PHEV curious, boring question facelift vs classic

Hi all

Nice friendly looking forum, I am interested in a PHEV - need to make my mind up by May when the current hire deal on my Skoda Yeti runs out.

I'm struggling to confirm whether the pre-facelift can be remote controlled to activate heating?

I know this only applies to upper trim levels but that's fine as I want a sunroof so will be looking at GX4 or above, I can't work out if the pre-facelift has the remote functionality.

I prefer the looks of the pre-facelift and I'm not seeing much in the way of killer features on the facelift that would sway me - but remote heating does look like a winner and probably a significant fuel saver.

Secondary question - what's the view on battery life - are any of the very early cars getting a drop off in performance / range?

Thanks!
Rick

If it has electric heating - yes. Not all models do.

As for range - see the heated discussions on this forum; I do not see much change on my 2013/14 100.000 km car.

I have a 2014 GX4h (clear rear lenses) which is I'd say a pre-facelift model. And yes, it has 'remote controlled' pre-heat facility, to heat up the car just before you use it and/or de-ice windscreen (blower only, no 'heated wires' in the screen) ie. you can either programme it using the MMCS touch screen in the car or you can use a phone app. I don't have a smart phone so I don't have that particular opportunity. Works fine from the MMCS though, although the phone app is a bit more flexible in the timer settings of the pre-heater.

Alternatively, in the unlikely event that the weather is really hot you can also use 'pre-cool' cold air-con. If the car is plugged-in to the mains and still charging after the pre-heating session has ended then it'll charge the batteries up to maximum again. I can't actually remember if the pre-heat is effectively being powered by the mains (if it's still plugged in and charging), there are quite a few long discussions about that elsewhere on this forum. The pre-heat doesn't use much battery power anyway. I'm pretty sure I've also read that it's not a good idea to plug-in and charge from the mains if the batteries are nearly fully charged, so whether having it still plugged into the mains and charging after the pre-heater has operated is a good thing or not I'm not entirely sure. I reckon some of the more nerdy, ectomorphic contributers will enlighten us.

I prefer the look of the pre-facelift too (well, I would say that) more like the sort of thing that James Burke from Tommorow's World would have promised us in the 1970s. Can't really help with the battery life question as mine's only done 12,000 miles. I believe the face-lift models have better quality interior trim and some have 'all round' 360o cameras (front, wing mirrors and rear) of which I'm very envious. Mine only has a rear camera. There are still a few lowish mileage early models on sale though and even at £16,000-£18,000 that's a hell of a lot cheaper than a newer model. High milers (100,000miles+) in the UK seem to have suffered dramatic deprecition. Check-out Autotrader.

I purchased a pre-facelift MY14 GX4H last week for just over £16000, 22500 on the clock and 92% battery condition. I've noticed a couple of things on the Bodywork that I need to get sorted (I've posted that separately) but otherwise as new! Loving the car so far, I just need to convince my place of work to install chargers!!

Many thanks to all for your comments!
R