New Tow car.

[911hillclimber]

Well, 10k miles old.
Have finally sold the 10 year old Skoda Superb for another, just 1 year old.

The difference 10 years makes in car tech is bought home.

The new one is 280 bhp petrol, DSG, 4x4 and several other bits, and very red.

My blue Superb was getting crusty around the edges and the wife found this uber rare spec Superb estate locally, love at first sight.

Rather sad to see the blue one go, I get a bit attached to these things, but in the end will only miss the 50 mpg v 30 mpg.

Won't miss the cabin noise and the whiff of spent diesel fumes too often and the growing number of bills at 96K miles.

Oddly, only £23 extra on the insurance (6 months to go with LV), but £600 road tax; cripes, the roads are more expensive the more pot holes there are?

Sadly, there is a big screen with lots of things to master on it, and I'm not in love with infotainment, but my time to learn has come.

It does however have a dip stick so a plus.

[Lightweight_911]

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... but £600 road tax

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[Nine One One]

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... but £600 road tax

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But only for the next four years then it goes down to £190 or whatever it goes up by after each Budget.

[911hillclimber]

Yep.
This car was very nearly £48K when the first person bought it 12 months ago.
Special colour paint and other bits, tow bar was over £1K, so this easily put it over the road tax threshold.
I think the car then attracts 3 more years of £600, so I have another £600 to go.

The man's wife could not get on with the car esp the auto so traded it for a new Octavia diesel 4x4 VRS Estate instead.

He recons he lost over a £1000 a month.

A few weeks ago we found 3 of these cars, one in Scotland, one in Portmouth and one in Norwich!

This one in Stourbridge was a very luck find so had to pull the trigger there and then.

Gulp.

Going petrol and high spec (for good towing) comes at a price today.
I suppose I'm not killing lots of people now burning petrol, just killing the planet instead.
Got to grin and bare it, but the car is such an improvement over my old one, but the analogue control of the blue one was very nice.

Got to keep up with the kids. (as if).

[Bruce M]

With any luck, you can switch off the lane assist and it will stay turned off!! From 2024, these switch back on every time you restart the car.

[911hillclimber]

I hope so too, but it is 73 reg, Nov 2023 so just maybe I'm free of it.
Sunday will see as I spend a frustrating time going through everything.
No idea what Apple Play is and all the phone connections except my 'smart' phone is too old to link to it.
Felt nothing to do with lane control so far on A roads.

Has lots of parking sensors, looks like a nice sat nav (rarely used) and knobs to set temperatures of the car and the front seats.
Key-less locking is super secure too, my old one was not, but who would nick a Skoda?

Haven't tried Sport Mode yet.

[Bootsy]

The Norwich one would have come with special sauce

[hot66]

Apple car play is great … assuming you’ve got an Apple phone. Means you can have Waze on the big screen permanently

[911hillclimber]

What is that in my language James?
Never needed apple play ever…

[sladey]

Waze is a free gps system that includes speed cameras and traffic. I have used TomTom for years but now switch to Waze as TomTom forgot what postcodes are for.

You download the free app onto your iPhone. Your iPhone connects to apple carplay. If you are running Waze for navigation it will show on the car’s screen.

[neilbardsley]

Waze is available on any smart phone. I find that it and Google pick the same routes but Waze is better with traffic in London.

Just to be clear you spent xxxx and the mpg changed from 50 to 30?

Sent from my 22011119UY using Tapatalk

[911hillclimber]

Thank you for the 'translation' for me gents, I don't do this kind of stuff, but like the idea of speed limit notifications etc.
My wife could program for TomTom and only uses maps and is blindingly accurate whichever country she is in and can spot speed cameras etc better than the DVLA or whoever sends the brown envelopes out.
I get lost in a paper bag.

As to the MPG:

The price of getting away from Diesel Neil, and to have a petrol tow car man enough for easy towing.

The old Skoda was 150 bhp and a 1,000,000 lbft, so you need to step-up the engine range to get the same kind of effort free towing.
Plus, the 4x4 drive only comes with the big engines, and 4x4 was essential.

The Skoda has more power than the Boxster I have and weighs more so 30 is about right, but soon I will be on a mission to better 30!

0-60 is the same as the Boxster, less of an issue but shows what modern cars can do.

We expect to keep the car for 10 years like the other one, diesel will then be classed as a Grade A poison and I'm sure will be taxed to be far less attractive soon to push electric on the UK further, just my opinion.

[hot66]

The best thing about Waze is it is user linked so if anyone sees a camera van / police etc they enter it in live time and all other users can see on the map that camera van position. I don’t drive any car without Waze running . It’s saved my arse many times

Fuel economy …. Unless you’re doing massive mileage , a difference in mpg doesn’t always make a big difference to your pocket … petrol better for short trips etc anyway and the way things are going diesel will soon not be allowed into cities

[anglophone1]

CarPlay is great.
As the Flachbau is aimed at long road trips I have put in a radio- none in any of my other Porsches.
Then I stumbled on this
https://www.keksinnovation.com/#/
A 5 inch screen that connects with phone by Bluetooth and transmits audio to the FM radio.
Full CarPlay navigation and hands free phone, can even listen to “Spikes car radio” through the speakers!
All for about £50 with mounting kit/leads etc.
For about £10 more you can even add a reversing camera!
C

[hot66]

That looks great Clive … and gets around the legal issue of touching your phone screen when making changes to the nav . I bet I can mod that to fit my rennline phone mount and keep my phone tucked away

I assume it’s touch screen