surfdude

he he! cheers guys. needed that! also had good news today that the other party have admitted liability (woohoo!), and I should get my car back tomorrow or Monday (woohoo again!)

Unfortunately its back with them now (metallic grey Zafira). I only get a small car free from the insurer but needed a bigger one over the weekend so had to upgrade at my own expense, so wanted to change back to free car asap. (Got a hideous Ka now) Thanks for the tip, but I doubt a crayon would have covered it - it was a good 18" in length and right down through all the layers of paint.

Last Thursday I got caught in a bit of heavy snow first thing in the morning (around 6am). Came over the brow of a hill very tentatively (20mph tops) to find the traffic coming the other way - stuck - unable to get up the hill due to ice. Shouldn't have been a problem for me, except some numpty had decided his little Vauxhall Agila was imune to this problem and could get around them... and promptly got his car stuck on my side of the road ready for me to come over the hill and try my emergency stop skills on ice. Fantastic. Octy's now at the workshop with around £2k worth of damage. Just hoping the insurers see it as his fault - he was on my side of the road overtaking some stranded cars over the brow of a hill afterall - regardless of conditions, seems a stupid thing to do. Anyway, just to make things even worse, I got a rental car while mine's being fixed... came back to it at a public car park yesterday to find a lovely big scratch down one side... marvellous. More expense for me Anyone know any good jokes? Need a laugh.

My personal favourite, for simple stupidity on the part of the person who put the ad for this Bristol-based Mk2 Octavia Elegance Estate on the web... Maybe they were going for the "this car's fast" look? Oh, and just to top it off, this is apparently a picture of the back... maybe its a cut and shut?

Sort of glad to read this post. Puts my mind at rest a bit. I was sitting in my car waiting for the wife on Monday. Engine off, stationary, ignition only in auxiliary position, listening to the radio with the volume reasonably quiet. Suddenly there was an almighty . I nearly hit my head on the roof, I jumped so much. The radio also then switched itself off. I turned it back on and everything was fine. Odd.

Near my home I go through 2 "tree-tunnels", one is much darker than the other. 3 guesses () as to which one triggers the lights to switch on?

I loved the PD130 engine in my Octy1. My Octy2 only has the 105. Capable, but lacks that punch the 130 has when overtaking. Sniff sniff. :( Curses to the van driver that killed my 130. Used to regularly get 58-60mpg with the PD130.

Separate foglight switches really bug me. The switch should really turn them both on together. If its foggy enough for you to consider the need for front foglights, then its foggy enough for the rears too. Lets face it, front foglights are next to useless unless visibility is down to just a few feet. Rear foglights protect your rear from bozos behind you going quicker than the conditions allow.

For motorways, I'd go for the PD130 Superb over the 105 Octavia. Nothing wrong with either engine or car, but the 130 will have a 6th gear. I used to have a Mk1 Octavia Elegance PD130. Now I have a Mk2 Octavia Elegance PD105, and at motorway speeds the economy on the 5-speed is down a couple of mpgs on what I used to get with the 6-speed. As much as love my new Octavia, I wish it had the 130 engine like my old one:(

Normally Average mpg, but occasionally Instant if i find the mpg dropping, to see where I'm being unnecessarily heavy with my right foot, and occasionally miles-to-empty if the fuel's running low.

I thought the upper limit on variable servicing was 20k or 2 years. :confused: At least that's what it was on my other VAG cars (TT/Beetle/Passat) Managed 16k in the TT and 18k in the Beetle - sadly the Passat was written off before it had the chance of a service :(

Nice choice of car 1. Unless the spec has changed in the past 6 weeks (since I got mine), then Xenons aren't standard on the Elegance 2. I noticed the same with the speedo - and also noticed the same on my old Mk1 Octy too. With all the scameras around, Id rather it read high, than read low.

One thing I've noticed is that regardless of figures stating the mk2 has more space inside than a Mk1, I found my Mk1 Estate's boot to be a much more practical shape that my Mk2 Estate's. Probably down to the more vertical rear end on the Mk1. I preferred that... and so did our dogs!!

I've used Westover in Corfe Mullen on many occasions and for many years. I've found them to be pretty good. Only real issue is parking there - there is literally NO parking space! Used their body shop in 1998 and 2000 after being reversed into on 2 occasions. They did an excellent repair job on both occasions. They took a bit longer than expected on the 2nd repair, but they provided a loan car on both occasions for the full duration and even gave my wife a bunch of flowers to say sorry for being a bit late. Bought a RAV4 from them in 2002 when they were a Toyota dealer. Excellent service and a did us a good deal too. Bought my Mk1 Octy from them in 2004. Gave me an incredible deal as they were obviously trying to get rid of the last of the Mk1 stock. They did mess up the registration and gave me the same reg as another car, but put it right as soon as the problem was spotted and gave me a tank full of fuel for my trouble. Result Had it serviced by them 3 times, plus a recall. Car was handled ok and came back to me with all work done, and nice and clean too. Just bought my Mk2 from them. Have to agree about the hit-and-miss-ness of returning calls, but its pretty evident that they're understaffed. My salesbloke was working on his own on many occasions. So hopefully that'll improve. It wasn't helped by the fact that the guy was quite new and clearly didn't know much about the car - not a problem though as I'd done my research and knew enough. I even explained how the maxidot worked to him!! He did go out of his way to get me the car I wanted too. I was after something quickly so had to chose from the UK Stock rather than waiting for a build. He found 2 cars that matched my spec - 1 was an exact match, but was already at another garage so slightly tricky to get. The other was not exaclty what I wanted, but close (no maxidot) but it was at the Skoda depot so dead easy to get. Obviously he had the option to take the easy route, but he didn't, he put in the extra bit of effort and got me the car I wanted. Had a phone call a few weeks after picking it up to make sure I was happy too. Dealers always promise to do that, but I think that may be the 1st time a dealer has actually done it! I'd have to give them an 8/10. I've had far worse experiences elsewhere.

