whippersnapper

100% be suspicious of the battery

I’d get a 4.5 if you are going to change. The infotainment is much better than the 4 and the 265hp engine has a top end zing the mark 4 doesn’t have. Also the wheels are nicer (with the eco covers removed) in my opinion.

Yep, gave me a hell of a fright the first time it happened. Thought I’d hit something 😂

The implications are a smaller bill

Annual oil change is important in any vehicle for obvious reasons. It’s probably overdue a DCT oil change too if I recall correctly. Not doing it is going to accelerate wear and tear. It’s also a hint about the kind of owner who had it. Since it’s not as if you can’t buy another Octavia I’d steer clear of this one for that reason alone and look at one that has been better looked after.

Most of the tech issues with the 4 don’t apply to the 4.5 you should be fine. You do have a low visibility mode built into the headlight in lieu of fog lights. Many manufacturers claim that modern LED technology removes the need for seperate fog lights. Why would you want high beam in fog?

I agree with your feedback for the most part except for the birds part. 😀 Turning off lane keeping is something I do without thinking with my right thumb after pushing start and luckily for me in NZ there is no speed limit warning. I agree the front collision thing is stupid and way too sensitive. As far as I’m aware there is non way to turn it permanently off. At least you can use shortcuts to make it easier to do but I don’t like the warning lamps that are on the dash then so tend to just put up with it.

Got you. All of those are on the Octavia rs too but I guess it depends on the market

How is it a step up in spec?

To the OP you’d be silly to not go for a 4.5. Not only is the infotainment vastly superior the extra 20hp really gives the car a top end zing the 4 doesn’t have. It produces more hp from 4300rpm and is quite noticeable in back to back driving. Then the front end styling is different which I prefer (subjective) and little touches like the brushed door handles, higher output and cooled phone charger pad, higher output usb c ports etc..

Don’t see how that works as the tax is related to the list price not what you pay.

Nothing to do with stop start and no it doesn’t wear anything out

Various VAG products have limiters removed in some specs so yours was probably one of those.

Fair enough, I have no idea about this models details specifically (salesman tried to steer me towards very discontinued models but they weren’t successful). From first principles it makes sense that the ICE would run when very cold to warm the Li-ion battery to operating temperature. If the ICE engine starts it makes sense it should run to at least fully warm up otherwise you are getting water condensate in the oil and never removing it.

Maybe. If it were me I’d just take it back to the dealer and get them to diagnose it. It’s brand new

It’s chemistry. Batteries don’t work very well, in the cold as the chemical reaction markedly slows down. All battery performance is significantly degraded but it does no permanent damage. Most modern cars can heat batteries to keep them in an optimal range. I don’t know the situation with IV specifically. For completeness high temperatures also impairs battery performance but in addition does permanent damage.

Surely if it’s wheel balance it would become noticeable at a certain speed and become more prominent as you increased speed. It wouldn’t go away. The first thing I thought when you mentioned the vibration on the overrun too was in fact a loose or mal adjusted engine mount.

I’d check the wheel balance

In general you can just finish parking and turn the engine off with your foot on the brake. That will automatically shift the transmission into park and apply the handbrake.

Well the aero covers exist to improve fuel economy but I’d doubt the effect would be so obvious you’d immediately notice it. There is a reason EVs have ugly wheel fairings and the range is best only with the smallest wheels. At the end of the day you shouldn’t chose an RS if fuel economy is a big driver there are other models more suitable if efficiency is a high priority

Comparing mpg is not something that is very easy to do. The best is the relativity between official figures because at least it's a like for like evaluation under the same circumstances. Otherwise its how you drive, the speed you drive, the weight in the car, your tyre pressures, the mix of types of roads and road surface, the weather including temperature and rain, whether you are optimising for efificency (e.g not using sport mode for mapping and gearbox) and on and on. In New Zealand which doesn't really have very many mostly straight freeways and a mostly 100km/h speed limit with some at 110 I get 42mpg on a long trip including the mostly secondary roads driving briskly but not trying to get max performance. For just the straightest highway it's 50mpg. Obviously much lower if I go for a drive in sport mode, ESC half off and fanging through the bends down a twisty back road. Compared to my old 2012 Subaru Legacy GT wagon that had similar outright performance but 4WD but quite inferior engine tech its using about 3l/100km fuel in almost every setting so I think the economy is amazingly good given the performance available.

All RS Octavia’s are petrol now. Mine didn’t die dead but the battery was replaced when it was a few months old. The symptoms were weird errors at startup related to various ADAS features that went away after a few minutes driving and the stop start system not working. The dealer said it is not that uncommon to just have a bad battery from new. Modern cars with so many systems out put a lot of load on batteries.

New Zealand here but my first ever Skoda the 4.5 Octavia Combi RS in race blue with DCC, Canton stereo and Suedia seats is a cracker. I test drove the outgoing mark 4 but the extra 20hp makes quite a difference giving the EA888 evo4 a top end zing the earlier car didn’t have. I tested everything from Cupra to Audi S3 / RS3 and found the Skoda just felt right. It feels like a European sports sedan to drive and in sport mode with the ESC in sport mode it can really hustle down a back road with the back even coming around a little to help on corner entry and the VAQ diff doing a pretty good job of getting the power to the ground. much nicer finish inside than a Golf and I’d argue better then the Audi now they have totally ruined it with the latest facelift. I think it’s a handsome car and I like being under the radar and it doesn’t matter to me what others think of the Skoda brand. It’s a real if you know, you know car.

It’s standard, your dealer is full of it

100% correct. The position of the dipstick for the EA888 was never in front like that so the car is a diesel. In addition there is no 4WD petrol RS model.