too and have just today been told we are having 2 charging points installed at work next week. 1 for me and 1 for my bosses Tesla model s which he collects at the weekend.

As a hatchback driving pheasant 😉 my wish list would be

 

>Rear heated windscreen 

>Parking Assistant; wife/daughters whoevers about

>Automatic transmission homing on the radio

>Chassis

>Headlights 

 

On topic though, a guy was talking about his Infiniti (a while back QX30? I think) and he had a 'safety pack' which included Adaptive Cruise Control.

 

However as there are so few of those on the road, it would be difficult to gauge how good they actually are!?

6 minutes ago, Another_Felicia said:

As a hatchback driving pheasant 😉 my wish list would be

 

>Rear heated windscreen 

>Parking Assistant; wife/daughters whoevers about

>Automatic transmission homing on the radio

>Chassis

>Headlights 

 

On topic though, a guy was talking about his Infiniti (a while back QX30? I think) and he had a 'safety pack' which included Adaptive Cruise Control.

 

However as there are so few of those on the road, it would be difficult to gauge how good they actually are!?

Have Nissan not pulled the plug on Infiniti over here, or are about to?  Sure I read that.

4 minutes ago, JamiePvrs said:

Unfortunately your right, as a company car driver my biggest I interest Is the tax reductions, imagine this. You can have a diesel Octavia VRS and pay close to 300 quid a month OR have a BMW 530e m-sport for close to 100 quid a month. It's a no brainer. But im a bit of a nerd so I am interested in the electric side of it too and have just today been told we are having 2 charging points installed at work next week. 1 for me and 1 for my bosses Tesla model s which he collects at the weekend.

 

We have descended from having a full EV (Renault Zoe), a few months of both the Zoe & the Niro PHEV.  The Zoe went as we had a daughter coming up 17 and quotes with her as a named driver were £3000 because of its high insurance group. Then in November I was able to save over £100 a month even including the penalty for returning the Niro 2 years early by swapping to the Octavia.  

We have no issues having more environmentally friendly cars (even though all our cars are 3 cylinder petrols), but the government, public charging (Tesla excepted) and pricing means it will be a few years yet. 

2 minutes ago, SC03OTT said:

Have Nissan not pulled the plug on Infiniti over here, or are about to?  Sure I read that.

They are selling barely 1 car per day in the UK (2019) so they can't maintain that level much longer even if they share premises/servicing areas with humble Nissans (excepting the mighty GT-R of course).

Nissan have officially stopped importing / building UK Infinitis to my knowledge, only existing stock is available.

 

As a QX30 is only a rebadged Merc GLA then I'm sure the OP has already discounted that!!!

Reading a triple road test from 27/06/2018 between Sports saloons which makes for interesting reading when compared to an RS245.

Jaguar XE 2.0T R-Sport 197bhp/320nm 8 speed auto 1,611kg 63 litre tank 0-60mph in 8.2 seconds max 148mph range on test 443 miles 32.0mpg on test 167g/km co2 price in 2018 £34,565.

Alfa Romeo Giulia Super 2.0T 197bhp/330nm 8 speed auto 1,429kg 58 litre tank 0-60mph in 6.7 seconds max 146mph range on test 392miles 30.7mpg on test 138g/km co2 price then £31,580.

Kia Stinger GT-Line 2.0T 244bhp/353nm 8 speed auto 1,717kg 60 litre tank 0-60mph in 6.9 seconds max 149mph range 362 miles on test 27.4mpg on test 181g/km co2 price then £35,525.

When you consider next to the RS245 590 litre boot they offer 455, 480 and 406 litres (Jag, Alfa & Kia) there is not much to compete in the sector with the Octavia for space and pace.

All 3 cars you compare there are rear drive so will loose on practicality owing to north south engine along with the boot space compromise.

Still searching and getting more and more confused. And peed off not being able to find the ideal replacement. 

3 minutes ago, TheWanderer said:

Still searching and getting more and more confused. And peed off not being able to find the ideal replacement. 

I’m ultimately having the same issue due to different circumstance (my lease is ending). The vRS for me isn’t excellent at anything. But it’s very good at everything.

