I got a new 2024 Octavia Sportsline (still old design) with Bolera Infotainment. I realised that i need to pay additional €390 and €73 for traffic signs recognition after a month!! Also if i would like live data for traffic etc, i need to pay €49 every year. 

Especially first 2 items is totally scam by Skoda. It is not acceptable to pay something already exists in the car in the year of 2024. This was never communicated by the dealers and they even barely know.

While Renault is having partnership with Google for best integrated maps in their cars, it is shame for Skoda to have such $$$$ approach. 

Below should be changed by Skoda;  

1- It was a desister flow to activate Infotainment. it should be much easier.

2- they give 1 month demo for Navigation and Road signs recognition, and even the car was safer with making auto brake if the car front is slower, Also this safety feature disappeared.

I thought Skoda has "Simply Clever" slogan. No actually Skoda likes to scam the owners from the beginning of the ownership. 

  

2 hours ago, tolga said:

I got a new 2024 Octavia Sportsline (still old design) with Bolera Infotainment. I realised that i need to pay additional €390 and €73 for traffic signs recognition after a month!! Also if i would like live data for traffic etc, i need to pay €49 every year. 

Especially first 2 items is totally scam by Skoda. It is not acceptable to pay something already exists in the car in the year of 2024. This was never communicated by the dealers and they even barely know.

While Renault is having partnership with Google for best integrated maps in their cars, it is shame for Skoda to have such $$$$ approach. 

Below should be changed by Skoda;  

1- It was a desister flow to activate Infotainment. it should be much easier.

2- they give 1 month demo for Navigation and Road signs recognition, and even the car was safer with making auto brake if the car front is slower, Also this safety feature disappeared.

I thought Skoda has "Simply Clever" slogan. No actually Skoda likes to scam the owners from the beginning of the ownership. 

  

Surely, before purchasing the car, these are the sort of things you would research and be aware of?

Traffic sign recognition has always been a paid-for option when specifying your car so that really shouldn't be a surprise - it's kind of neat that you can activate it after purchasing.  As far as navigation goes, just use CarPlay / Android Auto and your preferred map application.  Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze, or for £29.99 annual subscription Tom Tom - all of which are better than Skoda's in-built Sat Nav.

Yesterday I drove the length of the M1 and round the M25 and back with numerous road works, smart motorways and a motley collection of overhead gantry signs some to one side some in colour others all orange and standard roadworks speed signs by the side of the carriageway. Lots of closed lanes with stranded vehicles and some stupidly low limits, foul weather and everyone trying to drive  too fast for the conditions. Traffic sign recognition in the Superb didn't work correctly 50% of the time, ignoring a lot of signs.

 

Good job I have 2 eyes and a brain otherwise could have got fined very easily.

 

Google maps is the way to go. The audible speed camera warning is fantastic. Skoda maps are rubbish in comparison and don't have speed camera warnings.

6 hours ago, xman said:

Good job I have 2 eyes and a brain otherwise could have got fined very easily.

 

Google maps is the way to go. The audible speed camera warning is fantastic.

Given you have two eyes and a brain, why do you need Google Maps audible warnings of speed cameras? Sorry, cheeky question, not a serious one! (And no doubt a controversial topic, perhaps for the roadside hotel…)

 

But personally I find camera warning infuriating, especially in urban areas where directions can be lost amongst the camera warnings.

4 minutes ago, SteveTheElder said:

But personally I find camera warning infuriating, especially in urban areas where directions can be lost amongst the camera warnings.

I suspect you haven't used this google feature.

 

The warning is merely an audible bong, hardly a distraction. Unless it's a mobile speed camera warning which in effect is telling you to keep your eyes peeled and speed down.

 

You'd find it even more infuriating when the double flash goes off (newer cameras don't flash) and a letter marked private and confidential drops on your doormat a few days later..

21 hours ago, tolga said:

I got a new 2024 Octavia Sportsline (still old design) with Bolera Infotainment. I realised that i need to pay additional €390 and €73 for traffic signs recognition after a month!! Also if i would like live data for traffic etc, i need to pay €49 every year. 

Especially first 2 items is totally scam by Skoda. It is not acceptable to pay something already exists in the car in the year of 2024. This was never communicated by the dealers and they even barely know.

While Renault is having partnership with Google for best integrated maps in their cars, it is shame for Skoda to have such $$$$ approach. 

Below should be changed by Skoda;  

1- It was a desister flow to activate Infotainment. it should be much easier.

2- they give 1 month demo for Navigation and Road signs recognition, and even the car was safer with making auto brake if the car front is slower, Also this safety feature disappeared.

I thought Skoda has "Simply Clever" slogan. No actually Skoda likes to scam the owners from the beginning of the ownership. 

  

This is far from a scam. As others have mentioned, you need to do a detailed research before buying and specing a new car. I think all the information about what is available and what is not is written when specifying the car. If you bought a car from a stock, then I guess it's dealers fault if specification of the car was not clearly visible or presented.

