Advice on a purchase of used Superb 2.0 TSI vs 1.4 IV

[pkk11]

Hi Folks, long time lurker here, but time has come to register and ask the experts here for some advice!

 

In short, based in the UK, want to purchase a Superb Mk III L&K and am considering either a 2.0 TSI or 1.4 IV. Originally was going to go for the 2.0, but have started noticing that the IV variant is dropping in price by quote a lot making it a viable purchase for my commuting needs.

Use of the car will be mostly short journeys, within 15 miles, with the occasional 100+ mile once a month, making the IV a good contender, as I have where to charge it at home, albeit on a granny plug. Searched everywhere, but could barely find anything on battery capacity and performance on IVs with 50k+ miles on the odometer - Is there a user here, that has this kind of mileage on any of the IV 13kwh variants to report any usage? 

Main worry is that battery is close to its end of life, and would be lugging around an extra 2-300kg of weight unnecessary, when I could've taken the 2.0 and not have that problem in the first place?

I read online that Skoda covers HV battery for 8 years or 100k miles, but I don't trust that replacement will be an easy if it fails before, due to some small font condition, buried in the T&Cs...

 

I have my eye on two IVs, both single owner cars with full service history from Skoda dealers, and both look to be company cars, guessing from the mileage. One is 46k mileage, hatchback; and the other is 80k miles, estate, both in very good cosmetic condition, inside and out.

 

Would appreciate any input here. Many thanks!

[techsearchuk]

I have a 2020 Superb iV SEL with just under 40k in the clock. I bought it because a lot of my journeys are short and I also really like the smoothness and low noise of the electric drive. I had a fully electric car previously but couldn't afford to go fully electric again on a car the size of the Superb so it was a compromise for me. It's worked out well and really don't regret it. I probably get about 20+ miles from the battery.

 

For piece of mind I took out the Skoda All In plan at £29 a month which covers extended warranty, service, MOT and breakdown cover. 

 

I've been toying with selling for sometime now to go fully electric again but finding it very hard to find something comparable to the Superb that is affordable! 

[MarkyG82]

Passat gte here. Very happy with it and get about 17 miles range this time of year. About 26 in the summer with AC. Can pip 30 if I turn off AC. The batteries in phevs or EVs are affected loads by temperature. Mine is the older version with the smaller battery though. I wouldn't worry about battery degradation. They are quite good with an invisible buffer top and bottom and water cooled. No issues with charging to 100% every day.

I would definitely recommend a wall box. Faster charging and much much safer. 3 pin sockets are not designed to supply 10A for hours at a time every day. Ok for just starting out or emergency.

The drive is refined but not neck wrenching (unless you tune it). Very practical but you lose the variable boot floor although still have about half the storage under it. So no spare wheel.

Otherwise it's standard Skoda Superb.

[pkk11]

16 hours ago, techsearchuk said:

I have a 2020 Superb iV SEL with just under 40k in the clock. I bought it because a lot of my journeys are short and I also really like the smoothness and low noise of the electric drive. I had a fully electric car previously but couldn't afford to go fully electric again on a car the size of the Superb so it was a compromise for me. It's worked out well and really don't regret it. I probably get about 20+ miles from the battery.

 

For piece of mind I took out the Skoda All In plan at £29 a month which covers extended warranty, service, MOT and breakdown cover. 

 

I've been toying with selling for sometime now to go fully electric again but finding it very hard to find something comparable to the Superb that is affordable! 

Thank you mate, this is insightful! How many miles you reckon you've done on electricity only, 1/3?

Also, what's your mpg on longer drives (>100 miles)?

 

Finally, I read that Skoda has this app to control charging, etc, is it subscription based, or all free?

[crankcase]

I have a 2020 iv L&K. It has 35k on it. The worst battery range I've ever had is 24. The most was an amazing 42, when everything was perfect. Mostly, it's the low thirties.

 

I do 14k miles a year, 7k on just electricity. 7kw wall charger at home, but remember these cars charge at 3.5kw max, so not quick.

 

I regularly drive 320 miles to Scotland. If I set off with 30 miles electric range, at the other end it reports about 75 miles on pure electric running, as it's excellent at regeneration at every slow down. The mpg on that run is usually reported at about 60.

 

A smaller run, say 100 miles, often yields mpg of 80 or more.

 

It's a great car.

[globalste]

On 18/01/2024 at 12:01, pkk11 said:

Thank you mate, this is insightful! How many miles you reckon you've done on electricity only, 1/3?

Also, what's your mpg on longer drives (>100 miles)?

 

Finally, I read that Skoda has this app to control charging, etc, is it subscription based, or all free?

The app is a bit flaky, the car can sometimes go to sleep and not allow the pre-heating from the app, however, I mostly set mine on a calendar timer and it heats up pretty regularly.  Occasionally charging doesn't happen as per schedule, which can be annoying, I've not found the reason for this.  It's a yearly subscription, about £80pa if you want the emergency assist and the app and the map updates.

