2021 VRS TDI 4x4 - A few weeks into ownership

[MadPete]

So I thought I'd give a bit of a update, and mini review of my new VRS after a few weeks of getting to know it. 

 

Over all, it's a good car. It does have some strong points and some niggles... which I will list below. 

 

Positives:

 

Mechanically it feels very robust, the car has a very "solid" feel to it that inspires confidence. 

 

It handles very well, has loads of grip, and the 4x4 system means that torque is handled without any dramas. It's quite a deceptive car, in that it's faster than it feels. Again, I think this is down the the 4x4 because acceleration is pretty refined. The suspension strikes a good balance between sporty, but without being overly hard. 

 

The engine is great IF you want an engine that balances a "bit a poke, with good efficiency". It's pretty much as quick the the 2 wheel drive petrol in the dry, and I'd wager quicker off the line in the wet... but I got 50.8 mpg returned on a 25 min drive the other day (mix of motorway and A Roads) and I'm averaging 44.5 mpg with mostly pootling around town. 

 

It's extremely comfortable, practical, and the boot is huge...the usual Skoda things. 

 

The next point is personal opinion, but I think it's probably the best looking VRS so far... it gets lots of attention. 

 

Negatives:

 

The sound actuator is on in Normal mode, and it's loud. It cannot be turned off in Normal mode and it sounds particularly stupid on a Diesel VRS! 

 

Following on from this point, the car does not remember driving profiles and so resets to Normal mode after every restart. 

 

The infotainment system is slow to boot up, it's still laggy and still a bit flaky. 

 

Gremlins:

 

These may or may not be issues just with my car... So any feedback from fellow owners very welcome! 

 

Keyless entry - Randomly does not detect the key. It detects at the door, lets you in, but then will not start the car.  With the message "Key not detected, hold key against surface" 

 

Lane Assist - Randomly tells me to "Drive in the middle of the lane" and bongs at me. Sometimes just for a few seconds, sometimes for 30-45 seconds... I am of course perfectly in my lane. 

 

Overall I like the car, if it didn't have these issues it would be a brilliant car. As it is, I feel like the previous VRS I had (which never put a foot wrong) gained my trust more... I feel like I don't trust this car at the moment, because of it's glitchy nature. It makes me think, if these things are glitchy after a few weeks... what else will go wrong  🤷‍♂️🤔

 

Maybe software fixes going forward can iron some of these things out, but I'm not feeling particularly confident about it at the moment. 

 

Just some honest thoughts guys, feedback from other owners very welcome. 

[Schtum]

Your fuel consumption figures make me aware that we're paying a fair bit more at the pumps for the privilege of sitting up a bit higher in a Karoq which has pretty much the same running gear.  

[Fentona]

I have an identical car and this is the 5th VRS that I have now owned.  I too can't fault the looks and the very positive feedback that I have had is great.  Handling and performance are just what I expected if not more.  This is the first car that I have had with DSG too and I am still experimenting a bit with it.

 

Sadly though at the moment I do have a couple of things that are really annoying me and they are:-

 

The infotainment system is slow at starting up in particular the navigation and twice nowIi have had to a soft reboot on the wholething.  It has twice now logged me out of my skoda connect account and having never used this before feel a bit cheesed off that it does this...why?  As the only user nothing has changed.

 

I am also having issues with the adaptive cruise control in that at times it picks up a car in my nearside lane and despite being in the outside lane it matches it speed and will not allow me to make progress unless I tap the accelerator.

 

Finally the rear window wiper will operate if the car front wipers are on intermittent....even when there is no water on the back window....really annoying and I can't seem to be able to switch it off.  I much preferred my previous model when I had total manual operation over whether I had the thing going or not.

 

Any advice or comments and similar feedback/issues I would be interested to hear about. 

[TheUltraRunner]

2 hours ago, Fentona said:

Finally the rear window wiper will operate if the car front wipers are on intermittent....even when there is no water on the back window....really annoying and I can't seem to be able to switch it off.  I much preferred my previous model when I had total manual operation over whether I had the thing going or not.

 

Any advice or comments and similar feedback/issues I would be interested to hear about. 

Try turning off "Rear window wiping in reverse". This should stop your rear wiper to wipe by itself. For example my rear wiper never does that. Even when I have front wipers on intermittent. 

[TheUltraRunner]

@MadPete what is your infotainment device part number? And what SW version do you have?

 

I must say I don't have any issues with the Kessy or with the lane assist. But I did make the change (by a car specialist) and turn on the memory function for the Lane assist so now it remembers the state in which it was before you turn off the car.  

[Woodgnome60]

21 hours ago, MadPete said:

So I thought I'd give a bit of a update, and mini review of my new VRS after a few weeks of getting to know it. 

 

Over all, it's a good car. It does have some strong points and some niggles... which I will list below. 

 

Positives:

 

Mechanically it feels very robust, the car has a very "solid" feel to it that inspires confidence. 

