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Hello I just became an owner of a spanking new Octavia vRS mk 4.5 and I'd like to share my first impressions but before that a bit of a background story. Last year I was looking for a new car to replace my Ford Mondeo Titanium S from 2009. It served me well but it was time for something newer. I guess my criteria mostly were that the car had to be practical but also a bit sportier than the previous one. Initially I was looking at Cupra Leon Sportstourers (also estate) but I was eventually mesmerised by a velvet red Octavia RS mk4 liftback. I thought I got a pretty nice deal on it as it was just barely used (~3000 km), so no new car tax to pay for me anymore, and it had ton of extra equipment as well. I was super happy with it. Then in February the facelift was announced and I admit that I didn't think much of the RS facelift at that moment. I was definitely thinking that the front lights were cooler on my current RS, I mean the fog-lights were a separate unit and the front bumper was also much more aggressive and edgier. Also nothing really bothered me too much about the infotainment system. But....as time passed the design of the facelift had started growing on me and in addition some of the improvements here and there (a bit more power, newer infotainment system). And by July I managed to convince myself that I want the facelift RS, so I ordered one! It arrived at the end of September. However, by that time I still hadn't found a new owner for my mk4. I had some offers but nothing good enough yet so I asked the dealership to wait a bit and give me more time to sell my mk4. Then I finally found a buyer and told the dealership as well that I'm now ready to receive the new car. But I guess I jumped the gun there a bit as the deal to sell the old car hasn't been quite finalised yet. So that means that I'm in a unique position where I currently own a mk4 Octavia vRS and a brand new mk4.5 Octavia vRS and they are both velvet red! But it's a good opportunity to compare them. So finally, here are my thoughts on the differences: The specs Both of my cars have a ton of extra equipment but there are slight differences (just some quality of life extras really). I really liked the extra features on the old car so I mostly copied them when speccing the new car as well. But most notable ones: Both cars are liftbacks Both are velvet red mk4.5 has 20 extra horse power but cannot test it yet if I can actually feel the difference (still break-in period) Both have DCC, Adaptive Lane Assist Both have Suedia (leather) seats (as part of Challenge Plus package on the old mk4, separate option on mk4.5) Both have 19" wheels (Altair on mk4, Elias on mk4.5) Both have a Heads Up display Navigation was a separate option on mk4 but I think it's part of the base RS spec now. I couldn't spec preheating for mk4.5 in my region (wasn't available in the spec sheet and still isn't in the configurator) I added Canton sound system on the mk4.5 (yet to review it properly) Exterior The biggest difference between mk4 and mk4.5 is the front part of the car (as you've probably seen from pictures yourself). As I also mentioned above, it took some time for the new design to grow on me but I really like it now. The rear lights are also a bit different (the shape/light bar of the turning signal is now horistinal and straight, see picture). Also the stripes/trails within the rear lights seem to be illuminated (more). The design of the 19" wheels is different. I don't like the aero cover (or however you call it). I think the Elias wheels look much better without it so I removed the covers. However, beware that if you decide to remove the covers you need to purchase a set of centre caps and lug nut covers. Otherwise it's a bit ugly still. the vRS logo is different, I think the new one is better in the sense that you can actually understand that it says vRS (I remember one of my friends asking what VIRS means and the old logo can absolutely be misinterpreted that way) Door sill protectors have "Octavia" written on the, not vRS. Interior Interior design is mostly the same but there are more and less noticeable differences: The biggest difference (literally) is the size of the infotainment screen. It's 13" on the new one vs 10" on the old one. However, the larger screen size is in any way disturbing. The upper edge is still below the dashboard and isn't blocking the view in any way. Coupled with the upgraded infotainment system it's a really nice upgrade. Some of grey coloured pieces (door handle, the plastic around the gear shifter, rotating knobs on the steering wheel) is dull/matte whereis it was shiny on mk4. The design of the wireless charging pad/compartment has changed a bit and it feels like it's holding the phone a bit better in place. The icons on the physical buttons have changed a bit. Infotainment system/Virtual cockpit That's the big change on the inside and in short, the improvement is huge. The infotainment system is very responsive. The new style feels a bit more modern The digital instrument cluster is a more customisable as well (The right arrow on the steering wheel now switches between different display modes eg map, trip info, gear info (D, S, M), while the left one chooses between display style (with tacho and speedometer or without) No custom vRS animation on the instrument cluster when entering the car anymore, it's mostly black with SKODA fading in. 