mfalconer

Seems your company car scheme works different to mine, we have an allowance of £530 if we use less per month we get the balance paid to us, we can go over and get an M6 for example and pay the additional monthly cost plus company car tax but I'd be broke. On our scheme a base TDi vRS is £554 a month then company car tax at 40% £189 means It would cost me £215 per month, a basic GTD on the other hand is £523 with tax £205 so I'd pay £198 per month which is just less than the vRS, guess resale value is a factor in this.

A summary of my 2 years of my 64 plate vRS tdi manual hatch.... The ride over bumpy country lanes is harsh, much more so than my wife's 16 plate Golf gtd manual with standard suspension and same size wheels & tyres although I much prefer the vRS seats to the Golf's. Wind noise through the door seals especialy on a breezy day and rumbling reverberation in the vRS with/out the sound generator activated makes it hard to hear people talk especially in the back seats. I've suffered with the intermittent hiccup/cough when lightly pushing the accelerator down somewhere between 1200-1500 rpm on the flat or downhill, annoying. It spent a week in the dealership when it was less than a month old while they worked out what was making the horrific banging noise from the engine, they thought it needed stripping down then apparently reprogrammed the injectors which my or may not be bs. Last month the 2 rear right hand door speakers packed up, another 3 days in the dealership to have a now Columbus glove box unit fitted, lost all my music and other data and they left 2014/2015 maps on it which I'd upgraded 3 months ago even after they promised not to change anything without talking to me in advance. The slightest bit of moisture on the roof I cannot open the window even an inch as more often that not I'll end up with a wet right arm and leg, the Golf did this as well just as bad. Up until the first service which was around 20k miles I was using a lot of engine oil, probably got through about 3-4 litres. I've now done 7k miles since and the oil level has not visibly moved, why would that be? The interior hard plastics are a bit naff on a £26k car. Parking sensors go through phases of regular false alarms even after cleaning the sensors and car but I guess lots of other cars have the same issue. Glove box is pathetically small in common with the Golf. Rear washer nozzle has clogged a few times, easy to fix by pulling the cap off and prising the jet out and cleaning it. I left the jet and cap off for a while to stop tailgaters as it sends a fairly thick stream of water directly at their windscreen, they soon drop back. Drinks holders in the centre console not easy to use due to the manual handbrake, Golf had electronic handbrake with a better layout. No drinks holders in the rear. On the plus side the driving position is good, easy to get comfortable in those standard seats but the door mirrors don't give the most comprehensive visibility, love the pulling power in middle to higher gears, fuel consumption on short A/B road journeys 42-45mpg and on motorway journeys driving calmly can average around 55mpg most I had on a mostly empty flat motorway sticking to the limit or below was just over 60mpg , interior space excellent and that was a big factor for going for the vRS over the Golf, I think the car does look good, the vRS was less twitchy when thrown into twisty country lanes than the Golf. I'm due a new company car in 12 months time and wouldn't consider another vRS to be honest I can live without the massive boot and get a Golf GTD slightly cheaper and with better spec thanks to the way company car costs work or even a Focus 2.0 TDCi ST-3 nav for £90 a month less than a vRS TDCi standard spec or the ST-2 nav for £140 less per month or even as I don't do much mileage now I could get an ecoboost Focus or Bluemotion Golf both with decent spec about £200 a month cheaper than the vRS TDCi standard spec with similar mpg figures quoted. The above is just my experience and opinion, I respect the fact that the vast majority of Octavia owners will be happy with the car, quality/reliability and dealership which is great and for a private buyer I can see the attractive cost difference between vRS and GTD but that isn't the case with company cars.

Thanks for the replies, they swapped the MIB out on Friday without talking to me first which goes against what they said they'd do, I arrived in the service dept and the guys said they swapped the unit in the glove box out to which I asked was the hard drive (or as I now know solid state flash) swapped out and have I lost all my music etc to which the reply was no hard drive swapped all your music is still there. Happy to hear that I got in the car and aimed for home with the radio on, soon struck me after checking that the rear speakers were now working that I had no radio station logos and soon worked out all the music, graphics, satnav destinations all gone and my phone was not paired. On closer inspection the maps loaded were 2014/2015 and I'd updated them 2-3 months back. So I got home and called the service dept updated them on the situation and was informed the old MIB unit was still in one piece and they would let me know if there is anything they can do once they'd spoke to their 'master technician'. Not had a call back but am expecting them to confirm nothing they can do, just disappointed with the service provided and lack of internal communication and the fact I had to update the maps myself. Have put all the music and images on a card in readable formats for the next time, lesson learned.

Rooster, I got the music on there from the original CDs which took a weekend or so and the images via SD card, don't want to have to spend a load of my own time having to make up for a manufacturing problem if at all possible. As I see it there must be some sort of file system in place that can be accessed somehow so not beyond the realms of possibility.

The two speakers in the rear right door of my 64 plate vrs stopped working a few days ago and every so often I'd get a crackle out of them but no sound. Car went into local dealership and they are going to replace the Columbus head unit under warranty. My question is is it possible to get all my music, album artwork and radio station logos off the current unit and import them onto the new one? They are due to swap it out tomorrow I believe and the guy in the service department didn't know if this was possible. I'm also wondering if I'll get a current unit with MirrorLink as I missed out there, would be a small bonus.

I have the same issue on a 64 plate VRS TDI that has just over 4k on the clock, noticeable between 1500 and 2500 RPM when on a neutral throttle, sometimes won't happen on a half hour drive and other times will happen 2 or 3 times on a shorter drive, not related to DPF cleaning I'm pretty sure and I've only noticed it since January, it can happen when the engine is cold or up to temperature. Out of interest mine went back to the dealership when it was 3 days old 183 miles total, the engine suddenly developed a gut churningly back mechanical knocking that sounded like a washing machine full of hammers that made pedestrians turn and stare from 30 paces. The garage couldn't find a fault code but on the 5th day they had it they called me up and said it just needed the injectors reprogramming and they struggled to work out what was wrong, not being an expert and the fact it is a company car I just accepted that but not sure if my current hiccups are a hangover from that.