I’ve recently bought a 1.5 Scala SE L DSG 69 plate having traded in my older Octavia as I no longer needed a car of that size. Here are my non techy thoughts if anyone is interested.

 

Very comfortable. Much more comfortable than my wife’s Rapid. Goes like a rocket. Very roomy. I can’t fault the comfort or the way it drives at all and as others have said on here, it’s a light year away from the Rapid. It’s very much like the Octavia in that respect but smaller.

 

There’s just a couple of minor things that frustrate me.

 

It has the lane sensor which I find annoying. Unless I am missing something, I can’t disable just that feature permanently. I can disable it at any time but have to do it each time I start the car as it defaults to on.

 

USB C slots. Why?

 

Finally, it has the Amundsen 9.2 inch stereo which is fantastic but for one thing. It has a hard drive but you can’t upload to it. All radio station logos are already stored on there for presets (the ones you can download from Skoda Updates website). When you save a preset, you get options of which logo you want. Many are missing, meaning I can’t store a logo but when you  can they’re often wrong! Unlike on the Octavia, there is no option to upload the correct logos via USB. It’s OCD on my part but I find it absolutely infuriating (although it’s minor)

USB C may well be the latest incarnation but it does have benefits.

 

Congratulations on your new Scala. Im enjoying my 1.5 and its surprising power, and low fuel cost.

 

Its a common complaint - even in the reviews - about how the lane assist cant be turned off permanently. I live with it on and I'm working out how to avoid triggering it (maybe thats a good thing?)

At least the stop/start disable  button is easy to access.

 

The USB slots are good for future proofing connectivity. My current and former phone are usb-c and came with an adapter. I've found it's actually harder to find a usb-c to usb-c cable (specially a short one) to use instead of the adapter, but I've managed to.

My problem is the tray for the phone doesn't fit a larger smartphone well when a cable is connected. It cannot sit fully in the tray The cable ends up over the edge and gets bent - over time I can see this wearing out the cable and damaging it. First World problems huh..

 

Cant comment on the Admundsen as we dont get that here (only Swing and Bolero). I live constantly on Android Auto anyway. With the integrated Spotify and TuneIn Radio I can play anything, including radio, all voice controlled, which works well.

 

 

The lane assist aggressiveness  sometimes can be very annoying, but once or twice it saved me from some potentially harmful situations, so i tolerate it. 

 

I personally am very pleased with the USB-C. Yes, the right cable is hard to find, but the charging is very fast even with bluetooth, gps, android auto and other apps working.

 

Lane assist is probably the most dangerous feature I have ever come across.  On narrow country lanes it tries to steer me into a head on collision with the oncoming truck I am keeping left to avoid.  It also doesn't like the idea of positioning for better vision.

 

It is designed for people who fall asleep on motorways, on normal roads it is useless.  My suspicion is that it was developed by people who drive on better continental roads.

 

Other than this, the car is fine.

 

Radio station logos not all radio stations have them anyway. The hard drive is for map updates and unit update 

Hi All

 

A few thoughts on the responses and agree with most. The economy is excellent. I did a 250 mile round trip the other day and clocked in at 56.5 mpg for it which blew me away. Regularly get 40 round town.

 

Not being able to turn off the lane assist as default is a right pain in the backside and I agree that it's really jerky. I can easily see how it could cause a problem on a small lane. Think i needs looking at.

 

Finally re the logos. The Skoda stored logos also reside on the hard drive. I know they are not all available which was kind of the point. On my old Octavia I could go to the website of the radio station in question and download the logo as a png or jpg, put it on a stick and upload it to the unit. The option to upload does not exist and although it's not a big thing it just winds me up for some reason. It's doubly annoying as a load of the logos that get assigned are actually wrong (i.e a different station) no matter how you try and select them.

 

I called the Skoda helpline to see if anyone could help me, they emailed me and answered a totally different question to the one I asked. Does anyone know what software platform the Amundsen runs on?

I bought an ex-demo Scala in March and I've been really pleased with it apart from the already mentioned lane "assist", which I turn off at the start of each trip. I live in Scotland and it is dangerous on the type of roads I drive on. I regularly drive on a road where there is a tar line down one side where the road has been repaired and if I leave it on it constantly wants to steer me into the verge. I doubt I would buy another Skoda with this feature. As a previous poster mentioned, it may be helpful on motorways etc, but not on A/B roads in the UK.

 

I have a 1.0 TSI SE with the Bolero stereo (I think) - it has been good although I am constantly bugged with pop ups asking me to "ok" privacy settings, which is irritating. If I turn off all the privacy features they default back on the next time I start the car and the pop ups re-appear. Any info on this would be gratefully received. 

I got a 1.0TSI Scala as a replacement for my Superb while it's in the workshop. As mentioned the lane assist is a "killer" feature. In my small country lanes i has already tried to steer me into oncoming traffic twice, and i have only driven 100km so far. It's a pain to turn it off all the time because whenever i forgot to do so the car just tries to set me up for heads on collision.

 

Another fun feature is this SOS thing. the roads here are bad, bumps and bangs happen. But somehow Scala decides that they are enough to warrant a big SOS message. Had happened this twice now without any excessive effort, just more or less normal roads for my area.

 

This 1.0TSI engine is as bad as i expected, compared to the 1.5TSI i see no reason why it should exist. Fuel consumption is the same as it is on Superb, while the car is a lot smaller. Performance however is not comparable at all.

 

Scala is not a bad car, but coming from Superb the difference is big, it just feels like a cheap small car, given the option i would not bother with it and just go for a lower spec Octavia or Superb.

The Superb i'm comparing it to is not an LK, but the cheapest base model that is possible to buy, 1.5TSI manual, with ACC option, rest of it is base model, and it still a lot more of a car than the Scala i'm stuck with.

Update after 2400km with scala. Lane assist is a feature i have grown to hate. I tried my best to adapt to it, but its impossible. It tried to kill me 4  times and tried to kill byciclers only 3 times.

It's not a bad car per se, but it's bad compared to superb.

Edited 17 July, 20205 yr by Zoig

According to the internet you can permanently disable lane assist or change it to remember the last state.

The drop down options are "not active", "active" and "last setting".

I haven't had the time to let Skoda reprogram that, but it seems quite plausible for me.

2 hours ago, NotSure said:

According to the internet you can permanently disable lane assist or change it to remember the last state.

The drop down options are "not active", "active" and "last setting".

I haven't had the time to let Skoda reprogram that, but it seems quite plausible for me.

great to know, I’m going to purchase vcds mobile soon so I’ll give it a go.

On 20/07/2020 at 08:48, NotSure said:

According to the internet you can permanently disable lane assist or change it to remember the last state.

 I was guessing that i could be done or just fully disabled. But since it's a short term loaner i'd rather not tinker with it and just do my best with the vanilla experience.

Agree with the lane assist comments. Particularly dangerous when overtaking cyclists.

Just done a trip today from Northumberland back to York in my 1.0 SE L DSG and averaged 60.1mpg!

Lane assist does not sound good, particularly for the rural single track and 2 lane single carriageway roads that make up 99% of my driving.

 

But then again I am realising that cars and their assists are increasingly being designed with only motorway and city driving in mind - with the possible exception of a few high performance cars being designed for the Nürburgring.