Hi all,

 

I am heavily leaning towards a Scala as my next car. My current car is a Honda Civic 2006, which is an amazing car which I have had for many many years... but it is getting too old now and things are starting to go wrong. Annoyingly there isn't much on the market that would serve as a direct replacement with most hatchbacks having small boots.

 

The scala has a great boot, which is my main reason for going with it.

 

So my question is on trim. SE or SEL. There is around a £2k price difference and the SEL seems to be extremely rare on auto trader. I test drove the SEL and I loved the digital dash but hated how the heating controls were partially hidden within the touchscreen menus. 

 

Below are my current top three with the SEL at the very top of my budget but is perhaps a tad old.

 

Trim	Years	Miles	Cost
SEL	2020	14,700	£14,790
SE	2022	10,000	£13,890
SE	2022	23,790	£12,600

 

 

If you are anywhere in the Guildford/Dorking/Horsham area you are welcome to come and have a demo of my SEL with rear camera, heated front screen etc. Otherwise ask me any question.

15 minutes ago, Britunculus said:

If you are anywhere in the Guildford/Dorking/Horsham area you are welcome to come and have a demo of my SEL with rear camera, heated front screen etc. Otherwise ask me any question.

That isn't too far from me, thank you very much.  I did a test drive of a SEL at a nearby skoda dealership but wasn't overly happy with the infotantement system being needed to control the fan speed.

 

What is the heated front screen like? Is it a blower or does the screen heat up?

Agree that the infotainment system is a daft place to bury controls. Clarkson has bitched about it a couple times in his columns. It's too easy to be distracted and suddenly realise you have driven half a mile without looking at the road. In practise having driven down to Devon and up to Newcastle and the Lakes, once it is set you won't notice. The climate control does it all, boosts the fan etc. There are separate knobs for the temperature and a max de-frost button which activates the heating elements in the screen and boosts the fan. In certain light conditions I can see the elements but not a problem. They are finer than hair. There are lots of things I haven't even tried.

 

I am an old fashioned paper maps man but am finding the sat nav really helpful in strange towns. It costs about £35 per annum to keep it up dated, with regular software updates over the air.

 

Just discovered another bonus, an Ergomax Transit wheel chair will fit in the boot with minimum folding/dismantling.

6 hours ago, Britunculus said:

Agree that the infotainment system is a daft place to bury controls.

 

 

I'm afraid it's one of the reasons I've moved away from the Skoda / VAG brand after many decades. My  wife especially hates touch screens for basic functions. The current Octavia would have been perfect for us but for the touch screen of doom - also endless talk of software updates and issues didn't help.

 

So last night I test drove the SE and I think I will probably get it. The toss up was between a 2020 SEL for £14.5K or a 2022 SE for £13.5K

 

It drove fine, basically the same as the SEL. 

 

I liked the physical knobs for heating and although all my colleagues mock me, I think 

 

I think I will miss not having the digital console as I really liked the setting that gives you the central speed indicator (bit like my old civic) but I can live with the simplier central screen. 

Also I regret not having the heated front windsreen, I can see that being incredibly useful in the incoming winter.

Not having the electric wing mirrors is also a bummer but otherwise I am not fussed too much about losing all the other bits from the SEL.

 

I found this online (useful as the 2023 facelift SE and SEL are different)