AllanDJ

There shouldn't be any sideways movement at all on an accelerator pedal but the broken one in the Yeti I mentioned above was doing just that. It was easily moved physically from left to right. If yours is anything like that it needs changed urgently.

It's a pity that Skoda are so conservative about colour choice in the cars sold in the UK, you would think that they would change the colours offered or even shades thereof rather more often than they do. Many years ago my first car was a secondhand Ford Escort 1.6 Ghia in Crystal Green, which was a nice colour on that car, nothing even remotely like that on the road these days, wish I'd been able to keep that car! Found an image of a car in that colour online, not great quality but it does give an idea of the colour.

Check to see if there are any stones/obstructions in and around it, on my last car a Yeti, the accelerator pedal had to be replaced within a short time as a small stone had worked its way into an empty space in the pedal. The pedal basically broke and the car literally limped home. These cars are I think drive by wire rather than a direct connection to the throttle but it certainly shouldn't behave like that, definitely needs checked out by a garage.

Your quote from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy probably confused them all; going by the lack of response here! I'm thinking more in the opposite direction about possibly getting a Superb Estate when I hand my lease Octavia back sometime within the next year.

I would have thought they would have got this fixed in the new model, it certainly isn't perfect on my mark 3 car but the so called software fix they did on my car fixed some issues and introduced some new ones. It is a very complex engine which runs very lean with cylinder deactivation technology. No kanagarooing on my car now but it feels flatter than it did before, fuel economy down a permanent 10% from previously and still occasionally the car will take a little nap for some unknown reason; which is kind of alarming if you have stopped at a roundabout or some such and it won't move at all. I have to try to restart the engine and eventually it wakes up and lets me move but it is a dangerous "feature" of my car which the dealers seem unable to replicate or explain.

As you said Ray, it doesn't work very well at all! I didn't entirely understand how that system works, now I know that you can't rely on it at all. It would probably have worked if I'd reset the tyre warning for the front left tyre, which I would have done if I'd known what I know now. Surely this is desperately unsafe, I could have been on a motorway in the fast lane when the rear left tyre punctured; not a good thought at all!

I've not had any actual punctures yet with this car up until today that is. Car has been giving warnings recently about loss of pressure front left tyre, checked it a week ago, slightly down, put some air into it, checked other tyres all good. The warning light came on again a few days ago but no obvious sign of a puncture; thought it was probably a slow puncture and was going to get it checked this week. However, driving home tonight in the wind and rain I became aware of a thumping, scraping sound at rear of car. When I stopped I found that the rear left tyre was completely and absolutely flat but no warning of this tyre going down was given by the car at all! That tyre had given same warnings of loss of pressure in December but didn't seem to be losing much air, garage replaced valve in it in January when it was in for its first service. So, if I'm reading this right, the Octavia can only cope with one puncture/ loss of pressure warning at a time and if you happen to have a sudden massive loss of pressure in any other tyre, it will keep the good news to itself and leave you to run the tyre completely and absolutely flat... That tyre was fine when I checked it a week ago with all the others but may well be completely ruined now because I had to drive the car a short distance before I could stop it; thank you so much for this Skoda! I managed to reinflate it but couldn't really check it properly in the pouring rain.

Octavia's don't really hold their value very well even under normal circumstances, there are plenty of standard models available for sale at low prices from the likes of Arnold Clarks which will mainly be ex hire or company cars. Not so many VRS models around though, which should help if/when you want to sell yours. Part of the issue is that Skoda and the rest of the large car companies like to charge different customers different prices for exactly the same cars. You'll pay the highest price as an ordinary, hard working person walking into a showroom. If you are NHS, Police etc as a profession, they'll offer you even more off the price, even if you are a high earning GP or Consultant! Large hire companies then hoover up thousands of cars at really low prices per car and it is these cars which are then dumped back onto the marketplace for sale again, still at really low prices with warranty remaining and not very high mileage via the likes of Arnold Clark. This business model keeps the factories busy but really doesn't help ordinary buyers.

Heated seats are great, one of the few options that I added to my car! Skoda do seem to change their model specs suddenly from country to country. Before buying my first Octavia 3 Elegance model the UK website showed a lefthand drive car in Elegance spec with a passenger seat which completely folded, which I thought was a handy feature. Of course my car when it arrived didn't have this on it, Skoda said that the seats on that model couldn't fold, only the SE model although the seats seem much the same other than the fabric on them. They did give me some money back for it though and the website images were changed soon afterwards!

It was bad with the early mark 3 cars, certainly with the one that I had anyway. Not so much of an issue with my current car but one of the rear doors was frozen closed the other day.

Well I looked it up and it certainly sounds like the culprit! The wee Fabia was comfortable enough but utterly gutless, it would be interesting to try a one litre Octavia next time I'm looking at changing my car to see how it performs.

