heavy_landing

I’ve had my Octavia 1.5SEL First Edition for almost 2 years and 30k miles now and the leasing company wants it back. And I’m going to miss it! It took a little while to bond with it - SOS messages, screen blanks, rubbish radar cruise control and the occasional inability to adjust the interior temp didn’t help. But after a couple of visits to my local dealer (shout out to Mitchell Skoda near Chester - amazing bacon butties), it’s running pretty sweetly now. It’s just been so versatile. Lots of room, but not too big. Enough power, although it’s always nice to have more. And enough toys and tech to keep me entertained on longer journeys. And thank you to the blind spot warning for having better eyes than me on a couple of occasions. If I could rent another for the same price now, I would. It’s been used mainly on long journeys on A roads and motorways and it’s average consumption (worked out properly, not via trip computer) is….62mpg. Thank you 2 cylinder mode. What will I replace it with? Who knows? But whatever it is will be more expensive, probably have less features, less room and worse fuel consumption. Progress, eh?

For the UK market, the ‘since start’ data will only reset if the car has been switched off for over 2 hours.

Interesting comment regarding the SOS call fault and radars. I’ve only had 2 issues with the SOS function, both times were passing the end of one of the runways at Heathrow - one at the end of a 200 mile journey, the other when setting off home. Coincidence?

I’ve had the same issue over the last couple of journeys. The only way that I’ve been able to solve it is by doing a ‘service station reset’ (lock the car and nip to the loo/grab a coffee). It’s extremely annoying!

Yep, know what you mean. If I start the car, the current station logo doesn’t show. But if I select another station, then go back to the first, the logo appears. I’m sure that at some stage there’ll be a software update to sort it.

I’ve been very disappointed by the ACC, it does get confused when overtaking on motorways/dual carriageways and doesn’t seem to anticipate enough when slowly approaching a car ahead. Too much unnecessary braking for me. I’ve discussed this with a friend who has a Golf (Mk VII?) and he has the same issues. Unless the motorway’s very quiet, I just don’t use it.

I struggle with the whole idea of this. The car has the capability to do something, it's not going to cost us any extra money to let it do it, but we won't let it unless you pay some extra money. I understand the principles of a free market, but to me it's not Simply Clever, it's Downright Devious and doesn't endear me to the Skoda brand. Rant over.

I've had my Octavia hatch 1.5SE-L First Edition since October '20 and have covered 6,000 miles. Overall, I'm happy; I'm mainly using motorways and A roads, but I'm averaging 52mpg which, coming from a diesel, is way better than I was expecting. It's roomy, versatile, fairly comfy and the apparent complexity of the infotainment reduces with familiarity - but the occasional first gear 'kangarooing' is totally unacceptable and is surely not beyond fixing? And I still get occasional issues of not being able to connect my iPhone via bluetooth or apple CarPlay and there are occasional random glitches (Skoda SOS calls notified but not taking place, sat nav info on mains screen but unable to show on virtual display and various others), but these seem to be reducing in frequency. I do think that the product has been pushed out too early and that the customers are being used as test mules and guinea pigs. Yet do I regret leasing it? No, I don't. Maybe I have low expectations, but the bad bits are merely annoyances to me and outweighed by the good.

Another minor annoyance........traffic report comes on, I want to listen carefully so nudge the volume up.....which causes the report to cancel and return to the original station. Frustrating.

And also, why does the radio station logo not show initially - I have to select another station and go back to the original one to get the logo to appear.

Hmmmm, I don’t think much of the dipped beam. I got quite a shock at how dim they seemed when driving first in the dark on a road that I know well. I struggled initially with the auto hold ‘handbrake’, but know I’ve got used to it I think that it’s great - I never use those two little levers on the centre console and find any other set up fairly old fashioned now.

I’ve got an iPhone 9 and have no end of problems. The phone seems to have a mind of it’s own as to whether it will pair up via Bluetooth; and if it does, there’s no guarantee that it’ll stay paired. If I connect it via Apple CarPlay, it disconnects itself when it feels like. I need to be able to take calls from work when in the car and at the moment I can’t guarantee that I’m able to do so - its infuriating to hear your phone ringing, but not being able to safely answer it. Graeme, are you trying to connect via the smartLink option on page 1 of the Menu?

That’s good news, glad it’s sorted.

Has anyone managed to get the internet radio to work? I don’t seem to be able to find any stations. The handbook isn’t a great help. Many thanks.

Isn’t it within the driving data part of the infotainment - with the option of choosing distance travelled from last refuel, since start (some provisos), or long term? I think that it can also be brought up, and reset, on the instrument cluster.