arturp

Just as a finished washing the car, it started raining. :( But I decided to buy a separate set of wheels for my summer tyres (and keep using the original wheels in winter). What do you think? :)

I was asked whether I had a video with the exhaust sound. I made one previously comparing the mk4 and mk4.5 cold start but this one also has some pops and bangs.

I've had a car with a 10" screen and have now one with a 13" inch screen. I'm definitely in favor of having the bigger touchscreen. Yes, it is protruding above the dash but it still sits low enough as to not block any view out of the windscreen (compare that to a Golf where the screen sits quite a bit higher).

As the flappy paddles on the Octavia are quite underwhelming in many ways (small and plastic), I thought I should upgrade them. So I bought paddles from aliexpress for 18 euros (also might have gotten my credit card information stolen in the process and later used but that was resolved, fortunately). But the paddles were at least delivered to me. They are type of paddles that you just stick to the original flappy paddles using a double sided tape. To be honest, they actually look pretty good in black and also feel like they are properly attached (even when just using a double sided tape) and pretty solid, also when pulling the paddles. There's no squishy/mushy feeling to them. One downside though, the gap between the cruise control lever and the new paddle is rather small (see picture below). Might be a bit annoying to use when you have thicker fingers (just about okay for my fingers).

I'm not sure if it's different for lower specced Octavia FLs but I don't have an option to display a single dial in the middle of my virtual cockpit. I made a post on the different screen options in the virtual cockpit / instrument cluster some time ago (see below). I do have the white temp and fuel level leds in my car.

Hello I previously had a mk4 vRS and now have the mk4.5 vRS. Both are EU cars (Estonia) and both do not have the horned headrests on rear seats. It's definitely not part of the standard equipment and I'm pretty sure I saw that as an option on the brochure when I was configuring the mk4.5 (but as it's an Estate only option, I couldn't choose that). However, looking myself as well at the UK brochure here: https://www.skoda.co.uk/discover/download-a-brochure The horned headrests don't seem to be mentioned at all (not even an option?) The electric sliding parcel shelf should be standard on the vRS estate indeed. What does the dealer say about this then?

I've not had time to do a video myself but now that the break-in period is over and first oil change is also done, I've been pushing the car more (and in sports mode). There's definitely some pops when going off throttle in sports mode (and you can hear them inside the car). Someone also posted a video of launching their Octavia RS. You can definitely here some pops as they launch and right before the video ends.

Hello, the sound actuator is actually completely gone on the facelift vRS. Can confirm that as an owner of a FL vRS for a month now and ~2000 km driven. That's one of the first things I noticed when I put it in sports mode because the sound didn't change at all, it's what you get and it's quite nice. It's also confirmed by one Škoda guys working on the facelift project:

Interesting that it's listed in the UK brochure. Perhaps it's somewhat different for the UK or the brochure is just wrong? Here's a comment thread from one of the reviews on youtube and apparently the one confirming this was someone directly involved with the Octavia facelift project.

Aha, yeah, I remember now! In the new virtual cockpit, you can scroll through several displayable items but I've not actually found where I can configure what items to display (eg select also gearbox temperature), it's a static selection/list.

Hello, I don't mind. Firstly, it seems that I may have missed a very important piece of information. But I have really good news, the vRS FL doesn't have the fake engine sound generator, it's all natural. It's confirmed by several reviews (and comments) on youtube. And as additional confirmation, compared to the mk4 manual, it's not listed under fuse no. 59 and there's no option to disable it in the "Individual" drive mode. In short, that's something I noticed quite early and did lead me to believe that the engine sound generator was now either missing or tuned really well but it's the first. Secondly, the only temperatures the virtual dash is able to display is coolant and oil temperatures. But I think it was the same for mk4 as well, at least I didn't see or wasn't aware of the option to see gearbox temperature anywhere (by default at least, maybe it's something you can enable with OBDEleven?).

That sucks! 😞

Hello Yes, it seems to be air cooled. It does have holes where cooler air seems to come out of (circled red in the picture) and all the brochures also point that out. It's quite cool weather here already (10 C) but I can definitely say that the wireless charging pad works much better on the facelift. The charging starts faster, is faster and doesn't randomly stop charging. I'm happy.

Hello I'm not from UK and can only comment on my personal experience. I think the dealership told me 1-2 weeks after I ordered it when the car was going to be built and also more or less when to expect to have it delivered. It took less than 2 months from ordering (end of July) to being built (middle of September) and the dealership gave an accurate build date. So I would go ahead and contact the dealership to get and update on the delivery time if I were in your position. I hope you'll get your Octavia RS soon.

Hello. So here's a couple of screenshots of the instrument cluster (there's also a screen for the navigation but didn't want to take pictures of that, but it's mostly the same option of layouts). Bonus picture of the infotainment screen (with some useful shortcuts at top and bottom I've set up for myself) and heads up display (with navigation enabled but stationary at the moment of taking the picture). PS! I'm aware I have the "engine" light on. The dealership is still figuring out what to do but it's related to a faulty sensor for exhaust temperature. It's OK to drive and is not causing a limp mode, fortunately.