ethel

+1 Sorted mine this morning in a bored 5 minute wait for the level crossing to finally clear.. I don't actually ever turn mine off to be fair, just leave it in 'Auto/Econ' mode most of the time, but as it's so nice & simple to do, why not?

Add to this the increasing sabre-rattling over Iran & the prices will soon start heading very northwards again. :(

Hiya, For what it's worth, and in addition to all the very helpful comments above I'd just add that the Octavia - in vRS terms at least - is surprisingly forgiving in terms of ride, ie, it won't try & shake your fillings out at the slightest hint of a pebble on the road. My experience of 'hotter' 9-3s was that they seemed a lot more stiff in the rebound & you'd end up wincing at ridges and bumps in the road a lot more than you would do in the Skoda. I'm fairly certain that the SAAB examples I drove (one diesel, one petrol) were standard in terms of suspension setup & as I've only ever driven the factory-spec vRS chassis I'm pretty certain it was a relevant(ish) comparison. If you can live without too many of the toys then I'd say go for the Skoda, but then I, like most on here am a tad biased.. All the best, David.

When I bought my first Skoda a couple of years back - a 2nd-hand 2.0 TDi Octavia - I have to admit to being genuinely concerned about image as I was swapping from an Alfa 156, a car which for all its faults (there were many & they were why I was finally parting with it) was a pretty car with plenty of badge cachet. I'm now on my second Octavia - a vRS - and any lingering doubts as to brand snobbery are long consigned to my 'what was I thinking?' bin. Between them, my Dad & brother had owned 4 or 5 Skodas over the years & raved about them & I knew they were great cars in terms of build & value for money, I just couldn't quite make the leap of faith & have one myself. Then the Alfa detonated its transmission at only 70k miles & that was the end of the affair.. :'( I would never go back now & can only put the ingrained & arbitrary snobbery such as that demonstrated by the OP's Mini-owning friend down to sheer ignorance & a herd-mentality tendency to buy what's fashionable, regardless of cost. Personally, I wouldn't want to be associated with a brand that's responsible for inflicting the Countryman (did I spell that correctly..? ) on the world & would much rather be seen as pottering round in a VW bitsa than something which normally contains Burtons-clad estate agents (cough - F*xt*ns - cough).

Now that brings back memories - I had three Uno Turbos & was never stopped driving any of 'em because as you say, subtle didn't even begin to cover it - that's why I loved them as they didn't scream 'nick me' (in either sense) in the same way a R5 GT Turbo or Astra GTE did.. God, I feel old.. :'(

Hi Angus - I use Super whenever possible as it seems to return improved mpg figures (although that could be all in my mind). Shell V-Power is generally regarded as being A Good Thing amongst those who express a preference..

Glad to hear the gearshift's improving - perhaps it had just stiffened up (insert innuendo-laden joke here) through lack of use sitting on the forecourt.. 180 miles on half a tank sounds about right for a mixture of what I'd assume to be normal & 'spirited' driving - in my experience at least. If I play 'orange light bingo' - © J. Clarkson - i can get 400 miles, maybe more out of a tank but I don't usually like to run it that low. Keep an eye on the gearshift & perhaps mention it when you next have it serviced - I'd imagine it's most likely a sticky linkage (insert innuendo, etc) & might just need a bit of use or some grease to get it back to normal.

Hi Angus, Can't comment on the diameter of the wheels requiring re-calibration but I'd get the gearshift looked at PDQ as it shouldn't be like that. Did you get it from dealer? If so, I would get it booked in & fixed soonest. What sort of consumption does the trip computer reckon you're getting by the way? I travel on a mixture of rural, A/Motorway & urban roads to & from work & seem to return around 35mpg on average & do no more than an indicated 80mph (honest officer) on A roads/M-Ways. Bit of a shock after the 55mpg + of my previous Octavia 2.0 Diesel but still not too shabby given what it's capable of. Regards, David.

Drove it to work & got hacked off by all the numpties driving nose to tail at 80 with foglights on thinking they make them invincible.. :wonder:

Sorry, in my rush to vent I didn't check.. Glad it's not just me then..