That is the problem. I've had 4 RS's and the last 3 have been wonderful, trouble free. 

 

This one is a complete lemon. 🍋

 

I just don't know if I can trust it as long as the fault lights keep appearing, Garlands don't seem to know what is causing the issue as it appears and disappears from the fault log in the cars memory.🙄

@TheWanderer is it causing you grief to the point that you cant live with it or just being a PITA taking it back into the shop to be looked at?  If the latter then could you wait till the new one comes out and get the first one off the boat?  Or even one of the plug-ins?  Not quite a fire breathing VRS but on the hot side of warm.

 

I'm looking at a scala in a year or so.

50 minutes ago, TheWanderer said:

That is the problem. I've had 4 RS's and the last 3 have been wonderful, trouble free. 

 

This one is a complete lemon. 🍋

 

I just don't know if I can trust it as long as the fault lights keep appearing, Garlands don't seem to know what is causing the issue as it appears and disappears from the fault log in the cars memory.🙄

Have you asked them if they can get the Master Tech from Winchester to have a go - perhaps a new set of eyes will find something, I'm not sure if SUK have Master Techs that they can send down to take a look. There is obviously and intermittent issue with the car,  to be fair though intermittent issues are always a right PITA to diagnose. Might be worth a chat with the Service Manager or Even the Dealer Principle to work out a route forward that works for you.

50 minutes ago, MarkyG82 said:

@TheWanderer is it causing you grief to the point that you cant live with it or just being a PITA taking it back into the shop to be looked at?  If the latter then could you wait till the new one comes out and get the first one off the boat?  Or even one of the plug-ins?  Not quite a fire breathing VRS but on the hot side of warm.

 

I'm looking at a scala in a year or so.

 

I wish I had the option of slinging it back, but I can't my job as train driver means that I need a car to get into and out of work as I live out in the Surrey countryside, no buses or trains running 24/7.

 

I could put up with it for a while longer, until they launch the new RS, but it leaves the question "Can I trust it?" Or do I change marques?

 

I'm nervous about doing so after the Kia experience, I can't find anything else that matches the Octy for VFM, space and comfort. I think about a Golf but worry about the VW saga.

 

I love the performance of the RS and that's what I'd miss like hell, the ability to give it some welly on a quiet road and get the grin factor. Argh.

 

If I did walk away from it I'd have no collateral either as I wouldn't get any money back as it's on a PCP, So I can't sell it on. I don't have the kind of cash to finance a decent car either.

 

Basically I'm like a Xmas Turkey... Stuffed! 

You can sell it.  Just make it clear in the advert. 

So you have a new (1 yr old) car, on finance.  You want another car.  You won't consider second hand so want another brand new car that does everything that your current car does, but with better reliability (and therefore will, in all likelihood be more expensive) and you have no money to buy it with.

 

I mean, it kinda sounds like you need to compromise somewhere.  Or wait it out until you have bought the car you've got to the extent that it's a decent trade in.

Or, try a different approach with getting it fixed.  Winchester seemed pretty decent to me and they're the same group as Garlands.  I got mine from the Garlands used car place down the road from the dealer but took it to Winchester to get sorted.

 

 

 

 

Is it a complete lemon? I understand you have intermittent electrical problems that nobody seems to be able to properly diagnose, but is there anything else wrong with it? 

I still think you have one or more wiring loom faults, such as damaged cables or loose/dirty connections. Once it's been properly fixed you're good to go right?

I really do understand your frustration @TheWanderer . Before coming to a Skoda last year, I’d had loads of different cars over the years.

 

Having had JLR products for the last 5 pre Skoda years, I’d not go anywhere near their products again and I am so happy to be off that treadmill. I’ve owned maybe 40 cars over the past 30 years and the only new car I’ve ever had to reject was the Range Rover, bought new and back to the dealer 9 times in the first 3 months of ownership. Bought a Velar as part of the “soft rejection” process, and spent the next year waiting for known faults to develop. Nothing serious did develop but it was a far from enjoyable experience as I was always waiting for a problem to manifest itself and I was so pleased to get into the Superb.

