just music

I'm in the last two weeks of Skoda ownership! Here's my quick analysis of our four Skodas, and why I'm moving on. 2011 - Fabia Mk 2 (FL) 1.2 TSI SE+ Estate. This was our first brand new car and replaced a 10 year old Mondeo. Brilliant car: surprisingly brisk, spacious and well equipped. Better to be inside looking out, than taking in the slightly clumsy proportions! As the family grew, we needed something a bit bigger so moved up to the Octavia. 2015 - Octavia Mk 3 1.4 TSI SE Estate. Another brilliant car, let down only by the gearbox. The Fabia's was the best gearshift I ever had; this Octy was a bit notchy and baulky. Brilliant engine: smooth and powerful, pulling strongly at all revs. 2018 - Octavia Mk 3 (FL) 1.5 TSI SE Tech Estate - Personal lease car and the first one we ordered from scratch to our requirements, rather than taken from existing stock. Our perfect car apart from that engine that they never stopped kangarooing. In retrospect we should have bought it from BCA when the lease ran out. Instead we went for... 2021 - Octavia Mk 4 1.5 TSI SE-L Estate. Another lease car. Oh dear, oh dear. This car has rattled and squeaked from new - and has never been sorted. It is uncomfortable over anything other than perfect roads - really crashy and harsh. How on earth did What Car commend the handling and ride! The software has been glitchy and only recently anything approaching stable. Despite being 150hp, it is massively over-geared and has no torque when you need it: such a difference to our Fabia and first Octy. A/C failed in the summer last year and took nearly 6 weeks to fix. Went into limp mode on the M1 (and various times after) until a sensor was eventually replaced. Touchscreen for everything is infuriating at times. I think the DMF is now starting to play up at 22,000 miles! Only good point really has been the economy on a motorway run due to that ridiculously high gearing. I wouldn't be trusting this car to stay reliable after the warranty expires. This last Skoda has been such a disappointment and I'm counting down the days until it goes back. Sorry Skoda - we loved the earlier cars but this Mk4 Octy has been so far off our expectations that it's time to move on. What next? A Kia Niro. We're going back to purchase (via PCP) rather than lease. With a 7 year warranty, the intention is for this to be a longer term proposition. Thanks BriSkoda for the advice over the years. I should probably have paid more attention to the naysayers who were berating the early Mk4s though! See ya.

@varooomcould you send me details of the software please. Tried sending a PM but it was blocked. Cheers.

Hi Has anyone else noticed how slow the fuel gauge is to move off the 'full' bar? It seems to stay 'full' for ages, but then the move down seems reasonably linear. As an example, I filled the tank and drove 200 miles to Heathrow a few weeks ago. At the point of parking, the gauge was still at full! The car was showing an estimated and impressive 58mpg, but that's still about 16 litres used which is approx a third of a tank so I would have expected 2 bars to be unlit. After driving back a few days ago and pootling around, the gauge showed 1/4 full which was about right. Is this a common 'feature' for the car, or is it worth mentioning to the dealer so they can check the sensor?

It's a long time since I had this car, but I know it got fixed. I have no recollection of what the dealer did, but if course it was under warranty at the time.

Note these are from the computer not brim to brim calculations... Day to day is mid to high 30s - but that has A LOT of stop start town traffic and often quite short journeys, and it's quite hilly here as well (good EV territory...) Motorway runs get comfortably into the 50s. I have a regular journey 20 mile from home up to a pretty high bit of the M62 (then down into a town in the valley). That comes out at c.50 overall if I'm not late! On a longer journey a few weeks ago I got up to an indicated 58+ travelling up the M1/A1 at a steady 70 - or less depending on traffic. Whether another 20 miles would have got me to 60 I don't know...

The impact of the accident will unlock the doors, probably at the same time as the airbag deploying. As someone said upthread, if you're incapacitated and first aiders need to get to you, a smashed window will be the least of your concerns at that point.

The electric pump that comes with the car has a long enough cable to go all the way round from the boot socket.

The kangarooing is odd. This car is miles better than my Mk3 1.5 which could be a pig to drive smoothly and slowly at times, whether hot or cold. The only time I found my mk4 jerky was on holiday, moving around a carpark after first starting from cold. Otherwise it's been fine.

None on mine at all. Very smooth.

Exactly. Long term to me suggests the course of a year - useful for seeing long term mpg etc, whereas a trip can be how far we drove on holiday, or similar. Why they can't put another couple of 'long term' trip meters is beyond me - it's only software. Even my basic i10 has two independently settable mileage counters.

As a backward step, it now only has the record of 'since start', 'long term' and 'since refuel'. The quick trip mileage option has gone.

Thanks all. Sounds like it's a feature!

Does anyone find the brake pedal at all spongy, and noisy on release? On mine it feels like it needs quite a shove to work (the brakes themselves work fine), and the piston is really quite noisy. I asked the dealer to check it and was told it was normal, but I'm surprised it hasn't cropped up in discussion here if it was commonplace. Also, the automatic braking pulls the pedal down very noticeably, whereas on my previous Mk3 I don't recall the pedal itself moving on either ACC braking or parking/emergency assist. Thanks.

Make sure you don't have your hand around the handle when trying to lock. For a whole I was holding the handle and poking the indent with my thumb, which doesn't work. Now I poke it with my index finger and it works every time.

I think I only get this message if the unit is switched off when I start the car. If it's on, then I get the user choice screen but no privacy notice - at least not one that I need to interact with.