Does anyone in the UK (or elsewhere they're fitted) actually know when they should & shouldn't have their foglights on? We've had a bit of fog out our way these last few days but this morning it was particularly dense for the majority of my commute from The Sticks into West London. The traffic was as heavy as usual - ie, for the majority of the route on a busy dual carriageway/A Road, yet a significant proportion of my fellow road users were blinding each other with front, and particularly rear foglights when their vehicles were in plain sight of one another. Perhaps it's ignorance, or maybe excitement at being able to make the pretty orange light come on on the dashboard for once but surely logic (and the Highway Code) dictates that if you can see another vehicle within, say 100 feet of yours then you don't need the foglights on? Please don't get me wrong - I genuinely believe that foglights can when used appropriately be a significant safety aid - for example, to get to the main road from my house I have to drive along a number of poorly-lit, narrow country lanes and use the lights at both ends of the car to improve my forward visibility and warn anyone approaching from behind of my presence. However, as soon as someone's caught me up or I can see someone clearly ahead &/or the road is well-lit, I tend to turn them off so as not to dazzle them. I don't know about anyone else but driving behind someone for any length of time when they have the 'afterburners' lit is incredibly distracting and can also create the additional hazard of masking brake lights at a crucial moment. Perhaps a bit of education might not go amiss - the dot matrix signs at the side of main roads could, in addition to displaying out of date information regarding traffic jams also be employed to remind drivers that when it's not foggy any more, they might want to switch their fog lights off.. Sorry, rant over..

I've been told by both a dealer & specialist that leaving the heater elements switched on is not really a good idea as eventally they'll burn out, especially if you make a lot of short trips where the ignition is switched on & off. :wonder: Don't know how true this is but I tend to only switch them on when I need them.

To the best of my knowledge it's a clever little trick which prevents the wipers always parking in the same place & so avoiding wear on the mechanism. IIRC, it varies slightly the actual angle at which it sets the arms too, to make it even more of an effective function. I could, of course, be entirely wrong but I'm sure I read it in a handbook or somewhere.. perhaps.. :wonder: D.

Cor, I'd not even thought of Chips Away - good idea, I'll give 'em a bell tomorrow. Thanks again for the help, I know it's no big deal but I do like to think that if I'd tw*tted someone else's pride & joy, I would have had the decency to leave my details. Oh well..

Lovely.. Thanks for the thoughts - my thought was to avoid the insurance for the obvious reasons but I can't really afford to shell out £400 at the moment. Might just buy the reflector & polish out as much as possible for now & save my pennies for Xmas.. Hmm.. :-/

Hello, some very kind soul (read b*****d) has glanced the rear offside of my '06 vRS hatch & smashed the lower reflector and caused deeper than polishable scraping in an approx 12cm square patch above it. :-( Just wondering whether anyone would be able to give a very rough estimate on remedying this? ie, is it likely to be around the £200 excess threshold..? Many thanks in advance..

Nightbreakers in the standard headlights - makes a Hell of a difference. And the addition of a Briskoda sticker on the rear screen, natch.. ;-)

Bonging merrily on the journey into W London from a very chilly SW Surrey this morning too - got particularly cold in Richmond Park, only 2.0 deg C - brr..

My previous Octavia had exactly the same problem but fortunately always managed to find enough grip in order to operate if I pushed it inwards along the axis of the splined metal bit as I pulled the lever. If it's too far gone, perhaps try squirting a bit of Loctite or heavy duty glue in the top of the lever which might set hard enough to give it enough purchase in extremis? Failing that, you could always keep a small adjustable spanner or a pair of Mole grips handy.. Agreed though - the design is on the rubbish side isn't it? Just a thought, but is the Golf/Seat version very much different/better engineered/worth considering as a replacement or is it incompatible?

I recently traded in my 2.0tdi Octavia for a newer FSi vRS at Station Garage and was impressed with the service I received. My only other dealings with them was a year or so ago when the headlamp alignment on one side went crazy and they adjusted it for me gratis. Swapping the old car in for the vRS was pretty painless - I got a fair p/x for mine & everyone there was friendly & attentive, particularly Duncan who dealt with the sale. Only one niggle was the iffy lighting at the rear on the newer car but this turned out to be an incorrectly-specced bulb & all's now good. Yes, parking is a bit problematic but there are 6 or so spaces at the servicing end of the operation & every time I've visited at least 2 have been free so don't let it bother you if you're planning on visiting. HTH, DW.

Yes, just found that the Halfords guide is practically a work of fiction Le Carré would be proud of.. I managed to source 2 of the 21/4w Halfords bulbs & a Bosch one & now, touch wood, all is well. Thanks very much for all the assistance everyone - this was taking the gloss off RS ownership & I really couldn't be faffed taking it back to the dealer after 1 day of ownership. Fingers crossed all's now well in the lighting dept.. ;-) Now all I need is for my Briskoda car sticker to turn up & I'll be a very happy bunny.

Cheers for that. It is the older twin-filament spec & interestingly the bulbs are indeed 5watts on both sides, yet the other side seems to work fine.. Maybe the affected one is more sensitive..?! Will try & get a 4watt variety & give that a try. Typically, I replaced like for like & even consulted Halfrauds' handy guide too.. :-/