😞 The gear information (D, S1-S7 etc) can now be displayed with a huge font between the tacho and speedometer (vs being displayed in the bottom left corner on mk4). That's super awesome now. The normal gearbox mode (D) will still display only D and not D1-D7. The Adaptive Lane Assist button is now gone from the steering wheel but the option to switch to it from ACC is now hidden in the same menu (left upper button on the right side of the steering wheel). When I first saw that the button is missing I thought that they forgot to install it and actually had to double check that it's there. There's now always an indicator bar visible in the speedometer dial that shows how much range you have left to go, so now you can select something else to display in your speedometer dial. The physical button for selecting your driving modes now toggles through driving modes, that's nice! There's a ton of customisable shortcuts at the top and at the bottom of the screen (eg can set shortcuts for car, assists, lane assist, heated front windshield at the top; media, phone, navigation, android auto/carplay shortcuts at the bottom) The widgets on the infotainment screen are slightly less customisable but that doesn't really bother me: there's a couple of templates that you select from when creating pages/screens, previously you had more freedom here. I wish the HOME button was slightly bigger though. It was easier to press it on mk4 infotainment screen as it was actually a separate "button" on the left of the screen in mk4. Now it's an icon on the screen. The style of the integrated navigation system feels more modern but haven't used it that much as I'm more of an Android Auto user. Audio As mentioned, my new mk4.5 has Canton sound system. My initial reaction is that's it's not much of an improvement (still), let's see if I can figure out some good settings for it. I did have to check whether the subwoofer (squeezed into the spare wheel compartment) actually worked. Yeah, you can feel and here the vibration when you open the boot but not that much in the driver's seat. I do hope that the only result of the subwoofer won't be the body panels falling off in the back and that I can at least feel the bass when that's happening. There is an extra setting to adjust the subwoofer in the Sound menu. So in short, default settings seem a bit lacklustre but I still need to play around with settings before drawing a final conclusion. Some missing features/changes I've encountered some inconveniences on the new mk4.5 (not a deal breaker though) I think the biggest feature that's missing on the mk4.5 and that I found quite useful as well is the lack keyless lock/unlock on the rear doors. In other words, when you previously could unlock the car by just pulling the read door handles and it would unlock (and could also lock it using rear doors) then that's now gone. You have to take an extra step to touch the front door handle. Another annoyance that I found is that the speed limit warning is turned on each time you switch on the ignition. Unfortunately that's done so to comply with legislations (manual says so). However, Skoda did add a shortcut to disable it quickly (same button and place where you can disable Lane Assist). However, not all has been perfect! When I logged in with my Skoda account into the car and added myself as the main user, it wanted to load some settings which I assume were from the mk4. It did load my seat position but also a lot of icons appeared in the infotainment menu that were just loading (had the loading animation). Perhaps there's a more clever way to solve the issues but I eventually deleted and recreated my Skoda account. I took the car for a first proper drive over the weekend and had a yellow/amber "Emission control system fault" icon appear in the instrument cluster. No errors/warnings in the infotainment menu (status is fine there) as well and car drives fine as well. I plugged in my bluetooth OBD scanner to see what it comes up with and it reported fault codes P2080 (P2080 Exhaust Gas Temperature Sensor Circuit Range/Performance Bank 1 Sensor 1) and P2084 (P2080 Exhaust Gas Temperature Sensor Circuit Range/Performance Bank 1 Sensor 2). So now I'm taking it back to the dealership. I hope it's just an improperly installed sensor (as per repair manual it seems that both sensors are wired into the same connector) but let's see. That's it for now. Feel free to ask questions and I'll try to answer them. And some pictures as well:

