Are you happy with the new infotainment system?

[ajw1100]

I'm still pondering what to do, go for Mk4 or stay with my Mk3. I have had a few minutes playing with the new Mk4 infotainment system and it is not, in my opinion, very intuitive or user friendly, Dashboards these days seem to have gone from a multitude of tiny knobs and buttons to modern all singing and dancing electronics. I suppose this is called 'progress'.

My wife is always complaining about being too hot or too cold or where the air is coming from as it too much of a gale.

At the dealers I asked the sales exec to show me how to adjust the infotainment screen brightness as for example I am driving home on the M25 in usual heavy traffic, it's getting dark and screen is now too bright and I need to tone it down a bit. He pushed and swiped then swiped some more, delved into different menus, I have no idea where he was going and I am sure he did not either. After about 40 seconds he found where to alter the brightness. In that 40 seconds I hate to think what may have occurred on the M25 as he did not take his eyes off the info screen once.

 

So what do you think of this system? Easy to get to grips with, intuitive?

 

I understand the new Audi A3 has gone back to buttons for some of the functions, mostly with the Heating Venting and AC controls. 

[zxcslo]

If you don't love the Octavia for her driving, space, simple and clever solutions then you'll hate it.

The infotainment is devastatingly bad. 

I had my MK3 Octavia vRS Manual from 2014 for 6 years and I love it.

Now I have the new RS for a week and and I’m almost sorry I bought it... all that because of the infotainment system.

Using this infotainment during driving is worse and more dangerous than using the phone. 

 

For the last 6 years me and my family loved Škoda. My wife have Fabia and my son also Octavia from 2014.

The purchase of a new octavia left a very bitter aftertaste and at the moment I don't know what to think ...

[shyVRS245]

This is one of the reasons I swapped from a 2019 Superb with the 9.2" Columbus to the older 8" Amundsen in my 2020 Superb because it is much nicer to use when driving much like the similar system in our other car a January 2018 SEL Karoq which still works easily after 28,000 miles.

[SoupDragon]

You can control the heating easily and it is dual zone. It's difficult to use it for anything else on the move. If the radio is on, leave it on, you can select stations and volume form the steering wheel. My backlight is set to 50% and I don't need to change it. Anything else needs a passenger to sort out.

 

 

 

 

 

[Matmacka]

51 minutes ago, SoupDragon said:

You can control the heating easily and it is dual zone. It's difficult to use it for anything else on the move. If the radio is on, leave it on, you can select stations and volume form the steering wheel. My backlight is set to 50% and I don't need to change it. Anything else needs a passenger to sort out.

 

 

 

 

 

or you can just use voice command for it all? Im really lost when people say its distracting when anything you need whilst driving can be done with your voice

[PeteHav]

I agree with all that was said about the infotainment system. It is very distracting to change things and not easy to navigate.

As for voice control I've had to turn it off. I'm told by customer services that it is working correctly ... however when you have a conversation in the car it keeps popping up "what can I do for you?" ... "Go away" ...

[SoupDragon]

Some of us don't have voice control

[fox2319]

12 hours ago, PeteHav said:

I agree with all that was said about the infotainment system. It is very distracting to change things and not easy to navigate.

As for voice control I've had to turn it off. I'm told by customer services that it is working correctly ... however when you have a conversation in the car it keeps popping up "what can I do for you?" ... "Go away" ...

Even if you turn off the voice prompt, you, still have the button on the steering wheel to initiate voice commands. That works ok and you can long press it for Siri if using an iPhone. 
 

That being said, although I really enjoy driving the car, I still have a bit of buyers regret and wish sometimes I’d stuck with my 2017 Yeti until they got all the bugs out. 

[PetrolDave]

40 minutes ago, fox2319 said:

 wish sometimes I’d stuck with my 2017 Yeti until they got all the bugs out. 

A few years ago when I was working for an automotive consultancy one of the development engineers at Ford Research Dunton expressed the opinion that he would never buy any new model in its first year as, in his opinion, new models were usually rushed to market before they had the bugs fixed.

