As the title says, what's this all about? To cut a long story short, I downloaded the app on my phone, stuck in the VIN and got as far as putting a pin into/from the car when I stopped, realising I didn't want it. I removed it from my garage and deleted the app.

All I wanted was the service reminder, which was apparently on the MySkoda app. I've been into the car, clicked on Skoda Connect in settings, and it says I need to do a setup as I'm using it for the first time. I've just clicked cancel, and left it. I presume as it says I need to do the first time setup, it's not/never been used.

Does this mean that Skoda Connect is not turned on on the car? Is there any way to check it's definitely not been activated? If I press either the "I" or the spanner button next to the SOS the car says it's not activated, which gives me some hope.

I'm not interested in it, and don't want the car connecting to somewhere, draining the battery, being locked/unlocked by an app or whatever!

You need to take out a subscription for the Skoda Connect service if you have a in-build SIM and the SOS/Information button in the car and that can be purchased through your MySkoda portal (use a regular computer to access that service). Unfortuntely, you get the remote locking and monitoring as part of that functionality. It does kind of work and I can assure you that it doesn't drain the battery.

2 hours ago, varaderoguy said:

You need to take out a subscription for the Skoda Connect service if you have a in-build SIM and the SOS/Information button in the car and that can be purchased through your MySkoda portal (use a regular computer to access that service). Unfortuntely, you get the remote locking and monitoring as part of that functionality. It does kind of work and I can assure you that it doesn't drain the battery.

Ah yes, I had the option to order the service for free, for 5 years. I stopped before clicking order/putting the code in the car. As my information button still doesn’t do anything (I get a voice telling me it’s not available and to contact my dealer), I can assume my service still isn’t activated? I’m still keen to try and establish for definite I didn’t active it (I did nothing in the car, only on the app).

Excuse me for being daft - I know all new cars have these features and services, but I assumed my five year old Octavia was a bit old for it all! I know about the SOS button calling a VW emergency centre, but I presumed this went through a phone (or perhaps didn’t think about it enough) - not ran off a separate SIM in the car.

I’d be keen to try it, but I do not want any sort of remote locking. I don’t trust the app, or my fingers, to not do it by mistake.

Edited 26 March, 20251 yr by OccyVRS

Yes, your information button won't do anything until you take out the "free" five year subscription. Every car (whether it gets used or not) gets that subscription. It was a function that was built into some FL cars that had it as a spec (it was a rare spec). I don't currently have a car with that functionality, but I think that Skoda will support the service for the forseable future, so its there if you need it....

As for not trusting yourself etc; I couldn't possibly comment :-) but you canny do anything stupid. The UI (user interface) is fairly simple to understand and you won't accidently remotely pocket unlock the car or anything stupid like that.

I don't think I have a use for it to be honest and I'd rather keep things simple. Certainly, I don't have any features to preheat, or any charging to monitor.

I looked very hard at a Mk4 vRS, and then went and got the newest Mk3.5 I could. Yes, the interior was nicer on the newer model, but I wanted the most 'analog' car I could get, whilst still having a digi dash, ACC, etc. Part of the reason I didn't get the newer car was I didn't want to mess around with any connectivity features or have a locked gateway. Turns out my car has both, but oh well! It's a very late Mk3 FL, with some nice options (but folding wing mirrors...) so that might explain why it has it.

As long as pressing the information button, and getting the 'service unavailable contact your dealer' means I didn't activate it, I'm happy! Perhaps a bit unusual for someone my age to not want tech, but if I could get a manual B7 RS4, I would.

3 hours ago, varaderoguy said:

you canny do anything stupid.

Hold the line... there's a reason I don't want that feature anywhere near me😂