 

It handles very well, has loads of grip, and the 4x4 system means that torque is handled without any dramas. It's quite a deceptive car, in that it's faster than it feels. Again, I think this is down the the 4x4 because acceleration is pretty refined. The suspension strikes a good balance between sporty, but without being overly hard. 

 

The engine is great IF you want an engine that balances a "bit a poke, with good efficiency". It's pretty much as quick the the 2 wheel drive petrol in the dry, and I'd wager quicker off the line in the wet... but I got 50.8 mpg returned on a 25 min drive the other day (mix of motorway and A Roads) and I'm averaging 44.5 mpg with mostly pootling around town. 

 

It's extremely comfortable, practical, and the boot is huge...the usual Skoda things. 

 

The next point is personal opinion, but I think it's probably the best looking VRS so far... it gets lots of attention. 

 

Negatives:

 

The sound actuator is on in Normal mode, and it's loud. It cannot be turned off in Normal mode and it sounds particularly stupid on a Diesel VRS! 

 

Following on from this point, the car does not remember driving profiles and so resets to Normal mode after every restart. 

 

The infotainment system is slow to boot up, it's still laggy and still a bit flaky. 

 

Gremlins:

 

These may or may not be issues just with my car... So any feedback from fellow owners very welcome! 

 

Keyless entry - Randomly does not detect the key. It detects at the door, lets you in, but then will not start the car.  With the message "Key not detected, hold key against surface" 

 

Lane Assist - Randomly tells me to "Drive in the middle of the lane" and bongs at me. Sometimes just for a few seconds, sometimes for 30-45 seconds... I am of course perfectly in my lane. 

 

Overall I like the car, if it didn't have these issues it would be a brilliant car. As it is, I feel like the previous VRS I had (which never put a foot wrong) gained my trust more... I feel like I don't trust this car at the moment, because of it's glitchy nature. It makes me think, if these things are glitchy after a few weeks... what else will go wrong  🤷‍♂️🤔

 

Maybe software fixes going forward can iron some of these things out, but I'm not feeling particularly confident about it at the moment. 

 

Just some honest thoughts guys, feedback from other owners very welcome. 

Your appraisal seems pretty typical. Great looking car with buggy electronics. The drive assist is a feature I really want to work well and bothers me the most. 

 

You are really selling be the 4x4 because with my previous FWD vRS the problem was always putting the power down in wet or dry from a standing start. I always thought it would really suit a 4x4 system.

 

Your fuel consumption figures are similar to my current BMW X1 2.0d M Sport (44mpg / 54mpg tonight on 14 mile run home from work). My Mk3 vRS 2.0d was about 55mpg on long daily commutes - but I do drive veryy frugally, rarely using brakes with all gearbox deceleration.

[Fentona]

17 hours ago, TheUltraRunner said:

Try turning off "Rear window wiping in reverse". This should stop your rear wiper to wipe by itself. For example my rear wiper never does that. Even when I have front wipers on intermittent. 

Thank you for this advice and it was something that I was going to try but hadn't....and it seems to have worked!!  My only concern now is that when it is raining and I put the car into reverse it will not wipe away the water on the back window, but I suppose I will just need to get used to manually operating it!!

[TheUltraRunner]

7 hours ago, Fentona said:

Thank you for this advice and it was something that I was going to try but hadn't....and it seems to have worked!!  My only concern now is that when it is raining and I put the car into reverse it will not wipe away the water on the back window, but I suppose I will just need to get used to manually operating it!!

Yes, that is the downside if you like this feature. I must admit I have never even consider turning it on. If will need to wipe the rear window I will do it manually. But anyway I mostly use my side mirrors when reversing.

[Greezy56]

Just a wee note on the ACC , my Superb last car 67 plate , did exactly the same with cars ,, mostly lorries in the inside lane as i overtook. I learned to keep my foot near the peddle to stop the braking. This may be caused by the design that most of the markets this system is used on drive on the other side to us Brits. We well maybe an after thought as a lot of guys on this forum from east Europe , Scandinavia dont mention this problem.

My tuppence as usual 

Edited 16 April, 2021 by Greezy56

[Pagan-Image]

On 17/04/2021 at 00:03, Greezy56 said:

Just a wee note on the ACC , my Superb last car 67 plate , did exactly the same with cars ,, mostly lorries in the inside lane as i overtook. I learned to keep my foot near the peddle to stop the braking. This may be caused by the design that most of the markets this system is used on drive on the other side to us Brits. We well maybe an after thought as a lot of guys on this forum from east Europe , Scandinavia dont mention this problem.

My tuppence as usual 

I had exactly the same issue on my 18 plate Superb L&K. However i did find that after a while it did figure out that i was driving on the left and stopped doing it, until i went on the ferry to Holland and it got confused . 

 

I did find my L&K very glitchy, it had the columbus with ACC, occasionally the MFSW would stop recognising inputs until i held down the right hand side turn wheel for 3 seconds. 

 

My O3 VRS has alot less issues