geverard

My elegance estate is also rather crashy over rough roads when unladen. When loaded its much better and my continental winter tyres are significantly better than my bridgestone summer tyres despite being exactly the same size (205/55 R16) and wheel type. I don't think Octavia estate ride quality is that great, though I would'nt call it uncomfortable. Changing to summer tyres this year made it very obvious to me what a different tyres can make to ride quality!

I've used Platinum Skoda Bath on several occassions for servicing and warranty work and have been very impressed. The waiting area was a bit grubby on my first visit but is now much better, with free coffee, water, children's books/toys and a decent viewing window of the workshop area, which I find reassuring. They have been attentive to even very minor problems with the car ************************ Above all, I personally feel confident that they know what they they are doing ****************************. They pursued a small knocking noise very thoroughly before I left for a long trip through France, which gave me great confidence. ****************************************. My only real gripe about Platinum Skoda is cost - in my experience they are always a good bit more expensive than ************************************ However, if you can negotiate a sensible price at outset then I believe they are about as good as they get in this area, and I would trust them with the more complex/risky jobs. As my warranty is about to expire, I'm hoping they will keep up the good work by not generating any unnecessary work, and continuing to carry out their work to a high standard at reasonable cost. If they do then I'll continue to use their main dealer servicing in the years to come.

They were 'acceptable' on a number of occassions but nothing special. They seem to beat ****************** on price every time, but the service is no where near as good in my opinion. After the last service, I noticed a change in the sound of the climate control and I found they had replaced my activated charcoal pollen & odour filter with a (cheaper) pollen filter, but had charged me the full price. The old one was grey, the replacement white, so I don't believe the technician simply made a mistake! They agreed to replace it but there was no apology or comment in any way, and I had to wait over an hour for what I know to be a 5 minute job they could have done in the carpark. I'm afraid the feeling of being cheated (albeit in a very small way) put me off using them again.

The Skoda handbook is of little use in this respect, though I read in some VW/Skoda information (I think it was a VW handbook) that it was OK to stay in gear with your foot on the brake for a "short time, for example when waiting at a crossroads". I suppose too much shifting between gears could also not be good for other parts of the transmission! One experiment that I did was to hold my LEFT foot firmly on the brake pedal while stopped in 'D', then keeping this foot on the brake I pressed lightly on the accelerator pedal with my RIGHT foot. This drove the car against the brakes which confirmed to me that pressing the brake pedal does NOT disconnect the drive (unless of course pressing the accelerator reconnects it!) The conclusion that I have come to is that the drive is still connected but the level of wear on the clutches is probably so small that short periods are not a problem and I have heard of DSG boxes doing up to 370,000 kms without clutch changes. What's really important to AVOID is holding the car on it's clutch on a hill by means of the accelerator pedal (to avoid it rolling back). The overheating protection will eventually release the clutches altogether (giving no drive at all!) but in the meantime it's bound to increase wear significantly, so it's a practice that I always avoid.

My 2008 Octavia 1.9tdi takes ages to warm through as soon as the temperature drops near to or below freezing. My previous Renault 1.5dci was no better, but previous to that I had a BMW 530d and 330d and both warmed up much, much faster. I have concluded that there are two reasons for it. Firstly, the BMWs have all-alloy engines, whereas the Skoda and renault have cast iron blocks which take longer to warm up. Secondly, the BMWs had auxilary fuel burning heaters underneath the car which would fire up at low temperatures and heat the cabin air before the engine had fully warmed up. BMW seems to have the engine warm-up issue sorted, as I expect Lexus has. In fact, the 530d would retain warmth for at least 10 hours so it was nearly always slightly warm to begin with! The Skoda loses it within 2 to 3 hours. Skoda doesn't fit the fuel buring heaters, but I believe VW and Audi fit them. My advice is to only recommend the Skoda if you also recommend the relatively cheap option of heated seats - I wouldn't buy another without them after two cold winters. My car doesn't blow warm air in these temperatures for at least 10 miles of light driving, and appart from the Renault it's the coldest car I've ever owned. Alternatively buy a small petrol engine - they tend to warm faster.