PetrolDave

Does the drivers door open on the first press of the button on the key?

That will only happen when the pointless link to world oil/gas prices is broken, and I don't see any of the current electricity suppliers agreeing to that as it will slash their profits.

That would follow the usual strategy of the UK car market - rather than decreasing prices to encourage sales (as almost every other marketplace does) they increase prices. With all the predictions of loss of business confidence in 2025 and even some analysts using the word stagflation this doesn't seem like the smartest move by car makers.

Maybe it thinks the tailgate is obstructed or you're standing too close and is warning you? Does the manual have anything to say about three beeps from the electric tailgate?

First thing to try is disconnect the battery, wait 5 minutes and reconnect the battery (don't worry about other warning lights, they will disappear after a short drive) to see if a power off reset gets the climate control panel working.

In the nearly 50 years I've been driving I have always engaged the handbrake by pressing the release button, and only once on one vehicle had the handbrake release by itself - my previous Octavia.

Your profile shows a 64 plate Insignia, but you're asking in the 2020> Octavia forum?

Two completely opposite opinions!!!

The BBC News article explains the circumstances, it's worth reading. Here's my precis of that article: The whistleblower worked for Tata Technology in the UK which does much of the background work for both Vinfast and Jaguar but was assigned to the Vinfast suspension design. He saw the suspension design was too fragile and failed early in tests (15,000km not 150,000km) and advised Vinfast management to redesign the suspension components but Vinfast management ignored this and went into production with the (in his opinion) sub-standard suspension parts. Unhappy with being ignored he changed jobs to work directly for JLR and subsequently saw reports of the suspension failures on Vinfast vehicles in the US. He chose to become a whistleblower and posted anonymously on social media about the testing failures. Tata worked out that he was the only person with that knowledge and as JLR are also owned by Tata advised JLR of their concerns that he could also leak information about JLR vehicles. On the basis of this it is alleged that JLR sacked him.

This has been the explanation given when both dealers and Skoda UK have been asked about this issue.

Could be the heater plenum chamber drain hose is blocked?

The problems that Jaguar and Vinfast vehicles are under investigation for are completely different, Jaguar EVs have ongoing problems with the EV batteries possibly causing fires but Vinfast have problems with suspension component failures which it is thought have caused crashes resulting in injuries and even deaths.

Most likely a mix of both, some modules using UDS and some KWP2000. Both my 2015 and 2016 Octavias had/have a mix of protocols. It's not something you really need to worry about since OBDeleven and VCDS handle both protocols without any user intervention.

Mine was an April 2015 build on a 15 plate.

I stalled my PD130 a couple of times, as you say it was really sudden, and restarting seemed to take longer than a normal start which was really frustrating.

I had this happen once with my previous manual 1.4TSI Elegance, the handbrake came off in the Aldi car park at Bideford and it slowly rolled forward a few inches and gently rested on the rear bumper of the car parked in front with no damage to either car.

I've found that the seats go further down if the headrests are partially pulled up - fully down they hit on the front of the rear seat base and fully up they can hit on the rear of the front seat.

As the attached screenshots say, VCDS.

But it does NOT work that way on the MQB platform Octavia Mk3 (the electronics are totally different to an Octavia Mk2) , that's what I'm saying - all you have to do is hold the key fob button down until the windows are closed.

With the wet clutch DSG versions it's possible to get a software tune that increases the clutch pressure to cope with the extra torque, but AFAIK there is no such option for the dry plate DQ200 so the clutches will be much more likely to slip and burn out. I also have a 1.8TSI DSG (mine's an L&K) and would like more power/torque but the risk of a big bill to replace one or both DSG clutches has made me decide to leave things as they are. IMHO if you really NEED (need not want) more power then your best bet is to sell your 1.8 and get a 2.0 which will have a wet clutch DSG so you can have both an ECU & TCU tune.

Since OP is asking about manually closing the windows with the key fob not rain closing that's not totally relevant here.

The 1.8TSI has a dry clutch DQ200 DSG so more torque/power isn't going to be good for DSG longevity.

VCDS saves two file which will let you get bacto the previous settings - in C:\Ross-Tech\VCDS\Debug you will find CodingLog.csv and AdpLog.csv You can open these with a text editor such as Notepad and see what changes you made - it shows both before and after values so you can revert back.

It doesn't work that way, you have to hold the key fob button until the windows close.

That message says "Manoeuvre braking currently unavailable", so I think you have a problem with one or more of your parking sensors.