You can virtually guarantee that if a driver less 2 seat taxi turns up at a pub at 11pm at some point half a dozen are likely to get in it🤣

Another moon lit shot.. Eyemouth Harbour

As title, just collected new 1.5 SEL DSG Along with all the expected differences e.g virtual cockpit, no varioflex seats, noticed some unexpected ones... 1) nudging the steering wheel no longer restarts when start/stop activated 2) gear indicator only shows D i.e no actual gear indication ( seem to remember seeing something about this ? ) 3) steering weight slightly heavier in normal mode ( although I actually prefer it )

2.1 was standard on older models with 2.5 being the "ECO" pressure. Now the "ECO" pressure is standard but it's a bit firm for me.

I have been getting 4.2 miles per kwh whereas 3.8 is the oft quoted figure people get for the 60 kwh, 3.7 for the 87 kwh battery which gives a good range. Cooler weather taking its toll on tge predicted range but whether summer or winter if one just cruises round the double nickel ie 55/60 then the range eventually looks better. Always a difficult start from low altitude Worcester up to higher altitude Birmingham but when cruising on the more level ground, and then down to lower levels like Liverpool the range generally rises back to or above WLTP. All Scenics have heat pumps. Mileage better on Techno versions with 19 inch wheel rather than tge wider 20s.

I would get E5 Super Unleaded in & run the car. Do not put Cleaners into your tank. Getting a Forced Regen on a GPF is an error i think. Did you speak to a Technician or just a Service Desk Person? Has the car had new Spark Plugs fitted yet?

Thank you so much for your replies really appreciate it …bought some fuel system cleaner going to whack it in at half fill also had the car booked in to Skoda for a forced regen and engine oil change I think I’m gonna start doing what VRs are meant for and thrashing it about on country lanes a little bit more hopefully nothing more costly than a forced regen ..mines a manual so I’m actually gonna enjoy it …drive it less in eco more in VRs mode and up shift at 2000 rpm rather than at 1600 😄 quoted 168 pounds for the regents Pluss complimentary vax and clean if that helps

If the R4 is cheaper or even same price as the R5 I would be going for the R4. Lots more space. Some complaints about true range over WLTP, usual stuff. We need for helpful onboard software. I am running Google 12 in the Scenic and it is constantly saying I do not have enough charge to make but I do with miles and percentages do spare. Still not seen the tortoise/turtle, is it real ?

Just to keep things ticking along in here..... Wetherby services had 12 new connections added over the weekend. There is a total of 39 connectors there now,

Just beware of legionella - I think any water 'stored' (eg in pipes / tanks) needs to be kept at around 60 degrees to prevent it - and I have a vague recollection that incudes DHW supplies.

It's a modern condensing combi boiler (about 12-15 years old though, hence researching heat pump for replacing it between it before 20 years old). I'm hoping to get the boiler upgrade scheme (BUS). I can independently set flow temperature for central heating and hot water. 2 dials one for each, display shows precise temperature that has been set. Hot water I've set at 50c and it's more than hot enough for me. Not sure whether it goes through the condensing part. Yes, 45c is a bit low by the time it gets to upstairs shower and wife prefers scorching hot showers. (I may have tried at 45c ) Central heating does go through the condensing part, so the lower temperature the higher efficiency. Just like heat pumps.

With the greatest respect, We should not have to do this to a brand new car, the car that is the flagship model of the brand . Skoda should be ashamed that their best model is such a failure. Skoda should also be ashamed that this failure has gone on for 3 months without a fix and without the brand giving some help and information

https://www.willtheyfit.com/

Thank you

Have look at those vids doing diagnostic checks can involve simple things like your humans senses (and 'common sense' often forgotten by paid professionals) perhaps borrow a multimeter if you don't have wire and light perhaps. Lots of basic checks (also often forgotten or ignored by paid professionals) can often be carried out with just the car's 12v battery in reasonable state of charge and health. But I can understand you being ****ed-off with the car and wanting a break from the problems it's giving you (been there more times than you can imagine) - if you don't really need to use the car then take a break from it, keep the battery charged and things shouldn't get worse (unless it's a water leaking in issue or affected more by colder weather). Unless you've got some ort of vehicle recovery official or informal I'd be careful about using the car with dodgy electrics/electronics/computers in case you get a total no-go situation, unless you have experience of unreliable cars and the 'joys' of roadside "repairs" or recovery, Sod's Law they never happen in the dry and daylight or with the car sitting in a pub car park (although I have had the last one but didn't feel like drinking at the time even though I could have as I had a wait and certainly wasn't going to drive the car home though I had the experience to be able to). Good luck, let us know how you get on. I've a mobile phone repair kit you can borrow, 2lb lump hammer and thick 4" nail.

I wonder if there's anything in the Automated Vehicles Act (NB not EV specific legislation) passed in May of this year that would be applicable to "for hire" scenarios https://www.gov.uk/government/news/self-driving-vehicles-set-to-be-on-roads-by-2026-as-automated-vehicles-act-becomes-law Footnote: Appears this may be the relevant section https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/10/part/1/chapter/2/enacted @Graham Butcher New World, New Technology, New Laws. Technically such vehicles wouldn't be Taxis so therefore current Taxi legislation wouldn't apply ;o)

You are running Long Life oil with cleaning additives, Super Unleaded with detergents, how much cleaning does the engine need. Rhetoric. ? Is there no record of the Spark Plugs being changed. (40,000 miles) PS. The thing about 'Seek the help of a specialist garage'. Well they might think that includes Main Dealerships in the UK, they specialise in taking your money. Lets hope that Forced Regens can do it for GPF,s. Still waiting to hear how much Main Dealers want to replace a GPF.