I find Cruise Control essential when driving through camera laden 30mph zones. Means i can concentrate on what;s going on around me rather than worrying whether I'm going to set the next camera off. Also find ClimateControl an essential, dual or single zone. I never got on with standard aircon - found myself adjusting the temperature every few minutes. Climate Control does it all for you. Parking Sensors are something I never really wanted, I'm pretty good at parking without any help. But I ended up with some as standard, and now when I switch to a car without them, I find myself in all sorts of trouble - seems they've made me lazy! As for things I just like having, I love my Maxidot and steering wheel audio controls. Agree completely with what;s been said about the autowipers and autolights. I had auto wipers on a volvo a few years ago - they worked superbly. The Skoda ones do seem hit and miss - I'm always adjusting the sensitivity. The autolights can be dangerous in my opinion. The other day I left my house in fog and it was dull enough for the lights to come on. I saw the lights were on and didn't think any more about it. A few miles into the journey and the fog still thick, I had a few cars flashing me. Eventually I realised my lights had gone off. Marvellous. I don't use light assist anymore. I'm not keen on the auto-dipping mirror either. Whenever my dogs stand up in the boot, they cast a shadow on the sensor so the mirror goes back to full brightness and I get blinded by the car behind - wish there was a manual override. As for the earlier ESP question, personally I'd avoid it. Got it on the wife's Beetle - it's constantly going wrong - so many sensors!

They usually pay out for flood damage, so can't see why hail damage would be treated differently.

I had one of the last of the Mk1s - a '54 Elegance estate, and I now have a Mk2 Elegance Estate. The Mk2 definitely seems better quality on the inside in terms of styling and materials used, BUT here's a thought... The Mk2 also has far more gadgets than the mk1 - I suppose the more toys you add, the more chance there is of having a problem - law of averages and all that!

'08 1.9 Elegance Estate here. Get 55mpg without really trying. 61mpg if I'm careful That's on mainly back lanes and B-roads on a 20 mile commute. Only 1k miles covered so far so everythings still relatively tight - expecting it to get better over time as my old Mk1 PD130 Estate did.

A few sums, just taking the fuel cost into consideration (not road tax or purchase cost) Our household has a PD100 Octavia, and a 1.6 (100bhp) Petrol Beetle - both Golf derived cars so similar weights. We get 55mpg from the Octavia, 40mpg in the Beetle - that's 37% better economy in the Skoda. We're paying 114p for unleaded, diesel would need cost 156p for the 2 to be even - as it is, its costing me 125p - so on fuel alone, diesel's still miles better value.

I'd only go really dark at the back if you've got parking sensors. We did the rear half of our Beetle with a Limo-tint (90% i think) but unfortunately don't have parking sensors.... as cool as it looks, reversing out of parking spaces at night is a complete nightmare :(

Looks like a well behaved dog to me! And by the way he's licking his lips, there must be some tasty treats close by too I think ours have just got out of the habit of having a "step" to stand on when jumping in or out. Most of their journeys are in the wife's Beetle - they have to hurdle over the narrow boot lip in that... nothing to get their mucky paws on at all (maybe doing agility with them helps too )

Seems they've really "sorted" the site now. Obviously got true web designer experts working on it! They've fixed the "Configurator" by removing it altogether. The menu on the left seems to have "Fabia Sport" at the bottom for every car... which when selected takes you to the "Pats on the Back" section. The "Pats on the Back" button does nothing... Pure Quality! (just hope my new car turns out better)

My other half is a dog trainer so we don't have much of a problem keeping the dogs off the bumpers - We run run a strict regime but we have a towel at hand just in case.

Hehe - remains to be seen - we only 2 dogs when we had our last octavia (mk1) but they had enough space in there for the odd game of fetch (probably), 3 shouldn't be a problem. The 14-year old sheltie just curls up in the corner and sleeps anyway. Interesting that you mention your dog getting sick - we have the same porblem with the 4-year old groeny we have. No food for a few hours before a journey. The 6-month old one is fine though. I get the new car next week (exciting ) - it's an Anthracite Mk2 Octavia Estate 105TDi.... sound good? .... but its an Elegance rather than a 4x4. Only real concern now we have the additional weight of a 3rd dog, is that I may have to reinforce the upper-boot floor, or remove it altogether.

I had one hit me on the shoulder on my motorbike a couple of years ago. Flew out from a hedge in front of me. Didn't realise how big the f***ers were - felt like having a christmas turkey thrown at me. :eek: ....somehow, I managed to stay on! Completely understand how it could do some serious damage to a car.