 

The only car that ever left me stranded was in 2007, brand new S class Mercedes (courtesy of my employer) which had a total suspension failure after 6 months and had to be recovered on a truck.

 

So I guess what I’m saying is that any manufacturer at any price point can issue the odd Friday Afternoon car, some (JLR) with more regularity than others (VAG, Volvo, Lexus). It’s damned frustrating when you have copped for a lemon.

 

I chose Skoda because over the years, our local taxi company has run Octavias and Superbs, and every time I went in them they always seemed tight as a drum after 150,000+ miles, and all the drivers sang their praises. I’m delighted so far with mine. And also struggled to find an alternative that came out at less than the £40k extra tax bracket and had excellent servicing costs (£750 for my Velar 1 year mini service for example) and cheap consumables such as tyres (£120 for a replacement on the Skoda following a puncture). 

 

Hence if I was in your position, I’d be talking to the Dealer Principal about getting a good PX/good price on another VRS. The probability of getting another duffer is pretty low, and you can always make it clear that if the new one has problems it will be rejected given the history with the current car. With the now model due soon, there may be some great deals to be had. (I’d avoid the 2020 car for a year or so as manufacturers have a habit of beta testing cars on customers, it never seems to pay to be an early adopter of new products - just my personal opinion)

 

Other than that I guess you’ll have to compromise on spec and move over to Volvo, which was the other car I had on my shortlist. They are certainly doing some cracking cars at the moment. 

 

BTW the only reason I didn’t buy a VRS Estate was because I don’t like black interiors and that was the only choice on the VRS.

 

Good luck with whatever you do!

 

 

 

 

Edited 22 January, 20206 yr by FatWolfie
Grammar

2 hours ago, TheWanderer said:

That is the problem. I've had 4 RS's and the last 3 have been wonderful, trouble free. 

 

This one is a complete lemon. 🍋

 

I just don't know if I can trust it as long as the fault lights keep appearing, Garlands don't seem to know what is causing the issue as it appears and disappears from the fault log in the cars memory.🙄

Can you not buy an OBD fault logger and leave it plugged in? 

17 minutes ago, penguin17 said:

Can you not buy an OBD fault logger and leave it plugged in? 

 

I did that and was told not to do it as the dealer suspects that it is downloading the information from the car BEFORE they can get to it and leaving them nothing to look at. Now I find that quite hard to believe, however I'm not an expert in cars or how they work, so it could be true. 

 

Since they have requested that I leave the OBD11 device out of the OBD port, I'm doing so, to see if this is the case in which case they should in theory get a whole load of errors when it goes back in again for the 5th time on February 3rd. 

 

They've got pictorial evidence of the fault and previous download data from the car, so they now have a considerable amount of stuff to work on. 

Edited 22 January, 20206 yr by TheWanderer

5 hours ago, TheWanderer said:

Still searching and getting more and more confused. And peed off not being able to find the ideal replacement. 

The answer is out there oh wise Buddha.

Sounds like @FatWolfie has nailed it.  keep trying to get it fixed to a point where you are happy or discuss you options with the dealer for a replacement as only a small % of cars can be Friday afternoon jobs Shirley?

 

I dealt with Garlands when looking for mine and they seemed a good, knowledgeable bunch.

At the moment it's not affecting the way the car drives like going into Limp Mode or reducing the performance just your anxiety levels instead. I owned a SEAT Toledo diesel in 2004 that would switch the engine off at any point in a journey and I eventually left it with the supplying garage until they found the fault and fixed it (faulty relay connected to the glow plugs).

I feel your pain,

 

After nearly two decades of having at least one VAG product in the Family fleet our MQB Octy was unreliable and unrefined. I didn't enjoy the driving experience or the ownership experience. And as most of my issues are common MQB issues then another VAG product wasn't on the cards.

 

If you want auto and I've had many and get to drive many the best auto on sale in my opinion is the ZF8HP and that still gives you a fair amount of choice. (Owned 4)

 

It depends on how big a boot you need and how big a car you will look at. If I was considering a new petrol/hybrid and company tax was an issue I'd be looking at 330E or 530E

Edited 22 January, 20206 yr by logiclee

Just read a bit about the ZF8HP. Wow, that's a transmission!