 

Crankcase gets some seriously good mileage out of his, although I live in a rather hilly countryside where all the roads are 50mph+, I tend to get between 22-29.  I once got 35 in the summer being really careful with it, mine is a sportline wagon.  Longer journeys as crankcase says, you can end up with 25-30% of your journey being on electric due to coasting and regeneration.  I find it does best in stop-start traffic or 50mph roadworks, it does worst on hilly a-roads, pretty much like an EV.  Best ive had is 78mpg on a 100mile run, otherwise its pretty much impossible to get it below 50mpg, the thing will do 47mpg with a flat battery.

 

The downside, charging is dog slow.  It never remembers your last EV driving setting eg hybrid and only use 50% of the battery, so it defaults to only electric every time.  Pre-heating the car in the winter before you leave is an absolute must.

 

I reckon I put fuel in mine once every two months.  It's used exactly as you will use yours, less than 20miles daily, with the occasional 100 mile journey.

 

If you want a bit more oomph then ABT do an upgrade to raise the engine from 150bhp to 185bhp, its a piggyback chip.  They do the same chips for the Seat Cupra via main dealerships.

 

Edited 31 January by globalste

[pkk11]

Thank you all for the help here!

I've actually pulled the trigger and bought the car! So far, first impressions are great, fuel economy is surreal (although only done like 60 miles all short journeys).

One small issue is the slowness of the infotainment system when the car boots up, but I guess it needs some getting used to. Also the lack of android auto onto the virtual cockpit 😕 but it is what is it, I guess. 

 

Did a service as part of the sale, and they changed oil, filter and spark plugs. Prev history only shows oil changes. Anything that you think needs changing?

 

Really excited to have it, so want to make sure everything is sorted at the start.

[techsearchuk]

You're infotainment might be due an upgrade to the software. Mine was painfully slow when I first got it. I'll check tomorrow what version mine is now running as its so much better. 

[crankcase]

While you can't get android auto in the virtual cockpit, it will show the next turn direction from Waze. I don't know if it does that with Carplay as well.

 

For mine, I prefer the sort of one pedal drive feel you get from B rather than D, so I've always used B exclusively. I don't know whether that contributes to my good consumption or not.

 

I also usually use Comfort in the DCC, which I think runs stuff in Eco in the background.

 

And finally, I toodle a bit on motorways, very rarely setting the ACC above 70, and often at 65. If I do get bored and set it to 75, then mpg will drop to mid fifties if I have an empty battery .

 

I tried using the "top the battery up while driving" option just once, which killed the mpg down to twenty something. Never again.

[globalste]

The only VAG cars I can think that mirror everything to the dashboard is the Audi TT and the R8.  Android doesn’t work as functionally as CarPlay for a lot of vehicles, eg on the latest JLR they will mirror applemaps onto the dashboard but not Googlemaps - I suspect Apple Pay more somehow in order to get people to use their maps?  I find CarPlay in general quite annoying, I don’t really use it, I think the Skoda maps work pretty well and if you tell the car you want 50% battery by the end of the journey it knows what it’s doing, I just have google maps as a backup for traffic etc, never really used waze.

 

Brake fluid change and aircon decontamination is what’s on the service list, but they cost extra.  I tend to change the cabin filters every year myself, £7 from eurocarparts etc.

[crankcase]

Mine's at 33k miles. I think the DSG fluid needs doing at 40k. I'm not 100% sure I'll still have it though, vaguely looking to change, though no idea what to. Don't like the look of the inside of the new as yet unreleased Superb much, especially as it's in estate form only for the PHEV.

[techsearchuk]

On 31/01/2024 at 22:25, techsearchuk said:

You're infotainment might be due an upgrade to the software. Mine was painfully slow when I first got it. I'll check tomorrow what version mine is now running as its so much better. 

My software version is 0278. It's much better than the version that I had when I first got the car. 

[pkk11]

Thanks, strangely, mine is 0156, which sounds way too old? It's connected to my home WiFi, sat in the car for 20-30mins, on the "searching for updates" screen, but nothing was found. Is there a way to manually load the new software? Thanks jn advance

[vegarz]

156 to 278 best on dealer.

Not OTA firm  update, only minor updated.

[vegarz]

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/512288-update-my-car-from-0156-to-0306/

[pkk11]

1 hour ago, vegarz said:

156 to 278 best on dealer.

Not OTA firm  update, only minor updated.

Thanks vegarz, had a look at the thread, looks like I would need to contact the dealer for some excel sheet containing some activation number as the GPS will stop working?

 

Also, is the update from 156 to 278 from the dealer free of charge or do you pay for it?

 Finally, what odb reader I need, as I see some referenced in the threads?

 

Many thanks

[vegarz]

The most popular OBD are Obdeleven and VCDS, but to do this you need ODIS and to be an expert.

Try to find tpi 2060553/5.

You can refer those issues to dealer.

Dealer update mine under extend guarantee. 

In other forums some people says that VAG group is going to update 156 firm.