And I personally never had any issues with buying in the Skoda store.

On 01/03/2024 at 16:01, xman said:

Yesterday I drove the length of the M1 and round the M25 and back with numerous road works, smart motorways and a motley collection of overhead gantry signs some to one side some in colour others all orange and standard roadworks speed signs by the side of the carriageway. Lots of closed lanes with stranded vehicles and some stupidly low limits, foul weather and everyone trying to drive  too fast for the conditions. Traffic sign recognition in the Superb didn't work correctly 50% of the time, ignoring a lot of signs.

 

Good job I have 2 eyes and a brain otherwise could have got fined very easily.

 

Google maps is the way to go. The audible speed camera warning is fantastic. Skoda maps are rubbish in comparison and don't have speed camera warnings.

 

 

As mentioned above, if TSR wasn't factory spec then somebody has to pay for it at some point. It's not a scam, just cost cutting by whoever ordered the car 

Edited 2 March, 20242 yr by East_Yorkshire_Retrofits

My TSR was factory fitted which I paid for. I placed the factory order and am the 1st owner.

 

I am talking about a mk3 Superb with Columbus MIB2.5. On my car no subscriptions are required. I realise that its all different with MIB3 and the Octavia 4.

 

Just pointing out there are better totally free options out there (Google Maps) and that TSR is not all its cracked up to be

Edited 2 March, 20242 yr by xman

So you're complaining about your Superb's TSR performance (MQB with 2Q0 camera and MIB2), on a forum area for the Octavia IV? (MQBevo with 5WA camera and MIB3) 😕😕. Try it on your Octavia, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised 

 

Yes there are free options out there, but they don't display on the HUD or virtual cockpit. They're also not reading what's around you, they're working purely of data received from external sources.

Edited 2 March, 20242 yr by East_Yorkshire_Retrofits

On 03/03/2024 at 08:38, East_Yorkshire_Retrofits said:

So you're complaining about your Superb's TSR performance (MQB with 2Q0 camera and MIB2), on a forum area for the Octavia IV? (MQBevo with 5WA camera and MIB3) 😕😕. Try it on your Octavia, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised 

 

Yes there are free options out there, but they don't display on the HUD or virtual cockpit. They're also not reading what's around you, they're working purely of data received from external sources.

 

Couldn't agree more!

I'm from Australia and I could only dream of having TSR enabled. Our unique speed signage (e.g. school zones) means that Volkswagen decided not to offer it for our market. But it seems as though it was developed for our market but never released because the speed sign designs are there and the fusion mode will add an additional sign on the MIB unit - so its reading them but not displaying them.

As a retrofitter are you able to purchase SWAP codes outside of the store? We don't get Skoda Connect here either and I'd be keen to try and get it working.

 

On the older vehicles/pre-SWAP you could enable it and it would function with warning message. The photo below shows someone who enabled it on their Golf 7.5 with Australian signage.

15 hours ago, aaaaplay said:

 

Couldn't agree more!

I'm from Australia and I could only dream of having TSR enabled. Our unique speed signage (e.g. school zones) means that Volkswagen decided not to offer it for our market. But it seems as though it was developed for our market but never released because the speed sign designs are there and the fusion mode will add an additional sign on the MIB unit - so its reading them but not displaying them.

As a retrofitter are you able to purchase SWAP codes outside of the store? We don't get Skoda Connect here either and I'd be keen to try and get it working.

 

On the older vehicles/pre-SWAP you could enable it and it would function with warning message. The photo below shows someone who enabled it on their Golf 7.5 with Australian signage.

We can supply FECs, however for MQBevo they're £1200 for upto 8 features 🥲

On 01/03/2024 at 16:42, spcdust said:

Surely, before purchasing the car, these are the sort of things you would research and be aware of?

Traffic sign recognition has always been a paid-for option when specifying your car so that really shouldn't be a surprise - it's kind of neat that you can activate it after purchasing.  As far as navigation goes, just use CarPlay / Android Auto and your preferred map application.  Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze, or for £29.99 annual subscription Tom Tom - all of which are better than Skoda's in-built Sat Nav.

i checked and researched more than enough before buying the car!! Not only for Skoda also VW etc... If Specification says i have Road sign reading + Navigation in my package, I do not need to know that i will pay for these to ACTIVATE! 

instead of enjoying my new car, i still need to write such comments via forums. I stil think Skoda is NOT providing what it shows on their advertisements and hides this additional costs. I will even write to Skoda. I just want the people to know that when they buy a new Skoda (mine has Bolera Infotainment) they better ask all these details to the dealer, Otherwise they may end up paying additional money (around 500EUR) for activating their Navigation and other applications.  This is not mentioned in any part of offical Skoda web sites.  

 

The standard spec of Bolero over the years has not included sat nav, until MIB3 it simply wasn't possible to add sat nav to a Bolero you had to swap to an Amundsen or Columbus head unit - so being able to add sat nav to a Bolero (at a cost) is a step forwards.