I know I only bought it a few months ago and I used to work in another college which meant I’d do a lot more motorway Milage now it’s just an8 mile inner city commute rarely ever gives me the chance to put it in any higher revs than what I mentioned …pluss I have a littleun in the back (2yrs) so when he is in it I’m always on my best behaviour 😇 but promises to all you I’ll be be placing that foot down … thank you all for welcoming me here 👍👍👍 …I’ll let you all know what happend after I pick it up

& when eventually there are Autonomous vehicles and Private Hire / Taxi / Hackney Carriage / Hansom Cabs there will be a brave new world. No Licensed TAXI DRIVER in a LICENSED AUTONOMOUS CAB. So that is one seat not required. Who knows if there will be 2 passenger or 3 passenger vehicles with 2 doors and a rear hatch. Or 2 doors, one at the front and one at the rear and the car can pull up at a pavement front on or back on. Actually who knows anything about the actual future of personal or public transport maybe 20 years on? PS, Haymarket Media Group / Autocar / What Car have no idea what Elon Musk or TESLA might or might not do in the future. So anything they say or publish is from what they are told or find out. Actually as far as factual stuff their journalists and editor gets lots wrong even with cars they actually are driving and not driving long enough or trying to see how stuff works. PPS. @Graham Butcher Maybe TESLA will not sell them, they might just run their vehicles and own them and place them at suitable locations. They do not have to be as they are now when the Laws an Councils Rules on Hire Cabs, or Delivery Vehicles are changed in the UK.

According to Autocar, Tesla do not plan to sell the Robotaxi in the UK.

Certainly have got flappy paddles now, although never really missed them anyway! As for lane assist, well at least I managed to work out how to disable it on the drive down the M1 from Doncaster. Not tried the heated wheel yet. The traffic sign recogition seems good though. I was expecting all those things though, it was the unexpected things I wondered if anyone else had noticed.

Hello, welcome to the forum. I assume this is a TSI - the regen process for a PPF is different to that for a DPF - PPF does a regen on throttle-off overrun.

That is a lot of 'can't be reached' faults. It does sound like the CAN communication is down as @langers2k says. Sometimes a single controller can broadcast rubbish on the network which can upset other controllers. Using VCDS you can usually look at the status of the CAN system and you may see something there. It will be under the live data and probably in the 'Cent Elec' controller. I think on your car you will need to click 'Advanced Measuring Blocks' and then look for 'CAN Status' in the pull down list. If that doesn't work because so much is down you may have to unplug one controller at a time as suggested to see if communication resumes. I notice the CAN gateway itself is working (and probably wondering why nobody will talk to it!) I have seen failing ABS controllers send the entire dash into a frenzy of wagging needles and winking lights.

Damn that could be it. Battery is pretty old. Thank you! Thanks for the detailed help I will try the learning process and change the battery.

It's LHD.

I've been doing the same for the past two winters. I've settled on 50C flow temp (oil boiler will not go lower) which seems to work OK for my house and radiator set up and 52C for DHW, which like yours has a long run to the shower. Oil combi boilers are not as fast to react as gas and have a small buffer tank, which is down to 45C by the time the burner lights but provides sufficiently hot water in winter. What the lower flow temps have shown is one radiator is incorrectly fitted so does not get fully warm and one small one in the utility is undersized. I'm confident now that a heat pump will work in our property when its time to replace the boiler. The other upside to these experiments is a tank of oil lasts 2 months longer than before, 🙂

I think you are spot on. I just had someone looking into the discs and all of sudden the fuel consumption improved! I still don't know if it has solved the problem, but I can already see a massive improvement. I'll check this as well, thank you. 😊

No oil is being used although the oil sensor is on the blink. Just ignoring that as I check the oil manually every day anyway. The battery appears to have fixed the issue. No misfires this morning and it was 2 degrees.

