Hi Everyone 

I have a ‘24 VRS and it’s almost a year old. The app tells me services like being able to lock or unlock the car, check driving data and even play with the lights and update navigation are all paid up options that are about to expire.
 

The guys at Simpsons near Blackburn never mentioned any of this (mind you they told me I was insured for 7 days when I picked it up and I wasn’t…). Wondering about people’s thoughts on what’s worth the money and what’s nonsense. 

Turns out there’s a feature that recognises road signs - that’s never been on but I can buy it for a year. I’m not a fan of this subscription mentality on a £40k motor but here we are. Every available subscription offering totals about £200. Photo for the sake of it. 

I pay up for the subscriptions to Care Connect (driving data, alarm notifications, parking position, etc) and Infotainment Online (online voice control, map & traffic updates, etc).

 

Whether they are considered value for money or not is an individual thing; for me, they are.

Recently bought the traffic sign recognition add-on and it's fairly useful, but I understood it to be a one-off payment?

Yes traffic sign recognition is a one off payment and I’m glad I payed for it.  
 

Skoda Connect is with the subscription, I wouldn’t pay for any of the other though. 

Unless its changed, you used to get one month free after the 12 months expired so don't renew too soon - its not much but its something. Personally I pay for the care connect but not nav updates etc.

I subscribe to Care Connect and Infotainment Online each year...... If you keep looking on the app you'll see these go on sale every so often so you can get them for a reduced price each time rather than full price. You also don't need to be close to renewal time either as they just add the new 12 months on to the end of your current subscription. This year I paid something like £45 in total for them both. I was under the impression though that things like the road sign recognition thing (I don't have this available to purchase as mine is a January '22 car) were one off payments not annual subscriptions..... I know the lighting purchase is a one-off as I have bought it myself.

 

 

I know we complain about the cost of these and that they're not worth it but something people might not be aware of though is how cheap we actually get these things compared to the other VAG marques...... A work colleague has an RS6 and has the Audi version of our Skoda App on his iPhone. We compared them both and they give pretty much the same info but just laid out in a slightly different way. He liked the idea of the Infotainment Online that I had so purchased the Audi equivalent so that he too got constantly updated maps, traffic updates, set destination on phone and send to car, etc........ and it cost him just over £100 for the year!!!!!!!! I had just paid £30 for my Infotainment Online (which does all the same things) a couple of weeks previously whilst it was on sale. 😁

Edited 11 February, 20251 yr by WaveyDavey

I let the whole lot expire.  All I used when it was active was the driving data, and that fad soon faded.  Once late at night it did tell me the car was still unlocked, so I had to get out of bed to go down the road to lock it, but it was really still locked - so losing that feature was a bonus.