Now on my second Octavia Estate...sort of. The first one was a company car I had for a few weeks back in '03. I had never seen one before at that point.
In the meantime Octavias have proliferated in the West Highlands...an area where reliable unpretentious cars come to die. Actually they come to be worked to death, preferably before the salt eats the bottom out of them or they have a head on with a stag. But that's another story.
Main story line is I have recently aquired a 12 year old L&K 1.9tdi Estate
Now, I am not by any stretch of the imagination a petrol head. My all time favourite design spec for a car has to be that of the original Citroen 2CV " To carry 2 farmers wearing clogs and a barrel of wine or a calf or in the back seat (which is why the 2CV had a sun roof!) and to achieve a fuel consumption of 90 mpg.
So my choice of a Skoda Octavia Estate.....
Diesel.
Expected fuel consumption 50+ mpg
Relability.
Estate car - long enough with the back seats down to get a sleeping bag out in the back for an emergency overnight stop ( or equivalent load capacity in logs / peats)
Roof bars - for carrying building timber/furniture/bicycle carrier on the roof.
Capable of pulling a livestock trailer (so I don't need the sunroof).
Easily accessible cup holder
Manual rear windows.
How does the L&K match up. To put it bluntly, an Elegance would have been far more suitable.
If I had known a bit more about the L&K I wouldn't have touched one with a bargepole.
Firstly I do not need 130hp or six gears. 105 and 5 gears would do me fine thank you.
I hate the electric rear windows- totally unsuitable if you need to use the car as a bivouac.
Fuel consumption is generally poor. Closer to that for a 4WD than a 2WD ( Seems erratic as well- I was getting high 40's/low 50's but when I put a the trailer on to take sheep to Dingwall it dropped to about 43. Worryingly it has stayed at 43-44 in the two weeks since.
The cup holder is very pretty but totally useless. press a button and it comes up, unfolding itself as it does so. But it is really awkward to get a cup in and out of and so close to the drivers arse that the only way it can really be used is if someone in the front passenger seat hands the driver the cup. The collie dog is smart, but her paws really aren't made for serving coffee. And she'd sooner drink it herself.
Oh and I've got a stock trailer.
The seats..well the collie hasn't complained about the leather seats. Yet.
So...I'll just have to see how it goes.