Edited 13 November, 2020 by PetrolDave

[Fishcann]

I hear what people are saying about the infotainment and agree that to find some things you have to go deeper into the menu, however the things that I use the most I have setup as a shortcut on the pull down tab so I now don't have to go into sub menus.

This works for me and I can change things with the minimum of fuss.

I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of information you can have on display and I was regularly changing it on different journeys but now I seldom change anything and leave it on a setup I'm happy with. I really only tend to use the info in the virtual cockpit now  as that's very easy to change on the move from the steering wheel controls.

That said, I can appreciate others views, but I really like it. I've got a few glitches but I'm not losing sleep over it, I'm sure a software patch will fix that soon.

 

[ajw1100]

Thanks for your thoughts, I like my Mk3, its easy to live with, not over technical and does what I need. As regards getting the passenger to make changes, my wife's logic is if she shuts her eyes and keeps pressing the digital buttons it will be fine

I gave up on voice control soon after purchase in 2015, drove me up the wall!!

I reckon I will stick with the Mk3 and look around for a late Mk3 L&K model. I guess I will get a call from the dealer early next year when more Mk4 models are available with DSG and hopefully the glitches will be sorted out by then.

 

2 hours ago, PetrolDave said:

A few years ago when I was working for an automotive consultancy one of the development engineers at Ford Research Dunton expressed the opinion that he would never buy any new model in its first year as, in his opinion, new models were usually rushed to market before they had the bugs fixed.

 

Wise words......

[Davidr1986]

The infotainment system isn’t great. I don’t know if this issue is with Apple or Skoda, but CarPlay is very glitchy, occasionally the lag between pressing the screen and the action being done is horrendous and sometimes the screen just goes black when you select CarPlay and won’t work until car is switched off and on again.

 

I had CarPlay in my previous cars which were a Mazda 3 fastback, and in my old work Kia Soul EV, it was a little glitchy in them but not as bad as it is in the Skoda

 

My Octavia is a lease and I only have the car for two years, the space and practicality is amazing but the other stuff is liveable for the two years I’ll have it, but not sure I would be happy if I knew I’d have to keep it for a longer period of time  

[cheezemonkhai]

I don't own the mk4, but having had a MK1, 2 and 3 plus use of Audi/VW group cars, I can confidently say that the current system has put me off any car in the entire group that uses it.

 

Somebody mentioned Audi have a dial again, do you have a link to that info, as that might make them an option if I can find a non-rubbish dealer.

[ajw1100]

I have been using YouTube car reviews, mostly trying to find a replacement for the Octavia, I looked at a CarWow review of the A3 and I think it was mentioned by Matt that Audi seemed to have woken up and had dials you could twiddle! or something like that, I have seen so many I'm no longer sure which I've seen and which I haven't ! Still haven't found anything that is much better overall than the Octavia I have now. Looked at C200, 3 series, 508SW, Focus Estate and Active, VAG group with the horrible info, Toyota with the wind up CVT box. Maybe they'll be bringing back the DAF

Reckon I need a 2019 L&K Octavia Estate.........

Edited 28 November, 2020 by ajw1100

[kernowalan]

On 13/11/2020 at 12:48, ajw1100 said:

Thanks for your thoughts, I like my Mk3, its easy to live with, not over technical and does what I need. As regards getting the passenger to make changes, my wife's logic is if she shuts her eyes and keeps pressing the digital buttons it will be fine

I gave up on voice control soon after purchase in 2015, drove me up the wall!!

I reckon I will stick with the Mk3 and look around for a late Mk3 L&K model. I guess I will get a call from the dealer early next year when more Mk4 models are available with DSG and hopefully the glitches will be sorted out by then.

 

 

Wise words......

Just bought a Mk 4 31st January. Sat nav in kms, no option to display speed in kph. 2 years 2 months and odd after the post above.

Skoda customer service (or the fob off customers into the dustbin) dept don’t reply.

I feel my anger rising at this abysmal state of affairs. A Court Service Online claim might get Skoda’s attention. i’ll be doing the summons very soon.