Pob17

Tried for an hour to get this working today. Had same problems as others, tried connecting to wifi that also didn’t work. As with a lot of the other software on the new Octavia, absolutely infuriating. Ah well, only 21 months before I can give it back and get something which has been tested better. Nice car, absolutely ruined by software.

One of my internal rear lights was on the other day, blamed my daughter! Anyway, just got car back from dealers for some warranty work, had mentioned the irritating issue where if you turn engine / demist on when de-icing car, then open the door to scrape windows, when you get back in the car is totally fogged up. Turns out this is by design - eco mode which turns aircon off when it thinks you are out of the car. You have to turn the system to manual each time they say before you open the door if you want the aircon to remain on. Bloody stupid.

Will take a look later. I was going to complain that the heated door mirrors weren’t working, but then noticed you have to actually turn them on with the mirror control knob rather than them coming on with the heated rear window like every other recent car I’ve had!

A few more issues... park assist has failed twice, front assist has failed once, climate controls say this function is not operational yet for a few mins when you start the engine (great when you want to get going in a morning), the max screen demist stops working when a door is opened (eg a passenger getting in). The fan still works, the demisting just stops working (in fact it gets more misted up), have to switch ignition off and restart engine / press max demist again for it to start working again. It’s really odd that one. Oh and when you shut the tailgate door there’s a rattle as if a screw / pin is loose inside the high level brake light. I’m going to call the dealer to take a look at it but with software issues all theyll do is update the software and hope for the best.

I had to go out and check the rear view mirror as I hadn’t noticed anything wrong with it. It seems ok to me, slightly bigger than the Golf I just handed back, definitely bigger than the one in my wife’s Fiesta. I’ll be fitting a dash cam tomorrow and the wire sticking out from the right of the rear view mirror housing will annoy me but nowhere near as much as being told how to steer by the car!

Same with my Golf GTI as well.

I’m ok with the 1.5. I’m used to the 1.4 version in my previous car and this one seems very similar (minus the kangaroo jumping of the 1.4) and a bit more economical. The car does feel like it hasn’t been tested properly though, too many software bugs. In two weeks since getting it I’ve already had front assist and park assist warning messages and other minor gremlins. Been running VAG cars since 2003 with A3s, Golfs, a Scirocco and a Leon and the first two weeks of having this one has seen far more issues / annoyances than I’m used to. God knows how Skoda get so highly scored in owner surveys, I suspect they’ll see a big drop this year. Agree with the third party nav etc solutions, I use CarPlay and it’s the best bit of the tech, especially being wireless now.

So after 500 miles I don’t think I’m going to get on with this car. Actually the car itself is fine, the tech however is irritating and distracting. I may get used to it but at the moment I’m glad it’s only on a 2 year lease. The biggest annoyance is the lane assist which is so intrusive, switches on every time the engine is started, and I’m constantly having to fight if left active. It really is ridiculous and nowhere near as good as the system in a Ford (as a comparison with my other car). Other tech niggles are the SYNC option resetting every time the car is started on the aircon, the stupid climate controls, the daft volume slider which gets activated if you place your hand in the wrong place to keep steady when trying to use the screen when moving, the useless gesture control, the radio controls which default to favourites rather than showing the screen of which station you are actually listening to (I know you can just use the Home Screen but it doesn’t show the full radio text). Just overall too many swipes required. Negative post I know, and this will apply to all VAG software now I suspect, but how car companies get away with such distracting software is amazing. Ford don’t escape criticism either, when I turn that car on I have to press ok to get rid of silly disclaimers before I can see things like the digital speedo etc, but overall it’s nowhere near as annoying as the Skoda. Bit of a rant sorry, but unless there are some software updates pretty quick to sort this stuff out I’ll be glad when it goes back. The team who designed / tested this system clearly have no idea of real world driving.

Yep forgot about sync switching off every time too. I get very upset if the numbers don’t match 😂

Cheers. I picked car up on Thursday and spotted the USB port was on the wrong side for RHD which is a bit of a pain. I’ve ordered a 30cm cable which I was hoping would loop around the edge of the mirror housing but I suspect it will be tight. I’m getting a garmin dashcam mini which I think might sit slightly lower and more central than yours so hopefully will be ok.

Picked up car today, very impressed having come from Golf mk 7.5 GTI and SEAT Leon. A few annoying things though, all tech related. Lane assist reactivates every time ignition is turned on (I know it’s a safety feature but scope for too many false activations), gesture control is rubbish, and putting heating controls on touch screen is stupid. Then again, none of these criticisms are exclusive to the Octavia.

The auto locking function is the opposite to what Ford do now. My wife has just got a Fiesta and that won’t auto lock, when I searched why the most common answer was Ford can’t guarantee it will unlock in the event of an accident and therefore they disabled it in their cars to avoid a potential law suit. How much truth there is in that I have no idea, I just know it’s annoying remembering to do it manually. Looking forward to getting my car this week and going back to the way VAG do it.

Yep, so in my other car which is USB A I just plug the garmin supplied cable in to a USB socket in the armrest, but that did mean routing the cable in the trim around the windscreen / down the side of the door etc. Was quite easy, but having somewhere to plug it in right next to where you are putting the camera will be so much easier.

Is there a lot of cable left with a 30cm cable? I was thinking I needed something like 10cm if I’m putting the dashcam right next to the rear view mirror.

Hi, they don’t, they have USB micro generally, but the USB in the rear view mirror is USB C, so it’s just a USB Micro to USB C cable needed to connect to the car but I can’t find any really short ones.

Hi. I have an SE Tech on order for delivery next month. Has anybody been able to find a really short USB C to micro USB cable for connecting a dashcam to the rear view mirror? Shortest I’ve found is 30cm which is a bit long.