Not really sure which one it was, probably the smallest, cheapest one the garage could get away with! I've not heard of the MPI engine, is that even less power than the 95ps TSI engine? Whatever engine was in that car, you just wouldn't want it if you're even a vaguely keen driver. I think it would be fine as a town/city car but would probably be unpleasant if you happened to be carrying any passengers or heavy luggage for longer distances. I'm not the fastest driver in the world, all that I ask of any car that I have is a reasonable turn of speed if circumstances require it and I really don't expect to have to go up a hill in second gear that most cars would romp in third gear. That wee Fabia would have been a much nicer car to drive with something more powerful under the bonnet!

I've driven the Fabia with the one litre engine when my car was in getting some work done on it. Most of the time it was absolutely fine and seemed reasonably economical too, main issue was when I took the car up a steep hill locally, even dropping down to third gear it struggled in a way that I can't remember any other car I've driven ever doing!

Ditto that, I didn't know you could get a magnetic boot lamp light!

I spoke to Skoda today about my own PCH car, similar story, very low mileage since March last year. I've managed to extend the two year deal, they were offering six extra months at the same monthly price but the way it seems to work is that they have added three months initially and then I have to extend it before that ends to get the six months extra. Your car would surely be worth more being a VRS model but in any case all the mark 3 cars are going to take a hit now that there is a mark 4 version out.

There isn't really very much in the boot other than the can of gunk, some plastic tongs to remove the wheel bolt covers and the tyre compressor, you won't have any tools to help remove a punctured tyre as these would come with the optional spare wheel. You should be fine just removing the wheel and its tools.

I've got a 2019 SE Tech car, they all come with Sat Nav, which needs the factory supplied SD card to make it work. I'd be wary about that description as it kind of reads as if the Skoda SD card has been lost or put in another vehicle! I'd be insisting on the supplying garage providing a replacement SD card, as the Sat Nav is an integral part of this specification.

Just standard engine oil should be fine. I had to add some oil to my mark 3 car with the same engine last summer at a fairly low mileage. It's just had its first oil service and was back demanding more oil again a few days before the service. It seems to be a thirsty engine amongst other things, I've not had a car that used much oil for many years!

Either way you'll be happy I'm sure. I had an early mark 3 Estate with the 1.6 diesel engine and it was great on motorways but a bit flat in and around town which is in part because of the five speed rather gappy in the gear ratios gear box. If you're a keen driver you will want the six speed box in the bigger engine!

To be honest the mode button doesn't make all that much difference, it is standard on my Mark 3 SE Tech Octavia. The annoying thing with it is that any changes you make there are automatically ditched when you next stop the car and you then have to reset it again to your preferences next time you restart it. Earlier Mark 3 cars were able to retain their settings somehow, so no great loss to you if it isn't there in the Mark 4 car!

I had a 2017 L & K Yeti with the 1.4 engine, I wouldn't say that the engine was all that great. It was quiet but thirsty, averaged low 30's mpg and at times had a bit of hesitation. It never really felt all that powerful either to be honest, mind you it was barely run in when I'd to hand it back at the end of the PCH deal. I test drove one with the 2 litre TD engine before I got the Yeti and apart from being much noisier, I'd say that the diesel engine is the one to go for for relaxed driving and reasonable fuel economy.

It's certainly not a car to keep long term which is sad as ignoring the engine it is actually a pretty good car!

Just wondering if anyone else is experiencing similar issues with their car. My car had the software fix last year, which made it more manageable in lower gears but did seem to flatten the engine response and increase fuel usage. I'd estimate that the car is at least 10% less economical than it was before the fix. I did question the garage at the time about this issue but was told that it was within the normal range; end of story and interest. Pre fix I could get maybe up to 55mpg going to work and close to 50mpg coming home. Post fix it is just under 50mpg on a good day going to work and close to 45mpg coming home again. Pre fix my car was occasionally stalling when moving in low gears and usually difficult or slow to restart or get a response from it. However I am still getting an occasional issue with this, if I slow right down and try to move away again it is if the car has taken a nap, there is literally no response from it at all. This doesn't happen often but it happened again yesterday, slowed down through the gears to get past a lot of parked cars, oncoming car signalled me to come through and even though the car hadn't fully stopped, the car just lost power, sat there for a while thinking about it before suddenly regaining power again and lurching off again! Just wondering if there is any updated software available to address this issue as the car is now asking for its first service, just over 12,000 miles the clock now. I might try a different dealer this time to see if they can get it to work better than the first dealer.

Or if you can only find the wheel itself with the tools inside of it just wrap it in some bubble wrap or an old blanket and it will sit perfectly well in your tyre well when the foam insert has been removed. I did that a while ago with an old Audi spare wheel that I bought for my first Octavia 3 Estate car.

The manual version estate car that I had with that engine averaged around 53mpg, with 60+mpg easily attainable on longer runs, so your mpg does seem a bit lower than you might expect.