The quality looks similar to other small VAG cars of the year to me. I've only ever driven a few Skoda's but I really like this one. It drove well and I was surprised how well it went once the turbo kicked in. Thanks for the links, very useful! On a big site like this it's not always easy to find things unless you really know where to look. Re the stop/start - I accompanied my daughter on a long drive so she could see how got on with it before driving back from Cornwall to Berkshire so that I could help with the various and very different controls after having her little Yaris for 15 years (it's still going!) We only had one one 'event' where she went to pull out of a junction at the top of a hill with poor visibility and it 'stalled' instead of nipping smartly out. She is going to try it until December and I will disable it if she hasn't got on with it. Personally I think it borders on dangerous when combined with automatic transmission. I couldn't see a battery change listed in the service records but it may have been changed by the AA or other breakdown service and not be included in the history. I didn't notice if the battery was an obvious aftermarket one although I wasn't really checking. If it is the original, it's probably due to fail soon! 😏

FIXED / SOLVED Well, it was the sensor. After changing the sensor in my garage the car is good, everything was fixed after changing only one sensor. The sensor that I got was this one: SWAG - 30106841 It cost me 21€ and 1/4 liter of oil (Had to take the oil filter out to change the sensor). I found this document in german that some guy did explainig how to change the sensor, well explained here. c4-drehzahlsensor-wechsel-1.pdf More than 10 errors because of 1 sensor 😅 440.000 kms now and still going strong. Will install my new Eibach Springs 35mm soon. Thanks everyone for the help.

23.10 dealer will look at the car

A 2 door will not get a licence to carry passengers in the UK I can see possibilities for airport car park shuttles for the buses if the roads between were closed off to traffic

That's the one I usually use. Not a guarantee, but there's no obvious signs of a seized/semi seized linkage. No noise, the wipers move smoothly when they work, they park properly.

Just posted here instead of a new thread on the Renault 4 EV. Looks just like what many will need to get from A-B with passengers or stuff or both. Also back, maybe with a charge needed depending on how far you are going and how much charge there is already in the battery. Maybe not if there is a Nuclear War or the car parks over and underground have been targeted with drones, bombs or Bunker Bombs.

Hello everyone, we had our first frost of the year here in the Midlands last week. So, I needed to clear my rear window. I have a 2016 Fabia Monte Carlo The switch on the dashboard lights up and there is an audible click but the window wasnt clearing. Ive checked fuse #41 as per the manual and that seems ok! Ive been told it could be the relay! I just need to check with you where the relays are located. You Tube videos show a panel on the dashboard down by the steering wheel on the right hand side. I can’t find out what number the relay is for the rear window. Can anyone help! Many thanks

Thanks for replies so far. Much appreciated The car's 1 owner, low mileage (54K) , garaged and always maintained with genuine parts. Initially by the Skoda dealer and then the same VW specialist. It's only the last few days I've got involved because he's wary of taking it to the dealer and them starting down the change switch gear, then BCM module route again. Looks like the next step is to remove the scuttle trim, disconnect the linkage and check it's free. Also measure the power going to the motor to see if it's getting voltage. perhaps try and can get an ammeter in there to see what it's drawing. Ultimately if power's going to the motor and it's not working, the problem must be motor or stiff linkage. It might be the weekend before I can get a good look at it, but I'll keep you updated.

Exactly the same with me, count 5 seconds after turning ignition on then start the car. Not had any errors since I began doing this 2 weeks ago, before that was getting lots of amber warnings on start up, front assist, parking brake, lane departure, parking sensors etc... this seems to be a valid work around .

Welcome. Plenty threads on here with all the info if you do a word search.

But is it ? As commented above in such a scenario even those of you with solar would be fsked. If the roof survived the blast then the huge decrease in sunlight caused by a dust cloud would likely render the charging useless.

I think we're in furious agreement really (including the car washing, no third party or machine gets to wash mine!) For the paint repairs I chose recommended on-site independents, I haven't used the franchises. I'd also never have a paint repair done outdoors, in fact one of the guys I used will only work in properly enclosed spaces, even then he insisted on taping up the garage door edges once inside my garage!

Replaced my faulty haldex pump today. Could have probably gotten away with just cleaning the filter, but since i made it this far and was prepared for the worst..

Nice that you're keeping up the long tradition of this thread going off topic 👍

That seems to have solved the brake problem thanks.

To disguise the scratches until going for a final repair try Colour Magic Jet Black polish. https://www.turtlewax.co.uk/products/color-magic-black-500ml?variant=21552375595097

Not just a sheared wire between the car body and the hatch? Ie wire sheared but making when the hatched is open/partly open?

Even if out of Manufacturers Warranty go to a Skoda Authorised repairer. A Known issue, a fundamental design or material / manufacturing fault. They need to own their failures. Get everything in writing and do not let Dealership staff pan you off. Get the Area Warranty Manager involved.