Questions for non Karoq owner (Kessy, rear seats, specs)

[sanqhar]

Another factor with dealers selling discounted cars is that are not necessarily demos. I bought a month old "new" car with 64 miles on the clock. It would not have been a demo (dealers normally have to keep demos much longer before Skoda allow them to be sold). These cars may have been taken to shows by Skoda and just driven on and off transporters and then registered by the dealer when taken into stock. This maybe the reason they are often a higher spec. Mine was a Se L.
Visit the dealer and have a list of things to check, then decide.
Varioflex rear seats. Mine have been removed on many occasions. Beware, they are heavy.
Don't worry about Kessy. As said previously current keys have the movement sensor. Previously locking the car with the key button and then touching the door sensor within 5 seconds disabled Kessy anyway.
Re expensive tyres, if you are worried about price check out Asda. Their prices are the best I found. Even the local tyre shop who Asda use to fit them could not match the Asda price. I recently saved over £130 on four Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons tyres.
Not been mentioned so far are LED lights. Every car I have owned I have had to replace the headlight bulbs for brighter versions, no more, LEDs are literally brilliant, I wouldn't be without them.

Tom

[skodauser007]

Thank you both. Seems like both of you got good deals, well done. I am no car expert and the sales person would probably realise that. Haggling would not come easy to me in that situation. A near new car at a discount does sound nice though. Although looking a bit deeper into the ads it seems the discount is only available if you take out a PCP deal - once you add the interest payments it would all add up. In the past I have paid in full (2nd hand cars) to save interest charges, but prices have rocketed since Covid. Decisions, decisions!

Oh I thought fleet cars would be less maintained as they were used as company cars and rental companies, etc. Just goes to show my newbie knowledge.

The LED lights is a great point - something that would significantly impact driving experience on a regular basis so it's good to get those decisions right. My current car still has the halogen bulbs and they do tend to blow around winter time. They are not bright compared to newer cars either, night time driving visibility is just OK. The newer cars seem to have a cooler, brighter light. From the brochures sent before it looks like LED headlights come as standard on SE L upwards and that is what I am veering towards too - the varioflex is a nice to have option and the rear seats sliding/reclining is something I feel would be used more frequently and give a more spacious feel.

Great tip for the tyres, my current car will probably need some replacements as the MOT is due soon so I'll be checking out Asda for sure! Funny that the local tyre shop that does the fitting can't price match Asda!

There was mention of the Skoda Connect licence - how much is this and is this needed just for using the built in sat nav? How does that work, do you need to buy a SIM card to connect to the internet? I assume you can still use Google Maps from your phone without paying? And I'm guessing DAB radio doesn't need the internet?

Thanks again.

[IanW]

The LED lights is a great point - something that would significantly impact driving experience on a regular basis so it's good to get those decisions right. My current car still has the halogen bulbs and they do tend to blow around winter time. They are not bright compared to newer cars either, night time driving visibility is just OK. The newer cars seem to have a cooler, brighter light. From the brochures sent before it looks like LED headlights come as standard on SE L upwards and that is what I am veering towards too - the varioflex is a nice to have option and the rear seats sliding/reclining is something I feel would be used more frequently and give a more spacious feel.

There was mention of the Skoda Connect licence - how much is this and is this needed just for using the built in sat nav? How does that work, do you need to buy a SIM card to connect to the internet? I assume you can still use Google Maps from your phone without paying? And I'm guessing DAB radio doesn't need the internet?

Thanks again.
Top

I got my nearly new (pre face lift) Karoq back in Dec last year, it was delivery miles (7) and about £2k less than the (then) list price. Looking on Autotrader there are still a few similar out there (but are they pre 2022 face lift?)
The LED lights are a revelation, its my first time with LED headlights and, even though I dont do much night driving, I dont think I'd want to go back to halogen.
TBH I've not used the varioflex function since I've had the vehicle.
Skoda connect works over the built-in sim card.The sat nav will work without Skoda connect but the live traffic wont. Online map updates wont work either but there are some thoughts that USB updates might be possible downloaded from the Skoda update portal. I've used Google maps via Android auto on the main display and it works fine. When my connect subscription expires later this month, I wont be renewing and will revert to Google maps.

[skodauser007]

Hello,

@cjje Do you (or anyone else) know if the 2022/23 refresh had any features removed from specs? Eg, I looked at the brochures and it seems full LED headlights has been removed as standard from the SE L model, which seems strange. Although it does say it comes with daylight LED lights, but I'm not sure what the difference is.

I'm wondering whether to increase by budget to try for the newer shape but don't want it to be disadvantageous in terms of of the shelf specs.

Seems like there are so many permutations, for example I notice some new shape cars come with virtual cockpit, but others don't.

Your summary and breakdown above really helped get the finer detail of changes (and when they were introduced/removed) which aren't always advertised. Do you have details of 2021 to 2023? LED headlights seems a must have based on others people's comments in this thread.

Many thanks

[sanqhar]

I call it the 50p syndrome.

All car dealers look at the small things. Sell a million cars and save 50p on each one, work it out.
Some time after I bought my SeL (at Christmas 2018) they dropped the interior light/torch in the boot. 50p syndrome again.
Sometimes it's more than 50p e.g. the Led headlights.

You just have to carefully look at what the brochure/website says and compare it to real life.

tom

[skodauser007]

Thanks Tom. I hear you.

Is it true then there the new shape model SE L doesn't come with full LED headlights as standard? From other posters it seems this is a very nice feature so it would make my decision about which model to buy a lot easier!

The way @cjje broke down the changes was actually really useful as it contained a lot of detail of the specific changes over time with exact dates and chassis numbers to check too.