Hello, I’m Steve and I’m going to be collecting my new Octavia in 3 weeks. I’ve never personally owned a Škoda but, as the family’s official petrolhead, I’ve been instrumental in the purchase of several Skodas, by various friends and family members. I helped my late father buy his first ever brand new car, back in 2006. A Fabia. I helped my son source two MK3 Octavias. (First one was unfortunately rear ended!) Advised a friend to look for an Octavia, when replacing an aging Toyota Avensis. They’ve had their MK2 for approximately 8+years now and it has, this week, been relegated to 2nd car duties as they didn’t want to part with it but wanted a newer car. I, personally, have lusted after an Octavia vRS for the best part of 15yrs. Somehow, when it came to buying a replacement car, I always ended up buying something different. There was always some other consideration, whether practical, financial or logistical, which meant a different purchase was made! As I retired a year ago, we have decided to change our current car for a brand new “something that I promise to keep for longer than my usual 3-5yrs” (I’ve had to sign something to that effect!). Having thoroughly researched possibilities, I kept coming back to the fact that I’ve always liked/wanted an Octavia vRS! Upshot is, I found a lovely 8 mth old example, 2hrs drive away and organised a test drive last week. It was lovely to drive and a good deal was struck. However , they had a lovely, discounted, new example in the showroom. I casually enquired about it and we pick it up on Sept 1st! It’s a tad more than I wanted to spend but the discount and Škoda pcp deposit definitely brought the two closer together and being as this car must be a keeper, I thought we’d make the stretch! Can’t wait! Look forward to learning lots of stuff from you guys on here!