Help with Replacing Columbus Head Unit

Before I go any further I am not an Audio boffin and am not seeking the best possible audio experience. I have a 2012 Superb 2.0 Tdi 4 x 4 just about to clock 200K. It has been an awesome car for the last 11 years and I intend to keep it as long as I can because I can't replace it for anything anywhere near as good without spending a fortune.

However just recently the Columbus Head Unit has started to play up. It randomly switches on and off losing both the audio and the display at the same time. It is only off very briefly before coming back on again. This however is annoying when wanting to listen to anything whilst driving. Up until now it has been used for occasional listening to the radio as well as streaming from my phone via bluetooth (Please correct me if I have that wrong) I believe.

Today I have been to a trusted auto-electrician who assures me that the head unit is not showing any faults and all connections / earths are good. Whilst looking at this he contacted an Car Audio specialist who said that the he has come across this type of problem with many different cars and that the fix is a software upgrade, something that only SKODA can do. A short visit to the local SKODA dealer was made where I was told that it is not a Software issue otherwise the unit would not start and that I need to book it in for a diagnostic check for which I will be charged £156. No guarantees and who knows where that will go. A pop back the Car Audio specialist for a further chat revealed that he could repair the head unit by replacing the board within it for £490 or could offer me a new head unit complete with Apple Car Play etc etc etc for whatever I wanted spend.

Clearly the car is not worth a huge amount and therefore I want to spend as little as possible to return to where I was before the problem started. On Ebay there are identical used head units some from sellers offering warranties from between £140 -£210. This appears to the best route to go down without spending a huge amount because I should get the same functionality as before.

However I would greatly appreciate any advice from the collective. Will buying a second hand head unit lead to issues of it not being recognised? Will it need coding? (I do have VCDS but is this enough?) Will I need PIN numbers? Are there any other potential pitfalls to avoid. Even looking at new head units some speak about losing some of the functions that I currently use like taking phone calls etc.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanking you in advance.

Edited 48 minutes ago48 min by Junips99